The 15 most sustainable U.S. cities 28

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1. 

   Jon Rynn Posted 12:04 pm
   20 Jul 2009

   Thanks for the clarifications.  I still find this sort quote from the criteria page sort of strange, though: One result that may surprise readers is Los Angeles' high rank. Due to the weighting of transportation options, Los Angeles scored well, even higher than New York (by a fraction of a point) though both have made many of the same public transportation choicesI guess there are inherent problems with weighted scoring.  I mean, vehicle miles traveled in cars, or some such, would give NYC a huge advantage over LA -- we keep hearing about how a particular conservation measure would result in "x amount of cars taken off the roads", when in fact NYC actually effectively takes cars off the roads.  So I would think that that would have a much bigger weight, then, say, a few more bike paths (not that there's anything wrong with that -- a truly effective bike system maybe, but no American city has that).

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2. 

   ejd Posted 2:22 pm
   20 Jul 2009

    NRDC did not do a very good job with their “sustainable city” rankings.  For Columbus, Ohio to beat Cleveland, Ohio, for example, shows that there is a real problem with the criteria.  In 2008, Sustain Lane ranked Cleveland, Ohio as the 16th most sustainable city and Columbus 30th, and with good reason.  Cleveland’s sustainability movement is nearly a decade older and more advanced than Columbus’.   Unlike Columbus, Cleveland has a rail transit system (one of NRDC’s own criteria), Columbus does not.  Cleveland was the first city in the country to connect its downtown with its airport with rail transit (way back in 1967).   In December 2008, Cleveland inaugurated an express bus line along Euclid Avenue, one of the city’s major streets.  Euclid was reconstructed as a “complete street” to encourage bicycling, and   pedestrian use.  The bus line utilizes a fleet of hybrid buses.  Columbus has no comparable transit project.  Cleveland’s transit system allowed bikes on buses before Columbus’ did.   Cleveland’s green building movement is several years older than Columbus’.  An interesting factoid:  the person who started the Cleveland Green Building Coalition was Sadhu Johnston, who several years ago was hired by the City of Chicago to be their Sustainability Director.   Mayor Daley came to Cleveland to see what was going on here with sustainability before launching his sustainability initiatives in Chicago.  I mention this because it shows the level the sustainability movement had arisen to several years ago in Cleveland.   In 2008, Cleveland was ranked #2 in the nation for local food by Sustain Lane and is way ahead of Columbus with urban gardens and urban farming.  Just a few months ago, the Cleveland City Council passed an ordinance allowing residents to raise chickens.    A local, carbon offset fund that will fund energy efficiency and alternative energy projects (renewable, combined heat and power, etc) was just launched in Cleveland within the past several months.  Columbus does not have such a fund.    The City of Cleveland has had a sustainability manager since 2005, Columbus does not yet have one.    The county government (Cuyahoga County) has a director of sustainability programs.  The county government in the Columbus (Franklin County) does not.  Cuyahoga County has a comprehensive vision and plan for sustainable re-development of the Cuyahoga River Valley (The Cuyahoga Valley Initiative).  Franklin County has no comparable plan.    Cuyahoga County has had one of the top metroparks systems in North America for many, many years.  The system has been expanded in recent years with new parks.    Cuyahoga County has begun implementing an aggressive Green Space Initiative to double existing green space in the county.  The County also has an actively growing network of bikeways.    The Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railway, which runs through Cuyahoga Valley National Park to Akron and Canton will soon be expanded to downtown Cleveland where it will connect with the Cleveland’s transit system.  Columbus has no comparable rail transportation project that is so close to completion.   Cleveland has a very active and growing sustainability movement in the business community being lead by the local non-profit: Entrepreneurs for Sustainability (www.e4s.org). E4S has been so successful in Cleveland that within the past year, it expanded to the Akron area.   Several businesses in the city are leaders in the sustainability movement.  Cleveland has a local car-sharing company called City Wheels.  Columbus does not.   The Cleveland Ecovillage Project is an ongoing project to sustainably re-development  redevelop a neighborhood around one of the city’s rail transit stations.   I could go on, but I think I’ve clearly made my point…Again, I appreciate NRDC’s efforts, but I believe Sustain Lane’s city sustainability rankings are much more accurate. 

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3. 

   Catmoves Posted 8:48 am
   21 Jul 2009

   "A liberal outpost in red Texas...." and this means what?Senior Editors need to scan very carefully when apprentice writers are at work. There are other faux pas, but such a prime example needs to be recalled.

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4. 

   ilenviro Posted 9:39 am
   21 Jul 2009

   I just don't get it.   Why do the mainstream environmental groups have this infatuation thing with Chicago's Mayor Daley?   For years, the mayor blustered on and on about the success of his blue bag recycling program.  After an ongoing investigation by a local newspaper and recycling activists, the program turned out to be bogus.   The mayor has yet to come up with a decent alternative.   The vast majority of households in the city are not being served with a convenient and accessible recycling program.   This should be a top priority for environmentalists before any more accolades are given to the mayor.   It would certainly help reduce the city's carbon footprint. 

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5. 

   steve7138 Posted 9:59 am
   21 Jul 2009

   NYC, LA, Chicago and Dallas cannot accurately be called "sustainable"--They have SEVERE ecological problems and often take a backwards approach to preserving the environment and thus need to be striked from this list. This list becomes a joke with these four included.I'm pretty sure whoever compiled this list performed biased, unscientific research, or must be from one of these four cities.  

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6. 

   steve7138 Posted 10:04 am
   21 Jul 2009

   I can tell you this, from experiences working there [I grew up west of the Mississippi]--People in NYC do not work hard [epicenter of global financial crisis] and they could care less [have no human feelings] about preserving the environment for the rest of the United States-They are culturally indifferent/unschooled about America beyond Manhattan, and probably could not even find Washington State on a map--they would resort to use a GPS instead.

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7. 

   steve7138 Posted 10:14 am
   21 Jul 2009

    

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8. 

   sassafrasgreen Posted 10:18 am
   21 Jul 2009

   No city is sustainable without an adequate local water supply.

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9. 

   dniall Posted 9:22 am
   22 Jul 2009

   A better headline would be "The 15 Least Unsustainable U.S. Cities"

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10. 

    dniall Posted 9:23 am
    22 Jul 2009

    A better headline would be "The 15 Least Unsustainable U.S. Cities"

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11. 

    JodiSummers Posted 12:15 am
    23 Jul 2009

    THE LOS ANGELES CLEAN TECH CORRIDOR WILL MAKE L.A. THE LEADER IN GREEN TECHNOLOGY
    
    Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and the Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA/LA) hope to transform L.A. into ‘the global capital of clean technology.” The goal is to transform the manufacturing corridor east of downtown into the center of green innovation. The mayor and his team are marketing this industrial parcel, dubbed the CleanTech Manufacturing Center, as a green business incubator, the way Silicon Valley hatched technology.
    
    http://www.socalgreenrealestateblog.com/?p=522
    
    Best….Jodi Summers
    
    The SoCal Investment Real Estate Group
    
    Sotheby’s International Realty
    
    (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
    
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12. 

    Burglar Posted 9:04 am
    23 Jul 2009

    "reliance on hydroelectricity (and the resulting good air quality)"Uhh, anyone who thinks hydroelectric power is sustainable needs to do their homework. Sure the Pacific Northwest is ahead of the game when it comes to sustainability, but the bar is set so low I'm not sure how good a metric that is.

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13. 

    Username Posted 8:33 pm
    29 Jul 2009

    Nice Article!

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