editor Posted July 22, 2009 Share Posted July 22, 2009 Austin (natch) and Dallas have made the National Resources Defense Council's list of America's greenest cities. Houston... did not.Here's the report: http://smartercities.nrdc.org/rankings/largeHere's the chart: http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Wnm0kDRGdc0/Sl-J7U4eV5I/AAAAAAAACFA/4b0b-Vx4BRI/s1600-h/citygrid.jpg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rsb320 Posted July 22, 2009 Share Posted July 22, 2009 That's odd because we got accolades from another publication recently. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Houston19514 Posted July 22, 2009 Share Posted July 22, 2009 Austin (natch) and Dallas have made the National Resources Defense Council's list of America's greenest cities. Houston... did not.Here's the report: http://smartercities.nrdc.org/rankings/largeHere's the chart: http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Wnm0kDRGdc0/Sl-J7U4eV5I/AAAAAAAACFA/4b0b-Vx4BRI/s1600-h/citygrid.jpgActually, Houston is at #18, compared to Dallas' #14 and Austin's #6. You have to go to page 2 of the report.I look forward to reading it more in-depth to see the sources and methodology of their rankings. Seems very odd that Dallas got a "high" ranking for water quality and conservation while Houston got a "low ranking in that category, when just last week I read an article about how Dallas lags seriously behind Austin and Houston on water conservation and is having trouble finding enough sources of water to supply itself for the future. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kylejack Posted July 22, 2009 Share Posted July 22, 2009 We're number 4 in amount of green space. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Houston19514 Posted July 22, 2009 Share Posted July 22, 2009 Their analysis of standard of living is highly suspect. They say it's based on affordability, and yet both Dallas and Houston ranked "low". Crazy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kylejack Posted July 22, 2009 Share Posted July 22, 2009 They're certainly correct that our recycling program has been pathetic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheNiche Posted July 22, 2009 Share Posted July 22, 2009 We're number 4 in amount of green space....yet we don't rank for the Standard of Living category. They explained their motivation for using this category: "The affordability of a city is critical to its sustainability—without livable wages, the advantages of green space and other environmental benefits may be priced out of reach for many." Yet, the top two cities were San Jose and San Francisco! Houston ranks #45.The way they constructed the index, it actually seems to rate cities based on the relative wealth of its population. No attempt is made to account for middle- or lower-income households that don't live in these places and thus aren't included in the data because they couldn't afford to in the first place.Another important thing to realize is that these are comparing municipalities, not metropolitan areas. Houston is ridiculously large, encompassing a disproportionately large number of the metro area's poorest residents. Seattle has Tacoma to keep it looking good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kylejack Posted July 22, 2009 Share Posted July 22, 2009 Yeah, its kind of funny that having low-income people hurts you in this study. Houston has a lot of immigrants and etc. making lesser wages. Have they considered that other cities are pricing all these people out of the market?? Its really dumb. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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