September
Time to Move to a Green City?
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What are the Top 10 Green Cities in the United States?
Perhaps not surprisingly, four of the top ten “green cities” in the United States are located in California. San Diego, San Francisco, San Jose, and even Los Angeles are now considered green cities, because of the aggressive means used in the past few years to institute green policies.
The presence of Manhattan may be surprising to some, but since 80% of Manhattan uses public transport rather than cars, it is actually not as polluted as you might think. And with Central Park as a shining jewel in the middle of the city, it can be a beautiful place to live.
But it, and the cities in California, are also pretty expensive places to live.
El Paso, Texas; Seattle, Washington; Boise, Idaho; Portland, Oregon and Honolulu, Hawaii round out the list of the top ten.
While Honolulu may be a great place to visit on a vacation, you may not want to move there just to take advantage of its position as the number one green city in the United States.
How about El Paso? El Paso has a lot of open space (as opposed to the “green space” that other cities, with more rainfall, have), with plenty of parks and unspoiled desert.
Seattle is creating a sustainable network of healthy forested parklands throughout the city (under a program called Green Seattle.) This is a rather urgent program, as these forested parklands are actually considered to be rather sick – the old trees are dying, and new invasive species have choked out the seedlings that would have replaced their parents. Green Seattle is attempting to restore the health of these forests.
Boise, Idaho is so committed to being green that it hosts a Green Expo every year. It’s working hard to keep the planet green for our animal friends as well. The World Center for Birds of Prey is located just outside city limits. They are working to re-establish the endangered Peregrine Falcon. The center is also currently breeding the very rare California condor.
Portland, Oregon is working hard to build a sustainable city by instituting a variety of programs. For example there are incentives to build eco-roofs. Homeowners can receive discounts on their stormwater management charges if they manage their stormwater properly. There are 32 community gardens. And they are encouraging the building of solar-powered homes and buildings.
If moving isn’t an option, find out what your city is doing to “go green” and volunteer to help if you can.
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Thank you for your article. It is nice to hear about many of the movements States are doing to move forward in a “green” way.
I think what is more important then just a “green” tag is the city’s movement in a more sustainable living format.
That is, are the cities promoting rainwater recovery for all new homes?
Teaching and promotion of indigenous plants for water conservation and local animal and insect environments?
Supplementing alternative and renewable energy sources for all municipal and state buildings and renovations?
Providing tax breaks and initiatives to business owners and residential homeowners for energy saving purchases?
Unless real change of thought and action is realized by its citizens, I am afraid those four cities in Southern California may in the future revert back to the high desert of past centuries from lack of clean, drinkable water.
Brett
http://www.bretttalkstech.com
These cities should be looked up to as examples of what ALL cities should be mandated to do. Federal government should be pressing large cities much harder to turn around their carbon footprints, and should be offering huge incentives to do so. Great post! Great information!
dave
Right now I live near Baltimore and am not happy with how Green Baltimore is. If the city had a better mass transportation system, it would drastically reduce the amount of traffic in the city and reduce carbon emissions.
Great article, I think every city need to strive to be more green. We only have one planet and we should take care of it. It is so sad to see so much pollution in the sky and trash on the ground. If was all take little steps we can make this world a better place.
It is great to see some cities take initiatives to go green and help build a brighter future for our environment. If everyone helps then we can make a difference and save our planet from pollution.