Conscious Choice: How Green is Our Mayor?

April 2004

How Green is Our Mayor?

by Dan Johnson-Weinberger

You gotta give it to him. In the rough-’n’-tumble, windy world of Chicago politics, Mayor Richard Daley, in an impressive display of measured determination, has waggled his “green” footprint into the muddy but malleable environmental loam of this city. Although it’s a bit too soon to dub him America’s “Environmental Mayor,” he has moved forward with some spectacular and innovative environmental successes. Yet Chicago is still burdened with nagging ecoproblems, and it is not clear the mayor is prepared to do what needs to be done to tackle them.

The contrasts are stunning: the lakefront ranks among the best parks in the world, while the Chicago River is still essentially an industrial channel where swimming is verboten. The city touts a nationally renowned Center for Green Technology on the West Side but also is home to two carcinogen-spewing coal-burning power plants in residential neighborhoods. And, of course, we’ve yet to enact a smoking ban that allows us to take deep breaths in public places.

During an interview with Conscious Choice, Mayor Daley outlined his dream of making Chicago “America’s Greenest City.” Despite the glaring environmental problems that he has yet to address, his accomplishments so far have put him on the national stage. In fact, a New York magazine, Metropolis, shared our interview time, as it, too, was reporting on the mayor’s environmental endeavors.

Minister of Green

Since we weighed in last year (Conscious Choice, April 2003, “Chicago, America’s Greenest City?”), there have been new developments underscoring the mayor’s commitment to his “green” initiatives. Most notable is his hiring of Sadhu Johnston who came on with the official title “Assistant to the Mayor for Green Initiatives.” By creating a staff position that focuses solely on this mission, the mayor’s intent is clear: “I mean business!” Johnston is charged with goosing the various city departments as they ponder their mandate to become more environmentally friendly (see the Johnston sidebar below).

Lakefront Gems

Just as notable or, in this case, notorious, is the mayor’s surreptitious shutdown of Meigs Field in the dead of night, sparking national condemnation for destroying the small airport and for making mockery of the idea of public input. However, he did please one group of people — environmentalists. Meigs Field is to be tranformed into Northerly Island, a publicly accessible green space that will enhance the already amazing lakefront. No real work has been done on the former airport yet, but when the concrete runways are finally replaced with green parks, Northerly Island should be an absolute gem.

Similarly, the expansion of the public-use lakefront around Soldier Field is remarkable. The reclaimed “museum campus” flows into a grassy area around the football stadium, complete with a sledding hill. The mayor (and the Chicago City Council, Chicago Park District and Illinois General Assembly) invited criticism for spending $400 million in public funds to build a football stadium in lieu of schools, libraries, transit lines or hundreds of other far-more-worthy projects. (And since all that taxpayer money basically increases the value of the Chicago Bears, the $400 million might be considered a Chicago form of corporate welfare to the McCaskey family that owns the Bears). Yet even at that, the expansion of green space is progress for environmentalists.

Water Quality

Water quality is high on the list of the mayor’s green initiatives. For one, the city has developed a detailed water quality/conservation agenda that includes making residents of all single-family homes accountable for their water use. Currently, only 15 percent of these homes have a water meter. It’s been shown that when people pay for the amount of water they use, they tend to conserve it. Mayor Daley believes that new technology will deliver a cheap way to meter homes, but there’s no definite plan in action.

The Chicago River continues to be a nagging problem, although the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) says it’s the cleanest it’s been in over a century. Even at that, 60 percent of the river’s flow is treated human and industrial-waste water. To his credit, the Mayor has enlisted the Illinois EPA to study the river, which may result in rigorous standards for sewage pumped into its canals and channels.

Private Sector Involvement

Making the private business sector accountable to the environment is another approach that Daley is pursuing.”We’re starting with big-box retailers,” says the mayor. An excellent example of this is plans for a new Wal-Mart on the Southside. (Yes, we could take exception to a Wal-Mart even being built, but that’s a story for another day.) The city has convinced the retailer to incorporate into its construction a “green roof,” as well as a more permeable parking lot (that retains more runoff).

Green Roofs

Of course, the green roof has been a hallmark of Daley’s “Green City” evolution. Besides creating a natural oasis, that greenery is good for the bottom line. It saves on cooling costs, and the plants help clean the air of exhaust pollution. The mayor is justifiably pumped with pride on this one and speaks with near glee about the City Hall green roof, “Birds are up there and no one believed there’d be grasshoppers up there! We also have prairie grass. Last year I put in beehives.”

Smoking Ban?

Speaking of exhaust pollution, how can Chicago be considered the “Greenest City in America” while second-hand smoke still threatens our air quality? The mayor could go a long way toward crystallizing his legacy as a “green” leader if he directed his considerable clout toward getting a smoking-ban passed in Chicago.

Aldermen Ed Smith (28th) and Edward Burke (14th) are both vociferous, longtime supporters of a smoking ban who floated antismoking legislation in 2002, but neither could muster the city council votes. As Smith puts it, “If the mayor wants it done, it would be done immediately.”

Alternative Fuel

The mayor can savor a triumph in building up an infrastructure for alternative fuels. A model fueling station has opened at 65th and State. It uses almost every smart environmental design idea out there — solar panels, storm water retention, a nature area, permeable alleys and recycled oil.

Only thing, there’s not much in the city fleet that can make use of it. Nearly all of the city’s vehicles run on regular old gasoline. Moreover, there isn’t a single hybrid electric-gasoline car in the fleet. With all the troubles around oil, progressive cities need to take the lead in weaning our economy off of oil.

There are fueling stations that offer alternative, less-polluting fuel such as compressed natural gas, but the city is not taking advantage of that existing infrastructure either.

Transit

There’s been minimal advancement in this area. Users of transit took a hit this year as a fare jumped from $1.50 to $1.75, and ridership in 2003 shrunk for the first time in five years. The increased fare is set against an increased investment in transit, with beautiful new bus shelters, remodeled stations and continued work on the Blue Line redevelopment.

The 2000 new bus shelters are installed and maintained by the French company JCDecaux. The city doesn’t pay a dime for these shelters; instead, JCDecaux gets to sell advertising on the shelters with the city getting a cut.

The massive O’Hare expansion plan does not currently include any real plans for a high-speed rail connection (such as Newark Airport). This is unfortunate, as the development of a Midwest high-speed rail network is just as important to Chicago as modernizing O’Hare airport.

The city’s commitment to bicycling remains admirable, as 93 miles of a planned 200-mile on-street bike lane are completed. The city’s expectation is that more residents will bike to work if the trek is made convenient and safe, ultimately easing congestion and pollution.

Renewable Energy

Since cities are among the biggest electrical users around, progressive cities are purchasing some of their power from renewable sources. Right now, 10 percent of Chicago’s electricity is renewable, and the city’s press office promises that the usage is projected to go to 20 percent by summer. However, none of the sister agencies (the Chicago Transit Authority, the Chicago Housing Authority, the Chicago Park District, the Chicago School Board) use any renewable energy.

In addition, even the most aggressive timetable for renewable energy leaves 80 percent of our electricity produced by coal and nuclear power (not to mention all the power purchased by homes and businesses). And some of that coal power comes from two old plants located in residential neighborhoods on the Southwest Side. The Fisk and Crawford power plants in Pilsen, owned by Midwest Generation (with $7 billion in assets) continue to spew carcinogenic-pollutants when they burn coal. See “Choice Quotes from the Mayor” for more insight.

Dan Johnson-Weinberger is a writer and Chicago lawyer. His Web site is www.djw.info

Our Green Card: Daley’s Legacy-in-the-Making

What’s Done:

• Hired an “Assistant to the Mayor for Green Initiatives”

• Got the Illinois EPA to study the filthy Chicago River

• Mobilized his rooftop garden “movement”

• Put alternative-fuel infrastructure in place

• Considering recycling alternatives

What’s To Do:

• Back a Chicago smoking-ban

• Cleanup the Fisk & Crawford coal burning plants

• Accelerate private sector involvement in “greening”

• Immediately purchase hybrid electric vehicles

• Bag the Blue Bag program

ChoiceQuotes from the Mayor

On recycling:

“The whole idea of recycling is critical. Bottles, cans, plastic, batteries. ...The city of Chicago, [how much] are we recycling? Does the park district recycle? We have to educate a bureaucracy about how important recycling is.”

On the Blue Bag Recycling program:

“Recycling is struggling. We have to come up with a better solution than blue bags. You can’t find them in certain locations and some people think they’re too costly.”

Comment: The mayor is hopeful that a pilot program in the 47th ward that’s putting blue stickers on a regular bag will get more people recycling. But some recycling advocates argue that Chicago should institute a separate curbside pickup for recyclable materials. Mayor Daley rejects a separate pickup, arguing that it would be too expensive.

On the polluting Fisk and Crawford coal power plants:

“They have to clean it...and when they [eventually do] clean it, we’ll make sure they clean 100 percent of it, whether it’s the city or state or feds [that do it].”

Comment: Chicago Aldermen Edward Burke and Danny Solis introduced an ordinance two years ago to stamp out cancer-causing pollution from filthy old coal power plants. Unfortunately, it has been buried in a City Council committee for more than two years, largely because Mayor Daley has refused to support it. The only way Midwest Generation will clean up its Fisk and Crawford plants is if the city imposes modern pollution standards through an ordinance like the Burke/Solis proposal. Until Daley supports that ordinance, Fisk and Crawford will remain two black eyes on the mayor’s environmental record.

On sister agencies like the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) following the city’s lead on renewable electricity:

“They’re coming to the table now and working with us. If [the city doesn’t] lead, then no one follows in the private sector. The government has to do it, and show that it’s economical and saves money, and that it’s a good thing.”

Comment: This could be a big deal. If Mayor Daley follows through on his policy (and convinced the independent agencies to follow the city’s lead), the market for renewable energy would leap dramatically.

Chicago’s Minister of Green

Ever notice those city drinking fountains that run non-stop? No longer. As part of its water conservation program, the Chicago Park District is retrofitting all public drinking fountains in the city so they won’t flow 24 hours a day.

It’s one of the myriad details bundled into the green initiatives program that Sadhu Johnston oversees as Mayor Daley’s handpicked assistant for green initiatives, a custom-made position on the mayor’s executive staff.

Johnston was “discovered” by Daley when the mayor traveled to Cleveland to tour one of the “green” buildings that Johnston had equipped. The 29-year-old founded the Cleveland Green Building Coalition and served as its executive director. His pioneering environmental successes in that city attracted the attention of Daley, who offered him the newly created job. “My role is to bring the department of environment into each department,” said Johnston who started his new work last October.

Johnston is responsible for ensuring that every agency, not just the department of environment, considers the environmental consequences of city actions. From city purchasing of environmentally friendly products to creating alleys that retain more storm water to requiring that new construction includes green roofs — an environmentally active city government can accomplish a lot.

“The mayor’s interest and my interest aren’t just about greening from the environmental perspective,” says Johnston, “it’s really about making the city healthy, smart and green.” — DJW

Recommend this page to a friend

Top Ten pages recommended to friends: