Team Obama Adviser: Here’s How to Make Sustainability Mainstream
Shelley Poticha, head of the Obama administration’s inter-agency sustainable communities push, is so new to the job that the legislation
creating her office has yet to be officially approved by Congress –
but she has already hit upon two goals aimed at remaking the way
Americans, and their government, view local development.
Shelley Poticha (Photo: NRDC via Flickr)Poticha delivered her two recommendations in a speech to the Open Cities conference (follow it live right here). At a time of seemingly unending culture wars among transit riders, drivers, pedestrians and cyclists, her goals reached beyond inter-modal competition.
First,
Poticha said, advocates and policy-makers need to "get a grip on the
terms that we’re using" and define "sustainability" in a clear,
inclusive way. The suggestion is a timely one, given that
administration officials use "sustainable" and "livable" almost
interchangeably and rarely give a digestible definition of the terms.
As
sprawling suburbs and dense urban neighborhoods become destinations for
people from all walks of life and at all income levels, she explained,
"sustainability" can’t afford to be stereotyped as an option solely for
Prius-driving elites.
Quoting
one of her new colleagues, deputy Housing and Urban Development (HUD)
Secretary Ron Sims, Poticha added: "Your zip code should not determine
your future."
The second goal she outlined is to bring the
nationwide green development effort "to scale" — to bring transit use,
bicycle commuting, and other environmentally friendly practices up from
single-digit "market share" to 30 percent or 40 percent usage in most
communities.
"The time of being a boutique movement is
gone," she said. "The door is open to move through." And Poticha’s
office is poised to receive an impressive toolbox to begin that
movement, with at least $150 million in funding included in both the House and Senate HUD spending bills.
That funding would ultimately be used for three core missions, Poticha said today. Read more…
