The focus will be on 150 square blocks of, shall we say, less-thriving urban life. One major project reported in the Star would be to weatherize every home in that area, where Margaret May, executive director of the Ivanhoe Neighborhood Council, has said:

It’s not uncommon for some people to have $600 and $800 gas bills a month in the winter. Some don’t have incomes that are much more than that. There are so many needs here, and we need to make sure we are spending this money in a manner that really benefits this area.

Other reported items on Cleaver’s possible to-do list include:

* Training the jobless to do weatherizing work, and possibly other work, in the zone. * Developing a sustainable land-use plan for the area. * Locating a green sewer demonstration project. * Developing a smart grid energy project, which would, for example, include state-of-the-art wiring for electric cars and computers that control household appliances. * Increasing bus services and purchasing 15 buses. * Replacing the current bridge at Troost and Volker to accommodate the improved Troost Corridor rapid-transit bus route. * Building 25 new bus stations, which would be built to green standards and include a “real-time passenger information system.”

It’s disheartening to see a Congressman’s ideas at such a critical time in our economy and society, and especially at such a critical juncture for the advancement of environmentally focused improvements to our nation’s infrastructure, be so glaringly underwhelming.

I hope that the story develops, and that if or when it does it shows Cleaver and other Kansas City and Missouri leaders to have put much more thought and intelligence into what to do with one-fifth of a billion dollars.

This is a huge opportunity to develop the infrastructure of one of the larger cities in the region, as opposed to just throwing money into a beaten down corner of urban blight, as if weatherizing alone will establish the future. It goes back to that idea about teaching a man to fish, as opposed to just handing him a fish.

How about, instead of just giving the unemployed temporary income by showing them how to put up weather stripping on their windows, they get education and training in long-term green skills? Surely that is what Cleaver means to do, as guided by the nation’s new “green czar,” Van Jones. Right?

Maybe Cleaver’s Green Impact Zone concept just needs time to be fleshed out. Right now that list of ideas seems pretty hollow; though, maybe that’s just because it’s being viewed in the wake of the king bullet point about handing millions of dollars in winterizing band-aids to those whose need is already so controversial in politics.

Maybe the Star needs time to do more reporting on the story. Or maybe it’s just that to see such a notable amount of money being proposed for handing out fishes to the few, rather than going to the overall betterment of Kansas City and the region, taints initial views of this Green Impact Zone plan.

But, so far, the plan smells ripe with governmental wrong-headedness. I very much dislike saying that, as this is still the season of hope. As such, I hope Kansas City — and all other governmental stimulus package handlers around the country — will get its act together and do the right thing for the improvements that better us all.

This is the chance to re-make the path of the future. It’s the time to think big, to think broad, to…. think.

Reprinted with permission from Ecolocalizer.com