Just weeks before the mayoral primary, Madison Mayor Dave Cieslewicz spoke about hot-button issues to an enthusiastic crowd of over 250 students at the Wisconsin Student Public Interest Research Group kick-off meeting Wednesday night.
With students in mind, Cieslewicz unveiled talks in city government to allocate an annual ""snowpocolypse"" day, an annual day off for students for the city to prepare for dangerous winter weather that he said is inevitably going to come due to climate change.
The mayor said the reason for the day is two-fold. In addition to giving students a day off during a stressful month, he said he wants to ""change the way [city government] thinks about how [they] do their work, because of global climate change.""
The mayor also addressed the issue of high-speed rail, saying although Gov. Scott Walker opposed the high-speed rail plan, he believes it will eventually happen and is ""just a question of when.""
""[Walker] took us from the top of the ladder and put us on the bottom. But there's still a ladder,"" Cieslewicz said, and stressed President Obama's support of the plan.
The mayor addressed the issue of global warming, saying that combating global climate change would reduce our reliance on fossil fuels, lessen a slew of pollutants and create jobs related to alternate energy sources.
In terms of informing the community about environmental policy, Cieslewicz said ""students can be incredibly effective and leverage a lot of change"" through grassroots outreach efforts.
However, Cieslewicz also said there are short-term sacrifices necessary to jump start reform.
""We are going to need people to say, ‘I'm willing to do that, it's worth it to me' … and pay a few extra bucks,"" Cieslewicz said. ""A lot of things done to protect the environment save money on the bottom line.""
Also at the kick-off, WISPIRG members presented the goals of various grassroot projects.
One such member, Juli Waarvik, the energy service core coordinator, plans to host a ""Day with the Greeks,"" where they will evaluate the environmental conditions of old fraternity houses. She said she hopes this will cut down state energy output, 95 percent of which comes from fossil fuels.
