Rainwater Management is a major focus of the City of Racine in Wisconsin
RACINE, WISCONSIN: Margot Mazur, creative director for the City of Racine's Historic Sixth Street Enhancement Plan, says rainwater management is a major focus of the redevelopment of the area, which is now in the planning stages.
“Our goal is to take every drop of rain that falls on the Sixth Street District and make sure it goes back into the river and the lake clean,” Mazur recently said in an interview by the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel.
According to the newspaper, the project planners are looking at a snow-melt system, water-permeable pavement and rain gardens. A renewable energy program is also being considered, she said.
Mazur told the intervviewer that she sees Racine making significant progress on environmental issues, even if it's one step at a time.
“In the last four or five years, people have really come around and green projects have become something acceptable to think and talk about. I was a tree-hugger 15 years ago, and now that's not seen as such an oddball thing,” Mazur said in the interview.
Environmental efforts are taking center stage in Racine, which is working to become “green.”
Clean beaches, clean rivers and environmentally friendly policies make ecological sense and financial sense, Racine Mayor Gary Becker said when he was interviewed for the story.
But, Becker added, they also make good marketing sense.
“People want to live in cities that 'get it,' ” said Becker, who recently began his second term as mayor of the state's fifth-largest city. “The environment is part of getting it.”
Originally posted on April 28, 2007 by the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel