Magazine gushes over Daley's environmental record

October 28, 2004

BY JANET RAUSA FULLER Staff Reporter





It's enough to make other big city mayors green with envy.

Mayor Daley is one of the 50 top environmental power brokers in the nation, Organic Style magazine says in its November issue.

Daley, ranked 28th and the only mayor to make the eclectic list of "eco-superstars," is lauded for his efforts to make Chicago "one of the most environmentally friendly cities in the world."

"I always thought those of us who live in urban areas should be more concerned about the environment than anyone else," Daley is quoted as saying.

Also making the list: potential first lady Teresa Heinz Kerry, who has given more than $200 million to ecological causes; Whole Foods Market president and CEO John Mackey, and actress Cameron Diaz, who tools around Tinseltown in a hybrid Toyota Prius.

The magazine cites the July opening of Millennium Park as one of Daley's greatest projects -- though it neglects to mention the park opened four years late and cost three times what Daley had estimated.

"But it happened in the end. There's so many cities that don't have anything like that," said Pam O'Brien, articles director for Organic Style.

The magazine also mentions Daley-inspired touches such as rooftop gardens scattered across town that insulate and reduce pollution. The original one atop City Hall, installed in 2000 at Daley's request after he took a trip to Europe, is home to beehives that last year produced 150 jars of honey. The honey was auctioned off to benefit Gallery 37.

There are more than 100 rooftop gardens on public and private buildings in Chicago, Environment Commissioner Marcia Jimenez said.

Another Daley initiative for the city to get 20 percent of its electricity from renewable sources such as wind and solar energy should be complete next year, a year ahead of schedule, Jimenez said. "That's what a leader can do," she said.
------------------------------------------

I had no clue that 20% of Chicago's electrical needs were from renewable sources.

It's not... yet.

^Another Daley initiative for the city to get 20 percent of its electricity from renewable sources such as wind and solar energy should be complete next year, a year ahead of schedule

Close enough.

As much as I want to believe it, I still find it difficult the believe that Chicago is on the forefront of being green.
After living in the "Politically Correct" Northwest (Seattle and Portland) for so many years where everybody recycles everything, where they haven't been allowed to serve "take out" in styrofoam containers since the eighties, where people by products based soley upon which one has the least amount of packaging so as not to add to the land fills, and so and so on, it just seems impossible that we could be on this "forefront".
I am not convinced that they actually do sort through the blue bags, and recycle, think, it is more likely that they sort through about 20% of them and the rest are loaded upon train cars, then hauled out and dumped and buried in Iowa or some other god forsaken place where nobody will notice.
It all this is true, I am happy to hear it, I just can't believe it.

^Lets start with the percent of people that use public transporation instead of driving there poluting cars. That right there alone puts everything else in Seatle or Portland to shame.

Recycling is a habit that is common everywhere, including where I live down South. No one thinks twice of it, it's just habit. Of course, if we have a coke can in a public place, we don't go to the trouble of trying to find a blue bin to throw it away in.

I think thats pretty impressive. I have always liked the idea of having green gardens on roof tops. I think its a great way to utilize unused space. And to compare Chicago to Seattle, I believe that because Chicago is a much larger city, many green incentives may be less noticible then they would be somewhere like Seattle.