[GreenNotes] GreenNotes - June 7, 2007

[Tom Brown]

Please circulate widely. Contact us to include your announcement in 
GreenNotes.

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PROGRESSIVE EVENT CALENDAR

* St. Joe Valley Greens - June 14, 7 PM at GLBT Resource Center

* MPJC peace vigil - Every Monday and Saturday

* GreenTV every Wednesday evening, 10 PM, Comcast channel 99.

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SUPPORT BICYCLE LANES FOR EDDY STREET COMMONS

Dear Bicycle Lane Supporters:

We would like to ask you to please take a few minutes of your time to 
encourage the developers of Eddy Street Commons (ND College Town) and 
the City of South Bend to include bicycle lanes and recreational trails 
(10' wide paths for use by pedestrians and bicyclists) in their 
development plan. We would like to encourage you to show your support by 
sending emails to those who are responsible for the planning and 
approval. In addition, we encourage you to attend the appropriate Area 
Plan Commission Meeting and City of South Bend Common Council Meeting.

I will explain the details of the process and list the appropriate 
persons whom you should email and meetings you will want to attend (to 
the best of my current knowledge).

Kite Realty Group is developing the plan for the University of Notre 
Dame. The Troyer Group is the architectural firm responsible for the 
plan. The Vice-President of Business Operations, at the University of 
Notre Dame, approves such plans. Naturally the President of the 
University would also lend his support to the plan. The land is Notre 
Dame property, located within the City of South Bend. Kite Realty has 
indicated an intention to present the plan before the Area Plan 
Commission on Tuesday, June 19, at 3:30 P.M. The Area Plan Commission 
must give their approval. The next step is for the City of South Bend 
Common Council to give th eir approval at a meeting called within 60 to 
90 days. Of course, the Mayor of South Bend, Mayor Luecke, usually gives 
an indication to the council of his support.

Here is how you can show support:

1. Email these decision makers.

Send an email indicating your request that the appropriate person 
consider including bicycle lanes and/or recreational trails within the 
plan for the Eddy Street Commons.

If you choose to give your reasons that is good. But it need not be a 
long email.

- Kite Realty Group contact: David Compton dcompton at kiterealty.com

- The Troyer Group contact: John Leszczynski jel at troyergroup.com

- University of Notre Dame contact: Greg Hakanen ghakanen at nd.edu

- Area Plan Commission contact: John Byorni jbyorni at co.st-joseph.in.us

- Mayor Luecke email sluecke at southbendin.gov

- South Bend City Council, find your local city council member and the 
three at large members at:
http://www.southbendin.gov/CouncilMtg.asp. If you know the name of your 
council member, his or her email is the first initial of the name, then 
the last name followed by @southbendin.gov

2. Attend Area Plan Commission meeting

Please attend the Area Plan Commission Meeting on Tuesday, June 19, at 
3:30 PM in the Council Chambers on the 4th Floor of the County City 
Building.

You do not need to speak. We will have a group of persons addressing the 
various issues. If you choose to speak, please limit your remarks to 
under five minutes (that is the time limit), preferably two minutes, so 
we do not irritate the planning commission members. However, it is 
important to have as many people show for the meeting to show support.

The agenda is set 48 hours before the meeting and can be found online, 
if you want to check the agenda in advance and make sure Kite Realty has 
not rescheduled. http://www.stjosephcountyindiana.com/index1.htm

3. Attend South Bend Common Council

Please attend the subsequent South Bend City Common Council Meeting when 
the date is set.

Please keep in mind that there are two important reasons why the City of 
South Bend and the Area Plan Commission would want to request that 
bicycle lanes and trails be included. First, Mayor Luecke has announced 
a plan for the city of South Bend to stripe and sign five miles of 
bicycle lanes and connecting routes each year for the next five years. 
This is in keeping with input from residents to the City Plan requesting 
that the city become more pedestrian and bicycle friendly. The St. 
Joseph County Comprehensive Plan adopted by the Area Plan Commission 
recognizes the “Need to provide 'non-motorized' transportation 
alternatives in the county” (Chapter 4, Sec. 2.5). It would be a good 
idea for the Area Plan Commission to wo rk toward this goal when 
approving new developments within the county.

Please help encourage those involved with the planning process by taking 
a few minutes now to show your support. Please feel free to forward this 
email to friends.

Thank you,

Judith Robert, Chair

Paint the Town with Bicycle Lanes Committee

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EMAILS NEEDED TO STOP DUKE ENERGY

As you may know, CAC is working to stop the construction of the coal 
gasification power plant that Duke Energy (PSI Energy) and Vectren 
(Southern Indiana Gas and Electric) are proposing. CAC's expert 
testimony in the case clearly demonstrates that there is no need for the 
plant, that cheaper, cleaner alternatives exist to meet electric energy 
demand in Duke and Southern Indiana Gas and Electric territory 
(Vectren), and that avoiding the construction of the plant will also 
avoid millions of tons of carbon dioxide emissions and additional 
particulate emissions from occurring.

Whether or not Duke is your utility company, this power plant will 
impact your quality of life. If Duke can get away with it, the other 
utilities in the state will follow suit. If this happens, everyone's 
electric rates will increase, and the health of all Hoosiers will 
suffer. So, whether or not you are a Duke customer, if you are opposed 
to building new coal-fired power plants in Indiana, it is important that 
you allow your voice to be heard, loud and clear!

In order to strengthen our case before the Indiana Utility Regulatory 
Commission, we request, if you are so inclined, that you send an e-mail 
to the Office of Utility Consumer Counselor highlighting the fact that 
the plant is not needed, your opposition to the plant, and your support 
for more energy efficiency and renewable energy investments. Comments 
are due by June 8th, so we only have a few days to get as many letters 
as possible. Time is of the essence!

Additional information can be found by clicking here: Stop the Duke 
Plant! 
http://ent.groundspring.org/EmailNow/pub.php?module=URLTracker&cmd=track&j=145779011&u=1398732

Contact for the OUCC is as follows:

Consumer Services Staff
Indiana Office of Utility Consumer Counselor
100 N. Senate Ave. , Room N501
Indianapolis , IN 46204

Fax: 317-232-5923
uccinfo at oucc.IN.gov

Thank you so much for your help!

Sincerely,

Grant Smith
Executive Director, Citizens Action Coalition

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KATHLEEN PETITJEAN TO SPEAK TO COMMON COUNCIL

On June 19, Kathleen Petitjean will present a Green perspective on 
bicycle friendly development. She will speak directly to the lack of 
bicycle infrastructure in plans for Eddy Street Commons, the Notre Dame 
development.

If you have suggestions for Kathleen, please post them to us at the mail 
addresses listed at the bottom of this newsletter.

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SJVGREENS WEB SITE

* Wet Weather Combined Sewer Overflow Watch

South Bend dumps raw sewage into the St. Joseph River every time there 
is precipitation. Our sewers and storm runoff systems are combined. The 
Greens keep track of CSO events so you have a record.

* Is Martial Law Coming?

In case of a terrorist attack or a national disaster of sufficient size 
or alarm, President Bush plans to declare himself the protector of the 
Constitution, the sole authority in the U.S., and bypass Congress and 
the courts. Joe Miller summarizes and gives us research links.

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GREEN TV

* June 7: Good Jobs, Fairer Taxes

Greg LeRoy of Good Jobs First presents the case for reversing the 
spiraling economic decline of American cities.

* June 14: Competing Visions - Part 1 of 2

Economic Development in St. Joseph County. Economist Marty Wolfson 
contrasts old and new visions for economic development. The old vision 
is causing our infrastructure to deteriorate, our wages to decline and 
fails to include common citizens in decision making.

* June 21: Competing Visions - Part 2 of 2

Economic Development in St. Joseph County. Economist Marty Wolfson 
contrasts old and new visions for economic development. The old vision 
is causing our infrastructure to deteriorate, our wages to decline and 
fails to include common citizens in decision making.

* June 28 - Two Weeks in Iraq - Part 1 of 2

Recorded at a Catholic Worker House in South Bend in January, 2006, Joe 
Mueller predicts what we can expect in Iraq, and his predictions are 
coming true.

Joe is a Christian Peacemaker Teams reservist. Joe spent two weeks in 
Iraq to prepare for possible assignment there. Joe toured the region in 
and around Baghdad and met with clerics, academics, Iraqi peace 
activists and common Iraqi citizens. The show contains graphic photos of 
the tragic killing of members of an Iraqi family at a U.S. manned 
checkpoint in Iraq.

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KEY VALUES OF THE GREENS

1. Ecological wisdom

2. Social justice

3. Grassroots democracy

4. Nonviolence

5. Decentralization

6. Community-based economics

7. Feminism

8. Respect for diversity

9. Personal and global responsibility

10. Future focus

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St. Joe Valley Greens, South Bend, IN

http://www.sjvgreens.org/

mailto: tbrown at sjvgreens.org or khardy at sjvgreens.org