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The Greening of America's Cities

The  Greening  of  American  Citiescan change the environment and livability of
a city. In the 1970s, city politicians turned
Today, merely collecting the garbage, runningagainst conventional wisdom and instituted
a bottle recycling program and creating thechanges and programs that transformed the
occasional park doesn't cut it in ourcity from an example of poor planning and
increasingly eco-concerned world. Theurban blight into a paradigm of environmental
buzzword now is "green" and each city insustainability and eco friendliness. Green
order to compete for workers, investment andspaces, restriction of suburban development,
tourists had better have a full compliment ofuse of sustainable energy sources and
eco-programs and environmental plans.encouragement of environmentally friendly
Pollution and dirty air are longer acceptablebusinesses are all examples of Portland's
byproducts of living in a city. Those citiesgreen  leadership.
that can provide their citizens with clean
air, clean water and a healthy environmentSmaller centres such as Burlington, Vermont
are proving to more competitive and desirableand Madison, Wisconsin have used
places  in  which  to  visit  and  live.community-based programs to tackle issues
such as pollution, clean ups and recycling
While the US federal government has refusedprograms with significant success. People at
to sign onto the international Kyoto Protocolthe grassroots level do want better
and has steadfastly refused to recognize theenvironments and in some cases have put their
issue of global warming, a growing chorus ofmoney where there mouths are. Boulder,
economists, environmentalists and scientistsColorado for example voted on raising local
are beginning to sound ever-increasingly diretaxes in order to secure more green space and
alarm bells. In response, many cities havepreserve  wild  areas within city boundaries.
taken the initiative to address environmental
concerns in their jurisdictions withoutLarger cities have made significant inroads
federal support. Innovative urban planning,in recent years. Under the guidance of Mayor
green building, park construction, publicRichard Daley, Chicago has been one of the
transportation initiatives and recyclingmost audacious in attempts to make the city
programs are now making many American citiesmore environmentally friendly. Planting more
much  healthier  and  better  places to live.than 400,000 trees, encouraging solar powered
buildings and subsidizing energy saving
Smaller cities have distinct advantages overrenovations for historic buildings have moved
their larger counterparts. While they havethe windy city to the forefront of the urban
less revenue with which to implement specificenvironmental  movement.
initiatives they also have fewer
infrastructure costs and often fewer urbanA number of US communities are doing a great
issues  like  crime  and  poverty.job at putting their residents first and are
inventing novel ways of ensuring clean air
Many reviews of "Green-ness" are releasedand clean water, finding renewable energy,
each year and the usual suspects of Portland,running environmentally-friendly public
Oregon; Bellingham, Washington; Oakland,transportation systems, creating parks and
California and Austin, Texas are regularlygreenbelts, and enabling opportunities for
listed among the most environmentallycommunity  involvement.
progressive  cities  in  the  United  States.
The shift from global to local responses to
Portland is usually held up as an example ofglobal issues has taken root in American
how committed and sustained political willcities and bodes well for all our futures.



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