Justin Charity talks to Joan Fitzgerald about making cities more sustainable:
The stimulus package passed by Congress last year included $43 billion in sustainable-energy investments, and a bill meant to reduce the country’s contribution to climate change now waits in the Senate. But is national policy keeping pace with the strides many cities are taking toward sustainable development?
A January 2007 Prospect special report explored contemporary efforts in sustainable urban development throughout the U.S. One of the report’s contributing writers, Joan Fitzgerald, is also the author of Emerald Cities: Urban Sustainability and Economic Development, which borrows its title from the report. TAP asked Fitzgerald, a public-policy program director at Northeastern University and professor of urban economic development, about what an emerald city looks like and what we need to do on a national level to help cities get there.
