SustainLane 2006 US City Sustainability Ranking
Long Beach: A Sea of Opportunities
Of course, Long Beach is more than a port: It's a major city in its own right, with a population (500,000) larger than that of Atlanta or Cleveland. But the port's shadow on the city is significant, adversely affecting both air and water quality. The city of Long Beach and the state of California have been working intensely with the port to make its operations cleaner and more sustainable. With so many people living so close to such a major source of air pollution-ships typically burn a relatively unclean type of diesel fuel-Long Beach's green port initiatives are an important step toward making the city as livable as its more upscale coastal neighbors.
Long Beach's efforts to limit the environmental impacts of its port are important. A next step might be to create an overall plan for sustainability. Creating green building incentives and a greenhouse gas reduction plan, for example, would put the city on par with most other leading West Coast port cities, and Seattle, Portland, and San Francisco could all offer good models. The city's port location makes it a natural for clean tech manufacturing incubation that could create local jobs and reduce the air pollutants Long Beach residents now breathe.
