Fair Maps & Equal Access

 

The May meeting of Our Wisconsin Revolution will feature presenters from the Wisconsin Fair Maps Coalition talking about adopting and implementing non-partisan redistricting to end gerrymandering in Wisconsin. This meeting will be conducted virtually. Please complete the RSVP to receive the zoom link!

On Wednesday, May 26, join the ACLU of Wisconsin, Chippewa Valley Votes and the League of Women Voters of Wisconsin for a statewide training and discussion on conducting voter registration and absentee ballot request events within county jails. This training will prepare you to take action in your area of Wisconsin!

Each of the 72 counties in Wisconsin have a jail where individuals are detained. Of the population incarcerated in county jails in Wisconsin, upwards of half of these individuals retain their right to vote. The ACLU of Wisconsin has made two public records requests to identify the processes in place within these jails to ensure every eligible voter has the opportunity to cast their ballot in an informed manner. The results of these requests were disheartening to say the least. Democracy works best when all voices can be heard - including those of us who have made mistakes in our lives.

Find out how Chippewa Valley Votes, the League of Women Voters of Wisconsin, and the ACLU of Wisconsin are teaming up to protect access to the ballot for one of the most marginalized demographics in Wisconsin. If you are a fellow voting rights advocate, this training and discussion will prepare you to take the first steps in conducting a voter registration and absentee ballot request event in your county’s jail.

REGISTER HERE.

May 18 Transit Talk

Join local transit advocates ONLINE on Tuesday, May 18 from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. for a Transit Talk with La Crosse Mayor Mitch Reynolds and MTU director Adam Lorentz. Hear how COVID-19 affected the MTU; what's new as stimulus funds come to our area; what's planned for the future; and how the mayor, council and city can support and strengthen our public transportation system. Participants will have the chance to ask questions during the event.

To get access information, please REGISTER at this link: http://tiny.cc/LATA-TransitTalk (https://forms.gle/Vfopz5MVC6rUwCyb8) or call 608-315-2693 (leave message for call back) for instructions about dialing in to participate by telephone.

Co-sponsored by the Coulee Region Sierra Club, Citizen Action Driftless Co-op, and La Crosse Area Transit Advocates.

Support future gardeners!

 

GROW La Crosse manages school gardens throughout the region. Children get to plant, weed, and harvest food right at school. But GROW does much more, helping connect children to the natural world, hungry families with food, and community members to a wonderful opportunity to do good.

Help GROW if you can. Attend the plant sale or volunteer to help out at a school garden in your neighborhood.

They have started their lessons in the gardens with the students. They are doing some caring work like tilling soil and planting with the students, but there is much more work to be done to keep the gardens looking good and producing lots. That's where community volunteers come in.

Click on the link below to fill out the 2021 volunteer form.  This form will gather important contact and task comfort info needed. GROW will contact volunteers soon with scheduling and other information.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScdexZoY05umDkXBr6NiuzMws_7n5HQ088GPU0SlGk3es0eoQ/viewform?usp=sf_link

There are other opportunities to increase the supply of free, fresh, healthy, locally-grown food in our neighborhoods. Community victory gardens are growing again this year and can always use volunteers. See http://tiny.cc/LaCrosseVG for details. 

The Kane Street Community Garden relies on volunteers, too, during open hours: M & The from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., T, W, F from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., and Saturdays from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. 

Public input for country's comprehensive plan

From lacrossecounty.org/comprehensiveplan

La Crosse County is a diverse and growing place with a rich history and an exciting future. Our Comprehensive Plan - ENVISION 2050 - will be a vision for how we build that future together. The plan will be a collective effort that will reflect our diversity and prioritize our values. We will create a vision for a sustainable and thriving La Crosse County and a roadmap for how we get there. ENVISION 2050 will guide La Crosse County’s budgets, land use and natural resource policies, and general direction for the next generation and beyond.

A Comprehensive Plan is:

• A long-range planning document that must be updated at least once every 10 years.
• A description of the existing condition of the county, including land use, demographics, and the local economy, and a vision for the future, taking into consideration various risks and opportunities.
  
• An opportunity for the community to agree on the values and vision that should guide the county’s decision-making process.
• A combination of data, statistics and public input that includes expertise, personal stories, and values

The State of Wisconsin’s 1999 comprehensive planning law requires that all land use decisions in the county be consistent with the Comprehensive Plan.

We encourage PUBLIC PARTICIPATION throughout the process.  Please go to publicinput.com/envision2050 for opportunities to provide input.

We also encourage you to explore data on the County, using our DATA HUB - data-hub-lacrossecounty.hub.arcgis.com/. 

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CP comment: Please rank sustainability on top. 

This survey is one of those frustrating no-alternative, we pick the universe of choices, ranking exercises. It starts in the wrong place: Rank your choices-Who would you save in a fire? yourself? your mom? your daughter? your partner?  your son? your father?

Instead, a useful survey would start with: Please rank what our top priority should be: Put out the fire that's burning down our house? Make plans for our next vacation? Try to talk crazy uncle Bob (who doesn't believe in fire) into quitting smoking? Decide where to roll over our IRA investment?  Change the curtains in the living room?

So, the County's planning survey should start with: What should be our top priority over the next thirty years? 

And science has already answered that question. 

"Stabilizing Earth’s temperature to significantly reduce risks to societies now requires greenhouse gas emissions to reach net zero by 2050. This translates to cutting greenhouse gases by about 50% by 2030 alongside significant removal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere." - from A Roadmap to Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions 50 Percent by 2030, Stanford University, Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment, September 2019.

We must save ourselves--by working as quickly as possible to reduce, cut, eliminate greenhouse gas emissions--above all things. If that doesn't happen, all the other priorities and plans and dreams will be ash.

PLEASE participate in these surveys, especially if you live in the City of La Crosse, the county's population center. Too often in regional planning decisions, it seems, much smaller bedroom communities demand a vote and say way out of proportion to their populations. On the planning committee, the City of La Crosse (51,227) gets one vote and so does the City of Onalaska (18,943) and the Town of Onalaska (5,766) and so does the Town of Campbell (~4,300). Even Medary (~1,506) gets a vote. 

Housing Day Resource Center meetong

The Downtown Neighborhood Association and Washburn Neighborhood Association invite you to attend a special joint meeting on Wednesday, May 5 at 6:30pm to hear about a new Housing Day Resource Center being proposed for 212 11th St. South, the former Mayo Behavioral Health Clinic building located at 11th & King. 

What: Washburn & Downtown Joint Neighborhood Meeting
Topic: Proposal for a Housing Day Resource Center at 11th & King (former Mayo building)
Date & Time: Wednesday, May 5, 2021 at 6:30pm
Location: Sanctuary on King, 721 King St. (in the old sanctuary space)
Masks & social distancing required - enter through doors on King Street

The Housing Day Resource Center is a collaborative project of YWCA La Crosse, Salvation Army, Couleecap, Catholic Charities, and Independent Living Resources. A project overview is attached for your review. 

The purpose of this meeting is to facilitate transparent dialogue between neighbors and the project partners, as we recognize this topic is of special concern to many living in the Washburn & Downtown neighborhoods. We encourage you to come prepared with questions and feedback. A full agenda will be shared at least one day prior to the meeting.

Please email downtownneighborhoodlax@gmail.com or washburnneighborhood@gmail.com with questions.

Regards,

Downtown Neighborhood Association Executive Board &
Washburn Neighborhood Association Executive Board

Read the project overview.