Public Spaces and the Green Agenda

Within the recent years the city of Chicago has began a series of regulations and policies hoping to create a greener/ eco-friendly space for its residents. The city has released an Action Agenda stating what problems they are facing and how they will address each problem. Some of the topics the agenda covers are: economic development and job creation, energy efficiency and clean energy, transportation options, water and wastewater, parks, open space, healthy food, waste and recycling, and climate change. Reading this action agenda shows how the city is willing and ready to tackle these problems that pose a serious threat to our well-being. In particular the Chicago is planning on investing to innovate new public spaces, which incorporates a plan called the Make Way for People initiative hoping to create open active streets. As well as increase the number and varieties of programs for residents through the Chicago Park District and increase Chicago’s Park District acreage by more than 180 acres. These are just a few goals of many the city has to become more sustainability. Some issues that are behind these goals are lack of community care and crime, by creating more open public space and creating programs for the community to get involved and connected crime should decrease as overall well being increases. These policies and regulation that deal with parks and recreation have always been around but the implementation hasn’t changed because it is just about how much funding the Park district gets per year. Urban and national politics intersect through environmental issues because funding is the number component to solve these issues. Local, state, and federal government needs to work together so the proper funding can be given to solving the issue at hand.

References:

http://www.cityofchicago.org/city/en/progs/env/sustainable_chicago2015.html

https://www.cityofchicago.org/city/en/depts/cdot/supp_info/make_way_for_people.html