Sierra Club meeting recap
I think last night's Sierra Club meeting was one of the most exciting we've had. Sierra Club State Director Jack Darin spent the first half hour talking about issues in the Illinois General Assembly. Some items are stalled but it sounds like this is a very good year for progress on environmental issues at the state level.
The remainder of the meeting was devoted to giving candidates for city council time to speak and answer questions. The SJ-R has a good story on the meeting but you'll have to be a subscriber to read it online. WICS and WCFN TV news stations were there along with two radio stations, so the meeting got excellent news coverage.
Five candidates spoke at the meeting: Debbie Cimarossa, Gail Simpson, Tina Jannazzo, Barry McAnarney, and Sam Cahnman. Addtionally, five candidates who couldn't make the meeting filled out the questionnaire: Tim Davlin, Bob Bartnick, Mark Mahoney, Joe Rock and George Petrilli who returned it yesterday after I posted the other responses. I can honestly say I was very impressed by what all of the candidates who attended had to say.
Part of the reason for doing this was to ensure environmental concerns are taken more seriously in city politics and I think that's happening. Even two candidates who didn't return the survey had stories in the paper during the past week about environmental issues, plus Barry McAnarney had a press conference with Dick Durbin about bike trails.
The public response and hearing what candidates have to say confirms my impression that the public is ready to do far more than we currently are about smart growth, innovative ways of meeting energy needs, alternative modes of transportation and other environmental quality of life issues. I'll encourage people one more time to look at what candidates have to say in their responses to the questionnaire because there are some exciting ideas.