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We're Number 8!

bespin%20is%20on%20fire.jpgPopular Science released its list of the 50 Greenest cities in the U.S. recently. Of course, liberal, green Seattle was on it. We came in eighth. It surprised no one at Seattlest HQ, however, that our neighbor to the South, namely Portland, came in first since some of us believe that Portland is better and we all love PDX regardless.

Popular Science "collected survey data and government statistics for American cities of over 100,000 people in more than 30 categories, including air quality, electricity use and transportation habits" to come up with a city's score and ranking.

As we said, PDX's ranking is not a surprise. What is, though, is that Seattle scored higher in the Transportation category than #1 Portland. HUH?

High scores go to cities whose commuters take public transportation or carpool. Air quality also plays a role.

Huh. Who'da thunk it?

We did score lower than PDX in the electricity category, which may surprise some considering our reliance on hydroelectricity. It's not off base though. Although City Light uses hydro power, they have to supplement in the winter (and in the summer during low-water years) with natural-gas fired plants and even a coal-powered one here and there. Portland General Electric, meanwhile, uses a lot of hydro and supplements with wind power.

Anyway, at least we're still in the top 10. Next year, we want Seattle to move up that list. One way would be to improve on our score of 3.9 points out of a possible 5 in the Recycling and green perspective category by fully implementing our Zero-Waste strategy.

The picture is called Bespin is on Fire and was taken by J_H_P who is a member of the Seattlest Flickr Pool..

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By Charles Redell in on February 21, 2008 11:05 AM

Comments [rss]

  • LarryB

    Well, in Germany most public places have four receptacles, one each for paper, glass, plastic and finally one for everything else. It seems to work pretty well.



    I can't believe that we scored better than PDX on transit, considering how inconvenient Metro and Sound Transit are unless you work downtown.

  • ToasterDan

    Tony: Toronto uses waste/recycling boxes that actually have three slots: one for paper, one for bottles/cans, and one for trash. They also have lots of advertising though.



    So other cities do have them, granted that's in Canada.

  • jwhieger

    I have a hard time thinking of Portland as super Eco Friendly when there is a massive, filthy river flowing right through the heart of the bitch.

  • Wow. The top spots are really close. There's only 1 point difference between us (8) and PDX (1). Let's kick some ass, folks. We have one year to gain some yardage. 22 is still a ways from a perfect 30.

  • So let me get this straight. MORE Seattleites use Mass-Transit than Portlanders, yet they have the RTS. Damn, imagine if we would have had rails. They'd be the (green) envy of the nation.



    Yeah, that pun was intended. Don't piss me off because I got a lot more and I'm not afraid of using them.



    On a serious note, though, can we get paper recycling on the street corners? That'd have to get us at least 4.5 out of 5 right there. I'm not sure if there are any cities that do that- does anyone else here know?

  • mattwright

    Not sure about us beeting Portland on public transport.. Sounds crazy to me. The public transport system there seems far more advanced than Seattle's. A recent weekend away in Portland actually made me see how backward Seattle is in mass commuting. But hey, glad to see we are in the top 10.

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