apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

amazing! i hope this catches on...

I s'pose it sounds neato to the rest of the world...

But as a PDX resident, I wish my city council people were more into ensuring that basic city services (water, sewer, electricity) and infrastructure were being maintained and funded adequately.

PDX politicos are very into posturing themselves for media coverage on the national level while ignoring real problems near the pavement that aren't so glam.

Besides, incentives to retrofit existing building stock to be more energy efficient might have a lot more impact than new-construction. Sorry to be a sour puss.

Great comments, JenPDX! As a civil engineer, I'm familar with elected officials ignoring basic infrastructure while spending freely on projects that get media attention. Le sigh.

Why not have incentives to renovate and restore greenly? Why just new structures?

Sorry, Portland. That sounds like something that would happen here (Seattle). Our mayor got national coverage last year for promising to add a lot more bike lanes to make Seattle more green. A year later most of the plans have been scrapped and here and there they've created "bike areas" by painting stick people on bikes within the car lanes.

I'm going to have to agree with wertygirl here. This is greenwashing. The real incentives should be for renovating and restoring in a green manner. New construction is not green.

JenPDX, I lived in Portland until very recently and never had any trouble with water, sewer, or electricity. In fact, I remember that the city was spending many millions of dollars to upgrade the sewer system to eliminate runoff into the Willamette River.

I think it's a sad comment on the state of our political system that such a bold move on Portland's part is treated with such cynicism ("posturing themselves for media coverage") on a blog devoted to green living.

But JenPDX, please do correct me if in the last 5 months Portland has stopped delivering potable water to its residents, if toilets across Portland have ceased flushing, or if brownouts are now the norm.

Wertygirl and Scott, I agree with you 100% that new construction is where the problem lies. But doesn't that mean that this is exactly what such an initiative should target? Keep in mind that in Portland, most new houses being constructed are infill which leads to higher densities, more effective transit, and have many other "green" benefits. The suburbs beyond Portland are, of course, a different story, but they aren't subject to this proposed change.

This is a huge proposal and it saddens me to see such a lukewarm response on this blog. Is there anyone out there who thinks this is more than a political gimmick? Anyone? Please?!

I don't think it's a gimmick at all. Many people in this city are likely to dismiss anything as "green washing" because they are cynical and lame. Like when I told my friend at work that Costco was selling organic milk and eggs and his response was "They're just doing it to be trendy." Who cares? It's a step towards the greater good.

It might be a fad and it might be for attention...but I certainly hope it doesn't prevent it from having a good affect on building standards anyway.

My parents are in the midst of remodeling their house and weren't prompted (and therefore didn't) to do anything more "green" by their contractor...because they had no idea what's possible.

This discussion reminds me of the Letter From the Editor rant in Dwell's latest issue...