Two from NPR

Bicycle-sharing schemes are a fixture in European cities like Copenhagen, but now they are taking root on American soil. In Washington, D.C., over the past eight months, the nation's largest bike-share system has become so popular, it may become a victim of its own success. Click here for story.

What to do with failed golf courses? In Palm Beach, they're turning a course into a 160-acre park with a driving range, concert lawn, bicycling lanes, picnic grounds. Deerfield Beach is turning half of an old course into a cemetery. And Davie is transforming a former exclusive course into, voila, an affordable golf course.

Incidentally, the Sarasota County Government Sustainability page on Facebook is a rather solitary place - it could use some friends.

Tablets for Sustainability

From a City of Sarasota Press Release:

Sarasota, FL: In an effort to enhance operational efficiencies while maintaining its focus on green initiatives, the City Commission will begin using iPads, the electronic tablet created by Apple . . ..

The majority of City Commissioners and all three Charter Officials will use the iPads. An application designed for City Commission agendas allows users to bookmark pages and even highlight and write notes on individual documents.

Each tablet cost $784 including accessories. It is estimated the City will accrue a savings of approximately $7,500 per year in paper and printing costs. One of the City Commission’s top five priorities is environmental sustainability.

Other governmental entities throughout Florida are implementing the new technology including Ormand Beach, Palm Coast and Sarasota County.

For more information, call City Auditor and Clerk Pamela Nadalini at 941-954-4169.

Resource Stewardship and Conceptual Models

Consider this post a placeholder - I hope to develop it more when time permits. The most striking elements of Civics 101 for me related to the two areas noted in the header. (Note: the images used here are merely illustrative, not drawn from course materials).

First, folks intimately involved with the daily operations of infrastructure - water, landfill, sewer, rescue, transportation, land - spoke most intensely when discussing the limits on priceless resources, the costs of operating the systems that use them, and the reasons and methods of real sustainability. I think about the energy involved in delivering a gallon of water to my faucet in ways I hadn't before.

Second, it was enormously instructive to hear various department heads lay out the thinking that informs their work. The conceptual models now in use by Planning, Environmental Services, Parks, Traffic and more. The thinking is often innovative, interdisciplinary, drawing upon advanced global research and pragmatic approaches to prudent stewardship of public goods. It was eye-opening to learn the ways in which Sarasota County is a leader in key areas, and a place where others come to learn.

San Francisco completes massive solar project

From AP -- Of interest given our discussion and tour of the solar array at Rothenbach Park:

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — San Francisco is now home to what city officials say is California's largest municipal solar installation.

Mayor Gavin Newsom on Monday announced the completion of the Sunset Reservoir Solar Project, which has almost 24,000 solar panels covering an area the size of 12 football fields.

Officials say the installation generates 5 megawatts of renewable energy daily, more than tripling the amount of solar power used by the San Francisco government.

The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission will buy the electricity from Recurrent Energy, which built, owns and operates the project.

Officials say the Sunset Reservoir will help the city move toward its goal of generating all of its electricity from renewable sources by 2020.