Almost the Most Sustainable City

We were close, but apparently the high cost of housing and the high level of traffic congestion kept us from being the number one most sustainable city in the country. Instead, we have been declared the second most sustainable city in the U.S. in the SustainLane 2006 US City Rankings.

From the report...

"San Francisco does a lot of things extraordinarily well: It’s a healthy place to live with a city government that is leading the way toward sustainable alternatives in most categories. Other cities can learn a lot from San Francisco’s model.

But like all big cities, San Francisco still faces some tough challenges. The high earthquake risk demands that the city government and San Franciscans together examine scenarios for transit, water, and power disruption on a regional scale.

Locally distributed power through solar or tidal systems can provide some insurance against an earthquake, as can continued development of alternative transit sources such as ferries and bicycles.

Affordable housing, however, is San Francisco’s biggest sustainability albatross, with even professionals currently priced out of the market in many neighborhoods. Development of 6,000 more infill residential housing units near downtown in the Mission Bay area will provide some near-term relief, but much more housing development will be necessary to have any meaningful impact. Otherwise, San Francisco may eventually face the danger of becoming more of a tony coastal resort community than a working city with diverse living opportunities in all of its neighborhoods.