Patti Blagojevich's Wildflowers

by Cal Skinner

Back in August 2003, when the Rod Blagojevich administration was fresh and unspoiled (as far as we knew), wife Patti announced a plan to plant prairie flowers along our interstate highways.

From the map I found, the vision has been severely limited, as you can see from the asterisks indicating target prairie sites, which are mainly around the edges of Illinois.

Here's the headline of one later press release:

First Lady Patti Blagojevich and Illinois Department of Transportation Employees Honored For Roadside Beautification Efforts Around the State
Garden Clubs of Illinois recognizes outstanding employee contributions to First Lady’s Wildflowers of Illinois Program

It sounded oh-so-much like what I proposed when I ran against her husband in 2002. (I got the idea in September of 2002, while driving to Peoria down I-180 just south of I-80. The purple flowers near the underpass were beautiful.)

Lifted from my gubernatorial campaign web site is the following:

Make Median Strips Prairies

As Governor, Skinner proposes to turn the "golf course-like" median strips and shoulders of interstate highways, including tollways, into prairies.

Skinner argues that such lineal prairies could be tourist attractions with seas of yellow flowers each fall and blue stem grass fifteen feet tall. He notes that prairie grass would help with water retention, besides being a scenic attraction.

Skinner proposes that prisoners grow and plant the prairie plants where they are within reasonable distance of state prisons.

When I read the announcement about her initiative, I wrote her at her home address suggesting that prisoners could raise the wildflowers on prison property and, then, plant them.

After all, the biggest costs of the idea are the flowers and the manpower to plant them.

Goodness knows, prisoners have little enough to do while incarcerated and we see inmates cleaning up rights-of-way already, so it's not as if some are not trustworthy enough to do work along roadways. And some know a lot about plants.

I never heard another word about Patti Blagojevich's idea, but I see there's a state government web site. Some folks have a lot of good work on it (especially on the bottom of this page), but the goal I had of corridors of prairie throughout Illinois has no chance of being reached without the free (or really cheap) labor that could be provided by inmates.

Before it even started, the $1-2 million annual cost was criticized. Illinois was in a budget crisis. (That budget crisis has continued, of course, as Democrats add about $1 billion per year to the state budget.)

Even her initiative's non-controversial nature was criticized:

You can't always find women in politics willing to risk their necks to address hard-hitting women's issues. Just two days ago in Chicago's Daily Herald, Patti Blagojevich (our state's first lady) was quoted as saying her pet projects are the highway beautification program and promoting the planting of native wildflowers and grasses along state routes. How very nice and lady-like. Standard m.o. non-offensive garden party and women-who-lunch issues. I humbly propose you can do much more as a state's first lady.

But Capitol Fax's Rich Miller liked the idea. 

What Miller didn't mention was that the folks that mow the median strips are often farmers. He got the part right about farmers not being able to stand weeds. They were motivated and, as members of the Teamsters Union, well paid.

= = = = =
The volunteer wildflowers you see above were in Bloomingdale Township on Route 59 at the end of September.

Posted first at McHenry County Blog.

Labels: Cal Skinner, Illinois, Libertarian Party, Patti Blagojevich, Route 59, Wildflowers

Comments

[Jan]

Thank Patti for her inciteful placement of the wildflower plantings, citizens can have one last view when they're fleeing here, for a more citizen-friendly state to live and work.

Not this 'taxed till we drop' environment, her husband and Daly keep "cultivating".

It's too bad we've become what we've become. I know, you had an entirely different view in mind. One in which the state government actually 'worked' for its tax payers. Not the other way around..

[Sandy]

Geezzz Patti, you need to find something to do that will really benefit Illinois. PLANTING FLOWERS? If you want to put prisoners to work, find something they can do to help balance the Illinois budget. Something productive. Maybe they would increase their knowledge at the same time. Patti, you need to go back to sipping tea with the elitist in Chicago. Wake up to reality, Illinois I am sure will have it's hand out for a bail out. Illinois can't pay it's bills and you are wanting to plant flowers??????????? Find another "pet project".