Secretary Solis receives a briefing on the Green Impact Zone
U.S. Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis received a briefing on the Green Impact Zone during her visit to Kansas City this afternoon. After touring the University of Kansas Medical Center, and also visiting the Guadalupe Center’s culinary institute, the Secretary sat down with staff from Congressman Cleaver’s office, officials from the Full Employment Council and labor leaders to discuss investments in jobs and job training in the Green Impact Zone. This meeting follows a visit by Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson who joined the Congressman to tour the neighborhoods that make up the Green Impact Zone.
“The President’s Cabinet continues to demonstrate their interest in the Green Impact Zone project. The President himself has cited the project as an example of a smart and effective use of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act dollars,” said Congressman Cleaver. “Secretary Solis is a great friend and former colleague of mine and her request for a briefing on the Green Impact Zone reinforces the power of this transformative and grass roots project.”
The Labor Secretary’s visit highlights the center pillar of the Green Impact Zone plan: job creation. “There is no better social program than a job,” said Cleaver. The Zone, bordered on the west by Troost, on the north by 39th Street, on the south by 51st Street and on the east by Prospect Avenue and Swope Parkway, has some of the highest unemployment rates in the city – up to 55 percent in some places. The median household income is just $22,397.
The Zone seeks to create jobs by leveraging the evolving green economy by providing a comprehensive job training and placement program to take advantage of jobs weatherizing homes, deconstructing and demolishing dangerous buildings, repaving streets and instituting a smart-grid energy project. The Green Impact Zone will serve as a model of how climate protection strategies can be implemented at the neighborhood level, benefiting both the neighborhood and the region.
Job creation will come as a result of targeted investments in the neighborhoods that make up the Zone. The strategy, made possible through federal stimulus funding opportunities, will tackle a broad spectrum of the elements dragging down this 150 block segment of the urban core. Besides creating jobs the plan seeks to enhance the area’s sustainability, public safety, housing conditions, access to services, and economic vitality.