The Ecopolitan

Top Green Issues for Cities

In the year that Al Gore won both an Academy Award and a Nobel Prize for his work drawing attention to climate change, it's no surprise that green issues should dominate Planetizen's list of the Top 8 Urban Planning Issues of 2007.

While not as well-known as Oscar or the Peace Prize, Planetizen's list carries some weight, coming from one of the most thorough sources of news on-line about what's happening in cities everywhere. (See planetizen.com, where you can sign up for several valuable e-mail reports.)

Here are green initiatives Planetizen named top planning trends:

• Congestion Pricing: Topping Planetizen's list is the once radical idea of charging drivers to pay for using streets in crowded urban centers. It was pioneered in Singapore and Oslo and, in the face of huge skepticism, proven beyond a doubt to work in London. Now New York and San Francisco are considering similar plans to reduce congestion and air pollution.
• Cities Become Green Leaders: After politicians in Washington refused to take action on the global climate crisis, more than 700 U.S. mayors signed on to a campaign launched by Seattle's Greg Nickels to voluntarily comply with international standards to reduce greenhouse gases. Some city governments are now tackling other issues such as promoting alternative energy and reducing solid waste. Chicago, Sacramento, San Francisco, Madison and Austin are often pointed to as green leaders.
• Planning for Drought: When is a green city not green? When enlightened citizens and leaders get serious about conserving water in times of drought. It's a constant problem in the arid Southwest, and increasingly in the Southeast, and demands a rethinking of how we grow our cities.
• Light Rail and Street Cars: New light rail lines opened in Charlotte, North Carolina, and San Francisco this year. Many more cities are planning or building lines, and there is a wave of interest in bringing back new streetcar systems to our towns after the success of projects in Portland and Kenosha, Wisconsin, and the reopening of New Orleans' St. Charles line to great fanfare. Washington, D.C. and Minneapolis are among the cities looking to complement rail systems with new streetcar lines.
• Boosting Bicycles: Paris, the city of light, is now also celebrated as the city of bikes. A new convenient citywide bike rental system is helping thin traffic on Paris's famed and now frequently gridlocked boulevards. The idea is now being considered in Portland, Seattle, Vancouver, San Francisco, Montreal and more cities, along with other measures to give bicyclists an even playing field with cars on city streets.

© The Green Guide, 2008

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