May 5, 2008

As part of Earth Day events April 22, The New England Office of the EPA selected Boston to receive an Environmental Merit Award in recognition of the city’s exceptional work and commitment to the environment in 2007. Mayor Thomas M. Menino said he was proud that Boston has been recognized not only as a leader in the state, but as an example for all of New England.

Recently distinguished as the 3rd greenest city in America by Popular Science Magazine, Boston has taken many steps in 2007 to become a leader in climate action and sustainability. Accomplishments over the past year encompassed a range of initiatives, including energy conservation, renewable energy, alternative fuels and technology, and green buildings. In fact, Boston is the largest municipal purchaser of green electricity in New England and is the first major city in the nation to implement green building zoning requiring new private building construction to follow the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Standards.

2008 will be no different, as the city and Menino continue to push a green agenda. Climate action, green buildings, and alternative energy initiates remain high priorities for the city. Fiscal year 2008 grants will also fund Boston-based businesses to install emissions-reduction equipment on diesel vehicles, building on a similar previous grant to establish incentives for more hybrid and alternative-fuel cabs in the city. As warmer weather approaches, efforts to make Boston a bike-friendly city also continue, with initiatives to install more bike racks and expand the network of bike trails.

“We can be proud of our accomplishments, but we can’t stop,” Menino added. We must continue to find ways to make Boston a more sustainable city. I have committed Boston to reducing its greenhouse gas emissions 80 percent below 1990 levels by the year 2050. We can only reach that goal by working together and realizing that there is always room for improvement. Boston has a very green future ahead of it.”

Newark Mayor Cory A. Booker is leading a city effort and has tried to make prisoner re-entry a signature issue. In a lengthy Sunday April 27 New York Times article profiling the city’s initiative of helping former prisoners, Booker gets high marks as part of a growing cadre of state and local officials trying to tackle the problems confronting prisoner rehabilitation efforts.

Booker has recruited 50 local companies to hire ex-convicts screened by the city’s workforce development agency, rewarding them with tax breaks. He also persuaded 300 lawyers who helped him on his mayoral campaign to felons facing legal obstacles to employment.

Youngstown (OH) Mayor Jay Williams is at the helm of a city that has seen its population shrink by more than half over the past 40 years, leaving behind huge swaths of empty homes, streets and neighborhoods.

An April 14 CNNMoney.com report documents the city’s efforts to implement Plan 2010 that the report termed a radical move is now a model for other post-industrial cities like Flint (MI), Wheeling (WV) and Dayton (OH) to study the plan.

It’s based on shrinkage as opposed to growth and CNN’s report terms it as an odd way to pioneer. The city’s decline in growth traces back to September 19, 1977, Black Monday, when a major steel mill, Youngstown Sheet and Tube abruptly closed its doors. Now a city of 80,000 at that date had 165,000 residents.

Youngstown has been razing empty buildings and offers start-up companies low overhead, affordable housing minutes from work, and new energy and hope for the future.

Conference of Mayors President Trenton Mayor Douglas H. Palmer was interviewed on NBC Nightly News April 25 on the ripple effect of the mortgage crisis and declining property values on public school funding. The segment also highlighted results from the Conference’s report, U.S. Metro Economies: the Mortgage Crisis.