Olympic Dreams, Olympic Nightmares

Will Chicago’s bid for the 2016 games adorn the Windy City in beautiful rings or lock it in handcuffs?

Mindful Metropolis, September edition


Imagine two glorious weeks of summer when the entire world comes to nearby Chicago — which is our local city, judging by the number of Illinois license plates in Leelanau County during the summer. Imagine August whitecaps on Lake Michigan and sunbathers on North Avenue Beach, and hearing those attractions described in countless languages. Imagine kings and heads of state, Brazilian soccer gods and Greco-Roman wrestlers shopping together on Michigan Avenue. Imagine the world’s greatest amateur athletes pursuing the pinnacle of their dreams, in our city. Imagine President Barack Obama, his hair turned a wise grey, returning home to Hyde Park with only months left in his second term, to ring in the 2016 Olympics.

Like that night in Grant Park last November, and like the World’s Fair in 1893, this metropolis on the lake would once again command the world’s attention. The Olympic torch, that symbol of progress and sport, would pass so close that we’d feel its heat. We’d smile when the Parisians admired our lakefront, the Scandinavians took photos of our solar panels and rooftop gardens and the New Yorkers admitted that perhaps they had underestimated “flyover country”.

But then imagine opening your eyes to a hazy, Dickens-like scene. It’s the dead of winter and the snow is falling, wet and heavy. Weary and disgruntled Chicago citizens are plowing their own streets, filling their own potholes and policing their own neighborhoods. The city is broke, and no longer provides these services. Families are packing up and moving further west, unable to afford to live in the once-working-class neighborhoods where Olympic venues were built. The few who still go downtown carry bags of quarters with them, to pay the parking meters, the toll collectors on Halsted, the lifeguards and the attendants at Millennium Park. The city lost so much money back in the summer of 2016 that City Hall was forced to sell off assets and privatize everything. The 21st century equivalent of Tiny Tim can no longer visit the beach, bike what’s left of the Lake Shore Trail or play in the park.

Imagine that all the money Mayor Daley promised would flow into the city’s coffers from corporate sponsors, advertising, ticket sales and tourism never came close to what Chicago spent to build the venues and Olympic Village, cater to the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) needs and provide security for the world’s stage. To balance budgets in the aftermath, the city shut down bus lines, schools and hospitals.

You get the picture. Two pictures actually — two opposite visions of what winning the right to host the 2016 Olympics would mean for Chicago.

A giant door will either open wide or slam shut for Chicago when the IOC gathers in Copenhagen on October 2 to choose between the Windy City, Tokyo, Madrid and Rio de Janeiro. That decision will forever change one of those cities.

Blue-Green games

The webpage, Chicago2016.org, lays out the city’s vision for the Olympics in visceral, convincing fashion. Glamorous pictures of Millennium Park with skyscrapers in the Loop lit up with the numbers 2016, and other iconic shots of downtown flash across the screen.

A voice reminds us, “We may not all be fleet of foot, but each of us can be part of the Olympics, for the games touch us all …” And then Obama, himself, the would-be master of ceremonies, comes on the screen to announce that the White House fully supports Chicago’s bid for the Olympics.

A series of Olympic athletes with Chicago roots take the baton and lead us on a tour, from Buckingham Fountain, where the relay race would begin, north to the tennis center in Lincoln Park, back south to the hockey arena in Grant Park and Monroe Harbor for rowing events, to Soldier Field for the football (soccer) finals, to McCormick Place and the United Center, and finally to Washington and Jackson Park on the South Side. We even see computer animations of the posh apartments along the waterfront where the athletes would stay.

“This is our vision for Chicago, along the shores of a great Lake, a city that will welcome the world in 2016,” proclaims Brian Clay, a decathlon champion in the 2008 Beijing Games.

You’d have to be heartless not to get at least a little excited about the prospect.
(My local friends and I have joked that, if Chicago wins the games, we’ll draw straws and whoever draws the shortest one would host everyone else in sleeping bags on their floor for those two weeks. We’d share the money we’d make from renting out our apartments to rich Belgians and Japanese visitors.)

But first, Chicago must prevail over the other contending cities.

The Windy City boasts many assets in its favor: five large historic parks and a beautiful lakefront; a giant local media market; venues that are already available, such as Soldier Field, the United Center and the UIC Pavilion (79 percent of sports would be staged in existing or temporary venues); an Olympic Village that would house 90 percent of athletes within 15 minutes of their competition venues; McCormick Place, North America’s largest multi-use facility, and the fact that this continent hasn’t hosted a summer games since Atlanta in 1996. According to that line of thinking, Tokyo is out because Beijing hosted last year, Madrid is out because London gets it in 2012, and slum-ridden Rio de Janeiro could be a gamble. (No South American city has ever hosted the Olympics, which could also make it a sentimental favorite.)

Dubbed (by itself) the greenest city in America, Chicago is already touting its 2016 bid as the “Blue-Green Games”. The Windy City has teamed up with representatives from 30 environmental, architectural, engineering and governmental entities, and organizations as important as the Sierra Club, to create a sustainable vision that includes a carbon management program and a focus on water issues.

The Chicago 2016 committee pledges that all electricity used to power the games will come from renewable energy sources, and all generators supplied for the games will run on biofuels. The Blue-Green games would be the first in history to incorporate athlete and spectator travel in its carbon offset model, and a “green fleet” of low carbon vehicles will be used for all games operations. The committee also claims it will reuse or recycle 85 percent of the materials used for the Games and expand the city’s green spaces after the Olympics.

Let’s not forget Obama, the feather in the Chicago 2016 Committee’s hat and perhaps the most popular man in the universe when the IOC delegation made its official visit to Chicago in April. Obama senior advisor Valerie Jarrett still sits on the Chicago 2016 committee and corresponds often with committee president Lori Healey despite her current perch in the White House. A recent New York Times Sunday Magazine story depicted Jarrett as Obama’s closest advisor, which means there is all but a direct link between the Oval Office and Chicago’s bid for the games. Ben Joravsky, columnist for the alternative weekly, the Chicago Reader, wrote that Jarrett will convince Obama to fly to Copenhagen in early October to court the IOC — much like former British Prime Minister Tony Blair did in the eleventh hour to snatch the 2012 Games away from Paris.

“Greatest disaster since Chicago fire”

Chicago’s bid for the 2016 Olympics has already cost No Games Chicago organizer Tom Tresser a pretty penny, and he doesn’t even work for Mayor Daley. Tresser and others have paid out of their pockets (including plane tickets to Europe) to convince the International Olympic Committee that awarding the Games to Chicago would be a very bad idea.

No Games Chicago rented a room at the downtown Fairmont Hotel in early April just to gain access to the exclusive IOC, which was being wined and dined by the 2016 committee and entertained by Chicago celebrities including Oprah Winfrey and Michael Jordan. In June, members of the grassroots group paid their own way to Lausanne, Switzerland, to deliver 150 copies of a copy shop-produced book (“No Games Chicago: Book of evidence for the International Olympic Committee — Why Chicago should NOT be awarded the 2016 Olympic games.”) to the IOC and to international journalists.

Tresser, who teaches student engagement in public policy at DePaul University, considers himself a “good government geek” and says he’s obsessed with sound public policy and transparency. But he hasn’t seen that from the City of Chicago. When I met with Tresser in his Lincoln Park home just after the trip to Switzerland, he rolled off a list of deceptions and projects that far exceeded their original costs which the city has forced on its inhabitants over the years: the skyway bridge connecting Indiana and Illinois, the Burge police torture case, the international airport terminal, Millennium Park, Block 37, Soldier Field, the Monroe Street parking garage, not to mention the recent parking meter debacle.

Tresser simply doesn’t trust the city to handle the Olympics, nor does he believe that Mayor Daley will spare taxpayers from funding the games or protect public assets such as parkland before and after the games.

“The Park District passes along our precious public parks without comment to the 2016 Olympic committee to do as they will —destroy them, build whatever they want,” says Tresser. “The City Council passes a $500 million guarantee at a time when they’re laying off 1,000 people from the public schools and 1,500 city workers. The Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) faces $45 million in cuts, and the Park District cuts back the hours you can swim in the damn lake! The City of Chicago is $300 million in the hole today, falling to pieces all around us, and yet they have $500 million to guarantee for the Olympics.

“Every day there’s a new case of egregious abuse of the public trust. All the while the mayor is saying that taxpayers won’t pay a dime. Unbelievable, it’s incredible. … We’ve determined that the Olympics would be the greatest disaster to befall our city since the Great Fire of 1871.”

The reasons that No Games Chicago opposes a Chicago Olympics are 1) lack of finances 2) lack of competence 3) lack of infrastructure and 4) lack of public support.

“We’re broke,” exclaims Tresser. “The 2016 committee estimates their total expenses at around $5 billion. We think they’ve underestimated by at least 50 percent if not 100 percent, based on how these things really play out and based on Chicago’s horrible record in managing massive construction projects.”

He adds that revenues from an Olympics games won’t total the amount promised by the city.

Grassroots groups worldwide that are wary of their city hosting an Olympics often point to a 2006 study by Victor Matheson from the College of Holy Cross, titled “Mega Events: The effects of the world’s biggest sporting events on local, regional, and national economies”. No Games Chicago provides this article on its website.

Matheson writes: “While most sports boosters claim that mega-events provide host cities with large economic returns, these same boosters present these figures as justification for receiving substantial public subsidies for hosting the games. The vast majority of independent academic studies of mega-events show the benefits to be a fraction of those claimed by events organizers.”

“We’re corrupt,” says Tresser. “The mayor has put his henchman in charge of major departments who are not skilled at those areas. Over and over again we see the massive corruption and self-dealing where a few families use the city as their private ATM.”
Chicago politics are known nationwide for reeking of corruption, and names like Blagojevich and Burris are only the latest punch lines. Tresser floats the notion that if the IOC awards the Games to Chicago, it may be dealing with people who are headed to jail in the future.

Moving down the list of judgments, Tresser adds, “The city is falling to pieces. You’ve got citizens down in Austin paving their own roads, mixing up their own tar to fill potholes. The CTA just announced another $30 million in cuts and can’t meet the needs of citizens today. How can you meet the needs of hundreds of thousands coming to the games?”

As for local public support, Tresser says that three out of every four Chicago residents oppose the games if they have to pay for them at the expense of schools, roads and city services. “If you just ask people, ‘Hey, do you like the Olympics?’ they’ll say, ‘Oh yeah, little girls doing gymnastics, and brilliant swimmers and the joy of sport.’ ‘OK, how much do you want to pay for that party? A billion, two billion, five billion?’ Seventy-five percent do not want public money spent on the games. People think we have better uses for our funds.”

“Make no small plans”

This year is the 100th anniversary of Daniel Burnham’s 1909 Plan of Chicago, which called for expanding streets, public parks and civic buildings. Foremost among the plan's goals was to reclaim the lakefront for the public. “The Lakefront by right belongs to the people,” wrote Burnham. “Not a foot of its shores should be appropriated to the exclusion of the people.”

The plan recommended expanding the parks along the Lake Michigan shoreline with landfill. Of the city's 29 miles of lakefront, all but four miles are today public parkland.

Many of those opposed to Chicago’s Olympic bid claim that the city is attempting a land grab that would take away much of the precious public lakefront that Burnham gave us. A proposed Olympic Waterfront in Monroe Harbor, a Lake Michigan Sports Complex at McCormick Place, an Olympic Village where the Michael Reese hospital currently sits, and the construction of new venues in Lincoln Park to the north and Washington and Jackson Parks to the south (in Hyde Park) would require closing those areas to the public — not just for two weeks in 2016, but for years beforehand. And because of the heightened security required by the games, the construction zones themselves have to be secure, turning those areas into no-go zones for years.

Fears also run rampant within the minority, working-class communities on the city’s south and west sides, whose parkland and civic buildings would be sacrificed for the 2016 games — namely Washington, Jackson and Douglas Parks.

Washington Park would undergo serious changes. That park was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, whose resume also includes Central Park in Manhattan. Thousands of people currently use Washington Park every year, and they may be denied use of it. The Chicago 2016 committee has proposed a $400 million temporary stadium for the opening ceremonies and track events, as well as a $100 million aquatic center with four pools, all on an open meadow designed by Olmsted. Listed on the National Registry of Historic Places, Washington Park occupies 1,000 acres — one-seventh of the city’s parkland — and features baseball diamonds, football and soccer fields, all of which would be closed to the public for years before the games.

According to Arnold Randall, director of neighborhood legacy for Chicago 2016, the stadium would shrink to a 2,500-3,500-seat amphitheater after the games, and all of the pools would be dismantled except one, which would replace the existing pool at Dyett High School in Washington Park. In other words, the Olympics would not destroy the park.

Erma Tranter of Friends of the Parks points out that other U.S. cities that have hosted the Olympics have added parkland. Not so with Chicago, which is last among the nation’s 20 largest cities in park acreage per person, she points out.

In nearby Jackson Park, Chicago 2016 wants an Olympic field hockey venue, which would replace a world-class track and football field next to Hyde Park Academy. One of only three regulation tracks at Chicago schools, according to a Community Media Workshop report, the track and field opened just eight years ago and was funded by a community-led drive which raised over half a million dollars. “It’s eight years into a minimum 35-year lifespan,” says Ross Petersen, president of the Jackson Park Advisory Council.

At a July 18 community meeting in Washington Park held by the Chicago 2016 committee, the Hyde Park Herald quoted one woman as saying, “Oprah and all those people who gave money do not speak for us. I hope I’m not bursting your bubble, but you’re not getting your Olympics.”

Not everyone at the Washington Park meeting was opposed to Chicago getting the games, however. “We are excited, and we encourage the Olympics coming to Washington Park in 2016,” the Herald quoted Hanna Andersen. “Bring on the Games!”

In Lincoln Park on the north side, an Olympic tennis facility would replace the Jarvis Bird Sanctuary, eight acres of protected forest that’s on an international bird migration route.

Meanwhile, in Douglas Park on Chicago’s west side, a recently rebuilt gymnasium and pool at the Collins High School campus, which cost $30 million, would give way to a $37 million velodrome for bicycle racing. Chicago 2016 promises to convert the elite outdoor venue into a year-round “multisport facility” after the games.

“Communities that need good educational facilities will lose them,” says Tom Tresser of No Games Chicago. “Land speculators will come in when these projects happen and buy up land. Property taxes will rise, and that will push out the people who lived in those neighborhoods.”

Chicago 2016 has introduced a “Memorandum of Understanding” with communities that — nominally at least — addresses construction, community enhancement and affordable housing, as well as guaranteeing that minorities and women will get their fair share of jobs generated by the Olympics and building venues for the games.

Members of Communities for an Equitable Olympics 2016 — a coalition of community and labor organizations from around Chicago — pushed for the city to commit to a more specific “community benefits agreement” before the IOC’s visit in April. But City Hall ultimately declined to offer a legally binding agreement that would reserve a certain amount of jobs, housing, and minority contracts for neighborhood residents.

Workers in Washington, Jackson and Douglas Parks want more than just jobs selling hot dogs and tickets during the games. They want a promise of construction jobs in the years leading up to the Olympics. And if Chicago is to make money on these games, they want a piece of the pie.

Douglas Park residents attending a Chicago 2016 community meeting on August 3 expressed fear that their park, their high school and their community assets will be taken away from them, that real estate prices will rise and they’ll no longer be able to live in Douglas Park, and they’ll have very little to show for their hardships.
The crowd that turned out to question the Chicago 2016 presentation included a multi-ethnic mix of local workers, activists with connections to No Games Chicago, students defending the architectural legacy of Chicago’s old buildings, and even a teacher. Mrs. King brought her eleventh grade class from nearby North Lawndale High School to ask pointed questions of Lori Healey and other Chicago 2016 representatives. At one point the question and answer session gave way to a tense standoff between Alderwoman Sharon Dixon of the 24th Ward (who supports the Olympic bid) and a boy from Mrs. King’s class. Dixon clearly felt uneasy that one of her constituents dared rock the boat and question the city’s grand plan.

“Make no small plans. They have no magic to stir men’s blood,” Daniel Burnham famously quipped. But when it comes to Chicago’s ambitious Olympic bid, are those really the best plans for the city’s residents? Can a broke and notoriously corrupt city afford the 2016 Games? And is the International Olympic Committee listening?

Jacob Wheeler is a freelance journalist, editor and teacher who also publishes the season Glen Arbor Sun newspaper (GlenArborSun.com) in northwest-lower Michigan.

Chattanooga Choo-Choo hugs Off The Grid

Apollo News Service

Chattanooga, TN - Twenty years ago, under popular mayor Gene Roberts, Chattanooga launched an effort to rejuvenate its deteriorating downtown. In 1992, the city opened what at the time was the world’s largest freshwater aquarium. That same year, the Chattanooga Area Regional Transportation Authority (CARTA) opened an electric transit vehicle (ETV) shuttle service with the aim of bringing people – and businesses – back downtown.

Chattanooga, which used electric streetcars from 1889 until shortly after World War II, modeled its ETVs after a battery-powered system in Santa Barbara, Calif. Though it initially encountered a few speed bumps, by 1996 the ETV transit system’s rubber-tired buses were running solely on American-made, 100-percent recycled, rechargeable, zero-emission electric batteries. The transit system has fueled Chattanooga’s downtown revitalization and created good jobs in the process.

Now CARTA is seeking funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to buy hybrid buses for its non-electric, suburban routes.

Ron Sweeney, CARTA’s general manager, estimates that as many as a million passengers enjoy ETV service every year. Drivers pay to park their cars in one of three garages in or near downtown, and the shuttle itself is free.

“People want the shuttle because it’s a very convenient, safe way to get around downtown,” said Sweeney. “Where the shuttle runs, the businesses prosper, because it brings activity and people. There are requests from three or four different parts of town to expand the shuttle service into their area. As time goes, on we’ll need more buses so we can expand.”

The ETV shuttle program has also created good jobs. CARTA employs approximately 120 people full time, including 13 drivers and eight technicians who work on the downtown ETVs. Employees start off earning 75 percent of a top (diesel bus) operator’s rate of $18 per hour. After two years on the job, the pay increases to 80 percent of that salary. CARTA workers also have access to an employer-sponsored pension plan to which the company contributes.

In addition to its ETV shuttles, CARTA has 60 regular diesel buses that transport passengers between Chattanooga’s suburbs and its downtown. CARTA recently acquired two hybrid buses to begin replacing the diesel-guzzlers, and it has applied for Transportation Investments Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) grants from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to buy eight additional hybrids.

“We know it’s good for the environment around us, and for the nation to get us off foreign oil,” explained Sweeney.

Meanwhile, CARTA’s 15 downtown ETVs use no fossil fuels except for propane heaters, which only operate during the winter months. The shuttle buses are each 22 feet long and 92 inches wide. They seat approximately 25 people and run a 3.8-mile loop, from 6:30 a.m. until 11 p.m. Once a day, the ETVs are switched out for replacement vehicles with fully charged batteries, usually between noon and 2 p.m. The electric-powered batteries are stored in 3,000-pound cubes inserted and removed from the sides of the buses with forklifts. The batteries take approximately six hours to charge.

Most of the ETVs were built in the 1990s by a Chattanooga company called Advanced Vehicle Systems, which has since gone out of business. Ninety-five percent of the lead-acid batteries are made by Deka Batteries in Pennsylvania, and according to CARTA’s technician foreman Clifford Lowrance, regular maintenance on the batteries includes neutralizing the harmless sulfuric acid with tap water. The process uses no hazardous chemicals and doesn’t even require purified water. The batteries themselves are 100-percent recycled.

“These batteries last 1,200-1,300 cycles, or five-six years; there’s no waste,” said Lowrance, who started working at CARTA just after it was created and has logged 35 years on the job. “We monitor these batteries from cradle to grave. You’ll never find a battery in a river or in a field. And there’s very little carbon footprint because (the Tennessee Valley Authority’s) hydroelectric dams supply most of the energy."

Litecontrol Illuminates Energy Efficiency

Apollo News Service

Litecontrol, an employee-owned and unionized Massachusetts manufacturer of energy-efficient architectural lighting for commercial buildings and institutions, is a prime example of how the lighting industry is illuminating the nation’s path toward reducing our carbon footprint. Besides producing American-made, energy efficient lighting, Litecontrol is a woman-run company that provides good jobs to local workers.

Founded in 1936 in Boston, Litecontrol later moved its headquarters to Hanson in the cranberry bogs on Massachusetts’ south shore. The company opened a second, larger facility in 1995 in nearby Plympton, Mass. Its Hanson headquarters employs 59 workers on the factory floor and 62 in the office; 67 more work at the manufacturing and training center in Plympton.

Before introducing the nation’s first school fixtures in the 1950s, Litecontrol manufactured switch boxes for Navy destroyers and submarines during World War II. Today, Litecontrol is a $45 million company best known for its architectural product innovation and its perimeter fluorescent lighting.

President and CEO Veda Ferlazzo Clark, 56, started at Litecontrol in 1987 as vice president of marketing and product development. After engineering an employee takeover of the company in a three-stage purchase, she took charge of the company in 1999.

“We’ve been working toward lighting that is visually comfortable so that workers can do their jobs, but in way that minimizes power usage,” said Clark.

Litecontrol designs its products to emit one watt or less per square foot, putting the company at the forefront of industry standards recommended in 2004 by the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE). Ten years ago, indoor lighting typically emitted two watts per square foot, or twice as much energy as it does now. And whereas the industry once deemed 75 footcandles per classroom or workspace necessary, today 45-50 footcandles are now considered adequate.

“An overhead light that you turn on when the sun sets probably gives you 25-30 footcandles,” explained Clark. “Sitting in bed with a table lamp beside you gives five footcandles. Overall, the eye is pretty adaptable. It’s generally accepted now that your eyes need less light, but it needs to be better quality light than what we used to provide.”

More than 60 percent of Litecontrol’s employees are represented by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW), earning, on average, $14 per hour. Litecontrol has been 100-percent employee-owned through an Employee Stock Option Plan since 1999, and the company contributes 50 cents for every dollar that employees pay into their 401(k) retirement accounts.

The economic recession only recently began impacting the lighting sector, which typically trails the overall construction industry by nine months to a year, since lights are the last things to be installed in a new building. After hiring approximately 20 to 30 employees per year between 2004 and 2008, Litecontrol was recently forced to cut its workforce by 10 percent — both union and non-union workers. Nevertheless, Clark says that the company typically unveils four to six new products every year and hopes to grow through acquisitions once the recession subsides.

Litecontrol has not directly applied for stimulus funds under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, but the company is pursuing several applications for product development with money that is being allocated through the Department of Energy.

U.S Senator Sherrod Brown’s (D-Ohio) proposed “Investments for Manufacturing Progress and Clean Technology (IMPACT) Act of 2009” could help businesses like Litecontrol. Brown’s bill would support small and medium-sized manufacturers by providing capital for investments in energy efficiency and for retooling and expanding into the clean energy supply chain. If the bill is enacted, Litecontrol would be eligible for loans to improve energy efficiency in its facilities by installing solar panels.

The government’s commitment to green energy could help too. Before taking office, President Obama said in a speech last December while unveiling his plan for creating 2.5 million new jobs, “We need to upgrade our federal buildings by replacing old heating systems and installing efficient light bulbs. That won’t just save you, the American taxpayer, billions of dollars each year. It will put people back to work.”

Out of a common interest in making the company as profitable as possible, all Litecontrol employees recently underwent “lean training” to make themselves more efficient, both on the factory floor and in the office. “Every single person in the company analyzed what they do every day and how that can be done faster,” said national accounts project manager Greg Banks, who chaired Litecontrol’s Ownership Improvement Committee, a group of both union and non-union employees who suggested the training. “We looked at something as small as organizing file cabinets, to changing the way we make a fixture, from start to finish.”

All of Litecontrol’s products are manufactured in the United States (though not all components are American-made) and are silver-certified by McDonough Braungart Design Chemistry (MBDC), a consultancy that helps clients implement “cradle-to-cradle design,” which offers a new approach to sustainability and prosperity. Litecontrol is the first company to produce linear architectural fluorescent lights that are cradle-to-cradle certified.

“The MBDC analysis is a global look at how you make products, from start to finish,” said Banks.

“And not just our process, but also that of the vendors we buy from,” added Clark. “For example, we worked with paint vendors we buy from to develop a new process to make better, safer paint.”

Rather than producing cradle-to-grave products, MBDC believes that companies should focus on where a used product will ultimately end up. Litecontrol has achieved a silver-level certification. In Clark’s words, “anything that you use in a product eventually goes back into ecosystem. We’ll have to be prepared to eat again what is thrown away.”

Signs, tickets relieve congestion at Empire beach

Glen Arbor Sun

In response to parking congestion during the height of summer at Empire’s popular public beach, the Village Council erected signs, laid boulders on either end of the lot and is paying the Leelanau County Sheriff’s Department as much as $10,000 this summer to maintain order and keep the fire lane open for emergency vehicles.



“Our main concern is to keep the fire lane open,” says Village Council board member and chairman of the Parks Committee Lannie Sterling. “The beach is the only way to access (residential) Lake Michigan Drive.”

Sterling added that Fourth of July weekend wasn’t as busy as it has been in past years on account of chillier weather, but he still saw cars parked where they shouldn’t be. One had received a ticket. On the other hand, Sterling also saw cars parked in legal spots around the village — a short walk to the beach. He hopes that more beachgoers will drop their families and friends at the beach and then park in town.

Deputy Tim Tull is the Sheriff’s Department’s officer on duty at Empire beach. He also patrolled last summer, but didn’t issue village ordinance tickets, which typically cost $40, until this year. Tull, a former policeman from the Kalamazoo area who recently relocated to Traverse City, missed police work and contacted the Sheriff’s Department in Lake Leelanau.

The Department currently works with the Village to schedule Tull’s patrol hours. During peak times he works 40 hours per week, though depending on the total number of hours he logs this summer, the Department may not bill the Village the full $10,000.

Tull told the Glen Arbor Sun in mid-July that there have been no problems with parking at the Empire beach. “There have been a few parking tickets, but people come to have a good time and be safe,” Tull says. “The Village has done a good job of painting stripes and ‘No Parking’ on the pavement in the Fire Lanes.”

Between that and his presence on patrol, this has been virtually a problem-free summer so far at the Empire beach.

Ecotourism, a buzz word with many paths

Glen Arbor Sun

The word “ecotourism” is gaining popularity in the Glen Arbor region. Ecological tourism is defined in Martha Honey’s book Ecotourism and Sustainable Development: Who Owns Paradise? (Washington DC: Island Press, 2008) as “travel to fragile, pristine and usually protected areas that strives to be low-impact and (often) small scale. It helps educate the traveler; provides funds for conservation; directly benefits the economic development and political empowerment of local communities; and fosters respect for different cultures and for human rights.”

Canoe, kayak, hikes and bike trips into the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore (the local branch of the National Park Service) certainly qualify as such. The nature is fragile, pristine and protected. The trips are low-impact and small-scale. While visitors don’t directly fund local conservation, their visit up north does aid the area’s economic vitality and empower the community. As for respecting different cultures and human rights … well, the indigenous peoples have long since left the Lakeshore, but ecotourism strives to respect their legacy.

Two Glen Arbor businesses now offer trips into the Lakeshore that could be considered ecotourism. Matt Wiesen’s Crystal River Outfitters rents kayaks and canoes from its base next to Riverfront Pizza on M-22. The Outfitters’ favorite trip is a two-three hour paddle along seven miles of the Crystal River, within the Park. Its website promises, “You’ll be amazed by the clear water and sandy bottom of the Crystal River … You’ll see Northern Michigan’s true residents: White Tail Deer, Blue Heron, Bald Eagles, otters, turtles, frogs and endless amounts of fish.”

This summer, Mike and Becky Sutherland’s eco-friendly mini golf course, The River at Crystal Bend, has expanded to offer canoe and kayak outings, fishing trips on Tucker Lake, bike trips and hiking tours. According to its website, the River strives “to create a place of happiness for folks that want to escape the whirlwind that has become the American lifestyle.”

“Our intentions are to educate people about how to treat the environment,” says Mike Sutherland. “It’s about teaching awareness, especially in children.” Mike sees Glen Arbor as an island surrounded by the National Park, and The River has a responsibility to share its richness with the community and visitors to the area.

The River employs several local guides who know these woods, lakes and rivers like the backs of their hands. On nature hikes, landscaper Cre Woodard teaches clients about native plants and wildlife. Outdoorsman Mark Ringlever guides the Tucker Lake fishing trips, teaches fly-fishing and explains how practices such as catch-and-release help preserve natural resources. Mark’s mantra is “get in the water and let the current do the rest.” Experienced naturalist Georg Schluender teaches the casting of animal tracks in plaster to children. One of The River’s many ambitions, says Mike Sutherland, is to “specialize in that moment with kids, teaching them how to treat the environment with respect.”

If done poorly, recreation can spend and deplete natural resources. But The River is careful to balance this consumption with teaching conservation and promoting efforts to preserves our resources.

Combining the commercial element and the environmental element doesn’t have to conflict, says Sutherland — precisely because of the symbiotic relationship between the local economy and the environment. The economy depends on the environment to draw visitors to northern Michigan. And the environment depends on the economy to promote preservation and conservation. Both support and sustain the other. Ecotourism is rooted in the concept that environment and economy are like a spider web, a beautifully intricate network of relationships.

Park-sponsored ecotourism

The Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, itself, sponsors ecotourism ventures within the Park. Ranger-led hikes are offered frequently, and “Saturdays at the Lakeshor” — each with a weekly theme — feature guided trips that leave from the Visitors Center in Empire on Saturdays at 1 p.m. Past themes have included “The Great Meltdown” and “Wonderful Waterfowl”.

For the second summer in a row, the Park’s Transportation Interpreter Ryan Locke is offering guided bike trips. The trips are free, as long as your vehicle as a Park entrance pass ($10 per week or $20 per year). And bring your own bike!

Locke is 25 and originally from Spring Lake. His position is sponsored by the National Park Foundation, whose mission is to promote alternative transportation within National Parks. “They gave me bikes and said ‘go to work with them,’” says Locke, who plans routes in the Park and also leads the tours. The program expanded from two to four routes this summer.

Those routes are: “Discovering Cultural Landscapes,” which tours the Port Oneida Rural Historic District north of Glen Arbor, on Wednesdays at 5 p.m. and Fridays at 11 a.m.; “Backroads, Farms and Forests,” south of Empire through an agricultural landscape, ghost town and former logging area, Thursdays at 11 a.m. and Fridays at 5 p.m.; “Recreation and Tourism,” north of Empire on paved roads near the Dune Climb, along Glen Lake, and through Glen Haven, Wednesdays at 11 a.m. and Thursdays at 5 p.m., and “Bicycle Safety and Beach Ride at Platte River Campground,” which starts in the Platte River campground and rides down Peterson Road to the beach and back, Tuesdays at 7 p.m. (all ages welcome). Locke’s current schedule runs through Aug. 28, and different programs will be added for the month of September.

“I think of ecotourism as an alternative vacation where someone is actively looking for meaning in their vacation, something larger,” says Locke, who is also a graduate student in urban design planning at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm. “It’s also about people engaging in green traveling and thinking more carefully about the impacts they have.”

Writer Ian Vertel contributed to this report.

Back to school to learn green jobs

Mindful Metropolis

The green economy is taking off, there’s no question about it. Buoyed by rising energy costs, an economic recession, and the recognition that the way we lived, and the way we consumed energy, during the throw-caution-to-the-wind days of yesteryear were simply not sustainable. In response, visionaries, entrepreneurs, conservationists and gardeners are racing to come up with new ways to build and power our homes and grow our food. But they also need workers with green-collar skills — executives and blue-collar “grunts,” alike, who know how to grow and harvest organic produce, weatherize homes or install windmills. “Green-collar” job-training programs are blossoming all over the Chicago area. The following is a sampling of them:

Chicago Botanic Gardens

The Chicago Botanic Garden’s Windy City Harvest provides instruction in sustainable horticulture and urban agriculture to residents of North Lawndale and Chicago’s west side. Students receive six months of hands-on instruction in greenhouse and outdoor growing practices, in the process acquiring hands-on experience with sustainable vegetable production and learning essential business skills, including planning, pricing, sales and marketing. Or they can opt for a five-month certificate in cool-weather growing techniques for hoophouses and greenhouses. Windy City Harvest participants study at the City Colleges of Chicago’s Arturo Velasquez West Side Technical Institute at 28th and Western Avenue in Chicago and at the Garfield Park Conservatory. The two locations provide state-of-the-art greenhouses, fully equipped classrooms and high quality outside plant production spaces. The course prepares students for permanent employment in the new green collar jobs sector. Visit www.chicago-botanic.org/windycityharvest or call (847) 835-6970

Chicago Center for Green Technology

The Chicago Department of the Environment’s “Greencorps Chicago” accepts 40 Chicago residents into its paid, nine-month Green Industry Job training program every spring. Greencorps Chicago is a pioneer in the green industry and works out of the Center for Green Technology. The program is open to ex-offenders and provides field and classroom experience in these areas: landscaping & horticulture, environmental health & safety, electronics recycling and weatherization. According to Greencorps’ website, “skills learned in the field (include) basic carpentry, horticulture principles, plant identification, electronic recycling and computer building, environmental health and safety and home weatherization.” Visit www.greenforall.org/resources/greencorps-chicago or call (312) 744-8691.

Chicagoland Green Collar Jobs Initiative

The Chicagoland Green Collar Jobs Initiative, which now boasts 100 partners, is a collaborative that, according to its website, “facilitates the development of a skilled workforce that is ready to meet the demands of the emerging green economy and capture new employment opportunities for Chicagoland workers.” The Initiative’s goal is to achieve a green collar workforce that “integrates green business growth, innovative workforce development and emerging environmental practices … into a vibrant regional economy.” Housed in the LEED council office, the initiative’s Workforce Development Task Force teams up with Victoria Cooper of Wilbur Wright College’s Environmental Technology Program to offer a weatherization curriculum, which will benefit the construction industry, contractors and labor unions once it is complete. Visit www.greencollarchicago.org or call (773) 929-5552.

Centre for Sustainability and Excellence

The Centre for Sustainability and Excellence, an international advisory on sustainable development with offices in Chicago, Athens, Brussels and Cyprus, will hold a two-day practitioner workshop (approved by the Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment) on Sept. 1-2 at the Hotel Monaco in downtown Chicago. The workshop is geared toward executives, public relations, marketing managers and human resource managers and sustainability and environmental professionals. This is the first workshop CSE is offering in the United States. Managing director Nick Andrews says that the United States lags four-five years behind Europe in the field of sustainable business ethics, and this workshop presents an opportunity to catch up. Visit www.cse-northamerica.org or call (773) 714 5065.

Eco Achievers

Eco Achievers offers an online-based curriculum for motivated professionals or engaged homeowners who want to learn more about sustainability or make their homes more sustainable, advance their careers or become more effective advocates for renewable energy. The program’s courses are now available through over 250 community colleges and universities around the country. Jason LaFleur, president of Eco Achievers, says that Eco Achievers was begun in 2007 to fulfill “the need for quality online education in the renewable energy, green building and sustainability professions.” On its website the program offers a free, one-hour class on “Green Careers,” which was born from a presentation LaFleur gave at a renewable energy fair in June to over 100 people. Visit www.ecoachievers.com or call (312) 952-5451.

Growing Home

Growing Home helps those with barriers to employment — especially those who have been incarcerated or homeless or have battled substance abuse — through a seven-month gardening and farming job-training program from April to October. Interns spend four days per week working on Growing Home’s various farm sites — including the Englewood farm on the south side, Chicago’s first inner-city farm that produces local and organic produce, which opens this month. The curriculum focuses on planting, cultivating and harvesting organically, food and nutrition education, and basic life skills, including personal money management. Participants also learn marketing and sales skills, which they practice while working at Growing Home’s booths at various farmers markets. Visit www.growinghomeinc.org or call (773) 549-1336.

IIT School of Business, Sustainable Business

The Illinois Institute of Technology’s Stuart School of Business, which ranks in the top 100 worldwide, offers an interdisciplinary M.S. in Environmental Management and Sustainability that includes a mix of law, environmental and business courses. IIT’s Center for Sustainable Enterprise seeks to advance sustainability in the classroom and implement practical and equitable business strategies while fostering current and future economic viability. Director George Nassos says the curriculum is a blend of traditional environmental management courses and new environmental management. “Many people in the industry know about pollution compliance,” he explains. “But many don’t know too much about sustainability.” One of Nassos’ recent alums has already started a company that builds wind turbines. Visit www.stuart.iit.edu/cse or call (312) 906-6543.

North Lawndale Employment Network

The North Lawndale Employment Network helps economically isolated individuals, especially former offenders, secure jobs, helps employers recruit and retain workers, and advocates on behalf of low-income job seekers. The network’s most unique program is called “Sweet Beginnings,” an Urban Honey Transitional Jobs social enterprise that teaches ex-offenders how to care for bees and make products from honey. Sweet Beginnings has approximately 40 hives in North Lawndale and sells honey at local farmers markets. Its line of Beeline products will soon include honey facial scrub, lip balm and hand lotion, and Sweet Beginnings hopes to sell its product at local restaurants. Visit www.nlen.org or call (773) 638-4800.

The ReBuilding Exchange

In an effort to divert building materials from the waste stream and make them accessible for reuse, thus saving resources and creating jobs, the Delta Institute’s ReBuilding Exchange promotes sustainable deconstruction practices, makes used building materials available at low costs and provides educational resources such as workshops on “how to rewire a light fixture” and “tiling.” The ReBuilding Exchange retail warehouse is located at 3335 W. 47th Street. LEED Deputy Executive Director Elise Zelechowski says that building material reuse center favors deconstruction over a traditional wreck and ball demolition process. “That allows more building materials to be diverted for reuse. That process takes longer, it’s less mechanized, and so it creates more jobs.” Visit www.delta-institute.org/rebuildingexchange or call (773) 844-5945.

Wilbur Wright College

Wilbur Wright, one of the City Colleges of Chicago, began offering its six-course, 21-credit hour Occupational Certificate in Building Energy Technologies (BET) in 2006 to satisfy a demand in the green industry for workers who could translate green designs into reality. Prior to the course offering, according to Director of Sustainable Initiatives David Inman, Wilbur Wright had sought feedback from a focus group of architects, contractors, builders and rehabilitators, organized energy and energy consultants from the Midwest Energy Efficiency Alliance. What Wilbur Wright learned was that, while the technology and the willpower was in place, the growing green sector still lacked workers with the knowhow to make buildings energy-efficient or to erect windmills or solar panels. Visit: http://wright.ccc.edu/department/etp/build.asp or call (773) 481-8610.