Green A City

Bike Capital of the World?

We repost Warren's June 14th article from WorldChanging this week. -Editor

The Future of Carbon-Free Transport: Groningen, Netherlands

The future of carbon-free transport lives strong in Groningen. This Dutch city of 185,000 proves that bicycle transportation can reign supreme: people there make about 150,000 trips by bicycle every day.

Bicycles and pedestrians entirely rule the medieval-era city hub, cruising along on car-free dedicated pathways and short cuts with no traffic signals in some instances. But people also commute on bikes in large numbers from suburban housing spread out around the city to downtown jobs, via a ring-and-spoke network of paths. Overall, 37 percent of area commutes are made on bikes.

Boasting an official town bicycle planner, Groningen has created an infrastructure it refers to "continuous and integral," which includes massive surface and underground bicycle parking facilities, dedicated bike paths, and two-way bike lanes even on one-way auto streets.

Since the early 1980s, 30 city bicycle parking facilities have been developed, including one underground facility at the central train station that sells bikes, repairs bikes and offers valet and secure parking for more than 4,000 bikes. Parking is financed through a low-cost annual membership program that costs $50 a year, while bike valet positions create significant numbers of jobs at the public parking facilities and also at 15 local schools.

Bike parking and paths, however, are only the physical manifestation of the careful cycling cultural nourishment that has been provided by city leaders collaborating with citizens. In 1986 Groningen developed what is believed to be Europe’s first dedicated bike policy document, which focused on a broad spectrum of bike transportation and awareness programs. Educational programs now include teaching the health and economic benefits of cycling.

"We think we can boost the numbers of cyclists even higher," said bicycle planner Cor van der Klaauw on Josh Hart’s Car Free Blog. "We have programs to introduce new immigrants to cycling. Many of them came from places where the car is the ultimate status symbol. We need to show them that in Holland, they can get around very easily by bicycle, status symbols aside."

Groningen's bicycle planning has not occurred in a vacuum, but rather complements an integrated scheme that includes low-priced parking facilities for cars, strong public transport and careful public transit linkages between car parking areas and centers for employment and education. With these amenities, cars use, especially in the city center, was successfully restricted without impacting local business.

Other so-called northern European "cycling cities" may be more known (Amsterdam; Copenhagen, Denmark; and Ghent, Belgium) but none can match Groningen for its complete vision and high rate of daily velocipedic participation.

The Netherlands averages a 26 percent national cycling rate, Denmark scores just under 20 percent and Germany achieves about 10 percent, according to a report published by Dutch research group Fietsberaad (Number 7).

While bicycles in the US currently comprise only 0.4 percent of all commuter trips, some North American cities are actively promoting bicycle transportation--through planning dedicated mapped routes and facilities--as a way of reducing global climate change-causing carbon emissions. San Francisco, for instance, has announced a goal of having bicycle trips make up 10 percent of all city trips by 2010.

What’s behind the high rates in Europe, besides the history of bicycle use and culture? According to Fietsbaraad: "Accepting the cyclist as a 'normal' traffic participant with equal rights in the '50s and '60s has been a crucial factor; (so has) the realization of a motor car infrastructure (that) is not at the expense of the cyclist….”

Warren Karlenzig is Chief Strategy Officer at SustainLane, where he directs the company’s US city rankings, and SustainLane Government, an open-source best practices sustainability knowledgebase for state and local government officials and their constituents. Warren is lead author of the newly released How Green Is Your City? The SustainLane U.S. City Rankings (New Society Publishers). His blog is www.greenacity.com

British Columbia and Canadian Cities Tour

Back from my second tour of British Columbia and its stellar cities of Vancouver and Victoria. Biggest  takeaway: our northerly neighbors are sitting on a lot of drinkable water and open space, and are making advances in planning, green building and local agriculture.

One interesting new development is the Canucks are getting rather jingoistic: plastic flags on car roofs, maple leaf beach chairs and accessories are the rage. This is to keep identity separate from the nation's North American neighbor, which it has been apparently been trying to distance itself from as of late.  (Don't want to be too direct--my Canadian reserve from my father's family comes to the fore). 

Some observations:

• Swimming at Vancouver's English Beach in 66-degree bay water (tropical for northern Pacific) under snow-covered mountains of British Columbia's coastal mountain range--the city's water source. This was mid-July, mind. These people have 4 million people in land size that would hold 140 million in US. Who's the Superpower, anyway?
  
• Bike parking in multi-storeyed public parking lots. There were about 50 bikes in one downtown  Victoria  indoor facility, complete with  locked  storage. Bike transport is encouraged even on major bridges that have no dedicated biking-pedestrian lanes.
• The  region is putting much more effort in promoting BC-grown or produced products: beer, fish, berries, bread  (most every cafe bakes its own) and vegetables. Fliers in the local papers for supermarkets even label the source of each and every sale item (US, BC, Chile)
• Liquor and beer are taxed heavily. Locals say they pay more than any province. Ten dollars or more for a six pack for typical beer. Wine is $30 a bottle for what would cost $10 in the U.S.
• Higher-density buildings with Eco-efficient design are the norm for residential developments both in Vancouver and  Victoria. Locals in Victoria  aren't too happy with five-storey buildings going up in their  medium-sized town,  but  they  put up with it if it saves  the incredible open space they have surrounding their city. Lakes, mountains, and forests within and surrounding both cities are the pride of every resident.
• Oddly enough, no hybrid cars. But plenty of Daimler's miniature Smart cars. Gas goes for about $4 per gallon.
• Street trees reign. Vancouver still has neighborhoods with 100-foot elm archways, like the US had before the Dutch elm disease hit during the late '60s.

Roundup Philbert

Last day here in Philly. Now I remember what hot and muggy do to one's brain, digestive system and general sense of being. Especially when that comes with 109 Air Quality Index, which means "Unhealthy for Sensitive People" according to the EPA. See that orange band in Eastern Pennsylvania?--that's me. And here I am in a hotel, air conditioner running full blast.

Air conditioning in Philly hotels, hmmmm. For those of you old enough to remember Philadelphia in 1976, that's where Legionnaire's disease broke out in a downtown hotel, killing 34. This was part of the totally uncool seventies, during which time I hid out the summer at my Uncle Wally's family farm in rural Indiana driving pies around to faraway neighbors, though I was well below driving age. Wait, now it comes back to me: I was trading rutabaga and rhubarb for pies! Anyway, the mysterious deaths at an American Legion Convention brought national attention for the first time to unhealthy, no deadly, indoor air quality. Yep, the "disease" came from ooze in the air conditioning system that spread through the air shafts into legionnaire's lungs. The Mutter Museum has a great display showing articles on the initial panic across town and eventual discovery of the culprit's biological profile, along with the museum's requisite skulls and petrified body parts.

More Philly, all for now, I promise:

After a Quaker service in the second-oldest Freinds Meeting House in the nation, I had some soup and coffee in the lovely Friends kitchen.

Went with architect Bob and two of his friends trying to create a green village in town, similar to Danaher & Co's Global Citizen Center being planned for San Francisco. We drove together along with these two women, forgot their names, to Fishtown, quickly toured the Greensgrow urban farm, then climbed up with Michael into the bowels of his abandoned yarn factory. Up through five storeys of decades of industrial/ homeless/ squatter detritus, being careful not to fall through holes in the rotton wood floor. To the roof, a view of smog and the Fishtown neighborhood. Perhaps one day a green roof and green city collaborative surrounded by neighborhood patrons?

Plenty to choose from: some 40,000 such vacant lots and buildings in town.

The evening ended at the National Liberty Museum where I held hands with my brothers and sisters and gently swayed singing acapella and renditions of "this Little Light of Mine" and "We Shall Overcome," which was a fitting way to feel truly connected to the City of Brotherly Love.

Juneteenth exhibit today at Philadelphia History museum, with four or five guides showing us four visitors the historic records of the abolitionist and undergound railroad movements, providing private and heartfelt commentary on the old diaries, dueggerotypes and books.

Cause to say it--let freedom ring!

From Philly to DC and Back

Today I took the Amtrak from Philly to DC after reading at breakfast about potential contamination of Philly's drinking water supply, up the Schuylkill River on a feeder creek. Just a "fish kill" from high level of toxicity. No problem, officials say. But people shouldn't swim or even boat in the river as a precaution. Guess I'll stick to bottled water the rest of the trip and scotch that brisk morning dip tomorrow. Just when I said the water was safe to drink at the sustainability forum. Makes me glad I have a protected water source from the slopes of Mt. Tam at our house and from Hetch Hetchy when at work in SF.

On the Amtrak train I could see chemical plants in Wilmington, Delaware, home of Dupont. Those orange windsocks and loudspeakers on the chimney and rooftops are not for a festival, but rather are there in case of an "event". Bottled water for sure.

Passed through Baltimore, city I've never visited though my grandfather Carroll "skippy" Spedden came from there. A street musician, he ended up skipping off to his own beat during the Depression never to be seen again. I can see why he left there--rowhouse after rowhouse, a number of them abandoned or burned out. I'm sure there's a better side, and one day I hope to see it.

DC presentation for governmental types interested in green building and sustainability indicators at the DC Planning Office. They said the water in DC is no longer over the EPA's legal limit for lead content, with high levels of lead reduced by water treatment and replacement of old pipes throughout the city. 

After visit to Washington Post offices, back through the old DC Union Station, an architectural masterpiece with coffered ceilings emitting natural light through hundreds of octogonal cut-outs. Too bad the shops are the same old chains mostly--I could have been in Anywhere USA if it weren't for the Saint-Gaudens statues staring down at me.

Return to Philly for more of its amazing nitelife in Old Town. Lemon water ice (exactly like Chicago's Italian Ice), Yuengling, America's oldest beer, ethereal beauty of City Hall which is I was told the tallest stone building (white marble?) and tallest building with a statue on top in the world, William Penn, above the moonesque clockglow. Breathtaking.

The city has walking signs hanging over sidewalks everywhere with arrows pointing out attractions, and also a very useful map showing walking distances to different neighborhoods. Maybe Philly can improve its 6.5% walk to work rate, now the 6th highest in the nation.

History everywhere--American's Constitution was printed here--here was London Coffee House where slaves were sold. A bartender says she's glad the city council banned smoking in bars (will come into effect in January), even though she's a smoker and her best customers are. "If New York could do it, we can. New York! International City of the the World. They can do it."

A candle-lit procession of students all wearing headphones moves silently through a colonial alley, on the sidewalks hundreds of people of all races and ages, taking to the streets in a warm night of laughter, jokes, wise-guy comments, Spanish Dancers, Raggaeton musicians.

The Philly Sound and Sights

I've landed in Philadelphia, home of the legendary Philly Sound. Already got down to "Mr. Big Stuff" and "Backstabbers" at White Dog Cafe, with its 16 local or sustainable food providers spelled out on the back of the menu. Eight Pennsylvania brews and one from over the river in Jersey. Regional splendor.

The White Dog Cafe's founder, Judy Wickes, helps lead the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies, or BALLE. BALLE is a national network in support of small businesses of all types in 29 cities throughout North America. The cafe is in the Univ. of Penn campus area, and hosts talks, table talks, films and other events in support of local and organic agriculture. All poultry, eggs and meat are pastured,--not pastuerized!--so the food is healthier for you and the environment, as all those wastes aren't concentrated in industrial feedlots.

Walking here was a perfect pleasure until it started to pour rain. The streets in the Old City, Ben Franklin's old stomping grounds, are abuzz with local cafes, bars, shops and foot traffic. Even a few bikes braved the cobblestones--no fancy racing bikes here. Walnut and Chestnut are fabulous urban streetscapes, popping and bopping, cars and people acheiving a nice balance with the "bulbed" intersections preventing auto dominance. An "80's Band" giving a live performance out on the sidewalk for no apparent reason.  Very few chain stores spotted, one each Dunkin' Donuts and Applebees the exception. Street trees abound, parks, no parking lots, no overhead wires of any kind make the old gas lamps stand out even more.

Before the dark clouds scuttled in, the light was a good way to highlight the varigated patinas of hundreds of years of urban life. Skyscrapers do not dominate, so the city center is dense without the urban canyon effect.

Can't wait to explore more on this visit, my second. Tomorrow I will be talking urban sustainability at the Philadelphia Urban Sustainability Forum at the Academy of Natural Sciences Auditorium, 1900 Ben Franklin Parkway, from 6:30-8:30 p.m., with other speakers from the city, as well as locals from universities and citizen groups.

Surviving Vegas

Now that I'm back to the rarified atmosphere of the Bay Area, I can attest that Las Vegas has to be one of the least-sustainable environments on the planet. That doesn't mean the city is not doing anything about changing what it can, as it is taking a few steps for the better. More on that later.  The challenge with city rankings such as SustainLane's US City Sustainability Rankings is that so much of what is unsustainable about Las Vegas is hard to conclusively quantify when comparing one city against the 49 other largest cities of the nation.

Sure if you had unlimited budget you could begin to anlayze the city's rampant energy use (almost none of it renewable), imported water use, and almost 100% tourism and real estate devlopment-based economy. Las Vegas is wholly dependent on jet travel and behemoth air-conditioned hotel/casinos landscaped with petunias and primroses, swapped out weekly. A true regional metabolistic analysis would yield some compelling results.

Let's ignore the so-called wonky stuff and get down to what the city is like these days of late spring.

I rode a five-dollar a trip monorail for tourists on The Strip, which isn't even in Las Vegas proper, but rather Clark County (wink-wink), for whatever legal and economic reasons. We're not talking about commute ridership with the monorail, as only 4 percent in the city actually commutes on public transit and those people almost all use a skeleton crew of buses. That's because no one really lives on The Strip.

Come to Vegas and you'll see but not feel the new air misters that spray over people walking on sidewalks and in front of hotels. I couldn't even detect their effect in the 107-degree heat, as their wispy vapors immediately evaporated into the hot desert air. Wonder how much water that wastes?

Bellagio Lake's water show shoots water out of scores of canons every hour or so to the tunes of Trish Yearwood or Elvis, causing the evaporation of 20,000 gallons of water every hour during the summer, according to fellow blogger Josh Ellis, who is also a columnist for the Las Vegas City Life newspaper. That water comes from Lake Mead and hundreds of miles away across the state, with more and more of it coming from "compromised sources" near abandoned or operating gold mines, which can leach many toxic compounds into the water table.

Then there's the planning and development which has pushed the city out toward federal land at its edges, with tract dvelopment after tract development using more and more water and gas, through lawns, swimming pools and commuting. This is one of the hottest, most arid deserts in the world, with temperatures over 100 degrees for months at a time, climbing as high as more than 120 degrees. Not fit for human life, really, especially not on this scale.  I walked past a sunburned, heat-stroked child passed out in the arms of her parents, as they sat in the blazing sun fanning her.

Vegas resident Ellis points out the futility of considering sustainability in a city where everyone and everything is flown in on jets, including much of its food and the city's main business--its tourists. "With rising oil costs, if even a quarter of tourists for six months won't be able to come because of higher airplane tickets, Las Vegas would vanish into the desert like Carthage. And unlike other cities that take a hit in one sector, there are no other industries for people to migrate to."

We could go on, but I'll stop at this point and consider the flip side.

Las Vegas has more LEED buildings per capita than most other cities in the nation, coming at #11 out of the 50 largest cities in SustainLane's rnaking. The city, though, uses little or no solar despite its location, so don't think about those type of LEED buildings. In transportation, Las Vegas is taking the lead in developing a fleet of alternative fueled vehicles that is currently the nation's largest on a per capita basis: more than 50% of the vehicles use biodiesel, electric hyrbrid, compressed natural gas or hydrogen. Cool. I've been told the county fleet even uses 100% biodiesel for school buses.

So there are whiffs of clean tech development, even in Las Vegas. Meanwhile, the city will continue to promote itself as the center of entertainment, excitement, fun, risk and 24-hour good times. What American (or Canadian) can resist those siren calls? Now if we see Vegas start to really become more sustainable by doing things like having effective public transit systems for its residents, and using solar and less water, there might be hope it will not vanish into the sands of time to become an unsolvable enigma for future archeologists.

Because without Vegas, where else would people go for fun and games?