CitiesGoGreen - November 2008 - (Page 31)

A model for others Coincidentally, a hybrid ice/air conditioning company recently called on my office to talk about switching the County’s air conditioning units over to these energysaving hybrids. Thanks to Go Green Fresno County, these types of energy and cost-saving units fit into the new County philosophy. The representative was so impressed with Go Green Fresno County that he shared it during an appointment with managers at the City of Dixon. It is my understanding that they intend to use Go Green Fresno County as a template for their own environmental policy package. I know that together, as more and more government agencies adopt measures to effect environFast Forward, continued from pg 32 mental change, we will put a sizable dent in this climate change behemoth. If money were overflowing the County’s coffers we could switch out all the antique guts from County facilities and replace them with state of the art energyconserving, money-saving mechanical infrastructure. But that’s not the case, which is why Go Green Fresno County goes after the low hanging-fruit. Fresno County will start doing the things within its reach today, and dream about what might be possible tomorrow. We’re not going to tear through every County facility, much as I’d like to. But you can expect our new facilities to measure up to LEED standards, which will in turn save energy, reduce our carbon footprint and expose our employees and citizens to a better way of operating. Go Green Fresno County! Henry R. Perea was elected in November 2004 to the Fresno County Board of Supervisors. He is the 2008 Chairman and was recently re-elected to a second term. Supervisor Perea has placed a great deal of emphasis on budget reform and environmental stewardship. He has a Master’s of Public Administration with a Healthcare Option from the University of Southern California. Add your comments and ideas at CitiesGoGreen.com on being a Bicycle Friendly Community, have shown that fairly small investments pay huge dividends in the popularity of the mayor and general quality of life. When I was on the City Council one of our bigWe all too often are more willing to invest the gest issues was the cost of health care for staff and time at doctors’ offices and in treatment rather employees. That’s true than prevention, and bicycling and walking give whether you’re in business school system us a really easy way to integrate physical activity or running a You invest or whatever. the time on one end or the into our day. other. We all too often are and more (see “drusilla” in Resources). Car more willing to invest the time at doctors’ sharing is also pretty fascinating, because offices and in treatment rather than precar sharing makes it more possible to get vention, and bicycling and walking give us a really easy way to integrate physical along with just one car or even no car. activity into our day. So it’s economic for We can talk all we want about increasing the mayors. walking and biking trips, and for short Then you look at a mayor like Mayor trips, which may be a quarter mile for Daley of Chicago. He did some traveling some or a mile or two miles or whatever, overseas and realized that the best cities that works. But for longer trips you can in Europe were cities that didn’t kowtow combine your walk or bike trip with to the car. So he made a concerted effort putting your bike on a bike rack on the bus. Then we have an opportunity for car to make significant improvements to bicycling and walking. I think you can see, sharing for families who think they can get along with one car, or do without any if you track his term and improvements have been made in Chicago, that they’re cars at all. So we’re seeing an increase in very integrally linked. car sharing programs. At APBP’s suggestion, the Pedestrian and Bicycle Information Center put together a reference for the Mayors Innovation Project, containing most of these links Why would bicycling and walking be important to a mayor? Mayors want their communities to be pretty hip. They want to be appealing to business and families. Now a few mayors, like Mayor Jerry Abramson of Louisville, Kentucky, who’s wanted to be a leader November 2008 What is the Association of Pedestrian and Bicycle Professionals? The Association of Pedestrian and Bicycle Professionals (APBP) is the only professional association of those dedicated to designing, building and advocating for more walkable, bicycle-friendly commu- nities. Our members work at all levels of government, in consulting firms and with non-profit organizations. Biking and Walking Resources Community Planning • completestreets.org • drusilla.hsrc.unc.edu/cms/ downloads/MAYOR_FINAL.pdf • apbp.org • bikeleague.org • louisvilleky.gov/BikeLouisville/ bikefriendly.htm • mayorsinnovation.org Bike Programs • smartbikedc.com • bikestation.org Youth • saferoutesinfo.org • saferoutespartnership.org • gpiatlantic.org/ conference/papers/obrien.pdf • myapa.planning.org/ youthplanning/ • bicyclinginfo.org/ library/details.cfm?id=3972 Kit Keller, JD, is Executive Director of the APBP. She co-founded Wisconsin Walks and served on the Cedarburg City Council in Wisconsin. As a consultant she’s written transportation, land stewardship and public safety grants for communities, helped develop bicycle trails and new transit, promoted walkable communities and facilitated Safe Routes to School programs. 31 http://www.ci.dixon.ca.us/ http://citiesgogreen.com http://citiesgogreen.com http://www.bicyclinginfo.org/index.cfm http://www.bicyclinginfo.org/index.cfm http://mayorsinnovation.org http://mayorsinnovation.org http://www.completestreets.org http://drusilla.hsrc.unc.edu/cms/downloads/MAYOR_FINAL.pdf http://drusilla.hsrc.unc.edu/cms/downloads/MAYOR_FINAL.pdf http://apbp.org http://bikeleague.org http://www.louisvilleky.gov/BikeLouisville/bikefriendly.htm http://www.louisvilleky.gov/BikeLouisville/bikefriendly.htm http://drusilla.hsrc.unc.edu/cms/downloads/MAYOR_FINAL.pdf http://www.mayorsinnovation.org http://www.smartbikedc.com http://bikestation.org http://www.saferoutesinfo.org http://www.saferoutespartnership.org http://www.chicagobikes.org http://gpiatlantic.org/conference/papers/obrien.pdf http://www.chicagobikes.org http://gpiatlantic.org/conference/papers/obrien.pdf http://myapa.planning.org/youthplanning/ http://myapa.planning.org/youthplanning/ http://bicyclinginfo.org/library/details.cfm?id=3972 http://bicyclinginfo.org/library/details.cfm?id=3972 http://apbp.org http://apbp.org http://www.louisvilleky.gov/BikeLouisville/bikefriendly.htm http://citiesgogreen.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of CitiesGoGreen - November 2008

CitiesGoGreen - November 2008 Contents In Motion Disaster Housing for $200: The Hexayurt Coming Soon: A Code-Ready Green Building Standard from ASHRAE ICMA Embraces Sustainability Fort Collins, Colorado Interview: ClimateWise, Business Smart 12-for-1 Parking: Bike Corrals Fresno County More Biking and Walking for Better Communities

CitiesGoGreen - November 2008

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.