Thursday, January 28, 2010

Down to the WIRE

I really should read my e-mail more often . . .

Via Janet Miller's District 6 weekly e-mail to citizens in her district (which I received Monday and I'm just now reading (I am a bad citizen)), I learned more about something I'd heard news about on the radio, the Wichita Initiative to Renew the Environment (WIRE), sponsored by the KU School of Medicine and incorporating the involvement of numerous citizens' groups around town. WIRE is asking people to do some reading and see some videos addressing various environmental concerns in the area--not just the familiar ones of waste, air and water but also land-use concerns. For each of these, there's a survey which asks participants to prioritize these issues as concerns and their interest in addressing them.

There's some urgency to completing the survey: WIRE wants to have your--yes, your--input on this survey by the end of January so that it can submit its findings to the EPA in March as part of a grant application. On the one hand, this is very short notice, I know. On the other, it's supposed to be damned cold this weekend. So, since you're probably going to be staying inside, filling out an online survey which gauges your concern and interest in local environmental issues strikes me as a decent way to spend a part of your weekend.

3 comments:

Karen C said...

There's a District VI newsletter? They're not updating them in MyWichita system, then, or I'm not signed up for the right stuff, because I had no idea.

OTOH, it wouldn't have helped... looks like those videos don't get along with my computer. (Linux, but usually I don't have trouble with wmv.) Not that that matters either... I look at surveys like that one, or the one Goody Clancy put out, and am paralyzed by "But... but... they're all *essential*!" It's like picking a favorite child (which literal dilemma I escaped by having only one).

John B. said...

Karen,
"Newsletter" isn't quite the right word. I'm on the District 6 mailing list along with a bunch of other people, and so Janet (if I may be so familiar), and Sharon Fearey before her, sends out things of interest to those people around once a week.

As for the "favorite child" thing: I hear you. Personally, I want to give priority to water issues--which, incidentally, can be improved via prudent land-use policies (broadly defined)--because, relatively speaking, the others are pretty easy fixes and what we lack is the will to make them. Water, though, is much more vexing if only because there's only a finite amount of it to begin with and, long-term, climate change will lead to its natural redistribution and who knows whether that will favor or work against our area.

So, yeah--it's frustrating to prioritize all these equally-important issues. It's still a useful exercise to get us thinking about them at all, though.

Anonymous said...

Thanksf or the plug, John! Anyone who would like to be on the District 6 weekly email distribution list (blind-copied), can send me their address, and I'll gladly add them. I try to send out items relevant to both District 6 and the City at large. If you decide you don't like it, you can always unsubscribe. My email address is jlmiller@wichita.gov. I'd love to hear from you!

Janet Miller
Distrcit 6
Wichita City Council