Kansas Mayor Says Sustainability Is About Community, Not Politics : NPR
Bob Dixson remembers the night that the tornado hit Greensburg vividly.
“We lost everything, my wife and I, as did everyone in town,” Dixson tells NPR’s Arun Rath. “Our home was sucked off the top of the foundation. … We were in the basement and it took everything. What we had left was the clothes we had on our back.”
In total, 11 people died and 95 percent of the town was destroyed. In the aftermath of the storm, some people said the town itself was one of the casualties.
” It’s about us as a society surviving and the ability to endure, and that’s what true sustainability is.
- Greensburg Mayor Bob Dixson
Dixson didn’t think so. Instead despairing, he ran for mayor and promised to rebuild the town. His planned to attack climate change head on and make Greensburg a safe, sustainable city.
Dixson, a Republican, won the mayoral election in a landslide. Now halfway through his second term, Dixson has delivered: Greensburg has a new hospital and a new school built using sustainable architecture. There are wind turbines and solar panels all over town. He says he had to get past the idea that being “green” was a liberal principle.
“When we drilled down closer to it … we realized our heritage and ancestors were based on those sustainable, green principles,” he says. “If you take care of the land, it will take care of you.”
More: Kansas Mayor Says Sustainability Is About Community, Not Politics : NPR