(upbeat music) (graphic pops) - Hello and welcome to the Journal.

I'm Steve Kendall.

Grassroots organizations made up of engaged and concerned citizens are looking to affect positive change.

One such organization is the Bowling Green Save Our Neighborhoods Group.

We're joined by David Drain, Kathleen Dennis, Rose Drain, and some other members later in the show.

Wanna welcome you three to Journal.

Thank you for being here today.

Rose, talk about how BG Save Our Neighborhoods Group came together.

What was the catalyst for the group coming together originally?

- [Rose] Great, so we have a nickname and that is BG SONG.

- [Steve] Yep.

- And so BG SONG formed after the city council adopted the updated zoning code in June of 2023.

A group of citizens had banded together during the zoning code update discussions, because of concern about how the proposed pedestrian residential district would affect the older neighborhoods of the city.

So we had some success in working with council members to make changes in that proposed section of the code.

And we felt as if we worked well together that we had affected change, that we could probably do more to do good in the community.

Yeah, so that's our history.

- [Steve] Yeah, and real quick, describe what your concerns were with that pedestrian residential design that was the original part of the zoning code.

What would've been, what were you concerned about with that description?

- [Rose] Well, the PR district is 105 blocks that are the old, all the older neighborhoods of the city.

- [Steve] Okay.

- Surrounding the downtown, stretching all the way from Poe Road to Napoleon Road.

And we were concerned about, it would've allowed more duplexes in those neighborhoods.

It would've allowed buildings to have a greater footprint on the lots.

- [Steve] The existing lot, okay.

- It would've, the changes would've increased the density which would've meant probably more problems with parking and traffic.

And it also would've allowed businesses within the neighborhoods.

So those are the changes that we were concerned about.

- Right, yeah.

And the effort, if I recall, the rationale was to improve access to housing and things.

At least that was what it was purported to be.

But obviously not everybody agreed with that.

You guys didn't see it as being an improvement the way they were designing it.

- Right.

And so we compromised on some things and accessory dwelling units are acceptable.

And that's fine with the caveat that one of the units has to be owner occupied.

We also proposed the, a mixed use neighborhood zone.

And so that is new to our city...area.

Zoning that we think many of the neighborhoods in the mixed use neighborhood zone would be ideal for housing as well as retail and commercial.

So infill housing is something that's necessary.

- [Steve] Right.

- We just think that it's good to have some input on it.

- Yeah, and you mentioned the fact too, because I know that housing has been an issue in the city of Bowling Green for any number of years.

And I know that the discussion was, this was theoretically to open up more housing, but of course the kind of changes that you discussed weren't necessarily, didn't feel compatible with the neighborhood uses or the future, because these are older neighborhoods, narrower streets, lots are relatively small, that kind of thing.

So some of the things that you were able to accomplish, what were some of the things you were able to get the city council eventually?

Because they're the ones who had the final vote on this.

What were some of the things you were able to get them to change based on your group coming and saying, "Hey, we have some questions about this."

- [Rose] Right.

So let's see.

Not the disallowance of businesses.

- [Steve] Ah, okay.

- Of course, businesses, a home occupation, a business can be in any area as long as it is the person who owns the business.

- [Steve] Right.

- That is using the space for their business.

We worked with the city to change the setbacks.

The setbacks would've been, the footprints of what would have been allowed were greater.

And so we got the city council to work with us on changing those.

And the percent of the lot that could be covered, they had proposed 80%.

We wanted 60%.

We compromised on 70%.

- [Steve] Oh, okay, yeah.

That's how that works.

- Yeah, yeah.

So some some very like tangible things.

- [Steve] Yeah.

- Were accomplished.

- Yeah, and I guess the good news there is, as you were talking about this, you were able to get them to listen to your ideas, which isn't always the case.

Sometimes things tend to get cast in stone before anybody has input on 'em.

In this case, you were able to bring enough points to the table to say, hey, here's some ideas.

Let's work this out.

And you were able to reach a compromise, which is ultimately what you like to do in those situations.

- Yeah, and one of the council members said that he hadn't seen this sort of citizen involvement in his experience being on council a long time, council member.

We had 650 people sign the petition to, and then we asked city council to hold a public meeting.

And so we were, we gathered probably 70 people attended the meeting.

There were round table discussions.

That was really effective.

It all came down to the vote on, I think it was June 13th, 2023.

- So it's been, yeah, about, yeah.

About three years ago.

Yeah, or two years ago, yeah.

Now, David, you guys obviously have a lot of other things going on.

You become involved in a lot of things besides just that issue.

So talk about, I know one of the things, you've done a thing called Rock the Block.

So talk a little bit about that.

- Rock the Block was our first big event.

- [Steve] Okay.

- [David] We patterned it after what Habitat for Humanity does in a lot of cities.

And they were very helpful, gave us some instructions, and we did it.

We got us a grant from the Bowling Green Community Foundation for $3,750.

We eventually ended up working on 18 homes doing cleanups and repairs, painting, things like that.

We involved a hundred volunteers in that effort.

60 from the university, 40 from the city, and they worked together.

- [Steve] Yeah.

- Which was a new experience for many of them.

They'd not met each other before.

- [Steve] Sure.

- So that was a good thing.

In the end, we ended up taking that $7,500 and multiplying it by about 4.6 times in value.

- [Steve] Oh, wow, yeah.

- In contributions from the community.

We had a lot of businesses contribute.

Dr. Clawson's office sent their entire staff over to work, for example.

We had a lot of donations in kind from hardware stores, things like that.

And we had all those volunteers too.

The city was very cooperative.

They arranged special trash pickups for us.

Even loaned us picks at shovels and things like that, that we really needed.

So that was very, very helpful.

And people loved it.

And it was a very positive experience overall.

Everyone I run into remembers that event.

- That event, yeah.

And it was a good community, brought people together and said, because the community is the university and the city and over it overlaps and overlaps that kind of thing.

But sometimes people don't encounter each other.

When we come back, Kathleen, we're gonna hold you over into the next segment.

Because we gotta go to the next segment in just a second.

- [Kathleen] Okay.

- Back in just a moment with the representatives from the Bowling Green Save Our Neighborhoods Group back in just a moment.

Thanks for staying with us on The Journal.

Our guests are members of the Bowling Green Save Our Communities Group, or sorry, Neighborhood Group, excuse me.

BG SONG.

And we're joined in this segment by Kathleen Dennis, Jim Evans and Debbie Thompson.

Thank you again for being here.

Kathleen, one of the things that kind of anchors some of the things that you're now doing, it was called the Community Action Plan.

So talk about what that is, and then how that expanded into some of these areas we're gonna talk about.

- [Kathleen] Sure, I'd be happy to do that.

The Community Action Plan was published in 2018, and it's a collection of kind of things that the community, the administration felt the community needed to provide improvements and vitality in Bowling Green.

One of the recommendations in the community action plan is to start to partner with a nonprofit organization that was a community development corporation and BG SONG then registered ourselves as a nonprofit at Community Development Corporation to try to facilitate the implementation of a variety of the actionable plans that are in the community action plan.

- [Steve] Okay, yeah.

- So.

- [Steve] And what are some of those areas you've gotten into by virtue of that whole plan?

- Well, so one of the things we started to look at is that the community action plan of 2018 and the land improvement plan of 2014 had kind of facilitated a lot of conversations.

So there was a lot of talk and establishment of, gee, this is what we wanna do.

This would be really good for the community.

And also, if you look at the community action plan, there's a statement in there that says, this is what the city and the administration can do, the governance, those kinds of organizations.

But it also included community action residents in the city doing something to help facilitate this.

And so that became our focus.

It's like that's what we grew out of, right?

We grew out of this community action.

So what we did was we started to think about this.

We have these kind of ideas that are really great and important and have been established, let's call the community to action.

So we held a community action event on October 12th to 2023.

We had a lot of help from Steve Cady Professor Steve Cady in his program on exec, the masters of executive, let's see, it's called the Masters of Organizational Development.

- [Steve] Yep.

- So we had a lot of students, they were already professionals working in their field who were also looking to find ways to bring their people together and focus on the question at hand.

So they need practice in this opportunity to do this kind of work.

So we worked with those students to really kind of hone our, we all have our own kind of desires and ideas about what we want in community development, but we wanted to hear what the residents of Bowling Green had to offer.

And so we brought 70 people from our community together.

this included city officials, city council members, people from BGSU, both in administration and as well as in different programs at Bowling Green State University, and a lot of the residents in the community.

And we asked them to focus, what would you like to see addressed?

And we came up with four focal areas.

- [Steve] Okay.

- And that was new housing.

We want new housing that's accessible to like entry level homes for people.

People with that 80% of the area median income so that we can accommodate people who wanna live in Bowling Green and build their families on their lives.

So new housing refurbishment of our older housing stock to maintain it, because it's beautiful for one thing.

And the neighborhoods are really very nurturing and wonderful places to live.

And we wanted to improve multimodal transportation.

We need to move away from dependency on cars, walking, bicycling are so much better for our health.

So we wanted to integrate that.

And they were also very concerned, and this is the community group that came together.

They're very concerned about climate action being a resilient city and facing the climate changes.

What is coming with climate change?

- [Steve] Yeah.

- So those were our focal groups and we now have four teams based on those areas.

And what's really amazing is that they are working on projects that they are identifying.

And we've asked them to focus on small incremental projects that can be done between six and 12 months.

[Steve] Oh, okay.

- So within a year.

And what that what that does is help people to feel like they're making a difference and they're actually moving us that little, that community action plan that the city developed forward.

And so that's what we've been working on.

- Yeah, wow.

And, and part of that too, I know Debbie, you're focus right now, because we talked about the neighborhoods and Kathleen in lieu of the fact that making the neighborhoods more accessible, walkable for people who aren't driving a car or whatever.

Talk about the walk audit, because that's a big thing that's gonna be taking place very soon.

And then what that will mean to the neighborhoods.

- Right, well, I had approached the city before I even knew about BG SONG, about some issues in the city with the sidewalks.

So then I became involved with BG SONG once I learned more about what they were doing.

So our first project is, it's an AARP walk audit.

But since the city already completed a physical of all the sidewalks in town, even with videos, we are concentrating on the intersection.

So we had our kickoff a couple weeks ago.

We had about 20 volunteers show up at the senior center, and we designated about over 30 locations, intersections in Bowling Green, where we're asking the residents, the volunteers to stand on the corner like for a half an hour when they have a worksheet.

You know, who's using the sidewalk, - [Steve] How they're using it.

- Are there any obstacles.

You know, how are the walk don't walk signs working.

And so we are finishing up this week and then we're gonna do it again in the fall when BGSU students and the local schools are back in session.

So we'll have a better idea of the traffic so.

- Yeah, because the idea is obviously is to make it safer for everybody.

And of course, make the car, the people who are driving vehicles, aware of how things work.

And as you said too, to make sure that the signage, all the things that are queuing people who walk, don't walk, stop, drive through, are actually functioning the way they're supposed to.

And the ones that need improvement, areas that may need.

- [Kathleen] Yes.

- An infrastructure change or different signage or something to make sure people understand what's going on.

When you put that all together, what happens?

You're gonna present that then to city council or the administration to say.

- [Debbie] Yes.

- Here's what we found.

Here's some things you might wanna think about.

- Yes, and I've met with the mayor and the director of public works, and they're very open to me being part of that and helping to facilitate that.

So I know once we get all the data to gather and figure out what needs to be done, they're gonna be very open to helping us to be a safer community and enable people to get around easier.

- [Steve] Yeah.

- I myself, was almost hit three times in my wheelchair last year because of people not paying attention.

- [Steve] Yeah.

- So we need to make the intersection safe and make sure that everybody in the vehicles are paying attention to.

- [Steve] Knows what's supposed to happen, how it's supposed to work.

- Yep.

- [Steve] Jim, we've got just a moment in the segment.

We'll bring you back in, but you're focusing on climate change and climate activities and how the city should approach that.

So talk about that and then we'll follow up in the next segment a little bit more.

But what's your role in that?

- [Jim] Okay, thank you very much for having me.

So the city of Bowling Green recently completed a climate action and resiliency improvement plan.

And here's my prop.

250 page.

It's a short brief document.

- [Steve] That's the executive summary, right?

- Yeah, and it took two years to write.

I was one of the authors.

And it's taken a year to get, undergo, comment, and review, and get the city's approval leading to its final approval this past month.

And this plan encompasses strategies to attain net zero carbon emissions for the community, and also to improve resiliency in the face of climate related environmental hazards such as floods, droughts, tornadoes, winter storms, and heat waves.

- [Steve] Yeah, yeah.

So when we come back, let's get into that a little more detail.

Because they're telling me we gotta end this segment.

We'll be back in just a moment with members of BG SONG, the Save Our Neighborhoods Group here in the city of Bowling Green.

Back in just a moment on The Journal.

You're with us on the journal.

We have guests from the BG SONG, the Save Our Neighborhoods Group.

When we left the last segment, we were talking with Jim Evans and you're talking about the approach with regard to climate and environment in the city.

So talk about that a little bit more.

You touched on it just a little bit.

You've got that report.

So where is that headed and what kind of things is that gonna touch on?

- [Jim] Thanks, Steve.

So the Bowling Green Climate Action and Resiliency Improvement Plan has many recommendations in it.

- Okay.

- Both organized by short term, intermediate term, and long term.

All of those being 10 year increments, essentially looking forward.

And all of those are actions that we're hoping that the city will make.

So for the Climate Action Team, which is one of the committees of BG SONG, we're now working to encourage some of the implementation of some of these recommendations.

And we've prioritized a couple of them.

One is moving Bowling Green's energy portfolio more toward renewable energy sources.

And one of those issues is about rooftop solar and residents in the city of Bowling Green.

Another important issue, which has not been addressed very significantly, is the vulnerability of bowling green's water supply from the Maumee River.

- [Steve] Oh.

- And that would be an existential threat to the city of Bowling Green if something happened to that water supply.

We're also encouraging that public buildings that are being newly constructed or renovated be designed as resiliency centers, such as a cooling center and a heat wave.

- [Steve] Oh.

- Which would've been very useful right about now.

- [Steve] Yes.

- And using green infrastructure methods to deal with urban flooding after heavy rainstorms.

We've had a number of those in the past week.

- [Steve] Yeah.

- Encouraging downtown business to recycle materials and to implement a pilot food waste reduction program for businesses in the Bowling Green area.

Locating and capping orphan oil and gas wells, which is a legacy going back over a hundred years.

But there are, there were 14,000 oil and gas wells in Wood County, and most of those are from an era where they were not properly sealed, when they were.

- [Steve] Yeah, they were just abandoned.

- They were abandoned.

- [Steve] Yeah, plugged them and left, yeah.

- And those are significant sources of pollution.

Improving alternative transportation modes as Debbie just talked to you about a little bit.

And then also a method that's been encouraged for local government called embedding, which is a way of foreseeing needs in this environmental issue area.

And putting those into budgets looking forward, rather than being reaction driven.

Something happens and we have to address it and we need to get the money for it, but actually planning for some future needs and addressing that.

- [Steve] They have like, almost like a contingency with ideas that, okay.

- Exactly.

- [Steve] We're prepared for this if it happens.

- Exactly.

And that is a way to implement new ideas.

So our group meets the third Monday of every month, 3:30 to 5:30.

And we welcome any interested individuals to join us.

- [Steve] Yeah, okay, good, good.

And we touched on this during the the conversation too, that housing is obviously a big part of the issue here in Bowling Green.

And I know that David, you have put some, you guys put something together called Rock Our Vets.

So talk a little about that, that your group did.

- [David] Rock Our Vets is like Rock the Block, but first of all, bigger, and it's for veterans.

So it will be about twice the size we expect that Rock the Block was.

It was funded at twice the amount, again, by Bowling Green Community Foundation.

Very generously.

We expect to have 200 volunteers involved in this.

And we'll be doing winterization, clean up some repairs, things like that.

That will be round about October.

And we're just starting up now finding about how many people we need, need to involve, how many homes we're gonna be able to do.

We're recruiting clients from the veteran population right now.

I hope we'll be able to do at least 35 to 40 homes.

- [Steve] Oh, wow.

- Maybe more if we get more funding.

So Rose will talk about a funding drive coming up also, but that can help accelerate this program and make it even bigger.

- [Steve] Yeah, so it's to in essence help veterans who are in housing.

- [David] Yes.

- To maintain and improve their, the quality of their.

- [David] Many of our veterans are not really wealthy people.

- [Steve] Sure.

Not living in the best part of town necessarily, but we can help them.

- [Steve] And all ages from young veterans to senior veterans.

- [David] Gulf War to World War II probably.

- [Steve] Yeah, yeah.

Now, and both of you, Jim and David touched on this too, that getting people involved, engaging, and that's what we wanna talk about, how people can become involved in the groups and the various subgroups that you guys have.

So, talk a little bit about how people can become involved in BG SONG.

- [Rose] Right, well, we are volunteer driven.

We're going to be, excuse me, conducting a fundraising campaign.

- [Steve] Okay.

- [Rose] To increase our capacity, hopefully to be able to hire staff, because now everything is done by volunteers.

And while we are being driven by volunteers, we want to engage more people in the community.

So everything we're doing the all the call to action teams, the Lease in Peace activity, which is a renter's education effort.

We have a student intern who received a stipend through a grant from the university.

We have good connections with the Marvin Center to engage volunteers, but we'd like additional students and community members.

So sending an email to bowlinggreensong@gmail.com and to indicate interest.

Also following us on social media, BG Save Our Neighborhoods Group and taking a look at our website, bgsong.org.

Those are some of the ways that people can learn more about us.

We welcome all skills and interests and hope we'll hear from some people.

- [Steve] Yeah, great.

Because obviously the wider the range of people have involved, as you said, with different skill sets, whatever different experiences strengthens your ability to do all of these things that you've talked about and brings new ideas, perspectives to that.

And that's the idea, is to have a group that comes together that works for the better of the community for everyone, not just an isolated agenda piece here a piece there.

- [Rose] That's right.

- Great.

- We are rich in ideas.

We are rich in passion.

- [David] We're really poor in money.

- [Steve] We're working on that.

- [Rose] We've got good engagement with the university and we appreciate the city and we just hope to make this a vital and interesting place to live.

- [Steve] Okay, great.

And know that you're welcome to come on any time to talk about all these different initiatives and because obviously we're, you're raising the bar and the tide for everyone in the city and moving Bowling Green forward.

So we appreciate that very much.

- [David] We'll be happy to come back anytime.

- [Steve] Yup, the door's always open.

- [Rose] Thank you.

- [David] Thank you.

- Yeah, you guys can check us out at wbgu.org.

You can watch us every Thursday at 8:00 PM on WBGU-PBS.

We will see you again next time.

Good night and good luck.

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