PUBLIC SAFETY COMMITTEE MEETING CONSIDERS EXTENDED PRODUCER RESPONSIBILITY CAMPAIGN

from The Sun, June 12- 18


HOLYOKE- Wednesday, June 10th the Public Safety Committee met at City Hall to hear information regarding Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) an environmental policy approach in which producers assume responsibility for their products by financing the collection and responsible reuse, recycling or disposal of those products. Currently, taxpayers pay for the management of waste that is discarded.

"The taxpayers of Holyoke bear an unfair burden of costs associated with managing large and toxic trash items that cannot be broken down or recycled. We get hit twice; once for having to pay for handling such products and then again, when we cannot pull in revenues associated with recyclable products," said Lisi.

Councilor Lisi, along with Councilors Kevin Jordain, Diosdado Lopez, and Elaine Pluta filed the order at the April 21st City Council meeting for Lynne Pledger of Clean Water Action, an environmental advocacy group, to speak about EPR and bring how it could benefit the city. Ms. Pledger urged Holyoke to adopt a resolution supporting statewide EPR legislation and regulation. In the meeting, she explained that Massachusetts cities and towns collectively spend millions of dollars managing discarded items, many of which are toxic and/or designed for one-time use.

“Town government started paying for trash clean up more than a hundred years ago when waste was mostly coal ash. Now that trash is mostly products and packaging, we need a new system,” said Pledger.

Many Holyoke residents and members of Project GreenHolyoke, a subgroup of C.R.U.S.H. (Citizens for the Revitalization and Urban Success of Holyoke) attended the meeting in support of the EPR campaign and to speak in favor of the city’s efforts to adopt the resolution.

Carlos Vega of 51 Portland St. said, "By expanding recycling opportunities in the city, we would be able to cut costs associated with items such as computers and refrigerators that are extremely costly for the city to handle due to their large sizes and toxic parts".

The full Council will be voting on the EPR Resolution at their next meeting on June 16, 2009. For more information on the MA EPR campaign visit: http://holyoke.ning.com/group/greenholyoke/forum/topics/extended-producer

For an overview of the MA EPR campaign click on the link below:
/EPR%20overview%20w.%20LP%20contact%20outside%20pdf.pdf

Councilor Lisi’s Campaign Kick-Off: Bringing the Holyoke Community Together

HOLYOKE- At-Large City Councilor Rebecca Lisi drew a large and diverse crowd of friends, neighbors and community stakeholders to celebrate her 2009 campaign kick-off at the Delaney House on Wednesday, May 27. At the event, Lisi shared her vision for a revitalized Holyoke that builds on a strong sense of community.

“The hard work before us is rebuilding a sense of community and an environment of trust that includes the entire city,” Lisi said.

In her platform, Lisi marked her commitment to Smart Growth principles and mixed use development downtown, claiming that these policies can increase job and business opportunities by attracting private sector investments and creating areas of clustered housing, workforce, and transportation options. She also stressed the importance of taking steps to ensure that our schools can provide quality education to our students, as well as developing collaborative relationships with non-profits and community organizations that can help leverage resources and cut costs throughout the city.

Lisi believes that the city is heading in the right direction as evidence by a renewed atmosphere of hope and political involvement. Lisi is excited by the number of young and new citizens who are actively attending public meetings, talking about downtown development, and running for political office. She credited these positive changes to the efforts of CRUSH (Citizens for the Revitalization and Urban Success of Holyoke) of which she is a founding member, as well as other community events that have been bringing residents from throughout the city together to talk about a shared vision for Holyoke’s future success.

Lisi said, “The plan for the future is clear. Residents from throughout the city continue to identify downtown development, preservation of historic buildings, attracting green business and industry to the city, and appreciating our community diversity as ways to improve our quality of life in Holyoke. To move forward on these initiatives the city will need support from dense and intricate networks of community member involvement”.

Lisi begins her door-to-door campaign on June 1. For more information, visit: www.votelisi.com.

Community Leaders Discuss Impacts of Question 1 on Paper City

HOLYOKE- Last Thursday at The Waterfront Tavern, Citizens for the Revitalization and Urban Success of Holyoke (C.R.U.S.H.) gathered for a chance to network with like-minded residents and hear community leaders discuss the impacts of ballot question 1 on life in the Paper City.

Question 1 is a referendum on the November 4 election ballot that if passed would by law eliminate the state income tax as of January 1, 2009. The Vote No on 1 campaign was invited to speak at the event and called the referendum a “reckless idea”.

Pamela C. Schwartz, Western MA Field Director for the statewide Coalition for Our Communities, said that without the state income tax we would see wide-ranging reductions in everything from public safety to education to funds for roads and bridges, libraries and parks.

“Question 1 would eliminate over 40 percent of the state’s budget. Times are hard enough and this is a lose-lose proposition” said Schwartz.

Holyoke community leaders John Kelley, President of the Holyoke Tax Payer’s Association; Attorney Jay Driscoll of The Government Affairs Committee for the Chamber of Commerce; and Caleb Snow, acting President of the Holyoke Teacher’s Association, each spoke in turn about how, from their perspectives, Question 1 would have devastating effects on the local economy and the city’s ability to provide many valuable services.

John Kelley emphasized the growing $1.5 billion state budget deficit. “Add to this an elimination of the state income tax and the results would be devastating to cities like ours. We would have to look to alternative sources of revenue that are anti-business and anti-consumer such as increases in sales tax, meals tax, user fees or potentially increases in property taxes”.

C.R.U.S.H. member City Councilor Rebecca Lisi said, “We need to look within city and highlight the experts and experiences that can illustrate how this referendum will affect the way we live in Holyoke”.

C.R.U.S.H. gave the Vote No on 1 campaign a venue to speak at because many city services, including large portions of both the city and public school budgets, rely on state funding. C.R.U.S.H. members are creating a place where residents can overcome race, class, or gender differences and begin using the talent and organization within Holyoke to talk about issues that have hard-hitting effects on the entire community.

C.R.U.S.H. on Holyoke can be found on-line at www.crushonholyoke.org

Confessing a C.R.U.S.H.: An Interview with Rebecca Lisi, Part I

by Greg Saulmon
Tuesday September 09, 2008, 2:19 PM

On the last Thursday in August I went to the Waterfront Tavern to check out the first public event held by a group calling itself Citizens for the Revitalization and Urban Success of Holyoke -- or, more succinctly, C.R.U.S.H. At the event, there were snacks; there was a Duraflame in a fire bowl; there was a survey asking about the city's strengths, weaknesses, and most important priorities. There were also a lot of people discussing a lot of exciting ideas and visions for Holyoke. Last week, I caught up with one of those people -- Holyoke At-Large-Councilor Rebecca Lisi -- to learn more about C.R.U.S.H.

Tell me about the origins of C.R.U.S.H. -- who was involved in getting it off the ground, what was the inspiration, and what are the group's goals? The initial thought was that we were going to create a young professional society. James Sutter and I were running into each other often --

And James owns a jewelry store here in Holyoke --
Right. And he was always talking about the issues, and about the need to get people involved, and I told him I had the same ideas, the same feelings. He was talking a lot about how he'd tried to create a newsletter, and how everyone who talks to you talks the same way about the issues -- but nobody seemed to be able to follow through with action. I come from organizing experience, and I think one of the most important things you can do is to follow through on an idea.

So we sent out a mass e-mail to set a date to talk about forming a young professional society, which was the original model. We went to a young professional society meeting in Northampton -- the Wednesday before the first Sunday that we met -- and I took notes and asked questions: How did you guys get developed? Where did it come from? Who sponsors you? How did you organize? I presented that to the group that met on Sunday -- it was a lot of James and Becca Sutter's friends, as well as other folks who were interested in redeveloping the city -- and I explained what the original concept was. I told them I wasn't wed to it, that I wanted to hear what they thought would work, what they thought would help.

What we decided was that we didn't want to be exclusively young; we didn't want to be exclusively "professional". And, even more so, we couldn't afford to be exclusive in any way, shape or form, because the city is really lacking organization overall. So we wanted the group to be a place where people could come together, to get organized around ideas and vision, talent, energy. We really needed to throw the net wide and welcome everybody in. So that's why you saw the generational diversity, probably even class diversity.

It was a mix of artists and people from the business community, as well as people who've been around and who've been doing business in Holyoke for some time, like David Scher from the Canal Gallery.
He was really happy to be there.

And he sort of straddles the art and business communities. So it did seem to draw from a wide crowd.
And one of the things we decided is what we're not going to be -- we're still hammering out what the function and organization of this group is. The one thing I think is really important is that we're mostly a place where people can connect -- to the organizations, resources, the other people who will support the different ideas that you and your friends and your neighbors have about what needs to be done. So it's just a place, a space we're creating where all of that can happen.

If I'm remembering, when you spoke the other night you used "silos" as a metaphor for how people and organizations are separated or disconnected in the city. Can you talk more about the disconnect that exists in the city, and how you're trying to overcome it?
The idea of "silos" is very prominent in my mind, because the first way I started connecting with the city, being a newcomer, was through the youth-serving agencies, and the Holyoke Youth Task Force. The agencies had been struggling a lot with replication of efforts, really feeling that they're in silos due to funding restrictions, funding constraints, funding competition, and the Task Force was a place where they could network and share ideas.

And it really, in my eyes, permeates a lot of what's happening beyond just the social service agencies. The business community isn't talking to the artist community, and the artist community isn't talking to the community groups -- there are lots of things happening, but the word is not getting out. There are lots of people -- there's Friends of CanalWalk now, there's the Taxpayers' Association, the Chamber, all these social service agencies, that are all doing really good work -- but we're not getting a synergy so that you can see a measure of real difference in the city.

So James and I have both been talking to different groups, different people, and we're finding that there's a common theme; we're all focused on the same thing. We all want to see the city succeed. We all want downtown to be revitalized. We all want to see business come back. We want to see a revival of the middle class, of a working community here in Holyoke. We all have different talents, and we all have different ways of going about doing that. [...] You have your skills, your talents, and I need to connect you to the people who need those skills and talents. There's a nice exchange that can happen if you bring everybody to the table.

Since you'd originally envisioned a young professional society, it makes me wonder -- is Holyoke, as a city, getting younger? Is there a growing pool of young entrepreneurs and business people in the city, and is that an increasingly important force in city politics and in the city's business community?
I don't have actual statistics. My sense is that our generation -- people currently in their twenties and thirties -- I think they have a very entrepreneurial spirit. And there is so much potential, and so many available resources in this city that it's like a blank canvas. So I think that a lot of entrepreneurs and people who have brilliant ideas see this as a canvas, in a way. It gives a chance for individuals with ideas to express themselves.

I think there's a pull in the city, because of all its needs. People are stepping up and saying, "Well, the city has needs, but I have needs too." And there's a good match there.

It seems to me, as an observer, that in addition to having housing that people will find affordable, especially for a first-time homebuyer -- the city also has space, if you're looking to open a business, for people who may be priced out of a place like Northampton or Amherst. Especially if you're not doing something retail-oriented that will rely on foot traffic --
It seems like there's ample space, and it seems like the city is calling out for activity. So, you can really be a pioneer, in a way. And that's really the entrepreneurial spirit -- going into a place and creating something where there is nothing.

You talked the other night about having fun this fall, and then really hunkering down and creating sub-committees to work on different projects. Can you tell me more about how you see this group evolving over the next several months, and what the work of C.R.U.S.H. will be like starting in the new year?
There are two parts that I see as the foundations. One is the fun, the social networking part, which is what we drew from the young professional society. Because there needs to be an element of fun and lightheartedness, and to acknowledge that it's in our own interest to meet people in our community, and to create community and create social bonds. And there are new people mixing with people who've lived here a long time, young people mixing with older people, and they're interested in knowing who is in the city.

The other foundation is action. I feel like as far as I've lived in the area, I've heard people talking about Holyoke coming back. And while there are individual projects that have been successful, I feel like there hasn't been a real groundswell of movement to really signal that success. So we really need to focus on creating concrete and tangible goals and following through on them. That's really important to me, and to the other folks who we're working with. We expect more from the city, and we're not expecting anyone else to take care of it. And we feel like we have skills, we have talents, we have the energy, we have the vision to start implementing the things that we want to see.

It doesn't mean that it's only our vision. It's really about creating a space for everybody to say, "This is what I want to see, how can I connect to the people and resources who will help me realize that?"

Check back on Wednesday for Part II of our conversation.

Residents have 'crush' on Paper City

from The Reminder; September 4, 2008

By G. Michael Dobbs
Managing Editor

HOLYOKE- A group of Holyoke residents recently expressed having a crush on their hometown by launching a new organization, Citizens for the Revitalization and Urban Success of Holyoke (CRUSH).

The group met for its first event on Thursday at the Bungalow of Waterfront tavern. With music playing in the background and about 20 mostly young people seated and talking in the outdoor area, it appeared to be a gathering one would find in Northampton.

One of the points CRUSH is hoping to make is to challenge the public's perceptions about Holyoke, according to CRUSH members Laurie Landry and Rebecca Sutter.

To help that effort all of the people attending the event were asked to fill out a survey that asked what the city's strengths and weaknesses are as well as what respondents would like to see as priorities for the city.

Both women are Holyoke natives and residents who said the organization's first meeting in July attracted not only natives, but people who have moved to the Paper City as well as those who just work in Holyoke.

The organization is a grassroots effort and Landry thanked the owner of the Waterfront tavern for donating the use of the bungalow for the meeting.

The plan for CRUSH is to sponsor one event a month culminating hopefully in a New Year's gala, Landry said.

Sutter said that some people don't realize the advantages Holyoke has in being located next to three major highways and having the river providing a green power source. She added that potential homebuyers could find affordable beautiful homes in the city as well.

The organization will be making announcements about future events on its Web site at http://www.crushonholyoke.org/.