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Many Americans root for their hometowns, whether they do so by supporting a sports team, participating in local government or just bragging about their origins and environs. Even those who have lukewarm feelings about where they live would agree on one thing: not all cities are created equal. As part of its "Cities" special issue, Scientific American has gathered lists ranking metropolises across the U.S. on aspects of green living, pollution, health and technology.
Today we feature lists that rank cities based on their green living opportunities, and then add up each city's rankings to find the best overall green living cities. Admittedly, this summed result may be invalid. (For starters, what if other lists were generated and added in to change the outcome or what if the methods across each list are inconsistent?) We think, however, it still offers a benchmark worthy of consideration.
Greenest Thinking
- New York City
- Las Vegas
- San Francisco
- Washington, D.C.
- Albuquerque, N.M.
- Boston
- Gainesville, Fla.
- Chicago
- Philadelphia
- Baltimore
The Daily Beast compiled this ranking based on residents' survey responses. To make the "greenest thinking" list, each city had to contain more than 100,000 citizens, a high percentage of whom self-identify as eco-conscious. A relatively high number of residents also had to state that they recycle, ride public transportation regularly and use solar power. Each city's score, however, dropped when citizens responded that they were unconcerned about environmental issues.
Most Energy-Efficient Buildings
- Los Angeles
- Washington, D.C.
- San Francisco
- Denver
- Chicago
- Houston
- Lakeland, Fla.
- Dallas–Fort Worth
- Atlanta
- New York City
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency created this ranking of American cities. These energy-efficient commercial buildings had to reduce energy use although still perform well in comparison with similar buildings. (From The Huffington Post)
Best Public Transportation Systems
- Denver–Aurora, Colo.
- New York City-Newark, N.J.
- Los Angeles–Long Beach–Santa Ana, Calif.
- Boston, Mass.–New Hampshire–Rhode Island
- Portland, Ore.
- San Jose, Calif.
- Salt Lake City
- San Diego
- Seattle
- Honolulu
To qualify for this U.S. News & World Report list, cities had to have public transportation systems that stood out from the crowd. The magazine based its ranking not only on how many people used any given system, but also on that system's quality. For example, cities that provided multiple travel options (buses, light rail, metro, elevated trains and so on) could increase their score.
Most Bikeable
- Minneapolis
- Portland, Ore.
- Boulder, Colo.
- Seattle
- Eugene, Ore.
- San Francisco
- Madison, Wis.
- New York City
- Tucson, Ariz.
- Chicago
Bicycling.com based its list on how the city's streets and community treated bikers. Having segregated bike lanes and public bike racks helped a city's rank, but these cities also support bike culture and possess good stores for bicycles and biking equipment.
Most Walkable
- New York City
- San Francisco, Calif.
- Boston
- Chicago
- Philadelphia
- Seattle
- Washington, D.C.
- Miami, Fla.
- Minneapolis
- Oakland, Calif.
To find the most walkable cities in the U.S., Walk Score started small, by analyzing the score of each individual city block. A block's walkability depended on its proximity to amenities such as grocery stores, weighted by the local population density. Blocks combined to help Walk Score find neighborhood walkability, which in turn added up to a city's total walkability.
Top 10 Overall Green Living Performances
- New York City
- San Francisco
- Washington, D.C.
- Boston
- Los Angeles
- Chicago
- Denver
- Portland, Ore.
- Seattle
- Minneapolis
These cities rank highly on more than one of the above green-living lists.
Not all of the above lists were created using conventional statistical or scientific methods, therefore their validity should be suspect. Scientific American gathered the lists from several online sources. To earn a place on the "overall performance" list, cities had to make repeat appearances on multiple lists, and earned points based on their rankings. Each city's points were added up to arrive at the overall score.
Tomorrow: Part 2—The Top 10 Healthiest Cities
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8 Comments
Add CommentI'm surprised that Portland Or placed so low on the Overall list, and that DC and NYC placed so high.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAr you kidding San Diego in the top 10 of the best public transportation. When it takes an hour to go from one place to the other by bus when you can drive it in 10 to 15 minutes. When you cannot go to work using public transportation because most of the routes (including the trolley do not start till after 6:30am.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe others must be really horrible.
This is a perfect example of distorting the truth by ommision.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIf this was a ranking of cities planet wide, I would be suprised if any US city would even get inside the top 20.
US cities are designed for car users from the ground up. They are not designed properly for people and green living.
There literally is no comparison to cites such as Singapore, Copenhagen or Stockholm with US cities when it comes to green living, public tranport, amentities, etc.
If Scientifican American wants to perform a good service for the US, the magazine should compare directly with what is available on a planetary basis, instead of resorting to parochial measures such as a comparing only inside the USA.
Hiding the true extent of problems, only causes them to fester and make things worse.
By comparing directly with the rest of the planet, US citizens can see directly, how far there country has fallen behind in many areas. Only then will they have incentive to address the numerous problems which ordinary people and those in power in the United States of America have refused to recognise or deal with in an appropiate manner.
These aren't good lists because they don't include Austin or Asheville.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSan Diego? For transportation? Seriously? There's no way San Diego has a good transportation system. That alone is enough to indicate these lists are useless.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thiswell, i guess it depends on what beans are being counted....las vegas - come on!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIn addition the the San Diego commenters, I'm going to add Denver to the list of "are you serious?" cities for public transit. I sold my car last year and exclusively use a motorcycle and public transit so I'm pretty familiar with the system. I don't know what criteria they're using, but Denver shouldn't be on the top 10 list and certainly not #1.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWell, then it would be called Scientific World and not Scientific AMERICAN, wouldn't it? And since you're obviously not from around here, let me clue you in, telling an American that life in Singapore is so much better than anyplace he's likely to live will never cause him to give up the SUV. And if you think trashing any nationality's culture is a good way to influence them I'd advise you to avoid any vocation that requires social skills.
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