The Changing City Scape: The Green Future

Here are some interesting green ideas being tried by municipalities throughout the country:

• Braddock PA's Mayor John Fetterman is working to revitalize the  rustbelt town by repurposing abandaned buildings, and encouraging carbon caps and green technology.
• Seattle WA uses goats to clear away berries and bushes that are toxic to other animals around hydroelectric plants.
• San Francisco CA Mayor Newsom's administration has established edible gardens throughout the city, including the City Hall front lawn.
• Portland OR started community bicycling in 1994, which I'm proud to say San Antonio is in the process of implementing.  Hopefully the San Antonio operation will work well enough to prevent theft and vandalism.
• Boston MA is collecting and turning leaves and yard clippings into power and fertilizer.  San Antonio already turns brush into mulch and raw sewage into into gas for turbines, but Boston is going a step further by using anaerobic bacteria to break down the organic waste for power.  They eventually want to create power from all household garbage.
• Chicago IL has more than 2.5 million feet of roof top gardens, more than all other American cities combined.
• Fort Collins CO provides zero interest loans for sustainability minded home improvements such as solar heating, water efficiency upgrades and more efficient washing machines.
• Anchorage AK during the winter dims the light because they can see by the light of the moon.
• Oakland CA is slowly replacing its bus fleet with hydrogen-powered models.  Each new bus will save 130 tons of CO2 emissions annually.
• New York NY is testing tidal turbines to harness the power of the ocean for electricity.

It's good to see that cities are taking the lead in the green revolution.

Responsible Government

It's nice to know that in the middle of a recession, with many cities on the brink of bankruptcy, that the city of San Antonio and Bexar County are in such great financial shape.  San Antonio recently received the best rating for bond issues and now Bexar County has just received a AAA bond rating for the $155 million in bonds it's getting ready to sell.  Top bond ratings mean much lower interest rates for repayment, which lowers government costs considerably when dealing with millions of dollars in debt service.

According to the San Antonio Business Journal the county is planning on using the bonds to finance

public safety, park, parking and street improvements. In addition, the county is planning to issue up to $680 million in certificates of obligation over a 10-year period for drainage improvements planned in conjunction with the City of San Antonio, the San Antonio River Authority and other regional partners.

I also just discovered that the city recently approved a Green Events Certification Ordinance that requires medium and large scale events (1000+ participants) or events that have city contracts, like right of way privileges such as parades, or that take place on city property (La Villita, the convention center, the River Walk, etc) to complete a  Green Events Checklist.  The checklist would include provisions made for recycling at the event for workers and participants, the use of recycleble untensils, containers and plates at food booths, and using the VIA park and ride system for large events.  They haven't started talking about carbon foot prints and carbon trading yet, but some forward thinking events, like Earth Day will probably start doing that on their own.

Texas as leader in Gulf Restoration

Texas has been exceedingly lucky in the gulf oil spill debacle.  So far our beaches and wetlands have been unaffected and it seems likely to remain that way due to ocean currents that are carrying the oil in the opposite direction.





The Nature Conservancy along with the Texas Parks & Wildlife and US Fish & Wildlife Departments have been working together for four years to protect under water oyster beds and sea grass meadows "that comprise the foundation of the gulf's delicate ecological structure."  Two years ago the Conservancy started an oyster reef restoration project by colonizing live oysters and creating self-sustaining reefs in Copana and Matagorda bays on the Texas coast.  With these two projects Texas could lead the way to recolonizing oyster beds along the gulf coast once the spill is cleaned up.

Who knew that oysters were so important?  The average oyster filters 40 to 60 gallons of water a day, sort of like a mini water reclamation plant.  Without oyster beds the ocean would be extremely polluted, don't think I'll be eating any raw oysters any time soon. 

Where do Your Property Taxes Go? Enviromental Policy--SA

A Recap of City of San Antonio revenues and spending. So $1,074.42 of your property taxes goes to the City of San Antonio.

The City of San Antonio receives revenues from several sources: Property taxes (25%), Charges and fees (20%), Revenues from Utilities (17%), Grants (usually federal) (15%), Sales Tax (14%), Hotel/Motel Tax (4%), Other Taxes (Short Term Rental Tax, Bingo Tax, etc) (2%), Fines (Library Fines, Traffic Tickets) (1%), Miscellaneous (1%), Intergovernment (0.6%), Permits/Licenses (0.4%)

The 2010 Budget for the City divides general fund expenditures in the following ways: Police (36%), Fire/EMS (26%), other services (Aviation, Community Initiatives, Historic Preservation, Solid Waste Management, Military Affairs, etc) (11%), Convention, Tourism and Culture (9%), Streets and Infrastructure (7%), Environmental (5%), Parks & Recreation (6%), Agencies (4%), Library (3%), Health (1%), Municipal Courts (1%), Neighborhood Services (1%), Economic Development (0.5%), Animal Care (0.5%). I will take you through each of these items in separate posts. If you feel that you have a better way to spend the money you can post your suggestions on the online Budget suggestion box for the 2011 budget.
(For links to all items in the CSA budget, see past posts.)

The Office of Environmental Policy which receives 5% of the city's budget is involved in several initiatives to make San Antonio a greener city:

• Casa Verde SA  is a partnership with CPS Energy to assist low income households with weatherizing their homes.  
• The Mission Verde sustainability plan, which sets several goals for the city to be part of the future green economy and to reduce carbon use by industry, transportation and city facilities.
• The Green Contractor Rebate program which provides incentives for builders to renovate homes through the Build San Antonio Green retrofit program.
• The Mission Verde Center, a multipurpose education, training and research center for renewable and energy efficient technologies.
• The Save for Tomorrow Energy Plan  that provides financial incentives and assistance to residential and commercial customers to install energy saving practices and fixtures to reduce the customer's energy use permanently. 
• Solar America Cities to promote and facilitate the use of solar energy in San Antonio.
• The Hike and Bike program

The city is also planning to change their fleet of cars over to electric vehicles, plug in and hybrid.

Pushing for Green in San Antonio

San Antonio is gearing up to be a Green Leader in the 21st Century. There have been several articles in the Express-News lately about green initiatives the city is implementing. It is all part of the 11-point Mission Verde Plan. Plans range from bringing more green jobs to the city to green building codes, a green housing and building retrofitting program, a more desirable multi-modal mass transit system, sustainable real estate development, a green venture capital fund, and maximazation of sustainability all city facilities.

The lastest effort is putting bicycle lanes on the forefront of city road building and planning. In the past cyclists had no sway but now that the city is greening up, bicycle transportation is getting a big boost. The city already has plans to stripe up lanes on several existing roadways that have plenty of space for a bike lane. This intiative kills two birds with one stone, the obesity epidemic and lowering carbon dioxide emissions. Hopefully soon there will be north-south and east-west corridors linking SA's linear parks and street level bike lanes to make it possible for commuters to bike to work.