America's 50 Greenest Cities

[Metro Jacksonville]

America's 50 Greenest Cities



Popular Science recently released their list of the Top 50 Green Cities in the U.S.  Did Jacksonville make the cut?

Full Article
http://www.metrojacksonville.com/content/view/725

[Ocklawaha]

Electric Mass Transit, fueled by LFG or Land-Fill-Gas. This is an untapped source of free power for our future mass transit needs, and perhaps freeway lighting. Methane will leak upwards (a strong, poison, greenhouse gas) from old landfills or even swamps for thousands of years. England experiences this in cities built over ancient bogs. New fuel/power companies, can drill our old landfills and one average City size mound can produce enough power for 35,000 homes... forever???.... well, for a long, long, time. This would more then power a complete Trolley System, a Skyway, our suburban trains, and perhaps even our streetlights. Methane is not super clean as it still produces CO2, but the cool thing about the new system is the CO2 is captured and recycled into the wells, which returns to methane... It's win, win, as what is left, is a clean burning, super fuel.

Oregon uses recycling as a summer job and job-for-homeless program. With the legion of homeless downtown, why not issue them bright color vests and send them out to clean up the city, the mess they pick up can then be converted into many bi-products which have a $$ value. One of the disadvantages to Florida life is the "I'm from _______ (fill in the blank) so Florida is NOT my home, and I don't give a damn!" attitude of many.  When they see us, our summer students, our homeless, our needy, out there busting butt for a clean green city, we would soar in rank.

Tidal Generation? Hey Ya'll, have you EVER tried to tie up the boat under the main street bridge? Either way the flow, it better be off the bow, because the current is hard enough to swamp a craft with a stern line to an anchor. 

Push the window with local perks for alternate fuel cars, filling station pumps and total electric. While it's true that the USDOE and FL have programs to give you $$ rewards for these vehicles there is no real incentive to make it happen at the dealer levels. Follow California on a local basis, up the Florida standards in JACKSONVILLE. Going to sell a car or fuel here and want the good money? PLAY BALL. Want a big break? Want to skip the meters? go green vehicle.

Transit Riders with more then 6 monthly passes in a year should be able to use the old passes for a break in their taxes, fees or other city services like credit cards. It doesn't have to be a great deal, simply enough to help out and say thank you for riding.

ANYONE ELSE?

Ocklawaha

[second_pancake]

What would it take?  A good, swift kick in the pants by the almighty himself   Seriously, I get so freakin frustrated with what Jacksonville does not do...what they deliberately choose not to do.  It's not like there aren't options.  It's not like (as is clearly shown by the information in the article) other cities haven't already shown that the methods are tried and true.  Jacksonville just comes across as a money-hungry, lazy, self-righteous city sometimes.  I mean, we don't even enforce our own water usage policies!  Did everyone see the news this weekend and the Folio last week that listed the cities worst water usage offenders?  My GAWD!  They seem to have the money to pay an enormous water bill each month, so they should have the money to pay a just as substantial fine!

It comes as no surprise to me that two Oregon cities are listed.  Those are definitely a class of people that respect their surroundings (I married one ). When you live in a place as geographically diverse as that, how could you not respect it?

[NJ to JAX WHAT DID I DO?]

Jacksonville needs a few more democrats for mayor and city council before they crack the top 50.  It is probably currently ranked about 400 now.   How many people in Jacksonville take public transport, bike, or walk to work?  Probably less than 1%.  NYC...a real city...was at 54%.  Now that's a city.  

[NJ to JAX WHAT DID I DO?]

The south just sucks. I think that is the problem.  The only southern cities on this list were in VA, KY, and AL...oh and Greensboro.  I think only 7 of the 50 cities were in the south.  More proof that the south is cheap because it sucks.

[jmccharen]

I'll chime in here if nobody gives me beef about climate change.
Good news for Jacksonville: The city is hiring a Sustainability Officer who will, amongst other things, administer the new Green Building Ordinance which will hopefully get signed soon. The ordinance will fast-track LEED certified buildings for permitting and pay back a portion of the certification fees.
COJ is poking around the edges of talking about the US Mayor's Climate Protection Agreement, and forming a climate action plan. There's a really smart staffer talking to us and the Sierra Club about all that and hopefully some good will come from our meetings.
JEA is responding to state and federal pressure to mitigate their carbon emissions. By responding I mean they know that eventually they'll have to start thinking about using less coal. They're looking into other methods, such as landfill gas and otherwise improving efficiency where they can, and looking into demand-side management. Things like that.
FAU (I think that's right) is actively studying tidal power generation down south.

But that's about it. And to qualify this good news: the Green Building Ordinance is not going to have much of an effect. The city already has fairly quick permitting processes and the paybacks for cert. fees are minimal. Both COJ and JEA are in reactive positions environmentally, not proactive ones. They will wait until outside pressure forces them to change. The cities on the SciAm list are much more proactive...except perhaps New York, which is green with the transit almost by default. It's impossible not to use public transit there! But, Tony Allegretti keeps bringing up what gridlock can do to spur positive development. Maybe we'll eventually change our sprawly ways or at least connect our subdivisions with greener transit.

I'm not holding my breath though. I'm just trying to grow some damn food.

[JeffreyS]

Water conservation is one Jacksonville needs to address.  The fact that Duval does not use reclaimed water for  lawns is just bad.  We have been given the St. Johns as a resource and we need to be good keepers. 

[zoo]

"Where's Jacksonville?  What would it take for our city to make a progressive list like this?"

Here's the answer:

1. Progressive public leadership (Mayor, Council)
2. Progressive bureaucracy (utility, transportation, economic development, etc.)
3. Progressive private leadership (corporate, developer)
4. Progressive citizenry -- let's face it, users of this board are among an enlightened minority in this 'burg

Not much in Jax is progressive. How to get there?

[second_pancake]

Water conservation is one Jacksonville needs to address.  The fact that Duval does not use reclaimed water for  lawns is just bad.  We have been given the St. Johns as a resource and we need to be good keepers. 

Try going to a plumber here and inquiring on grey-water systems to be installed in your home.  They look at you like you have 4 heads.  Not only do we not use reclaimed water, but anyone can have a well installed to siphon water out of our underground acquifers to spray all over driveways, streets, and into our sewer drains...and that's the water that didn't evaporate into the atmosphere while being used at 12:30 in the afternoon in 90 degree weather.

JEA is responding to state and federal pressure to mitigate their carbon emissions.

Hmm, maybe JEA and JTA need to get together since it's apparant by JTA's promotion of BRT that they are NOT considering carbon emmissions.

[Bike Jax]

"Where's Jacksonville?  What would it take for our city to make a progressive list like this?"

Still stuck in a 1950's reactionary mentality. We need progressive leadership.

If we are the "The Sunshine State" why is solar energy not mandatory on the construction of every new residential development? JEA recently spent 18 million dollars for the purchase of land in the Avenues to build a new 518 million dollar power plant. What if we instead took that 518+ million dollars and purchased and installed solar panes on the 40,000 homes that the construction cost would cover. And then turned that newly purchased land in to parks and greenways... Na, too progressive.

[jmccharen]

I know a plumber who can help you with greywater. I've been meaning to call him lately myself.
Oh man, if any pair of city agencies like the JEA and the JTA would work together I would be so freakin' happy. We're still working to get the city to agree to commit to take an inventory of greenhouse gas emissions. If that were the case they would look at both transit and electricity use and see clear opportunities for reduction in both areas. Which might, in a perfect world...or I guess I mean a rational world, influence decisions like BRT vs. lightrail, or at least make them purchase hybrid buses, or ramp up their biodiesel production (the city already makes its own biodiesel from waste veggie oil, which is awesome!). A lot of the efficiency improvements they'd have to make would save money as well.

[second_pancake]

the city already makes its own biodiesel from waste veggie oil, which is awesome!

Where can I purchase biodiesel?

[jmccharen]

Err...they make it for the city fleet. They don't sell it to the public. Sorry! My friend Linda gets hers from Lake City. I've been meaning to try making some, it's just a rather toxic, trial-and-error, pain in the neck, and I don't have a big, well-ventilated garage. As much of a pain as it might be, it seems like less of a hassle than converting my mercedes to run on straight veg oil.

[JeffreyS]

Not much in Jax is progressive. How to get there?

I wouldn't call the people of Jax progressive, but they did vote for the better Jacksonville plan which was very progressive.  I think the people of Jax will consider supporting plans that may require sacrifice and want this to be a city on the rise.  Wonderful mix of people from different places with different faces.  I wonder where we would be if Peyton had not been guiding us through the real estate boom.

I have lived my life on the westside, riverside and even Middleburg so I know we are not cosmopolitan yet.  Jacksonville is a city that can and I believe will change for the better.  Judging by the increased influence  MJ seems to have our growth will become better thought out.
(Rainbows and sprinkles free of charge.)

[SunKing]

The south just sucks. I think that is the problem.  The only southern cities on this list were in VA, KY, and AL...oh and Greensboro.  I think only 7 of the 50 cities were in the south.  More proof that the south is cheap because it sucks.

Hey Jersey Boy you need to learn to count.  Only 6 were in the NE and about half of the country lives up there.  The whole list doesn't make sense anyway.  Denver is on there for flyash?  We have been doing the same thing with our coal fire plant in the Ville for almost a decade now (Titan, formerly Separation Technologies, Inc.).  We don't just call it "green" and pat ourselves on the back.  People make decisions with their wallet.  I've looked at solar and you know what?  It's too expensive.  When it gets cheaper, which it will, I'll buy in.

NYC?  I love the smell of smog in the morning.  They know how to recycle though, they send it all to Jersey!  I like the methane solution Ocklawaha.  Since Jersey is just one big garbage dump, maybe we could just pipe into that big fart bag up there and run the whole country!