In the summer of 2008, SustainLane interviewed environmental officials from each of the country's 50 most-populous cities. We wanted to understand the challenges each municipality faces as well as steps city leaders are taking to meet those challenges. We asked officials how their cities developed and what they're doing to become more sustainable. And then we asked them to get out their crystal balls and tell us what their cities will look like fifty years into the future.
In August of 2008, SustainLane spoke with Rohit Aggarwala and Ariella Maron, Director and Deputy Director, respectively, of New York City’s Office of Long-term Planning and Sustainability. Maron and Aggarwala spoke to us about the challenges of sustaining a centuries-old city with aging infrastructure and about how the city will accommodate an estimated influx of one million people by 2030.more »
In August of 2008, SustainLane spoke with David Assman, deputy director of San Francisco’s Environment Department and communications manager, Mark Westlund. The city had just passed an ordinance requiring every employer to offer commuter benefits to employees. Assman and Westlund told us that one of the major challenges San Francisco faces in the next 50 years is sea level rise. If the ocean rises one meter, Assman says, the city’s international airport will be under water.more »
SustainLane spoke with Esther Matthews, director of the city of Austin's Climate Protection Plan, in July of 2008. When we asked her to look fifty years into the future, Matthews told us she envisions a more densely-built Austin with many more tall buildings. She said she fears the city may lose its green vegetation “to the heat and the fact that the sun is getting stronger and stronger by the year,” but that the city will work hard not to lose its green cover.more »
In August of 2008, SustainLane spoke with Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak along with Gayle Prest, the city’s sustainability coordinator. One of the programs that most impressed us in the City of Lakes is one that offers grants to neighborhood groups and other organizations doing work in the area of climate change. One group taught Somali refugees to ride bicycles along the city’s Midtown Greenway, a bikeway built along a former railroad line. Mayor Rybak told us that sustainability was central to his platform when he was elected in 2001 and that it continues to be a core issue in his administration.more »
SustainLane spoke with Dallas city officials in August of 2008. On the line with us was Laura Fiffick, now former director of the Office of Environmental Quality; Nicole Cooper, environmental coordinator for air quality; Eric Griffin, current interim director of the Office of Environmental Quality; and Meghna Tare of the sustainability office. Dallas is working to increase sustainability through many local and regional, and public and private partnerships, they said. These collaborations are crucial, as the city faces staggering air quality problems due to industry.more »
In July of 2008, SustainLane spoke with several officials and employees of the city of Baltimore, including: Tod Stosur, Assistant Deputy Mayor; Karen Miller, Communications Officer for Mayor Sheila Dixon; Beth Strommen, Manager of the Office of Sustainability; Tedd Atwood of the Energy Department; Duncan Steward, Environmental Planner in the Office of Sustainability; and Sara Zaleski, Sustainability Coordinator. Baltimore officials told us that the city has the opportunity to lead other municipalities like it—former industrial cities that are poor and middle-sized. Located on Chesapeake Bay, the city is currently revising its flood plain mapping in preparation for the potential impact of a rise in sea level.more »
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