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Blue Skies Raise the Flag!
April 13, 2021 @ 11:00 am - May 18, 2021 @ 12:00 pm CDT
Please join us in spirit by following along our social media: Facebook and Instagram.
Since its inception in 2012, Blue Skies Landscaping has focused heavily on environmental stewardship in the Lindsay Heights neighborhood. Multiple pocket parks have been constructed on City-owned properties, green infrastructure has been installed on sites throughout the community, and pavement and impermeable surfaces have been removed to accommodate green spaces. Residents have been educated and engaged, and many community members have been employed and trained to do the transformative work.
As Blue Skies continues its growth over the past eight years, the program has shown great need of a home base to serve as a demonstration site for services, training, equipment storage, offices and meeting space. Walnut Way has officially acquired a new space at 1414 block of West Fond du Lac Avenue! Walnut Way and Blue Skies will develop this into a long-term home for the program to support its incremental growth and to also serve as a demonstration site for green infrastructure and sustainable urban landscaping. The property has key features to help sustain our work:
Property Key Features
1. Administrative Offices
2. Storage (6-bay garage)
3. Training & Maintenance (2 story cinder block garage)
4. Expansion (Vacant Lot – adjacent to facility)
Our Key Next Steps
For Walnut Way, 2021 pre-landscaping season, we will aim our efforts towards expansion by developing a site plan in partnership with architects, landscape architects, and engineers and preparing the property for Blue Skies Landscaping operation in 2021.
Continuation of a just and equitable community ecosystem
This project is a continuation of Walnut Way’s vision of an environmentally sustainable community with an emphasis on environmental and economic justice.
- The project will demonstrate clean energy and green infrastructure, train and employ community residents in the installation and maintenance
- Spark neighbor-to-neighbor conversations and educational opportunities on the importance of the projects
- Knit the new developments with existing green assets to form a cohesive sustainability pathway that is based on neighborhood strengths and interests
- Resiliency will be improved through the avoidance of future flood-related damage that would be catastrophic to Lindsay Heights residents, nonprofits and businesses
Eco Tour Site
Finally, this project will become part of the neighborhood’s ECO Neighborhood certification from the City of Milwaukee, further cementing the neighborhood’s focus on environmental sustainability. For community resilience in the long term, these proposed activities represent a much-hoped-for reversal of the systemic economic disinvestment that contributed to the neighborhood’s decline. The visible and public nature of the solar and green infrastructure projects, when taken together with the outreach and educational efforts, will create neighborhood pride and increased community and climate resiliency.
Meet the Project Team:
Thank you for being a part of the vision of an environmentally sustainable community! Don’t forget to follow us along on our social media channels on April 13th!
RAIN DATE – APRIL 14