Three emails of July 8, 19, & 28 to Mayor Greenberg, Deputy Mayors & Council Members
July 8 – At the rate at which heat records are falling and other geo measures are escalating, 10 years from today, maybe 2 years from today, no one will be interested in the details of the police chief search, or what photographers and bakers are doing, or the latest real estate development, or any of the other current distractions from what really matters, livability on Earth.
Draft a climate change position, policy, and practices paper free of greenwashing. Distribute it widely. And let it be known that every media conference on any subject will start with a conversation on how we slow climate chaos, and every subject will be addressed in light of its relation and relative importance to climate chaos.
July 19 – Heat records are falling daily, torrential rains are resulting in floods worldwide, oceans are overheating, and storms are increasing in violence and frequency. The responsible course of action for every city is to publish a climate chaos position, establish assertive climate chaos policies and practices, and evaluate every subject in light of its relation and relative importance to climate chaos. The opportunity to slow climate chaos is fading. Fast.
July 28 – Last summer I was asked if Louisville needed a chief heat officer. With the understanding that CHOs, in the face of escalating heat worldwide, are simply applying Band-Aids to the problem, my response was: “No, not if the administration’s policies and practices are focused on shutting down surface parking lots, reducing private urban automobile usage, helping JCPS reorganize education into a travel free enterprise, reorganizing TARC as an urban public transit system, and employing immediately available tactics to calm traffic.” Today my answer would be: “Yes, and the CHO needs to be commissioned with executing the above concepts.”
And this follow up to Deputy Mayor Barbara Sexton-Smith’s response –
Barbara, thank you…. It is imperative that we execute those measures to become competitive with other cities. We are in a race with other cities. We must do better. Urban Louisville should become an inland Mackinac Island – treasured by people from Detroit because it has no cars. No cars means no surface parking lots. No cars means more green space. No cars means more real estate for housing and businesses. No cars means greater safety. No cars means more emphasis on public transit. No cars means more trees . No cars means a quieter city. No cars means more community and less isolation. No cars is the future of healthy urban spaces. Urban centers which become an oasis are the future winners. Companies and people will relocate to Louisville because it is an oasis. Tourists and conventions will be attracted to the Oasis. Tourists arriving in the city will park their cars in hotel garages and then walk, bike, ride the public transit circulators, enjoying the city in a whole new and sustainable way.