While down in the good state of Utah several weeks ago, I got to spend some time with Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson, featured subject of a Dave Roberts Q&A published yesterday. The good mayor had just days before given his state of the city address, the final of his two-term run as mayor of a city better-known for Mormons than for the range of forward-thinking policies in place there.
In his address, the mayor praised the city's progress in cutting energy use and advancing the use of alternative energy sources, which "promotes a better quality of life, saves taxpayers' money and is central to long-term economic growth."
"Unless city residents have access to clean air and water and are protected from potential environmental catastrophes like global warming, our other efforts as a city count for little over the long term," Anderson said.
Anderson has put that into practice all over the city, from cleaning up the parking police to prioritizing public transportation to replacing his own hot water tanks with a solar-powered on-demand system. Here are some photographic highlights of my morning with Mayor Rocky and his gang:
Rocky with Tide
"You stop this rinse cycle, I'll kill ya'." The mayor shows off his cold water rinse, and no, Tide isn't paying us to run this gem.
Mayor Rocky shows us ... a photo of where his hot water heater once stood. He now uses an on-demand, solar-powered system.
High above SLC, these solar panels heat the mayor's bubble baths hot water.
Hey Rocky! Screw you, petroleum! The good mayor fills up with some compressed natural gas.
Mayor Rocky shows off the license plate tags that give clean cars the go ahead in Salt Lake City.
These three-wheeled chariots of the parking gods get eight times better mileage than the old cruisers. Parking enforcer Neal Ketterer shows off his tricycle bad ass wheels.
Salt Lake City heads toward the light with their Intermodal Hub, which will soon connect bus, light rail, and train.
A (free-range, organic) chicken in every pot, and a CFL bulb in every chandelier in Mayor Rocky's SLC.
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Comments View as Flat
Biodiversivist Posted 1:24 am
07 Feb 2007
Nice one, Kate
Pictures are great. Another huge advantage of blogs over traditional print.
In the end, it all comes down to biodiversity. Poison Darts--Protecting the biodiversity of our world
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Storm Dragon Posted 7:37 am
15 Feb 2007
Walking his talk
It's always encouraging to see our elected leaders setting a good example. I hope we see more of this sort of thing.
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caniscandida Posted 8:23 am
15 Feb 2007
tricycles and CFLs
A very common vehicle on the streets of European cities, mostly used for commercial purposes, is a kind of tricycle: basically a motorcycle, with a small cab over the handlebars and seat, and an axle supported by two wheels in the back, over which is set a storage compartment. So it sort of like a very small pick-up truck. Presumably the engines are not praiseworthy with regard to efficiency and pollution. But that can be fixed, and the over-all design is practical.
On CFLs: Many people rightly complain that the light from fluorescents is too blue, not red enough, hence unattractive. But that can be mitigated by the external lamp. In Kate's last photo, the creamy-yellowish glass fixtures of the chandelier seem to cut the fluorescent glare very nicely.
Chickens are our cousins! So are other sensitive animals! Enough is enough! No more factory farms!
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