I just gave the city's application for the SDAT grant another read. It is full of exciting and important issues and ideas, from bus rapid transit to green building standards.
But there is nonetheless one rather glaring omission. Under a list of issues that covers air & water quality, energy efficiency, transportation, housing, revitalization, public policy/planning/land use and public spaces, there's not a single mention of the Pine Bush. Not one. In fact, the only time the Pine Bush is mentioned in the whole application is when the Pine Bush Preserve Commission is listed as participant in the process. It doesn't even show up in the discussion of the city's geography. If I'd been the Pine Bush Preserve Commission, I'd've had some words to say before signing off on one of the identically worded letters of support attached to the application.
Now, there's already far more in that application than can be addressed by the SDAT process. Still, it's rather stunning to have within your borders an extremely rare ecosystem that is a draw for biologists all over the country and home to rare and endangered species, and which has been the subject of a massive decades-long conservation effort, dozens of lawsuits, and a bitter controversy over the expansion of the city landfill, and not mention it at all. (For that matter, it's also pretty crazy to have an impending waste crisis and not mention it in a sustainability assessment beyond one euphemistic line about evaluating "landfill efficiency.")
If the tension between landfill and preservation in the Pine Bush isn't a sustainability challenge, I don't know what is. I'm sympathetic to the idea that improving the rest of the city in all the ways that are listed is one important piece of reducing the development pressures on the Pine Bush. But even if that works in the long run, that alone won't ensure that we reach the goal of an ecologically viable preserve. It needs direct attention. And if done right, it could support the overall economy and revitalization of the whole city. The Pine Bush is an asset, not just a challenge.
This is an issue that screams for some outside perspective. Though it shouldn't be the only thing we talk about, it would be great to have a member of our SDAT team who could bring some expertise to bear on this thorny issue.
Unfortunately, it is hard to imagine that it's not precisely the political thorniness of the issue that kept it out of the application. Could admitting that protecting the Pine Bush needs serious discussion be too much like conceding a point for some in the city administration? If so, that's sad, and a bad portent. If we're going to make a solid plan for revitalizing this city, we can't avoid major topics because they've become hot potatoes. Yet another reason that the agenda should be set by a public process.
I was glad, at least, to hear that while they didn't actually get to visit the Pine Bush on their preliminary SDAT visit, Alan and Erin "heard a lot about it" and are considering at least the landfill question to be one of the items on the agenda. I know I'm not the only one who is eager to get into that conversation.
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