“Here’s what I want you to think about: How can all of our efforts solve three or four problems at once?”
So said Vancouver deputy city manager Sadhu Aufochs Johnston at Livable Memphis’ 4th Annual Summit for Neighborhood Leaders Saturday morning at Bridges.
“Let’s rethink how we’re doing what we’re doing in cities,” he said. “We don’t have the money to do one-off solutions anymore.”
Johnston focused on Chicago and Vancouver, two cities that have a goal of being the greenest city in the world, and ideas whose solutions overlap between the environment and the economy.
In Chicago, a 40-acre brownfield site that had been vacant for 30 years was rented to the utility company for a solar power system that can generate enough power for 10,000 homes.
“If we cleaned it up, it would be worth $2 million, but it was going to cost $30 million to clean it up,” Johnston said. “After installing the solar system, the phones starting ringing off the hook. People and companies wanted to be near this thing.”
