Greening City Strategies: Chicago - PhillyBlog

lbphilly · #1 (**permalink**) 05-13-2006, 09:10 AM

The current issue of Time online offers an article on Chicago's efforts to go green -- in terms of actual tree planting, but also encouraging alternative energy use, green roofs on big-box stores, and economic development activities geared to making Chicago a center of "green" technology.

Color me green with envy.

Quote:

Chicago, a blue-collar city of asphalt and glass and concrete canyons, would seem an odd place for admitted tree-hugger Sadhu Johnston to think he could save the planet. But Johnston, Mayor Richard M. Daley' s environmental commissioner, believes that cities are actually the answer to the earth's environmental ills. And with that in mind, he is working to turn Chicago into what he claims will be the most environmentally friendly city in the U.S. — as well as the nation's center for environmental design and the manufacturing of components for the production of alternative energy.

If it works — and Daley is betting a hefty sum it will, with promises to buy millions in solar panels, for example — the green movement here is expected to yield the city perhaps billions in saved energy costs and new business. This is way beyond tree hugging in Chicago," said Johnston, 31, who before coming to Chicago helped dust some of the rust off of Cleveland's image by serving as executive director of the non-profit Cleveland Green Building Coalition. "This is about quality of life. What we're talking about is creating a city that exists in harmony with the world, a place that can be a model. Cities have long been hurtful to the environment. Raw materials came in and waste went out. We' re trying to redefine that relationship, and cities can be models."

full text: http://www.time.com/time/nation/arti...0.html?cnn=yes

MayfairMeat · #2 (**permalink**) 05-13-2006, 10:01 AM

I thought they were doing that already with letting vines grow on abandoned buildings!

MayfairMeat · #3 (**permalink**) 05-13-2006, 10:07 AM

Seriously, I don't know about Pennsylvania, but in Texas there were about 3 or 4 speciea of vine you can train on your house (the plants have suckers on them that cling to brick and rock, and their roots go about a foot away from your foundation).

Anyone know if some good house-friendly vines that could be suggested to grow on your house? Anyone know of a website for homeowners who want to vine the entire outside of their house?

My mother planted several of these when I was young on our rancher down in South Texas. By the time I was in 5th grade all four walls were completely bushed in from the ground all the way to the overhangs. The vine was about 1 1/2 foot thick.

Our house looked like a shrub with holes cut out for windows, doors and the garage. It was so cool. Plus the lot was completely barren when we built the house (abandoned peanut farm). Within 10 years it was solid St. Augustine grass and 12 different varieties of native trees (pear, oak, sweet gum, sycamore, pecan, willow, etc). We also added plum and orange trees on the lot and had fruits and nuts from our own yard to make desserts with all year (pecan pie, orange taffy, plum jelly).