News Feature, June 2006
Living Green in the City
by Mary Grady
When a drop of rain falls on the city, where does it go?
rainbow and bike pix courtesy of provflux |
Watershed tricks Strategies for soaking up water include green roofs, open space, porous pavements, and trees. The business incubator at 17 Gordon Avenue in Providence has some of each. Pavers in the parking lot leave space for water to sink in, and surrounding greenspace absorbs any runoff. One-third of the roof is covered with plants, which not only absorb water but help to regulate temperature, cutting energy needs. Save The Bay's headquarters at Fields Point also has a green roof and porous parking areas. More than 6,000 trees have been planted across the city by the Providence Neighborhood Planting Program since it began in 1989. Residents can request trees for their street, and help to plant and care for them. Their roots soak up water and the canopies absorb the energy of downpours, preventing erosion. The Citywide Green coalition is working to ensure the health of the city's parks, which are essential not only for a healthy watershed but for quality of life. Gardens at Southside Community Land Trust cover five acres with robust green growth. Farmers' markets are held around the city all through the growing season, helping to support local farms and saving on car trips. Energy options One advantage of city living is that humans can escape their cars and walk. Trains, buses, trollies, and ferries also cut down on the need for car travel. Bicycles are another option, but there's a long way to go to make our roads bike-friendly. Working to change that is Bike Downtown, an initiative of Groundwork Providence. The group organizes a "Bike to Work Day" every spring, and has been installing bike racks around the city. The state's Department of Transportation also has worked to develop bike routes. The DOT's statewide bike map is posted online. Economics and siting issues still make it tough for small-scale solar and wind installations to work, but a few can be found. Rooftops at 17 Gordon Ave. and Save The Bay have solar panels. Whole Foods on North Main Street has a solar installation, too. Tax credits and "net metering," a procedure for selling excess electricity back to the grid, are in place for private home owners, but most people are daunted by the high initial investment. Recycling An urban ecosystem doesn't stop at the city limits. Rhode Island's city dwellers send their trash to Johnston, where the landfill is slowly reaching its capacity. There's more to reducing waste than just using those blue and green bins. The Rhode Island Resource Recovery Corp. Web site includes all you need to know about recycling computers and electronics, hazardous waste, giving away stuff you don't want, and the best strategy of all -- source reduction. That's the category for all the shopping bags you say "No thanks" to and all the useless junk you don't buy. Saving old buildings At The Steel Yard, a former factory site on the bank of the Woonasquatucket, piles of used bicycles are rebuilt into new bikes for city kids. Scrap metal is re-fashioned into sculptural art. Bits of broken trash are cemented together to build birdhouses. But the biggest recycling project is the site itself. "It would make the most sense economically to pave over this whole site and put up new construction," says Clay Rockefeller, co-founder of the art complex. But he has a bigger vision of what the site should be, and how it fits into the urban ecosystem. Drake Patten, executive director, says economic and practical realities make that vision tough to realize. "It would be great to have a wind turbine, but just the cost of the feasibilty study is beyond the reach of most nonprofit groups," she says. "There should be incentives to do more with this site, but it's just the opposite." Existing codes and regulations have a long way to go to support green redevelopment efforts. The best use of the three-acre site at the Steel Yard, from an ecological and social view, is also the most expensive, the most difficult, and takes the longest. "We really need to look to Europe for ideas," says Rockefeller. "They have 1,000 years on us, and have been dealing with limited space all that time. They were forced to recognize the limits to growth. There are lots of examples of creative ways to re-use places." A vision for the state "Rhode Island in 2025 will be green and blue," says the Statewide Planning Office, in its recently released land-use plan. "Conserved farmland and forests will surround urban centers, with the built environment infused by greenways and greenspace. The state's centerpiece, the Bay, will be healthy and productive." Can we get there from here? |
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