SUSTAINABLE CITYSCAPES
Urban America is Going Green in a Big Way
by Christine MacDonald T
oday, buzzwords like “sustain- ability” and “green building” dominate discussions on how to
overcome the unhealthful effects of climate change, extreme local weather events and pervasive pollution. Now, a growing body of research indicates an unexpected upside of living green- er; it not only makes us healthier, but happier, too. It’s all helping to spread the “green neighborhood” idea across the U.S., from pioneering metropolises like New York, San Francisco and Portland, Or- egon, to urban centers like Cincinnati, Detroit and Oakland, California.
Rethinking Redevelopment A sustainable, or “eco”-city, generally runs on clean and renewable energy, reducing pollution and other ecologi- cal footprints, rather than on fossil fu- els. Along with building entire eco-cit-
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ies, developers also are striving to replace hard-luck industrial pasts and turn problems such as depopulated urban cores into opportunities for fresh approaches. “We are having a major rethink about urban development,” says Rob Bennett, founding CEO of EcoDistricts (
EcoDistricts.org), a Portland-based nonprofit skilled in developing pro- tocols for establishing modern and sustainable city neighborhoods. The group has recently extended help to seven other cities, including Boston, Denver and Los Angeles, applying inno- vations to everything from streetscapes to stormwater infrastructure. “The failures of the old, decay- ing urban and suburban models are evident,” says Bennett. “We’re now learning how to do it well and create environmentally sustainable, peo- ple-centered districts.”
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Healthy Housing The concept of home is undergoing a radical makeover. From villages of “smallest houses” (usually no bigger than 350 square feet), to low-income urban housing complexes, people interested in smaller, more self-sufficient homes represent a fast-growing, increasingly influential segment of today’s housing market, according to experts such as Sarah Susanka, author of The Not So Big House. Google reports that Internet searches for information on “tiny houses” has spiked recently. Economic freedom is one factor motivating many to radically downsize, according to Bloomberg News (
Tinyurl.com/TinyHouseDemand). Cities nationwide have overhauled their building codes. Cincinnati, for ex- ample, has moved to the forefront of the eco-redevelopment trend with its empha- sis on revamping instead of demolishing existing buildings. Private sector leaders are on board as well; a transition to buildings as sustainable ecosystems keeps gaining ground through certification programs such as Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), and the “living building” movement begun by Seattle’s Cascadia Green Building Coun- cil has gone international.
Friendly Neighborhoods Walkability is “in” these days, along with bike paths, locavore shopping and dining and expansion of public destinations, all of which draw resi- dents out to meet their neighbors. This “new urbanism” is evident in places like Albuquerque’s emerging Mesa del Sol community and Florida’s proposed Babcock Ranch solar-powered city. While public and private sectors
are involved, residents are the catalysts for much of the current metamorpho- ses. Whether it’s a guerrilla gardener movement—volunteers turning vacant lots and other eyesores into flowering oases—creative bartering services or nanny shares, people-helping-people approaches are gaining momentum. The Public School, an adult educa-
tion exchange that began in Los Angeles in 2007 and has since spread to a dozen cities worldwide, the Seattle Free School, the Free University of New York City, and Washington, D.C.’s Knowledge Com- mons all have taken the do-it-yourself
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