Environmental Sustainability
• Oklahoma City needs a municipal composting system, with mandatory recycling of all organic wastes from both households and businesses. We are presently burying important natural resources in landfills that could better be used to enhance the fertility of the soils within the city.
• I oppose the proposal to log the forest surrounding Lake Atoka. Destroying the old growth forest that surrounds Lake Atoka will not stop erosion, it will increase erosion. The City has already wasted $650,000 in taxpayers money on this ill-advised project, and is set to spend even more! More erosion will mean more dirt in the water. More dirt will mean more money to clean the water to public health standards. The proposal is against ALL established Water Quality Best Management Practices for timber harvesting and land development engineering. The most charitable thing one can say about the rationale for destroying this old growth forest is that it is junk science at its worst in service to greed and political manipulation.
• We need more complete and universal recycling. We can also investigate whether a “Materials Recovery Center” would do a better job of recovering recyclables. Instead of going directly to a landfill, the trash would go through a sorting center where the recyclables would be recovered. Businesses can be included in city recycling programs.
• Assistance programs to help people pay utility bills are chronically underfunded, and faith based charities do not have the resources to pick up the slack. Going forward into the next decade, this problem will get much worse. We need better funding now for the weatherization/insulation programs to reduce the need for utility assistance in the future.
• City operated cellulose insulation manufacturing system. The cost of insulation is going up. The City can provide an excellent service to city residents, gain revenue for the City, and create an excellent use for a local resource by setting up a facility to manufacture cellulose insulation from the city’s paper recycling program. The insulation could be sold at a good price to city residents to encourage energy conservation (also to city businesses that install insulation), the activity could cover its expenses and even turn a profit for the City.
• Plant orchards and provide community gardens at all public housing developments. It is astonishing to me how few trees there are at our city’s public housing developments. This increases the utility costs, decreases the comfort level, and gives these important resources a sterile, unattractive look. We need to plant trees to shade these developments, and many of these trees can be fruit trees.
• Establish a city-wide system of bicycle trails for recreation and for commuting.
• Adjust city codes to require more insulation, passive solar features, rainwater harvesting systems. Oklahomans use energy very inefficiently, and this puts us at a competitive disadvantage. Money is constantly siphoned out of state to pay for energy supplies. Oklahoma City can help reduce this wealth drain by requiring increased insulation and passive solar features for new construction. Amend codes regarding new parking lots to require that shade trees be planted and maintained to eventually shade all parking lot areas. Investigate ways to encourage planting trees to shade existing parking lots.
• Study the cost of urban sprawl, and establish impact charges for new construction to cover those causes. If we don’t stop shifting resources from inner city areas to subsidize the costs of suburban development, our inner city neighborhoods will be at risk of collapse..
• Time traffic lights to improve the flow of traffic and reduce fuel consumption and pollution emissions.
• We need an effective multi-modal transportation system that includes bus, commuter rail that is based on the existing rail lines in Oklahoma City, automobile, air, bicycle and pedestrian pathways..
• Establish community canning centers. Plant forest gardens in city parks.
• Provide a free help center for homeowners and businesses who are interested in making their buildings more energy efficient. This would be a source of plans, ideas, and best practices.
• Study the urban heat island impact on central Oklahoma weather, develop and implement best practice strategies to mitigate and ameliorate its negative consequences.
• Study the issue of retrofitting city properties to incorporate more insulation and passive solar strategies.
• In Europe, there are large organizations that provide support and help to homeowners who are interested in building their own solar hot water systems. Their experience is that these self-built systems are about half as expensive as commercial units, but work as well or better. Typically the organizations bring together 8 families who live in a neighborhood, who build and install the solar water heaters on each house as a cooperative group, sort of like the “house raisings” of pioneer days. These organizations are interested in transferring this knowledge and expertise to other areas. Oklahoma City can actively seek such international partners in order to jump start the installation of thousands of solar hot water heaters.
