green and gray and black and white

Kansas City is set to finally confront the largest infrastructure project in its history - the repair of its sewers and storm sewers. The repairs are being required so that the City can meet Clean Water Act guidelines, the ones that state, in vastly over-simplified terms, that you can't pollute the rivers, lakes, and waterbodies of the United States. It's a little more complicated than that, but essentially that's what it comes down to. And shitting in the creek would be polluting it. I've been known to say that only pigs and humans shit in their own water, and while not completely true, when your sewers overflow into the local stream, well...that's pretty shitty for the environment.

One of the things the city did several years ago was to put together a Community Panel to deal with a number of issues related to Wet Weather - termed the Wet Weather Solutions panel - and overflows of sewers would be one of those items. The panel has been meeting monthly for almost 5 years. The idea is to develop an integrated plan for dealing with wet-weather related issues and to use this approach to help inform and guide the approach on how to solve the overflow of sewage into streams in older parts of the city. Some sewers in Kansas City are as old as the Civil War.

Now that the infrastructure plan is moving toward something concrete (in more ways than one) the city has been going to neighborhood association and community meetings to discuss the plan. Pretty much anyone who like to hear about the plan, the city will come and talk to them. As a panel member, I've been asked to help with these talks and to date I've helped with a couple. They've turned out to be interesting for a couple of reasons.

One of the most interesting thing about the meetings has been how similar the community responses have been to the plan. People are really interested to learn about this plan, what's it going to do, how much is it going to cost, and how can my voice be heard? These are some of the first questions. Cost is always a consideration, but people are willing to pay what they consider to be a fair share. Since the cost of the plan is projected to run into the billions and the only thing for certain right now is that the cost of water, wastewater, and stormwater is going to go up for Kansas City customers, citizens want to know how the city is going to pay for it. And what it will mean for them. Some citizens will not be able to afford the increases and will need help. They are also very interested in green solutions. No matter what part of the city you are in, the are intrigued by the idea of green solutions and how these might help the city become more livable.

The other interesting thing about these meetings has been seeing firsthand just how racially segregated many areas of our city still remain. In one meeting, everyone homeowner was a member of a minority and in the other, every member was a Caucasian. The Caucasians were vistors in the first meeting and the minorities were working as servers in the second meeting. But everyone has the same interests in mind. How to make the city a more livable place? How can I keep my neighborhood vital and intact? Everyone wants the same things for their city.

There also remains, among many residents, a high level of distrust of the city government to use our tax dollars wisely. And many residents distrust the city to be open and frank about the true costs and true benefits of the project. And the only way they are going to insure that the money is spent wisely is to stay informed and to hold public officials accountable for the outcome. This takes time and energy and many families appear to be stretched to near their limits.

The city is asking for public comments to the plan, but these are being held in meetings just after work. Attendance has not been high, in part because people either aren't aware of the meetings, or because they either won't, or can't, take the time to attend these meetings. Seems like we need an online public forum for comments that would allow more public participation. This could be moderated in a number of different ways, but it would allow more folks to provide comments. And a city that listens to its citizens is a city where folks want to live.