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Greenbelt Alliance In the News

June 1-7, 2005

Alternative visions

Five Bay Area conservationists are thinking globally – but outside the mainstream consensus – about sustainability

But have we really found solutions to the challenges facing modern cities, or is the Bay Area just better at crafting the image of what green cities should be? Below we present five alternative visions – written by grassroots activists – of what our urban landscape could become.

A common theme you'll find in each is the need to go beyond piecemeal attempts at fixing problems like air pollution and urban sprawl. It's not enough simply to substitute a "clean" fuel for a dirty one, for example, without tackling the entire transportation system and how it interrelates with the way we build affordable housing.

We begin with Eve Bach, an economist with a group called ARC Ecology, who says Treasure Island will be a major testing ground for San Francisco once it assumes control of the island within the next year or so. She makes the case that housing density, often a touchy subject with progressives, is the key to developing Treasure Island into an ecological oasis.

Next is Beth Grossman, a self-employed artist living in Brisbane, who came up with a way to turn the former San Francisco dump into a significant asset for her city. Rather than paving over the land and putting a Wal-Mart or a Home Depot there, an idea the Brisbane City Council is currently considering, Grossman proposes a testing ground for the latest breakthroughs in detoxification technologies.

Joshua Abraham, director of a new initiative called Reclaim the Future, draws the vital connection between the prison-industrial complex and the lack of jobs in green industries available to people of color. He says any discussion of waste reduction must begin by dealing with all the human lives that are thrown away when our cities' young women and men are thrown behind bars.

Like each of the other contributors, Tom Steinbach, long-time executive director of the Greenbelt Alliance, believes there are ways to reconfigure the urban landscape that are right under our noses. Chances are you've driven right past them.

And finally, we spoke with Peter Berg, who runs the foundation Planet Drum and believes urban sustainability must be viewed in a "bioregional" context. For the past six years, Berg has helped transform Bahia de Caraquez, Ecuador, into a model eco-city following a series of devastating natural disasters...

Tom Steinbach: Smart Growth
Since 1958 Greenbelt Alliance has been working to achieve a sustainable Bay Area. For us, sustainability means a region with a thriving economy, thriving communities, and a thriving environment. It also means that, as a region, we don't export our problems to other places. Today we're sending air pollution, waste, and sprawling development to other parts of California and the world.

The solution involves thinking differently about how and where we grow. Over the next 15 years, the nine counties in the Bay Area will add one million people. The choice is ours. We can direct this growth into our existing cities and towns and protect the region's farmlands and natural areas or continue pushing new growth to the edges of the region. Staying with the status quo means more traffic, more pollution, and more stress as commutes get longer.

Innovative developments in places like Mission Bay, north San Jose, Oakland's Uptown neighborhood, El Camino Real in San Mateo County, and San Pablo Avenue in the East Bay are seeking to create livable, walkable communities with good jobs and affordable housing. By investing in these already developed areas, we can reduce pressure to pave rolling hills and productive farms. Done right, these projects also make it possible for families to find housing they can afford near work. Guiding growth in this way is the key to community, economic, and environmental health and, ultimately, to a sustainable region...

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