Roanoke’s Green Reputation is at best Embattled
Posted on August 30, 2009
In honor of the Green Issue, let’s take an honest look at Roanoke in context. There are hundreds of “green city” surveys out there. All of them use some form of scoring system that weighs everything from air quality to public policy. However, there isn’t really an official “greenest city.” In this brave new world of ecological innovation, perception is reality. The surveys with most readership have the most power to influence public perception. Large publishers commission surveys that will give their readers a useful guide and ultimately sell magazines.
There are plenty of “green” websites out there that do their own research. There’s even a green channel on cable now. So, green has become more than a small niche. It’s a mainstream consideration that’s made even more mainstream by presidential rhetoric. President Obama has introduced policies around green technology, green jobs, green transportation, and green energy. So, in the coming years, you can bet there will be more green magazines out there with green city surveys.
Before all this hoopla, Country Living was partnering with Sperling’s Best Places to rank green cities. When green was still a niche, the large publishers assumed that green consumers were probably reading a magazine about escaping the urban jungle. In 2007, Roanoke ranked 198 out of 397. This survey examines 24 data metrics in 5 major categories — including air and watershed quality, mass transit usage, power usage, farmers markets, organic producers, and number of green-certified buildings. In 2008, Roanoke had dropped to 331 in the same survey.
If being a green city is one of the priorities of our city government, this drop to the bottom of the pack should have set off alarm bells at city hall. Even if it isn’t a top priority, it should have raised some concern that the city was being portrayed as non-green. Being 331 out of 397 puts Roanoke just ahead of some heavily polluted areas of Louisiana and Alabama. So, what’s behind Roanoke’s environmental slide?
A look at healthcare rankings could shed some light on the issue. Every year, US News and World Report publishes America’s Best Hospitals. Carilion Clinic would love to be on this list. Unfortunately, 65% of the ranking is based on a combination of reputation and mortality rate. If you ask physicians around the country to name the best hospitals for any specialty, Carilion Clinic is not being mentioned. And, because it is a non-profit health system serving a vast rural population, Carilion Clinic accepts every critical case that can’t be handled at smaller hospitals, driving up the mortality rate.
In a lot of ways, it’s a classic chicken and egg problem. To build up a reputation, you’ve got to be successful treating the toughest cases. But, to consistently treat the toughest cases, you’ve got to have the reputation to attract and retain the best specialists. If the words “attract and retain” sound vaguely familiar, that’s been Roanoke’s mantra for young professionals for the last five years. Which brings us back to the issue of green cities. Young professionals like green cities. Obviously, Roanoke doesn’t have the reputation of a green city. That’s going to make it tough to attract the kind of people who will influence public policy to actually make it a green city.
Let’s face it. If the Roanoke City Council spends a decade debating a public venue, it’s not going to be able to craft effective public policy that establishes a green reputation for the city. Perhaps a consolidated government that brought all of the valley’s municipalities together would have better luck. But, that’s a completely different bridge that we can’t seem to cross.
As we search for a new City Manager, maybe we should add “green reputation” to the list of criteria. Maybe we should be looking for a new City Manager who will bring a progressive new outlook to the valley. This person may even be able to build consensus among other municipalities in our valley and our neighboring valleys. If recent history is any indication, the closest we’ll get to being green is the recycled cloth from which our leaders are cut.
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