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Sunday, 17 October 2010 16:24

Written by Diana Nelson Jones

The David L. Lawrence Convention Center was declared the top vote-getting “tipping point” in the region’s march toward a greener (sustainable) future.

Without a drumroll, Patricia Kirkpatrick, a commissioner from Armstrong County, read the top 10 list that climaxed in the world’s largest LEED-certified convention center at Friday’s 10th Annual Southwestern Pennsylvania Smart Growth Conference. It was held at the DLLCC, as a matter of coincidence.

I would have gone further back to identify the top tipping point the origin of the River Life Task Force, whose suggestion that we look at our rivers as a post-industrial economic development asset made many people gasp then go D’oh!

In the summer of 1999, in an article by my colleague Tom Barnes about the formation of the non-profit now known as Riverlife, then-Mayor Tom Murphy said this: “We have a once-in-a-century opportunity before us to design our riverfronts in a way that will capture people’s imagination, a way that’s as spectacular as any city in the world.”

Since then, the convention center was built as an expansion of the former one, which I don’t even remember, and now we have a complete system of riverfront trails and dozens of LEED buildings and a green wall and a green roof over the heads of our county officials and electric buses and a consent decree on our sewers.

The DLLCC is a great asset, even though it makes me feel cold and nervous. I take their word that it’s a great building architecturally. It’s enough that it uses as little energy as possible (although the automatic water stayed on too long in the sink after I had washed my hands.)

The day’s lunch was fully compostable, including napkins and bags, as were the lanyards, name tags and programs. And the conference was “climate neutral” because, as the program read, “carbon dioxide credits were bought to offset greenhouse gases associated with holding the event and travel of attendees. For more information on how to offset your business, event, travel, etc., visit NativeEnergy.

Like most of you, I am sort of sick of the word “sustainable” even though I am an advocate and an apostle for sustaining all the things that make life sweet, like warm and welcoming streets, happy little businesses with soft lighting, clean water, places people can afford to and want to live, neighbors of all different hues and backgrounds and abilities, carrying cloth bags to the store, bus lines that make cars unnecessary, birds chirping just loud enough to be pleasing but not so loud that they wake you up at 5 a.m., etc.

Sustainable life, thy name is "Regional Planning." And while we're at it, let's take zoning codes out behind the woodshed and beat the tar out of them.

John Hanger, secretary of the state Department of Environmental Protection, told us that our region is the most serious about regional planning, but that without political will on the state level nothing can happen.

“I know there are failures and it is not easy, but I urge you to keep at it. Government has to be dedicated to eradicating duplicative services and uncaring bureaucracies.”

Whoa... that's kind of explicit verbiage for a public official....  then he talked about the T word: Taxation, as in... we need it. Obviously, he's not running for anything.

No tea for you, buster.

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