Gas Prices May Revive Cities

Andres Duany is thrilled by the prices he's seeing at the gas pump. The urban planner and high priest of the New Urbanism movement sees today's (and likely tomorrow's) gas prices accomplishing what he and others in his field have long sought: a wholesale re-creation of the American lifestyle. "The urbanism of the United States has been premised on two things," Duany says. "One is inexpensive land. And the other is inexpensive fuel. Both have led to sprawl."

Sprawl—that scourge of urban designers who prize a tightly packaged city, walkable neighborhoods, and mixed-use development that brings together homes with businesses and shops—may have finally met its match. At least, that's the hope of the enclave of people who study settlement and land use, and who now sheepishly admit they're rooting for high energy prices. "Urban planners have been beating their heads against the wall for decades trying to get Americans to settle in a more compact pattern on the landscape for the very reasons we're starting to see now," says Thomas Campanella, an associate professor of city and regional planning at the University of North Carolina—Chapel Hill. "To be honest, I feel that rising gas prices...are going to do more for good, sustainable urban planning than the entire urban planning profession."

Sure, they feel guilty admitting it, but high energy prices—gasoline as well as heating oil and natural gas—could prove to be the force that brings the dreams of urban planners to fruition: a greener, more sustainable society that is also a throwback to the preautomobile age, when it wasn't realistic to have tracts of homes miles away from business centers, which were, in turn, miles away from shopping centers. "There are vast swaths of the landscape that are inaccessible to anything but the automobile," Campanella says. "Obviously, we're going to see real changes if oil is going to skyrocket, and I think we can all assume it's not going to return to levels of the past."

On one hand, the story of the car, and the far-flung communities of huge homes and cul-de-sacs they enabled, is a testament to America's enormous economic success. But it has also meant more obesity, pollution, and, say urban planners, social isolation. They argue that in some ways, the quality of life was higher when Americans had less money to purchase things like cars. "The great cities that people love," Duany says, "were the result of a substantially less wealthy nation that had to be far more intelligent about its assets." He notes cities such as New York, Boston, and San Francisco, which were built for people to live close to their daily needs. A fringe benefit: more opportunities for interaction with and reliance on neighbors.

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The Urban Environment

Her giggling friends suddenly quiet down when Jamilka Carrasquillo, her large silver hoop earrings swinging, describes the day her class killed chickens.

“We actually had to go up to the woods to do it,” she says, perched on the back of a chair in a classroom at Common Ground High School in New Haven.

Each student who wanted one got a bird. Following a modified-kosher method (no rabbi), the students stunned the birds with an electric shock, hung them upside down and cut the jugular vein. They call the chickens “meat birds” to maintain emotional distance, but the experience can be difficult.

Jamilka cried; others, even teachers, did too. A lot emerged as vegetarians. Jamilka did not, but she says she came to understand that the pinkish slabs wrapped in plastic on the grocery shelf actually come from living animals. She pledged not to waste food.

“It just exposed us to what we’re eating on our plate,” she says. “I get so mad at home when people throw away food.”

The exercise — under the supervision of Michael Darree, a poultry specialist and University of Connecticut animal science professor — is part of “Egg and Seed,” a class combining biology, ecology and literature that reflects the educational philosophy called active, authentic learning. To make learning real and relevant, students aren’t just told how food is produced; they actually slaughter chickens for the lunch table.

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Green schools offer benefits for district budgets, students

Waterless urinals. Geothermal cooling systems. Photovoltaic solar panels.

Classrooms are slowly going green, prodded by rising energy bills, public health concerns and a general desire to adopt eco-friendly principles. Green schools cost a little more to build -- generally 1%-2% extra -- but promise payback through lower utility bills and, some studies suggest, better student achievement.

"A school district that might have been thinking, 'I can't afford to build a green school' is now saying, 'I can't afford not to,' " said Rachel Gutter, schools sector manager for the U.S. Green Building Council, which certifies school construction projects based on environmental criteria.

Several states, including Hawaii, Florida and New Jersey, require that new school buildings be more energy-efficient, reduce water usage and recycle more. In June, the U.S. House of Representatives sent a bill to the Senate requiring schools built with federal money to incorporate green elements.

Nearly 100 public and private U.S. schools have been certified by the U.S. Green Building Council since 2000; another 800 are seeking certification.

Studies in 1999 and 2003 by the Heschong Mahone Group, a California consulting firm that promotes energy-efficient design, found that children generally fared better on math and reading tests in schools where natural light was more prevalent, because it improved student focus and achievement.

"Most of the time, we don't even turn on the lights in my classroom because there's so much light from the windows," said Lily Kamali, 11, a fifth-grader who attends Great Seneca Creek Elementary School in Germantown, Md. The school was the first in Maryland certified by the green council.

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Global Green helps New Orleans use less energy

Urging the use of more energy-efficient homes and discussing how to cut climate change pollution are parts of a new national initiative announced Thursday to reduce global warming-related pollution.

“New Orleans is a front line for sea level rise in this country,” said Matt Peterson, president of Global Green USA.

Reducing the amount of global warming pollution could help reduce the projected sea level rise if nothing is done, Peterson said.

Even with building levees higher, climate change is expected to increase sea levels, putting coastal cities like New Orleans at even greater risk in the future, Peterson said.

“We’re talking 150 million people who live along the coast of the United States,” Peterson said during a news conference at the New Orleans Port Authority. Many of the at-risk communities will be low-income communities, he said.

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New Orleans volunteers bring knowledge, compassion to Iowa victims

Standing near a mound of rotting floorboards and door frames outside his home near the Cedar River, Steve Aldrich shouted to the volunteers who had driven 1,000 miles to muck out his finished basement and carve 4 feet of soaked drywall from the walls of the first floor.

"I love you guys, thank you so much," he said as he headed off to the city planning department of the Midwestern university town, hoping to learn whether he would have to raise his house a foot above the 100-year flood plain in order to rebuild.

"I'll be back in an hour to scrub more mold," Aldrich said.

But before the retired father of four could make it to his car, one of the helpers spoke up.

"Wait, what are you going to do?" the man asked.

Aldrich, one of thousands affected by river flooding June 11, said he spent days alone in his basement, using a brush to scrub away black mold and then dousing the plaster walls with potent Lysol. He had made three passes so far.

"Man, you don't have to do that," said Sidney Gonzales, an electrician whose home in Kenner took on 3 feet of water during Hurricane Katrina. "You get a spray and put it in a pressure washer. It's a solution. They sell it at the hardware store. I used it when I did my house."

Gonzales, 62, came to Cedar Falls with a group from The Vineyard Church to repay the generosity of volunteers from the same Christian community's Boise, Idaho, congregation who helped him gut his house in the fall of 2005.

"You're here," Gonzales said of his mission, "because your heart said: Follow me here."

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