SustainLane 2006 US City Sustainability Ranking
Minneapolis: Clean Air, Big Plans
Minneapolis charms residents and visitors alike with its graceful tree-lined parkways, lakes, multiethnic restaurants, and vibrant arts and music scene. Then there's the winter-endless days of numb fingers, gray sludge corroding your car and soaking your shoes, and high energy bills. In recent years, though, there hasn't been enough snow to get a good cross-country ski race going. During the winter of 2005-2006, unprecedented numbers of ice fishers' cars fell through the ice on city lakes.
Minneapolitans are concerned about the warming winters, and the city is doing its part to lower its energy impact: In 1999, Minneapolis became one of the first US cities to adopt sustainability indicators.
Minneapolis has strong leadership in sustainability planning from both Mayor R.T. Rybak and the city council. The city has bold plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, increase renewable energy use, and reduce homelessness. These important efforts may take years to bear fruit, while in the short term Minneapolis faces other challenges: among them a widening divergence between the priorities of urban dwellers and the rural population, and sprawling suburbs. Chances are that a city that has survived extended periods of 25-below-zero weather will continue to thrive throughout the next century.
