I hate to do this to Jim, who just moved to Columbus, Ohio a few weeks ago, but facts are facts. Sustain Lane, a web site dedicated to identifying and promoting sustainable communities across the United States, recently came out with this year’s rankings of the sustainability of America’s 50 largest cities. Columbus came dead last at number 50.
The ten least sustainable American cities in this ranking, in order of descension, are:
40: Tulsa, Oklahoma
41: Arlington, Texas
42: Nashville, Tennessee
43-44: Detroit (tied)
43-44: Memphis (tied)
45: Indianapolis, Indiana
46: Fort Worth, Texas
47: Mesa, Arizona
48: Virginia Beach, Virginia
49: Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
50: Columbus, Ohio
Apparently, Sustain Lane isn’t sustainable either. I try to visit their website and all I get is an “Invalid sql query”.
So, Green Man, can you tell me what the standards were by which Columbus, Ohio came in dead last?
I’ll tell you one thing I’ve seen here: a bizarre lack of recycling bins in the city’s cafes, restaurants, and other public establishments. This may have something to do with the fact that in Columbus, you have to pay a private company for the service of having your recyclables picked up, but I am not sure.
The other thing I’m pretty darned sure of is that a place as big as Columbus, the metropolitan area of which has nearly 2 million in population, is not really one place. It’s a bunch of different areas, some of which are reasonably sustainable and some of which are not.
But, again, I’d really like to know what was behind that ranking position, if for no other reason than to figure out what needs to be worked on here.
HEY! My home state came in at number two!
Wait…I shouldn’t be happy about that, should I?
Jim,
I’m able to get through, but maybe it’s my browser. Here’s a direct link to their page on methodology, but if that doesn’t work, let me know, and I’ll do a more direct discussion here.
http://sustainlane.com/article/896/
The planet is becoming unsustainable, so get used to it.
Appreciate you, Green Man, linking to our SustainLane city rankings. I’m sorry our site was down for a couple hours on Saturday. It’s now back up and running. Warren Karlenzig, the director of our rankings, recently launched a blog on the health and sustainability of US cities. You might be interested in checking it out:
http://www.warrenkarlenzig.com
He would love to hear any observations or criticisms you have regarding the study or city sustainability in general.
Ben
No, Tom, I don’t intend to get used to it.
Are you trying to be ironic, Tom? The essence of unsustainability is that one can not get used to it. It’s unsustainable, see.