As a person who travels all over this country speaking on sustainability and has worked hard in Minneapolis the past ten years to promote sustainability I couldn't be more excited to read all of these e-mail posts. I received a two-year appointment to the Governor's Roundtable on Sustainable Development under Arne Carlson and spent time with over 30 Minnesota citizens developing a 3 pronged approach to sustainability for the entire state. (I wonder which shelf it is sitting on). It was and is a basic principle for doing business at The Green Institute. I am so, so, so happy to see everyone else finally pushing the agenda.
I always said If I would have run for Mayor, sustainability would have been the central theme of my game plan for Minneapolis.
So Fran, Sean and others.... the sustainability choir is just getting larger and larger every day and hopefully we can make it the shining glitter of our cities fabric. There are over 1200 list members from around the state to the OEA's Sustainability newsletter which comes out every two weeks. I also am on a National listserve looking at cities and counties all over the country that are incorporating sustainability principles and indicators into their daily activities - you would be amazed.
Hats off to everyone that is working in some kind of way to integrate the way we do business in our city with the way Mother Nature thinks we should do business in our city.
Where is the Mayor? (Didn't we just throw the last Mayor out of office on that very question?)
Come on, RT - get that Office of Sustainability set up and let's get this city on track for a sustainable future. It doesn't have to cost a lot of money to establish indicators that will help promote a basic set of values and principles that guide us to living on a healthy planet in a healthy eco-city.
Annie Young
East Phillips
At 01:20 AM 6/20/02 -0400, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
Much in Sean's post bears thought and response, but I'd like to focus on the comment below:
In a message dated 6/18/02 10:55:39 AM Central Daylight Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
Their major recommendation to the Mayor and City Council is to combine six
city departments into one Office of Community Planning and Economic
Development and to develop a clearly defined mission and measurable goals
for the office focused on job creation and housing. We are making the
recommendation that this new department be named the Office of Community
Planning and Sustainable Development. The best way to ensure the long-term
competitiveness of the City of Minneapolis in the global economy would be to
form this new combined city department around the central mission of
promoting sustainable development.
Opportunity: Link the Mayor's Green City Initiative with development
restructuring
I believe that it is critical to take an integrated, long-term, sustainable approach to city planning and development.
After helping put my kids to bed tonight, I remembered an image that helps me understand sustainability: We live in the present, which is like one room of a three room house. The present was created folks who lived in the past. The third room is the future, where our children will live. Whatever we create or discard today goes into that other room. We create enough pollution to make "the present" Minneapolis unhealthy to live in. The accumulative effect will make "the future" Minneapolis much worse.
It seems to me that in the past, city planning was mostly a matter big players -- individual or corporate -- deciding where to put what, and when and how. "Planning" and "development" have been rooted in false notions of nature as an infinite reservoir of resources to draw from, and also as an infinite sink into which to pour any sort of waste we generated. This image of our urban environment is patently false. Rather, our city is in an ecological place with limitations and with complex ties to the surrounding bio-region. Our changing technologies are not magic, and do not make us immune to consequences. Air and water and soil need careful consideration and cultivation, as do people, political discussion, and public policy.
Urban planning decisions have not only been made largely on the basis of the false notion of nature as "Our Infinite Resource/Sink" to do with whatever we will, but they have also been made by a few people, often without regard for the many. Granted, many grand and noble planning schemes have been generated over the years by people of gift and vision, but what actually gets done is often a hodgepodge of limited, shortsighted ventures bound to changing corporate and political fiefdoms.
And think about this: are we somewhere near the end of an age where technologies for transportation and housing and energy and agriculture are stable for even one lifetime? We may see technologies come and go, and with them the need for flexible, responsive urban infrastructures.
Finally: we live in a time of political and military upheaval. Our urban infrastructure currently relies on a brittle, vulnerable obsolete energy and transportation system that actually decreases the strength of citizens and community alike. Perhaps (for example) diverse, renewable, and dispersed sources of energy -- spread throughout the city and surrounding areas -- would greatly strengthen our infrastructure.
I suggest that our urban infrastructure be rethought to strengthen individuals, families, and community. To be "a neighborhood of neighborhoods" is not an unrealistic goal for the city Minneapolis. I believe that neighborhoods are the strongest, most meaningful elements of social, civic, and political structure in a city. We need to build strong neighborhoods, thoughtfully connected, but also each including strong elements of sustainable energy, sustainable agriculture (yes, agriculture!) , sustainable housing, sustainable transportation, and sustainable work environments.
I want to work to build the room of "today's Minneapolis" in such a way that the room of "tomorrow's Minneapolis" will be worth living in.
It seems to me that grassroots neighborhood brainstorming, civic responsibility, and development is vital and essential. At the same time, the Mayor and City Council need to commit themselves to mid-wifing this process. (How's that for a final metaphor?)
Well, these are some late-night thoughts from a tired fellow-citizen of our beloved city. Please take them in the spirit in which they are given. I long for peace and beloved community, made in such a way that they will be worth handing down to following generations.
--Gary Hoover
King Field
