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Sadhu Has Left The Country... will he have more impact in Cleveland and Chicago from Canada?Submitted by Norm Roulet on Tue, 09/08/2009 - 10:40.
Thanks to REALNEO's lmcshane for pointing out one of the most interesting developments in the American "sustainability movement" ever - what appears to be Chicago's real news source, The Chicago Reader, broke the news, September 4, 2009, that "The Green Mayor's Green Policy Maker Leaves for Vancouver". This is the story of former Cleveland and Chicago area sustainability guru Sadhu Johnston, now set to become the deputy city manager of Vancouver. From the Reader:
Sound familiar to Clevelanders. Chicago may be full of green-washing, and on St. Patrick's Day the streets flow with green beer, but Chicagoland ain't remotely green. Neither is Cleveland. More on Sadhu, and his performance in Chicago, from the Reader:
Sadhu is moving to a place where the citizens truly care about their world being green - Canada - to become deputy city manager of the place that really wants to be the world's real green capital - Vancouver. From the Reader:
The thing really holding the Canadian economy back, and killing their people, is all that pollution blowing up there from dirty, un-green places like Cleveland and Chicago.... making Vancouver's choice of Sadhu especially curious. Canadians well know the harm American pollution causes their economy and people, so why would they want the man who sent so much pollution to Canada, from Chicago, and who allowed Chicago to proceed on a path to pollute excessively for years and perhaps decades to come. I hope Sadhu moving from Chicago to Vancouver is not a sign Canada is green-washing their economy but rather a sign that, while Sadhu did not have the impact needed while leading environmental planning for Chicago, it was not his fault, and he is positioned to do better. In this case, whatever the circumstances, I expect Sadhu to now stand across our borders and even come to Cleveland with a big Canadian stick and demand we stop killing the people and economy of his new homeland with dirty American pollution. Best wishes for that, Sadhu. Enjoy iving in a truly beautifl place, working for wht seems a cool boss, but think long and hard each day about what you leave behind. We are counting on you to have a real global impact, this step in your career.
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Fooling ourselves
Americans have a seemingly endless ability to fool themselves, especially as it pertains to "green" living.
Gotta be careful when your talking about Chi-town. ;-)
Are you aware that ALL new construction and major renovation using city of chicago $$ must achieve LEED certification? The region's green program runs deep, especially when its compaired to its midwestern surrounding citys. A city can not possibly force a coal fired utility to address its environmental aspects and impacts, that is the job of the USEPA...and a state EPA program if they have promolgated authority from the fed. Citywide recycling in that town aint no small effort either. Ever watch the Sopranos, solid waste is just that mobbed up... scrap metal even more so. Think a mayor can sort that out...it takes a DOJ federal injunction in the midwest to get the maffia temporarily out of that racket. The fact that Daley's adminstration has " mapped out an aggressive plan to slash greenhouse gas emissions" is decidely pointless as well. The USEPA has already published draft rulemaking on the subject in the Federal Register a while back. All states will have to follow suit, and of course can only make things tougher. Sorry to all the mayors who signed a compact, etc etc. Until its revised, the fed program makes most municipal, state, and voluntary coroporate GHG programms obsolete.
In addition to reletively progressive sustainability programming and environmental enforcment initiatives...the city of chicago provides its citizens with a significant array of oppertunities we sure as hell dont have via their numerous workshops, and programs administered by the Chicago Center for Green Technology administered by... you guessed it... the City of Chicago's Department of the Environment....where Sadu works..err worked.
The center houses the cities library on related subject matter and is home to several of the cities related agencies. The actual physical building is a large LEED Platinum building on a nasty brownfield that was turned around.. and repurposed in support of the fight towards the next industrial revolution lmcshane. The tables are turning on the polluter, because their enemies are getting more sophisticated, and the public is starting to not want pesticides on its food. This is a link to the center's home page. Check it.
As for Sadu's departure to BC... Vancouver is new amsterdam if you get my drift. Its the quintessential cosmopolitan Canadian city. Outside of San Francico, Portland, and a few east coast cities I cant keep up with anymore.. its one of the greenest cities that an enviornmental professional could work in. Who would not want to be there.... ESPECIALLY on the cusp of Vancouver being in the international spotlight for the 2010 Winter Olympics. In case anyone has not been watching, the Olympics have been trying to outdo themselves each year on the eco-warrior tip...its a venerable green arms race of greening from year to year..each one trying to outdue the next. Stephen Strong AKA Solar Design Associates designing solar for the SLC winter games not to mention 2 installs at the White House, http://www.mbdc.com 's work with China, etc etc.
I'll leave the population densisity of Long Point, Ontario vs. other cities listed in your graphic to discuss at a later date. This data is
Anyhow the city and the resort municipality of Whistler have been trying to keep sustainability in mind since the inception of their olympic bid. Its a massive build out mind you, entire new village carved out of forest to create the nordic village, a new NG pipeline to Vancouver along the Sea to Sky to replace the NG rail terminal serving the municipallity, and loads, i mean loads of hotels, motels, condos, and sprall all the way to Pemberton, and then some. Whistler has been greening like most of the good ski towns that realize they are a natural resource based business. Check out www.whistler2020.ca for an idea of how they are applying principles of The Natural Step towards municipal sustainability. The funnel method baby. Dig it.
Terra Prima | ZM
http://northcoastgreenspieler.blogspot.com/
city can not possibly force a coal fired utility
Hey ZM and Bill McD - glad to see you two here in this discussion.
I'm interested in the pollution caused by coal electric and steam generating plants and what the public may do about that.
ZM, you write above "A city can not possibly force a coal fired utility to address its environmental aspects and impacts, that is the job of the USEPA...and a state EPA program if they have promolgated authority from the fed."
However, coverage in the Chicago Reader is critical of Chicago city government on powerplant pollution, in Chicago... see "Something in the Air: Pollution from two power plants on the near south side causes dozens of premature deaths and thousands of asthma attacks a year, say Harvard researchers. So why has a city ordinance that would require a cleanup been mired in committee for more than a year".
From that article:
Are there good studies of the localized environmental impact of coal plants in any urban neighborhoods you know of, and good examples of where citizens and/or local governments have been effective in getting any coal plants closed or their emissions reduced? Since deregulation, have any investor owned plants like those in Cleveland been challenged on pollution issues?
I'm looking at this relative to Cleveland Thermal and the Medical Center Company plants in Cleveland, which appear by many standards to be the most polluting steam or power generation plants in the region.
Disrupt IT
Zebra, long time no see...
Welcome Back.
By refusing to deal honorably with others, you dishonor yourself.
Chiming in
Thanks ZM, for chiming in to REALNEO. Yes--Chicago has done great things and Cleveland lags behind. To Sadhu Johnston--congratulations on getting that VISA that will allow him to live and work in Canada, especially Vancouver--the most civilized, clean, green city in North America.