Austin Calls Itself Green [and Lies]
Why I Care
Yeah, I’m sick of the “go green” crap too, but guess what- it worked on me. Fifteen years ago, my Whole Foods eatin’ Grandma bought me a canvas bag for groceries. Later, she asked why a college student wouldn’t carry a canvas bag for groceries, rather use wasteful plastic. The answer is that I was lazy- too lazy to remember to carry it and too lazy to even find it. I carry it now because I drive a car I can keep them in and because I can carry all my groceries in 4 bags instead of 20.
When I was a child, my father groomed much of the acreage we lived on. He left the live oaks and chopped down the scraggly cedars that grow like weeds and stifle ground foliage, we braided smaller saplings into arches, we climbed the big trees and we loved the nature surrounding us from an early age. My stepmother insisted in the 90s that we crush cans and recycle them, and would ask us to save our paper so she could take it to work to recycle it into note sheets. I didn’t start recycling until a year ago, and I’ve lived in new homes for almost 5 years where the entire landscape was reduced to dirt piles, only to add new saplings.
Although I always have loved nature, I haven’t nurtured it until it became convenient for me. I’ll admit this.
Austin’s Regulations
I don’t know what the regulations are in your city, but here in Austin most new land developments whether commercial or residential are required to have an exorbitant amount of “green space” which annoys developers to no end. It’s expensive for them to not be able to build on 100% of the land they’ve put money into. Water treatment systems are required on all new developments and building standards almost always have to comply with the Energy Star ratings.
So how then is Austin cheating the system? By saying they require 20-30% of all approved developments to be “green space,” but not requiring the “green space” to be the original trees and green space that previously existed. Instead, developers are allowed to excavate and turn the dirt on the entire plot of land- be it 1 or 1,000 acres. They rape the ecosystem, plant a few little stick trees, leave a scraggly spot as a “pocket park” and call it eco-friendly. Aww, good job, let’s give city council a big ol’ pat on the back for this fake-appease-the-hippies-law, why dont we?
Biggest Sham Ever
This is the biggest sham I’ve ever heard of and when we speak out against it, people are amazed that the “green space” required doesn’t have to be the existing land, rather ends up being clumps of monkey grass, a few lantana and tiny aspen saplings from another state which may or may not end up living in Texas soil.
Austin, we’re tired of just talking about it. We don’t want to go all hippie on you, but we’re pretty close to doing so- picket signs and all. I may have voted for Bush (twice) but I love my freakin’ trees. I know California doesn’t understand why developments that carve into our precious 2222 mountain won’t ever sell (because you’ve demolished a natural landmark we adore), but it’s not California who needs to understand- it’s our elected officials.
CHANGE THE CODE, AUSTIN… NOW! The 20-30% should be EXISTING green space, not puny plants post-excavation!
April 23rd, 2008 at 3:41 pm
Wow, that’d be a heavy-handed way of handling this. I’ve seen enough developments in Austin in which the existing green space was absolute junk not to want to force preserving that on anyone. (And then, there are the sites that are old enough that they never preserved any green space to begin with…)
Besides, Austin already does have protections in place for large, old-growth trees. Perhaps the best solution is to reduce the minimum diameter of trees which fall into this category…at least as long as we can still get rid of all the cedars.
April 23rd, 2008 at 7:56 pm
In Kuna the city only requires 10% green space, and that is usually a big grass covered hole to catch rain water in. Sometimes a kids swing set too. Nothing that could support any wildlife that occupied that space previously.Makes me wonder what the purpose of green space is?
April 23rd, 2008 at 10:47 pm
Lani,
Get off your fricking green hobby horse because you are so out of touch on being green that the rest of the world is starving. You most likely live downtown of downtown in your super ubber-urban house in 78704. Thanks for living there and keeping your mileage low. Good job. Yet we have a completely pathetic food distribution plan in this world and food is now tied to energy. Sad but true.
So all of the Iowa corn farmers have big old massive “I am a subsidized farmer and making me some money erections” and selling all the corn to my buddies at Archer Daniels Mills and making a crap load of money on E85, which is 85% ethanol and 15% gasoline, so it can’t be sold as moonshine.
Every Iowa corn farmer tells you that you can achieve 4.7 gallons of ethanol/bushel of corn. Sorry, math and first order chemistry equations say horse crap. Oh by the way, this is increasing your cost of fuel because it directly impacts the food supply chain.
A bushel of corn = 56 pounds. If the corn is wet, it contains about 15% moisture. 66 percent of that equals the molecule C6O5H10 (ethanol my nonchemical buddies). This equates to 2.7 gallons of ethanol after deducting the glucose conversion and the gain and loss of some carbon dioxide. Do you have this level of dialoge in pretty building land? You have really made me mad.
Simply put, and after skipping some realistic and repeatable math, 25 gallons of ethanol in one year equals 1.4 pounds of corn each day for one calendar year. In other words, I need to blow through 6,000 pounds of Iowa corn/year to keep your 25 gallon/fill up happy so you can go to Waterloo and hangout while listening to Fiest on the CD player. Are you that dense?
Which do you want - a Hummer full of gas or one less person that can feed himself on over 1 pound of corn each day for one year? I do not recommend Bangladesh - it smells, its bad, and it is sad. Please pet your puppy while playing Earth Day momma.
I have lived in South Austin for a long time and studied and played with the US energy policy. Iraq is screwed and our current biomasses are so heavily subzidized that the major players only see money. You want to have playtime in the forest - pull your head out of your posterior and realize this is a significant issue.
I doubt if this gets posted but if it does, you all need to learn is about as good of a biofuel as Purina is a great dog chow. US corn lost so much maze biomass that it is like a fruit. But it is easy to pick.
April 24th, 2008 at 7:42 am
Scott, did you read anything other than the title? Especially the parts where I talk about living in suburbs (Pflugerville) and my political affiliation (uber-Republican) as well as my laziness for the green movement “crap?” This article is about green space, not energy.
But thanks for your contribution- I actually don’t think you’re that far off the mark about the sham that is our energy crisis.
April 24th, 2008 at 1:29 pm
Lani–
Excuse Scott. His mother obviously didn’t teach him how to be a gentleman.
I had this same experience in a development called Liberty on the Lake in Stillwater, MN. The development was done “right,” by almost everyone’s standards. Yet, the “green” areas were a bit deceiving. I lived on a wooded lot that backed up to a pond. The developers had monkeyed with the land so much that the water didn’t flow right; hence, it was spilling out into the woods, causing the trees to slowly die.
I hate to say it, but we need more laws to keep developers from ruining our land. Unless we do something now, our land will look like something out of Mad Max eventually.
April 24th, 2008 at 1:39 pm
I know it is hard to expect people in real estate who rely on builders being able to keep costs affordable by cramming an extra 5 houses into the development to care, but some of us do.
I also have a background in major commercial development and know my view will not be popular with my former employer who relied on voter ignorance.
Scott, I’m glad you too have a cause to carry! Even if it’s not popular, it should be carried.
Wade, I too hate to say it but no one wants the Thunderdome to reign supreme in America!
April 24th, 2008 at 8:34 pm
I am a tree hugger - I confess and I am not ashamed to admit it! I’m with you here Lani because I just don’t get it!
DOT replaced about 40 full-grown banyon trees last in Miami Shores to make room for an extra traffic lane. That’s INSANE!!!
You can cut a full grown, mature Oak tree and pay a $30,000 fine or agree to pay for the city to plant 10 trees - INSANE AGAIN!!
April 24th, 2008 at 8:43 pm
I understand the need for growth but the loopholes are kind of silly, don’t you think?