Native New Yorker brings voice to Bloomington

Bloomington residents packed city council chambers in November 2010 to voice their opinions on the proposed Interstate 69 highway. Local environmental activist Lucille Bertuccio sat in the front to protest what she said were the Indiana Department of Transportation’s threats and bribes. She held a sign pointed at Bloomington Mayor Mark Kruzan that said, “STAND UP TO INDOT!!!”

Throughout the meeting, Bertuccio applauded anti-I-69 panel members and participated in the crowd’s booing of pro-I-69 representatives. When public comment began, Bertuccio approached the podium and shocked the council chambers.

“As a woman, this partnership between the MPO (Metropolitan Planning Organization) and INDOT seems more like rape,” Bertuccio said.

Protesting isn’t new for Bertuccio. The 76-year-old has dedicated herself to protecting the local environment, and she has never been afraid to speak loudly.

In addition to running the Center for Sustainable Living, she produces local environmental radio news show “EcoReport” on WFHB Community Radio and she’s an edible wild plants adjunct professor at IU’s Collins Living and Learning Center. She hopes to convince Bloomington citizens to adopt environmentally friendly
lifestyles.

Bertuccio’s environmental interest sparked while working as a New Jersey park ranger one college summer in the 1960s. Although she majored in English, she couldn’t get enough of the park’s plants and animals. 

“I’ve always been interested in plants and animals and classifying them,” she said.
After working in the New Jersey park, Bertuccio became the first urban park ranger in the country. She provided environmental training for other park rangers and oversaw five New York City parks.

Bertuccio’s husband, Tom, moved to Bloomington to work at the IU Cyclotron in 1975. She stayed on the East Coast doing youth farming outreach in New York City.

She followed her husband in 1988 and found a perfect place for her activism.

“This town has really offered me the opportunity to expand my interests in the environment,” she said. “It’s been wonderful. I love Bloomington.”

Bertuccio’s New York attitude has helped her to be one of the loudest,pro-environment voices in Bloomington.

“If you’re polite in New York, you can’t even walk the streets because somebody will mow you over,” she said. “It’s not that I don’t allow people to have their say. I’m not going to be quiet about it.”

CSL Treasurer Jeanne Leimkuhler has worked with Bertuccio for the past 11 years and said she admires her outspokenness.

“Most of us do not have the confidence to put our ideas out there, but she is always brave,” Leimkuhler said. “Her ideas are worth expressing.”

While outspokenness helps, so does practicing what she preaches. Bertuccio strives to minimize her impact on the planet, and she hasn’t owned a car since 1996, when her last one broke down.

“When my Accord went, it kind of blew up on the road on the way to St. Louis,” she said. “White smoke was billowing out the back, so I got towed to a garage and caught a bus to St. Louis and never got another car.”

Leimkuhler said she admires Bertuccio’s willingness to live by her principles.

“She’s deeply connected to the earth and lives her whole life in a way that reduces her impact as much as possible,” Leimkuhler said. “She has dedicated a large part of her life to promoting, running and growing the CSL’s activities.”

Bertuccio’s aversion to cars led her to attend Monroe County land use plan meetings.
The land use plan proposed restricting development and banning certain geographical features, such as steep slopes and ravines, from being leveled for development.

In one case, a developer wanted to tear up woods to build housing Bertuccio felt was unneeded.

“The developer said he was going to keep a certain percentage affordable housing, but it was beyond the bus route so they would have to have cars,” she said. “We went to the council meeting and when they made that decision a group of us took over the council room. We were very loud and disruptive.”

Bertuccio said she and her fellow protestors chanted and tried to prevent the council from making a decision, although they approved the development anyway.

“If the government doesn’t do that, the people have the right to take it back,” Bertuccio said.

While Bertuccio plans to keep protesting, she said she fears losing. As her wild gray hair and wrinkled skin indicate, she’s been protesting for a while.

“I just have a feeling we’re going to have a hard time in the future, and it makes me sad,” Bertuccio said. Of “EcoReport” and the CSL, she added, “We’re educating the people who are already educated.”

But her New York outspokenness won’t let her stop her environmental activism.
“I’m not going to allow them to shut me down,” Bertuccio said.