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October 25, 2007
Gauging Houston's Green-ness
There was an interesting piece by Maggie Galehouse in today's Chronicle, featuring some noted Houstonians' rating Houston's "green-ness" on a scale of 1 to 10.
Not surprisingly, Mayor Bill White offered the highest rating -- an 8 out of 10 -- of those interviewed. Hey, he's Mayor; part of his job is being a cheerleader for the city. Others, such as local chef Monica Pope, gave a much lower score.
A wide range of grades are given to Houston's status as a green city in the article, though most titled toward the low end. That such a piece was even run in Houton says a lot about how the discussion of the environment, vis a vis quality of life in Houston, has evolved.
Posted by houtopia at October 25, 2007 11:05 PM
Comments
Today, Friday, Oct 26 I feel that I am fairly green at my house because the cooler temperature eliminates the need for the air conditioner to be on. But most of the time it is unbearable without the AC running on electricity which is mostly produced from burning natural gas and coal. I would have to believe this is also true for most of the homes in the Houton area, so I don't really see how Houston can be considered a very green city. My two story house is a particularly bad energy hog since there is no space on the southwest side to plant a large shade tree. I would like to consider solar panels but the homeowners association would have a fit.
Posted by: ChrisR at October 26, 2007 10:53 AM
Houston gets a 4.
Effective mass transit would really help the city be greener. However, METRO actually eliminated their 30 and 365 day passes--as opposed to simply putting those days on a hard plastic-like credit card as other cities already do.
Then you have to go into downtown to transfer for many routes. We need more routes out where the population is--and more transfer centers. Who wants to loop around twice a day on the bus?
Posted by: Robin at October 29, 2007 01:20 PM