Brookfield is on a roll.
Last week we touted the village’s new up-to-the-minute mapping of its cascade of summer infrastructure projects.
This week our Trent Brown reports on another in a series of efforts to engage locals in rethinking and then remaking Ogden Avenue. Again using technology, Brookfield has launched a simple interactive map survey and two-item questionnaire asking residents what they want to see along a commercial strip that has become part highway and part obsolete.
We’re hoping residents who take part in the survey opt for ways to shift the street away from speedway and toward a community resource that is welcoming and serves as more than a passthrough for speeding cars. The goal of this effort is to accommodate bikes and pedestrians, too.
Energize Ogden, the slogan for this effort, needs to reflect neighborhood access and services. There will be new streetscape coming. We hope the brick pavers, crosswalks and lighting bring a measure of calm and community to Ogden Avenue.
We urge locals to hop on this survey between now and April 16.
Finally, we’d note the arrival of the draft of Brookfield’s ambitious five-year sustainability plan. The volunteer conservation commission has created a plan that reflects the substantive efforts Brookfield had already made on local climate mitigation. But it goes further in crafting a plan with 36 specific goals and 106 even more specific plans of action related to water use, waste, energy sourcing, and land use.
We sometimes hear from readers that towns the size of Brookfield are too small to have impact on the often grim predictors of climate catastrophe. We could not disagree more and see local action as the catalyst that makes real the need for everyone to engage around climate.
It has been a while since we’ve reported on a more enthused reaction a village board has given to the work of a volunteer citizen commission. The conservation commission earned these plaudits.
No Mow starts now
Riverside can be a little fussy. Maybe you’ve noticed that over time.
However, when No Mow May now starts in mid-March in Riverside, maybe our thinking is opening up a bit.
No Mow May is a national effort to reduce our American obsession over green, manicured lawns and allow for a shaggier lawn look that gives flowering plants some time to shine and to pollinate during the spring months.
Get this! You can let your grass grow to 8 inches high for the next seven weeks. Yep, No Mow May ends on May 12 to balance off the early start. Even so, this is a worthy concession to a new reality that the goal of a yard and garden is not to fully subdue nature but to actively support its many dimensions.