Ray’s Comments (group member since May 13, 2014)

Ray’s comments from the Community and Regional Development group.

I viewed a good webinar discussion on Genuine Progress Indicators and implementation of government policies . Here's the slides of that informative presentation : http://netransition.org/2014/05/22/me...

Heads up sustainable communities activists! In half an hour, at noon, Eric Zencey,author of "The Other Road to Serfdom: And The Path to Sustainable Democracy",is going to be part of a webinar on the Genuine Progress Indicator and how you might get a movement going in your state to adopt this sane approach to measuring economic progress. It's not too late to register...http://www.ips-dc.org/events/webinar_...

Luis wrote: "I agree with this statement green building needs to be more thought and structure. Have you read Green Metropolis? Gives great examples of sustainability and conservation of resources due to high d..."

Hello Luis, Thanks for the reading recommendation "Green Metropolis" . I did not find it in the Group Bookshelf . Why not? I've been reading Bruce Katz, "co-led the housing and urban issues transition team for the Obama administration and served as a senior adviser to new Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Shaun Donovan for the first 100 days of the administration. " Barack Obama is the first metro-energy efficiency President with a full understanding of the importance of 'green cities'. The Metropolitan Revolution: A Conversation with Bruce Katz | Chicago Policy Review http://chicagopolicyreview.org/2014/0...

This is my first attempt to begin a discussion thread. Helpful criticism by anyone will be gladly and cheerfully accepted by me. I read Kaid Benfield's NRDC blog: "The very embodiment of sustainability,in a small city" [ " A sustainable built environment isn’t one thing. It is many things, functioning best when assembled together in the right places with the right ingredients. Context is everything: a so-called “green” building won’t be green in its performance if it’s in the wrong place, contributing to suburban sprawl and requiring people to drive long distances to get to and from it. Heck, an ordinary building without any green bells and whistles at all, if placed in a walkable, transit-accessible downtown environment, will actually use less energy and emit lower levels of greenhouse gases than a LEED-certified structure in sprawl, because central locations reduce driving distances and make it easier for people to use less polluting transportation alternatives.

That’s why I’m all in for revitalization of downtowns and inner-city neighborhoods, when done well: revitalization recycles land, infrastructure and buildings, while reducing pollution. " ] http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/kbe...