Pittsburgh’s Green and Sustainable Neighborhoods: Part 1
As with any home purchase, you are choosing both a house and a community to live in. So it should come as no surprise that choosing to live a more sustainable lifestyle should also mean finding a great green community. I decided to take a look at how Pittsburgh’s neighborhoods stack up. To do this I looked at several important aspects of a green community. Over the next two weeks you can come back as I post the results of my little project to uncover Pittsburgh’s best, greenest, most sustainable neighborhoods.
Frick Park, Pittsburgh, PA
Walk-ability: This category is intended to rate how easy it is for residents to get basic services without the use of a car. Neighborhoods that allow residents to reach more important needs, such as grocery stores, post offices, dining, cleaners and entertainment, within walking distance ranked higher. I also considered bike-ability in my scoring for communities that make riding easy.
Commute: Commuting to work is a major contributor of pollution. Neighborhoods that are centrally located, allow for easy public transportation or alternative commuting (like walking and biking) rank high. Those with long, gridlocked commutes ranked lower.
Outdoor Spaces: Parks, Trails and Nature Reserves are all factors when considering how much of a community is devoted to trees and open spaces. It is also important to see how the community uses, or doesn’t use, the space.
Environmental Activism: This includes everything from recycling programs to eco-conscious businesses setting up in the area. It’s a broad category that looks at the desire of the community and its members to live and work in harmony with the environment.
Green Housing: A green community should include housing that is either green or energy efficient. The most obvious way is through new housing that is being built to a higher standard. Harder to rate, but worth more, are existing homes that owners are making an effort to upgrade. I also looked at housing sizes and density. Like it or not, big houses and big yards contribute big waste and emissions. Smaller homes and smaller yards are more environmentally friendly and a neighborhood that is denser contributes less waste.
Come back to read about the neighborhoods I picked (of course this is just my opinion, let me know if you think your community should be on the list and why)…