PPG, a Creative Commons Attribution (2.0) image from Sabbath Photography’s photostream

“I am convinced that our people want clean air. There is no other single thing which will so dramatically improve the appearance, the health, the pride, the spirit of the city.”

- Pittsburgh Mayor David L. Lawrence in his 1946 inaugural speech

For over a century, Pittsburgh was known for the foulness of our air — it was the “The Smoky City.” Pittsburgh was called “hell with the lid off” in an 1866 article in The Atlantic Monthly and “the dirtiest pile of slag in the United States” by the National Municipal Review in 1944. In the 1939 film The City (video here), scene after scene of Pittsburgh is used as the prime example of how we had destroyed our cities through pollution. An extreme concentration of heavy industry often turned day into night and destroyed the health of the citizens, but as the film’s narrator intones, “smoke makes prosperity — no matter if you choke on it.” By the 1940′s, even businesses were threatening to leave, but a new mayor rose to the challenge. David L. Lawrence’s campaign slogan was “Smoke Must Go.” He built alliances with the private sector and in 1949, a comprehensive anti-pollution law was passed.

“Midday darkness” Credit: Smoke Control Lantern Slides, Archives Service Center, University of Pittsburgh (link)

Flash-forward to 2011. No one can now call Pittsburgh “The Smoky City,” but we’ve fallen behind in keeping our air clean and safe. The American Lung Association’s “State of the Air 2011″ report rated Pittsburgh’s air quality as “the nation’s third most polluted area for short-term particle pollution for the second year in a row.” Again, we face a risk to both the health and lives of our residents and to our economic prosperity.

One form of particle pollution is diesel emissions — these contain over 40 toxic air contaminants, carcinogens, ozone smog-forming compounds, and fine particulate matter (“soot”). Exposure to fine particles is known to cause asthma attacks, heart attacks, lung cancer, strokes, and even premature deaths. The lifetime cancer risk from diesel soot in our community exceeds the risk of all other air toxins tracked by the EPA combined. Diesel soot cancer risk in the Pittsburgh area is 124 times greater than EPA’s acceptable cancer level of 1 in a million — our risk is 1 in 8,064. Additionally, emergency room visits for children with asthma-like symptoms is 400% higher in Pittsburgh than other cities. Now, imagine you have a company looking to start-up or relocate your business. How likely would you be to choose a city with the third highest short-term particle pollution? How likely would you be to want to move your family to a city with record levels of asthma-like symptoms for kids?

Again, a challenge needed to be met. An EPA study showed that the construction sector creates between 32% and 37% of all mobile source emissions. Moreover, when construction vehicles are used in publicly-funded projects, we are paying for them — with our tax dollars — to pollute our air. Hence, the Clean Air Act.

The Clean Air Act is our city’s first clean-air bill since the era of late Mayor David Lawrence. A year in the making, it requires contractors working on publicly-funded construction projects budgeted at $2,500,000 or more in the City of Pittsburgh to use cleaner diesel fuel and to have pollution controls on their vehicles and equipment. It’s estimated that this will reduce the soot from heavy equipment by 85% or more (vehicles and equipment used on public construction will, of course, also end up being used on privately-funded projects).

The prime sponsor of the Clean Air Act is Councilman Bill Peduto. Initial co-sponsors on Pittsburgh City Council included Bruce Kraus, Doug Shields and Natalia Rudiak, and were later joined by Darlene Harris and Theresa Smith. The Clean Air Act was passed unanimously by City Council on Tuesday, July 12th. But, just as in Lawrence’s time, legislation like this required a coalition of support and this one included labor, business, environmental, faith, advocacy and community groups — 42 in total.

The list of supporters includes: Pittsburgh UNITED (comprised of ACTION United, Clean Water Action, Group Against Smog and Pollution, Hill District Consensus Group, Mon Valley Unemployed Committee, Pittsburgh Branch NAACP, Pittsburgh Interfaith Impact Network, SEIU, Sierra Club, and United Food and Commercial Workers Local 23, Ironworkers Local 3, Just Harvest, United Steelworkers); GTECH; 9Mile Run Watershed Association; Sustainable Pittsburgh; One Hill Coalition; PennEnvironment; Urban Green Growth Collaborative; RePower America; Turtle Creek Watershed; Blue Green Alliance; United Jewish Federation Environmental Committee; Three Rivers Wet Weather; American Rivers; Bioneers; Northside Common Ministries; 3 Rivers Water Keeper; Pink Coat Communications; CHEC; Friend’s Meeting House; Workers United; Women for a Healthy Environment; Penn Future; Women and Girls Foundation; One Pittsburgh; Audubon Society of Western Pennsylvania; Bike Pittsburgh; Conservation Consultants, Inc.; Royal Tribe Music; Squirrel Hill Urban Coalition; Small World One Daycare Center.

You can view the Clean Air Act here and the companion “10 Year Clean Diesel Policy” Resolution here.

Congratulations and thanks to all the supporters. And, congratulations to the residents of the City of Pittsburgh who will reap the benefits of cleaner air!

End of the Day, a Creative Commons Attribution (2.0) image from t3knomanser’s photostream

TypeCon 2010 Los Angeles: Famous LA Traffic Jam, a Creative Commons Attribution (2.0) image from FontFont’s photostream

Sustainable communities promote sustainable living by providing people with access to affordable housing, increasing their transportation options, lowering their transportation costs, and at the same time, protecting the environment to better support local economies. Being able to live in a diverse community that is close to where you work and where you can purchase local produce and patronize local businesses helps the environment, the local economy and your pocketbook. Additionally, healthy, safe and walkable neighborhoods are communities where people want to live. With this in mind, two years ago, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT), and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) joined together to form The Partnership for Sustainable Communities.

The Partnership “works to coordinate federal housing, transportation, water and other infrastructure investments” to help accomplish sustainability. They do this through providing new funding opportunities, working to reduce barriers at the federal level, and by talking to residents and businesses in hundreds of communities. On June 16th, The Partnership for Sustainable Communities will celebrate their two year anniversary. They have created webinars which you can participate in to learn more about their efforts (listed below). You can also learn more about sustainable communities at Smart Growth America.

A Variety of Transportation Options:

DC Dupont multimodal, a Creative Commons Attribution (2.0) image from faceless b’s photostream

Celebrating Two Years of Partnership
What: Join the senior leadership of the federal Partnership for Sustainable Communities to celebrate the Partnership’s two-year anniversary and to talk about what initiatives are coming next.
Who: Beth Osborne, Deputy Assistant Secretary, DOT; Shelley Poticha, Director, Office of Sustainable Housing and Communities, HUD; John Frece, Director, Office of Sustainable Communities, EPA; and Derek Douglas, Special Assistant to the President for Urban Affairs (Invited)
When: Thursday, June 16, 2011 – 1:00 PM EDT
Where: Click here to register for this webinar. Call-in information will be sent to registrants.

Long Term Affordability Near Transit
What: A webinar that will highlight innovative affordable transit-oriented development initiatives across the country, including Austin, Texas and Fairfax County, Virginia – two jurisdictions that have put long-term affordable homeownership mechanisms into place to create and sustain equitable transit-oriented communities.
Who: Co-Hosted by Cornerstone Partnership, the Center for Housing Policy, and the National Housing Conference; Allison Brooks, Chief of Staff, Reconnecting America; John L. Payne A.I.A, Deputy Director for Real Estate, Fairfax County Department of Housing and Community Development; Kelly Weiss, Executive Director, PeopleTrust in Austin, TX; Moderated by Ryan Sherriff, Center for Housing Policy
When: Thursday, June 16, 2011. The two-part event begins at 2:30 p.m. ET with a 90-minute webinar that will provide an opportunity to listen to each speaker as well as ask questions.
Where: Register here

Understanding Mixed-Income Transit-Oriented Development
What: This event will focus on introducing participants to the benefits, strategies, and challenges of mixed-income transit-oriented development and will introduce a useful tool, the “Mixed-Income TOD Action Guide.”
Who: Center for Transit-Oriented Development
When: Tuesday, June 21, 2011 2:00 PM – 3:30 PM EDT
Where: Click here to register

Mixed-Income Development:

B-dairy tnhome with SFD PDX, a Creative Commons Attribution (2.0) image from faceless b’s photostream

Pedestrian Street:

Pedestrian Street – Athens, a Creative Commons Attribution (2.0) image from UrbanGrammar’s photostream

Walkable Communities:

Housing Community, a Creative Commons Attribution (2.0) image from www.urbancityarch.com’s photostream

World in Your Hand, a Creative Commons Attribution (2.0) image from biblicone’s photostream

Bruce Katz is the vice president and founding director of the Metropolitan Policy Program for the Brookings Institution. He’s also a visiting professor at the London School of Economics and has served under the Obama administration (full bio here). In the following video, he details how “everything is about to change and, frankly, everything is changing” regarding the energy we use.

The migration from carbon fuels to a more sustainable mix will change our infrastructure, the products we buy, and the homes and buildings we inhabit. Katz likens the change to the transformation brought about by the Information Revolution in its far-reaching effects. He notes that “this is a competition” on a global level and questions how the United States will fare when countries like China and Germany are already ahead of us and determined to stay out in front.

Councilman Bill Peduto has worked closely with Katz and the Brookings Institution over the years. He was part of the “Back to Prosperity: A Competitive Agenda for Renewing Pennsylvania” project and was one of only a handful of Pennsylvania elected officials asked to be involved with “Renew PA” in order to help steer recommendations to actions.

On Thursday the State Senate will vote to approve the final passage of two regulations that will help protect Pennsylvania’s waterways from the consequences of Marcellus Shale drilling and pollution created by development.  The first regulation, the Wastewater Treatment Requirements, would require drillers to reduced the number of total dissolved solids in drilling wastewater to drinking water quality levels before it can be released back into streams and rivers.  The second resolution, Erosion and Sediment Control, would require companies to maintain a 150 feet vegetation buffer between any development and Pennsylvania’s best streams and rivers.

Polluters across the state are fighting against the passage of these clean water regulations, and we need your help to fight back.  Please contact your state senator before the vote at 12pm on Thursday to voice your support for these regulations.

Learn more – check out PennFuture’s “Take Action to Protect Clean Water”

A new report by the Keystone Research Center shows that Pennsylvania has begun to invest in sustainable development across the state.  Between 2003 and 2008, Pennsylvania’s three major economic development assistant programs invested more aid per capita into older cities and towns than into “outer townships.”  KRC also released data on how the state’s major metropolitan areas distributed the business subsidies they received, and ranked that data in order from the most investment into older communities to the least.  Of the 9 areas examined, Pittsburgh was tied with Lancaster for 6th, behind Erie, Reading, Harrisburgh, Philadelphia and Scranton – Wilkes Barre.

To learn more, read the report.

The Creative Neighborhood Revitalization Taskforce, a group of students at The Ohio State University, are among the many speaking out for sustainable development and investment in older communities.  It is imperative that the Pittsburgh region begins to focus on reversing our cycle of sprawl and decline, and emerges as a leader in Pennsylvania and the nation in the practice of revitalizing our older communities through smart growth practices.  Watch a video created by The Creative Neighborhood Revitalization Taskforce below.

On Friday, May 21st, the Regional Green Economy Task Force will host the Green Pathways to Prosperity Summit in Pittsburgh.

This summit will bring together government officials, clergy, organizational leaders, business leaders and community advocates who represent traditionally disadvantaged constituencies for a day of discussion on how Pittsburgh can attain the goal of a socially just, economically prosperous and environmentally sustainable future.  Key topics of the summit will include climate change, environmental justice, emerging industries, and public policy.

The goals of the Green Pathways to Prosperity summit are to both contribute to a more informed group of community leaders, and to also inspire collaboration between those in attendance.  For more information on this summit, contact Khari Mosley at k.mosley@gtechstrategies.org.

On Monday, November 16th, the Northstar Commuter Rail trains made their first trip shuttling commuters into downtown Minneapolis.

The rail line was first conceived in 1993, and finished this year $10 million dollars under its original budget. This is the second rail system that Minneapolis has seen in recent years – in 2003 Hiawatha, a light rail system, was introduced there.

Read More About the North Star Debut

Earlier this year, Councilman Bill Peduto presented to Council the findings from a six-month study on the possibility of a commuter rail line in Pittsburgh. This city line would connect Hazelwood on the Monongahela River to Lawrenceville on the Allegheny River. It would pass near The Technology Center, Schenley Park, CMU and Oakland, The Baum-Centre Corridor, Bloomfield and Lawrenceville.

But this line would also be just one link in a multi-county regional system. Not only would it connect to the Mon Valley and Westmoreland County – via Norfolk-Southern -and the Allegheny Valley and Armstrong County – via the AVRR (which are two projects being pushed right now), but the CSX line itself extends North along Route 8 all the way to New Castle in Lawrence County, and South to Washington, PA. This leaves many possibilities open for further expansion in the future. Investment in this rail line for Pittsburgh would be a long-term investment in regional transportation.

Earlier this year, Councilman Bill Peduto introduced a plan to create an LED energy-efficient lighting system in the City of Pittsburgh. This plan would not only create a more environmentally-friendly lighting system, but would also save money for City residents by reducing lighting costs for years to come.

But this plan is not just about replacing light bulbs – this plan is also about creating a new model of urban lighting. This new model needs to utilize technology to do more than just create an energy-efficient system- it needs to realize the potential that light offers in creating a safe, livable community.

In New York City, Leni Schwendinger is an artist an designer who leads “Lightwalks” through the City at night. During these walks, Schwendinger shows participants the importance of street lighting in the night life ambience, and looks at street lights in terms of what they add to the community. Check out this video to learn more, and see part of one of Schwendinger’s Light Walks.

Also, check out this article from TreeHugger.com – Nightlife Made Sustainable: Street Lights that Match Evening Sensitivities Save Considerable Energy.  This article discusses the possibility of redesigning street lights to utilize less energy by using information about what part of the light spectrum the human eye is most sensitive to in the dark.

At the beginning of October, an initiative called the “Breath Easy, Stay Healthy” campaign was introduced with the goal of reducing the fine soot pollution in Pittsburgh’s air.  This fine soot is the main cause of Pittsburgh’s number one ranking as the “Dirtiest Air” city for two consecutive years.  This initiative was introduced by Citizens for Pennsylvania’s Future (PennFuture), and joined by leaders from the Group Against Smog and Pollution (GASP) and Clean Water Action, along with Dr. Evelyn O. Talbott of the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health Department of Epidemiology and Allegheny County Council President Richard Fitzgerald.

Councilman Bill Peduto will also be a part of this campaign with his “Code Green” initiative, as he begins to work on greening the City’s laws in accordance with the Pittsburgh Climate Action Plan.  These amendments will work to cut both air pollution and greenhouse gas emission in Pittsburgh.

To learn more about the ”Breath Easy, Stay Healthy” campaign, read the PennFuture press release.

A recent article in The New York Times also discusses the issue of air pollution, but looks at how a reduction in air pollutant emissions can lead to an increase in polluted waters.  Read the article here.