Seattle is the #1 in terms of air quality, energy conservation, green building and over all smartness. I miss that city so much, the green space, clean air, fresh water all within the city scape, and all reasons why I blame my heightened health issues while out east. I feel that this kind of thinking has always been more of a way of life over there, and probably why most of the highly ranked cities were on the best (west) coast. Sustainable and environmental thinking had to become more mainstream and trendy for the east coast to even realize that these issue are important. I remember in 1st grade learning about recycling, water pollution and water quality! That was in the late 80's, a time when people where just starting to approach congress with these issues. I was living in an ivory tower for a long time, thinking that this was the way everyone lived; moving to Delaware helped me realize just how much the northwest is in its own world.
These cities should be praised for their work in thinking progressively, but it needs to become a normal way to live, not some rank that a city should strive for. Hopefully we soon will not need ranks and charts like these, because it will just be a boring normal way to live, but for now this is making me want to move back. (photo cred: lnz)
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I appreciate the efforts that cities such as Seattle, San Francisco even Los Angeles has gone to to mainstream environmental practices into the ways that we live. However, I'm averse to group such a large geographic region with its densely populated cities into a singular mentality -> that the East Coast is Not Green. Granted I'm not familiar with the urban politics of many cities but if I'm not mistaken, New York was ahead of the curve in outlawing styrofoam and plastic bags, Brooklyn is at the forefront of urban gardening, and Maine and Vermont are also doing some exciting things. examples are failing me at the moment. I'll def. post some articles as they come up but instead of creating these monolithic categories, I think its more useful to do what one can while living in places where people do not share your values. maybe even change your neighbor's mind.
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