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CITY OF SOUTH BEND OFFICE OF THE CLERK
<br /> impacts for the City and the residents, collaborating with local government leaders across the state
<br /> and across the Midwest, as well as other universities in Indiana. We lead by example by working
<br /> with staff in other cities and presenting our work at conferences. Green infrastructure is a big area
<br /> of sustainability opportunity with a number of additional benefits. Pictured here is an urban tree
<br /> canopy which is also a part of permeable sidewalks and parking strips to manage storm water more
<br /> effectively and reduce the cost of complying with the storm Water Consent Decree. It also provides
<br /> habitat, absorbs heat, and provides some beautification to the street scape. Parks and trails,
<br /> supporting biking and walking as transportation is really important and also provides many of the
<br /> benefits that you'd get from a green infrastructure project, not to mention the social health and
<br /> economic benefits of creating great public spaces. The City has been active in Complete Streets
<br /> projects, including safe routes to school,making sure that kids are treated as pedestrians that want
<br /> to get to their destination safely as well as Smart Streets,which included bike lanes and bike paths,
<br /> sidewalk improvements, transit improvements, bus stops and amenities on the street that make it
<br /> easier to be a pedestrian, a bicyclist or a transit user. South Bend Green Corps is a big project
<br /> working with lower income houses to understand energy bills,learn behaviors that can save energy
<br /> and money, and install simple measures that make the home more comfortable and cost effective.
<br /> It's an AmeriCorps program that is party grant-funded, and we are excited to be training
<br /> Americorps members in these growing job fields. Then in terms of transportation alternatives, the
<br /> City is encouraging thinking of mobility outside of the traditional car and driver model, but
<br /> supporting biking, walking and public transit, and programs that connect employees to jobs.
<br /> She continued, My priority projects for 2019 are the Climate Action Plan, which is one (1) of my
<br /> big projects, I'd like to increase the number of solar installations in City facilities, I want to look
<br /> at our streetlights which is a big user of energy, therefore a big source of emissions for our City. It
<br /> would be a reasonable thing to go after, and then the South Bend Green Corps program.
<br /> She went on, I want to talk about why the Climate Action Plan is on my top priority list for 2019.
<br /> It's been a couple of years in the making and it has been an exciting path, so I'm happy to share
<br /> that with you. I mentioned that we were originally very focused on our operational efficiency in
<br /> the City Government, wanting to lead by example, implementing sustainability measures within
<br /> City Government. But as federal policies seem to be shifting and there is a lot more conversation
<br /> about what cities are able to do in the context that we have,Mayor Pete decided to have the"We're
<br /> Still In" statement, which came from the Climate Mayor's Organization, he also signed the One
<br /> Hundred Percent (100%) for Clean Energy Pledge in 2017. He has been thinking about this, and
<br /> the more we realized that we weren't going to get the kind of Federal assistance we had been
<br /> hoping for, the more we became interested in how we had to plan it for ourselves. In 2016 and
<br /> 2018, I don't need to remind anyone of this, and last week Dr. Hamlet had some really visible
<br /> pictures of that, but we had a 1,000 year rainfall followed by a 2,500 year flood within eighteen
<br /> (18) months of each other. I don't need to remind you of this either, but here are some photos of
<br /> direct impacts on City infrastructure and personal property. In Mayor Pete's 2018 State of the City
<br /> Address, he said, "Either we have run from extraordinary odds these last few years, or something
<br /> is changing. For South Bend, climate issues are no longer a political football. They're an on-the-
<br /> ground reality that we will need to plan for." I think this was a very important moment, those
<br /> weather events, and that led to the City joining the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate and
<br /> Energy, which is a commitment to a specific framework. A lot of those other statements were
<br /> statements of value and of interest in taking action,but the Global Covenant really gave us a step-
<br /> wise process to move forward on. It is a non-binding commitment, but it's more than just an
<br /> agreement. There are 7,400 local governments from all over the world representing 600 million
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