12 “A”
IS for AnAtoMy of A SUSTAINABILITY PLAN
PlaNYC, New York’s long-term sustainability plan, raised the bar for local government planning initiatives. And New York is steadily meeting the long-term goals in PlaNYC, including updating infrastructure, reducing greenhouse gas emis- sions, and improving quality of life in the Big Apple. Why is the plan working so well? In a 2009 speech, former Deputy Mayor Dan Doctoroff out- lined the A-list qualities for PlaNYC’s success:
XX ASPIRATIONAL. PlaNYC was to be “a vision for
the kind of city we wanted to become, and to be- queath that to the next generation,” said Doctoroff.
XX AMBITIOUS. “The mayor felt that it was our re-
sponsibility to take on the tough challenges today, rather than kick them down the road.”
XX ACHIEVABLE. “Everything we proposed in
the plan — and there are 127 separate initia- tives — had to be completely achievable.” Doc- toroff praised a 1969 master plan for the city as “a spectacular, clarion call to urbanism, density, embracing cities for their unique strengths,” but, “ultimately almost nothing in it that was proposed ever happened.” For PlaNYC, “We vowed not to make a single proposal that we couldn’t identify the source of funds for or implement. This was to be a living plan that would begin implementa- tion right after it was announced.”
XX ACCESSIBLE. “With PlaNYC, this was not born
as a full-fledged plan … We had a concept, but in order for the entire city to embrace it, the public needed to feel like it had a stake in it, that it was engaged — that if you wanted them to buy in, you had to ask them first.”
XX ACCOUNTABLE. “We demanded of ourselves
that our progress be publicly tracked,” he said, referencing the yearly PlaNYC progress reports.
XX Read ICLEI’s free case study on PlaNYC:
icleiusa.org/planyc Local Action Moves the World •
www.icleiusa.org XX BOULDER, CO: More than 300 city miles are
dedicated for bikeways, and the city developed a toolkit to help local businesses develop cost- effective transportation options programs.
You’d be hard pressed to name a U.S. city that isn’t working to make two-wheeled transportation easier. More bicycle trips lead to cleaner air, lower greenhouse gas emissions, and healthier people. Below, a quick sampling of three ICLEI member local governments flexing their pedal power:
XX PORTLAND, OR: In early 2010, this long-time
bicycling mecca approved a new bike plan to spend up to $613 million over 20 years on new bike paths and other bicycling infrastructure.
XX MINNEAPOLIS, MN: The city boasts a rising
bike commuting modeshare (4.3%) and contin- ues to expand bike lanes, bike-friendly facilities, and in summer 2010, will launch a bike-sharing program. Cold weather can’t stop cyclists! (Co- penhagen, Denmark is another cold-weather, bike-friendly city).
THREE ROLL MODELS
around the world, need organizations like ICLEI to help us share our successes and learn from each other to achieve a common goal of leaving our cities better off for our children and grandchildren. More than 70 percent of greenhouse gas emissions come from cities, and we share a powerful responsibility to work together to reduce the
“ effects of global warming. – new york CIty MAyor MIChAeL BLooMBerG ” New York City, and cities
PLANET EARTH \\ NEWS
ED YOURDON; STUART SEEGER; MICAH TAYLOR; KEN LUND
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