City Hall’s sustainability pioneer

Mindful Metropolis, July issue

GreenEconomyChicago.com, the new website sponsored by Alderman Manny Flores and Mike Bueltmann of Clear Content (a local Internet service provider) offers much more than green shadows of the city skyline rolling across the banner of the page. GreenEconomyChicago is an online forum for Chicagoans "to discuss and develop ideas about building a green economy … and creating sustainable jobs."

Here’s how it works: you log on and submit a fresh idea (it could be requiring an energy efficiency rating for home sales, or offering solar education to Illinois middle schools), other users comment on the idea, which lends the idea perspective and helps it gather momentum, and Manny Flores turns the popular projects into progressive legislation.

Flores, who represents Chicago’s first ward on the city’s near northwest side, has built a reputation for himself as a visionary and an advocate for government transparency and developing Chicago’s green economy. Elected in 2003, 37-year-old Flores is currently the youngest alderman on the city council. He recently spoke to Mindful Metropolis about the new website, GreenEconomyChicago.com, whether Chicago really is the ‘greenest city in America,’ how to make his ward more sustainable, how he’d like to see his gentrified Wicker Park neighborhood change over the next five years, how biking can be improved in Chicago, and why he hopes we’ll land the 2016 Olympics.


Tell me about GreenEconomyChicago.com

The website uses technology to bring a variety of stakeholders together to enable them to better collaborate in the area of sustainability … (it offers a) platform to incubate ideas and create a pathway for transforming those ideas into actual law, policy or a new way of doing things — as an individual person, or as an organization, or as an entire industry.

One of the inspirations for the website was the notion of open source, where you’re sharing ideas through this horizontal, collaborative model. The power is not just in the idea itself but what you do with the idea and how you bring others together around one idea that you can build upon. The Internet evolved from a number of cool technological ideas that people shared with a universe of other talented computer folks, and they just kept building on it. It’s that same principle that we’re adopting here now with the way we focus on sustainability — in particular economic development using sustainability.

The whole point is to get people together and recognize that we should share our ideas: you’re not going to transform society by just hording an idea. The value is how you build on an idea to help create other ideas, and then how those ideas are manifested and implemented in a way that you do see results.

What inspired GreenEconomyChicago?

What set this off was my interest in sustainability and Mike Bueltmann’s interest in looking at how we could use technology to get people more involved through community volunteerism and through other levels of participation. We were both inspired by what President Barack Obama did with the use of technology and new social media platforms to get folks to do what many of them had never done before. (His campaign team) bridged the new communities that were inspired and emerging through the Internet with off-line communities who really are on the ground, transforming their inspiration.

Why couldn’t we do the same for the ideas that everybody has? You don’t have to be a lobbyist. You don’t have to be a politician. You don’t have to be rich. You don’t need to have influence. We live in a society where anyone can make a difference. And yet people who have power and influence are able to hijack or distort the system. (We asked ourselves) how can we balance that playing field?

GreenEconomyChicago is one tool to help those who have very compelling ideas and to let them know that their ideas have merit. If you really care about that idea, there is a way to transform it. There’s a pathway to reach out to other like-minded people. Say we’ve been talking about this idea, now have a meet-up. Have a little party to talk about how we can further strategize. (The website can) connect you to existing resources, literature, or other groups in communities who are interested in the same idea. (It can) connect you to policymakers who truly understand the value of sustainability and who espouse those values of the triple bottom line that defines sustainability — as environmental protection and stewardship, as social justice, and as economic opportunity.

How will the site evolve?

How user-friendly the site appears is crucial. The website is currently in beta format, meaning that we anticipate changes, and that’s part of the process. We’re asking people who are interested to provide recommendations.

While I sponsor the website, I do not claim sole ownership. I believe this is a website that belongs to all. Everyone can post on it. I would encourage people to not only post their idea, but (use it as a resource for networking) in the way that Mindful Metropolis (has built a community).

GreenEconomyChicago is a product of rough consensus — the notion of starting a project though you may not have planned every specific detail but you start the project with the expectation that you’ll build upon it. It calls for collaboration. It calls for people to think critically about how we can make things better. One of our priorities now is to visit with academics, sustainability organizations like the Center for Neighborhood Technology and other entrepreneurs. We want to present the website, show how the website works, and then appeal to their individual members to take ownership of GreenEconomyChicago as a tool to implement what they’ve been talking about.

How did you arrive at the title GreenEconomyChicago, and how large is the community’s scope?

It is citywide. But I believe it’s a model that can be replicated for other jurisdictions. We struggled with the name: is it too parochial, too narrow? I felt that it was important to brand our city as a place where there is a commitment by its community, the people who make up the city of Chicago. They are engaged in a process to make this a hub for clean technology and economic development using clean technology.

I believe that the city of Chicago should be the world’s leading financial, commercial and industrial clean technology hub. We can do that: it’s a lofty goal, but one that I’d like to see achieved.

That being said, all of us are interconnected. (We all) want to live in healthy communities, (we all) want the best for our children, (we all) want the opportunity for good housing, good healthcare and a good job. Universal aspirations.

We must understand and appreciate the level of connectedness and how we’re closer together than we know. The title GreenEconomyChicago is really intended to inspire other communities too. (Despite) all the resources that we have in our city, all the remarkable organizations and leaders who do believe in expanding clean technology opportunities and addressing the triple-bottom-line principles, we still have a long way to go.

Mayor Daley claims that Chicago is the greenest city in America. Is he right?

What does that mean? It’s important to recognize the good things that many individuals have done, but we have to raise the bar and ask what else we can do. We need to tie it to results that impact people’s lives — whether it’s growing the number of students who are not only staying in school but graduating with degrees in math and science, or whether it’s being part of the next Apollo project associated with creating the most sustainable country in the world.

How do you deal with, for example, the coal burning plants on the South side that are hurting people, killing people. (We need to) come together and not have this conflict between environmental justice and the commercial or business community saying, ‘we’re doing everything within the law and we have the right to pursue this economic opportunity.’ There has to be a smarter and healthier way to pursue that economic model. Why haven’t we figured out a way not to use coal to power our economy?

Also, how do we make communities more sustainable (in terms of) access to healthier food? How do we empower local farmers so that they take advantage of the opportunities that exist by developing new relationships with restaurants, hotels and others in the hospitality industry that make Chicago a tourist destination?

How do we redefine the way that we develop public housing? Why not create a standard where public housing is the most sustainable housing? The housing that is the most innovative, to not only provide a better roof over a family, but also to provide models or an incubator for new innovations, technologies, building methods and processes. There’s a way that we can bring different stakeholders together, which historically had not been done before, because of a misplaced belief that these groups were at odds or philosophically opposed. It really does call for a new paradigm.

I’m inspired by the opportunity that we have here — to help create a healthy environment where people through collaboration are helping themselves and helping their neighbors. Let’s encourage all the positive things that you see in entrepreneurism, where the prosperity can help a greater group of people. Let’s enlarge the economic pie, not shrink it.

What can be done to make the 1st Ward more sustainable?

The skies are the limit. The most important part is creating a culture in the community where people are coming up with ideas of how we can become more sustainable. Plans are important. But in addition to planning, you need a path. The reality is that we live in a world where you just can’t freeze time.

Why not make it easy for folks to adopt or implement some low-hanging fruit? That can make things more sustainable. We know some of these issues. When you brush your teeth, why not turn the faucet off? If you’re gonna visit your friend who lives five blocks away, why not walk instead of taking the car? If you have the opportunity to shop locally or shop halfway across the town, shop locally.

Why not get involved with chambers of commerce and other organizations in developing plans? We have in the 1st Ward, for instance, developed a number of smaller neighborhood planning guides, almost like master plans. We talk about what the sustainable principles are that we want to incorporate into our planning.

The other thing is, when you have projects that come up, incorporate green technologies, smarter ways of building. The Green Exchange is probably the biggest example. The Green Exchange came about not because a group of us were environmentalists to begin with, but through a process that got us there, one that really was about sustainability. People were concerned with their environment. They didn’t want to see more demolition, destruction of a beautiful building. They wanted to see adaptive reuse, so we ended up building the landmark.

There was talk of jobs. What are we gonna do with jobs? We had the Cooper Lamp Company closing its doors because it couldn’t compete with China anymore. Did we just throw in the towel? Everyone was telling me as a policymaker that the only use would be residential development. I thought to myself, ‘well, you have that.’ You may add a quick boost to the economy; you may add more construction jobs to area. But what happens when the project is complete? Then this 270,000-square-foot facility that has been a manufacturing center for that area is gone forever. So we said ‘no.’ We need jobs. We need to figure this out somehow.

Barry Bursack, who really is an environmentalist, inspired the group to go in the direction of the Green Exchange. He made us realize that there was a huge opportunity here. The idea of having one facility for green businesses, not just about creating jobs but about helping this emerging sector of the economy grow in a way that hadn’t been done before in this city.

Lathrop Homes, is gonna be redeveloped. Now we have a decision to make. We can go along with business as usual and adopt the same principles that CHA (the Chicago Housing Authority) has been using, but my question is how we can look at this as an opportunity to do things even better — to become leaders in energy and environmental design? Why not make Lathrop Homes a 35-acre, LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) gold or platinum community — the nation’s first ever LEED certified public housing project? That would be transformative.

The Addison Industrial Corridor, in general, has been languishing. Many businesses have left the area. When I became alderman, there were several requests made to consider changing the zoning and making that area into a luxurious residential community. Could we have created some new jobs? Yes. But then what happens to that area that was always an industrial corridor? It’s gone. There has to be a better answer.

I can’t tell you how many people said to me, ‘Manufacturing, it’s gone, Manny. Gone. We appreciate you wanting to fight the good fight, Manny.’ But we didn’t get to this point by simply saying, ‘Let’s go the path of least resistance.’ This is what conventional thinking tells us, because that’s how we got to some of these problems that we’re now confronting. We’re gonna have to be innovative. We’re gonna have to be visionary.

How can Chicago become more biker friendly?

I think we have to provide more resources for it. We have to do a better job of the way that we lay out streets so that they really do provide for greater multiuse on the public roads. (People shouldn’t have to) take their lives in their own hands by riding their bikes on the street. I think we also have to better engage some of the NGOs and nonprofits, such as the Active Transportation Alliance.

We’ve had some success already. Everyone talks about parking spaces. Why not require a percentage of bike spaces? Or places within a complex for people to actually store their bicycles, like parking garages. Use that as an alternative to the number of mandatory parking spaces that you have to dedicate per each unit under the zoning code. You have transit-oriented development, but encourage more bicycle use.

You’re not gonna take the car away. But I see a Smart Car in the future, a car that doesn’t emit greenhouse gasses. You’re still gonna need a place to park that smart car. So the demand for garages will remain. But why not encourage large bike racks, within these garages? And team up with the CTA (Chicago Transit Authority) to have a dispenser in the front area of these garages for CTA cards that are linked to your smart car parking or your bicycle. I could see some of these garages near train stops and other mass transit hubs.

Wicker Park has changed a lot in last 10-15 years. What are your hopes for Wicker Park in the next five years?

Have you ever read Richard Florida’s Rise of the Creative Class? Wicker Park, I think, could be the quintessential community that Florida talks about. But there are a lot of challenges. Some of the artists have moved away. We’ve lost some of the diversity, in terms of ethnicity and race. Income levels have risen, which is a good think, but that has also created pressure in terms of housing affordability. We’ve renovated the parks, schools have improved, the neighborhood is safer, and new businesses are moving in — by and large, independently owned businesses.

What I’m striving to do as the elected representative is to plan things in a way that provides access to all. We have to be mindful of looking for opportunities where you can develop low-income, affordable housing and looking at good economic development. That’s why I’m a big proponent of green technology to help create new jobs.

My aspirations for the community are for Wicker Park to be a place where people respect one another, where people feel like their opinions matter, where they are engaged, where there’s a pathway toward participation and involvement. Their help and direct participation will result in something good. A community known as a place to incubate innovation, in the way that people look at things and address challenges. A place where families are proud to call home and to raise their own families, and a place where I myself would like to be a longtime resident.