Green Metropolis Why Living Smaller, Living Closer, and Driving Less Are the Key

[FayeforCure]

http://www.progressivebookclub.com/pbc2/viewBook.pbc?id=1902

Oh, horror, what a shocker...........urban planners disagree on sustainability!!

While the conventional wisdom condemns it as an environmental nightmare, Manhattan is by far the greenest place in America, argues this stimulating eco-urbanist manifesto. According to Owen (Sheetrock and Shellac), staff writer at the New Yorker, New York City is a model of sustainability: its extreme density and compactnessâ€"and horrifically congested trafficâ€"encourage a carfree lifestyle centered on walking and public transit; its massive apartment buildings use the heat escaping from one dwelling to warm the ones adjoining it; as a result, he notes, New Yorkers' per capita greenhouse gas emissions are less than a third of the average American's.

The author attacks the powerful anti-urban bias of American environmentalists like Michael Pollan and Amory Lovins, whose rurally situated, auto-dependent Rocky Mountain Institute he paints as an ecological disaster area. The environmental movement's disdain for cities and fetishization of open space, backyard compost heaps, locavorism and high-tech gadgetry like solar panels and triple-paned windows is, he warns, a formula for wasteful sprawl and green-washed consumerism. Owen's lucid, biting prose crackles with striking facts that yield paradigm-shifting insights. The result is a compelling analysis of the world's environmental predicament that upends orthodox opinion and points the way to practical solutions

http://www.amazon.com/Green-Metropolis-Smaller-Driving-Sustainability/dp/1594488827

Living in Poinciana ( a Sunrail end point) was the Biggest mistake I ever made!!

THAT is why I call Sunrail: Sprawl Rail!!!

[thelakelander]

So you call Sunrail "sprawl rail" because it attempts to serve the existing population where they actually live, instead of completely ignoring them? 

[xian1118]

I don't think anyone can disagree with the premise of the book, but we have to work with what we've got. Traditional neighborhoods aren't built overnight, but I think we can all agree that higher density communities will be more common in the future. Cities can no longer afford to extend infrastructure and continue sprawl - not to mention repair the infrastructure that is already deteriorating.

[north miami]

related,perhaps of interest:


www.resourcesforlife.com/small-house-society

www.livinglargeinourlittlehouse.com

tinyhouseblog.com

[mtraininjax]

Traditional neighborhoods aren't built overnight

Do you have an example, especially in Jacksonville?

[FayeforCure]

So you call Sunrail "sprawl rail" because it attempts to serve the existing population where they actually live, instead of completely ignoring them? 

lakelander, the migration back into the major cities started to occur decades ago in Europe. The US is decades behind that movement. We need to encourage movement back into the cities rather than enabling and accomodating sprawl!!

[Captain Zissou]

Why not put triple paned windows and compost heaps/ green roofs in NYC??  Just because heat happens to warm surrounding units, doesn't mean it should have ever escaped in the first place. 

Not loving the sound of his argument, but it's definitely worth a closer look.  Thanks Faye.

[hooplady]

Yup, one can go green in Manhattan - check out No-Impact Man.  He experimented (with wife and toddler, no less) with making as little environmental impact as possible, for an entire year, while living in NYC.  He comments several times that an urban environment is perfect for lowering our carbon footprint.  No take-out food, no plastic, off the grid.  He even managed to eat locally (picked 250 miles as his radius), snuck a solar panel up on the roof, and used a worm bin to compost his food scraps.

Not for the faint of heart, totally over-the-top, but an interesting experiment nonetheless. http://noimpactman.typepad.com/blog/

Anyhoo, no need to villify our cities.  We need city, we need country.  We just don't need a huge swath of suburb/exurb in between.

[tufsu1]

So you call Sunrail "sprawl rail" because it attempts to serve the existing population where they actually live, instead of completely ignoring them? 

lakelander, the migration back into the major cities started to occur decades ago in Europe. The US is decades behind that movement. We need to encourage movement back into the cities rather than enabling and accomodating sprawl!!

but every major city in Europe has regional commuter rail in addition to urban rail transit and intercity rail....why should we be any different Faye?

[thelakelander]

So you call Sunrail "sprawl rail" because it attempts to serve the existing population where they actually live, instead of completely ignoring them?  

lakelander, the migration back into the major cities started to occur decades ago in Europe. The US is decades behind that movement. We need to encourage movement back into the cities rather than enabling and accomodating sprawl!!

Orlando was never a major city.  It was a small agricultural/citrus town like the rest of Central Florida's cities.  It only began to rapidly grow in the 70s/80s after Disney opened.  The places people assume are Orlando suburbs, in most cases, are older cities connected to Orlando by late 20th century sprawl.  So it can be argued that Sunrail does just what Faye is promoting, considering the stations are in the heart of several cities of these four counties.

[Ocklawaha]

There is also another phase to the plan that will use the Florida Central. Trains would leave the mainline at Church Street Station, then head out along OBT, 441, through Apopka, Plymouth, Tavares, Eustis. Like you said Lake, these were all/are all independent Cities. Sunrail uses a very Conservative route to move from City Center to City Center, no waste or missing them by 5-10 miles as the RatRail will do. Talk about forcing SPRAWL, build the railroad far from town and badda bing, badda biff, we've got 5-10 miles of new sprawl, all the way to the depot. THIS is what is right about SunRail and wrong about RatRail (Florida's High Speed Rail Dream).

OCKLAWAHA

[CS Foltz]

Ock I agree..............big difference between Sunrail and Ratrail as you pointed out! Sunrail has much more potential along with development then Ratrail does based on current proposed route! When you take into account neither system has a connection point between the two systems ......you end up with two separate systems and no way to transfer which defeats the whole point of a people moving system....access!

[thelakelander]

SunRail â€" who won, who lost?

By Dan Tracy

ORLANDO SENTINEL

Here's a look at who came out ahead â€" for now â€" and who didn't when SunRail cleared the Legislature on Tuesday:

Winners

The unemployed: SunRail proponents maintain that up to 6,700 construction jobs could be created by the $1.2billion project, with the work lasting five years and likely starting next year. That could be a big deal in Central Florida, where the unemployment rate tops 11percent. There also could be related jobs opportunities in the stores, shops and businesses expected to spring up around the 17 stations along the 61.5-mile system stretching from DeLand in Volusia County through downtown Orlando to Poinciana in Osceola County.

All together, SunRail advocates contend the system will create 260,000-plus jobs during the next 30years, with a fiscal impact of $8.8billion.

Motorists: Drivers on Interstate4 might see some relief from SunRail, though not much, considering it is the most heavily traveled road in Central Florida, with more than 200,000 motorists daily.

SunRail is expected to attract 4,300 passengers a day when it starts up. That might seem small, especially compared with I-4. But backers say that number is purposely conservative and they contend it will be higher, once people start using it to shop at the stores on Park Avenue in Winter Park or to get to work or visit patients at Florida Hospital or Orlando Health, both of which have stops.[/color]

Mass transit: Besides qualifying the state for potential high-speed money, the bill creates a new rail authority that could spur efforts to create train systems all over the state.

Developers: One reason county and city officials pushed for SunRail so much was because they want to encourage more density in the urban core and discourage the sprawl that has marked much of the new development in recent decades. There should be plenty of opportunities for builders to put up apartments, shops, restaurants and offices near the stations.

Tri-Rail: The bill that approved SunRail also set aside money to keep the Tri-Rail line in South Florida from going out of business. As many as 15,000 daily riders won't have to go back to their cars or figure out another way to get to and from work. And if Tri-Rail went broke, the state likely would have been forced to pay back $256 million borrowed from the federal government to expand the system.

Losers

Tea Party: The anti-tax group lobbied hard against SunRail, arguing the project was too expensive and would become a long-standing boondoggle to taxpayers. A dozen or so Tea Party members gathered at the Capitol to protest the bill that created SunRail, but their efforts went for naught.

Politicians: The chief opponent, Sen. Paula Dockery, R-Lakeland, is running for governor. She called in all her favors but in the end could muster only 10 votes in the 40-member chamber during the special session. Democratic Orlando Sen. Gary Siplin, who's in his last term, also was against SunRail, just as he was during a previous session. He contended money that will be spent on the train should go for education. His stand will not endear him to the rest of the Central Florida delegation, which went with SunRail but for one other notable exception: Republican Sen. Carey Baker of Eustis also cast a no vote, reversing his earlier support.

East-side, west-side Orlandoans: Because commuter rail will run north and south along I-4, it won't be a viable option for most residents of the region's burgeoning east and west sides. And it could be years, if ever, before light-rail systems are built to serve those areas.

In limbo

The union: It's not clear yet whether the AFL-CIO won or lost in this fight. Its leaders fought the train, saying the state was using it as a way to bust the union and fire 200 or more rail workers in the state. According to a document released Tuesday, the only sure thing the AFL-CIO got was a promise from lawmakers that eight signalmen jobs on the SunRail line would be union workers. But they also got a promise by executives at South Florida's Tri-Rail system that before they take over maintenance and dispatch of the 72-mile system from CSX, they will "reach out" to union officials about the roughly 109 union members who now hold those jobs. The union opposition was critical in keeping many South Florida Democrats from backing SunRail during the previous two sessions.

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/os-sunrail-winners-losers-20091209,0,2357131.story

[FayeforCure]

So you call Sunrail "sprawl rail" because it attempts to serve the existing population where they actually live, instead of completely ignoring them?  

lakelander, the migration back into the major cities started to occur decades ago in Europe. The US is decades behind that movement. We need to encourage movement back into the cities rather than enabling and accomodating sprawl!!

Orlando was never a major city.  It was a small agricultural/citrus town like the rest of Central Florida's cities.  It only began to rapidly grow in the 70s/80s after Disney opened.  The places people assume are Orlando suburbs, in most cases, are older cities connected to Orlando by late 20th century sprawl.  So it can be argued that Sunrail does just what Faye is promoting, considering the stations are in the heart of several cities of these four counties.

These are NOT cities,........the town of Kissimmee can hardly be considered a city, it is a rural community, and certainly Poinciana was a "created community," which to my knowledge NEVER outgrew the 10,000 residents, similar to what is expected to happen to Golf World Village where there are ghost areas of unfinished real estate.

Other areas in the US have pointed to the sprawl rail possibility on similar grounds:

Extending the Hudson Line into northern Dutchess County poses several questions, which must be addressed in an Environmental Impact Statement and Major Investment Study. Is there existing demand for commuter service in Northern Dutchess? Or, will the extension create new demand by causing new waves of growth and sprawl in rural communities? Will the loss of farmland and rural character accelerate?

The answers to these questions for Sprawl rail in Central Florida are:
1. NO, there barely is any existing demand
2. YES, it will be a boon to developers causing new waves of growth in rural communities

No matter how you try to spin this, Sunrail is being built to benefit developers, NOT existing residents!!!

What really should be happening is that people start moving out of created areas such as Poinciana, and start living closer to their places of employment in Orlando. That's what sustainable urban planning is all about. Having people live near their places of employment.

I moved out of Poinciana for that very reason!

[Ocklawaha]

Losers

Tea Party: The anti-tax group lobbied hard against SunRail, arguing the project was toyo expensive and would become a long-standing boondoggle to taxpayers. A dozen or so Tea Party members gathered at the Capitol to protest the bill that created SunRail, but their efforts went for naught

Faye, nice post. Now you've got me all mixed up with what ever the hell a Tea Party is... Are we talking political party? A new Party? So YOUR views are representative of the Tea Party, and according to you mine are too? and we have completely different views? WTF? As I said, been in South America and have as little with politics as possible. It certainly is different in Colombia!

I agree that the numbers are quite low ball. If there is going to be a successful commuter rail project anywhere in the State of Florida, running parallel to I-4 and 17-92 would be it. Our own US 17 and US 1/I-95 have to rank very close.

Yesterday I met the consultant for the Bridge of the Lions Restoration, I can tell you they are trying hard to get it right. She is from Miami, and immediately offered that the new rail bill is great news as "It might finally get South Florida to get Tri-Rail on the right tracks..." According to her the whole damn project over on the CSX, (which having lived there might as well be in the Everglades) was a political play of some sort. "Don't let the Politicians decide Jacksonville's rail system..." Good advice. Anyone that doesn't know the details in South Florida, understand that the Florida East Coast Railway, got there in the 1890's. As the original railroad, the FEC is right in the heart of town for every city in the Megalopolis. The Seaboard didn't arrive until the 1920's and by that time the Cities were already developed forcing them way out west in the edge of town. South Florida (and Jacksonville) still have the Florida East Coast, and the old Seaboard is today's CSX. Picking the wrong railroad is all of the reasons for Tri-Rails troubles, and even with it, they've done fairly well. She updated me on plans to shift some operations over to the FEC, thus spreading the load and doubling the ease of access. Jacksonville's Amtrak Station is another example of getting it completely wrong.

Certainly rail here, or rail there, where ever it goes, it's a good thing.

OCKLAWAHA