Mayor Nutter

The Philadelphia City Planning Commission presented The Future is Now: Philadelphia 2035 Update at the Center for Architecture (1218 Arch Street) last evening. A packed room (half-standing) for the "sold out" event, attendees from younger to well aged  made an appearance - including a surprise speech from Mayor Michael Nutter. Sustainability was a main focus of the city plan, both with current progress and future goals. The Citizens Planning Institute, a Philadelphia City Planning Commission project involving official education and outreach recognized its volunteer graduates during the program. Philadelphia 2035 is the two-phase plan for the physical development of our city for 25 years (2011-2035) using the "new" zoning code. Last night's discussion began with highlights of Philadelphia's progress in 2012, which was formulated into a 12 month "report" calendar for participants. Much of the progress was due to the Greenworks sustainability initiatives: (Find out about the Philadelphia 2035 recap AND what Mayor Nutter had to say about plastic bags to us, after the jump!)

Happy December readers - It's our favorite month! There's so much GREEN (and red) decorations, people are drinking local booze & mulled wine, and there's a ton of live trees INSIDE people's homes. Philly's trucking full speed to close out 2012 - Here's some of the latest green happenings you missed:

While complaints about the Barnes moving from Merion have mostly calmed down, the Barnes Foundation is continuing to make news! This time, their new(ish) Philly home received a great GREEN honor today: LEED Platinum. The Barnes is the 1st art & educational institution to achieve the LEED platinum status from USGBC (US Green Building Council). They also have a piece of the Big Apple (literally.) How did they accomplish such a task?

We're so excited to about yesterday's success! We had the Plastic Bag Ban petition shared by fellow Philadelphian bloggers all over yesterday. So many people were discussing #BanPhillyBags on Twitter (even though Twitter melted down midday!)  It was picked up by Sandy Bauers on Philly.com and Philly Mag! (We also had a few other mentions, both lovers and haters.)  There were thousands of people that saw our message and picked up an issue that had been dismissed since 2009. But, we Just Started. Yesterday begun our movement with such a big bang that we wanted to leave the petition open to encourage more signatures before sending to Mayor Michael Nutter, Director of Sustainability Katherine Gajewski, the Office of Sustainability & Philadelphia City Council. We'll send the letter next week, but the petition will remain open until the plastic bag ban has passed. How can you help? Please keep sharing the petition and your personal stories!  If a 12-year-old in Chicago can do it, we can do it! The most inspiring part of yesterday was reading the enthusiastic comments on our Change.org petition. Here are some highlights:

Today, we're dishing the dirty truth about plastic bags. Each year... Americans use approximately 100 BILLION plastic bags ...creating 300,000 tons of landfill waste The average US family takes home 1500 plastic shopping bags An estimated 500 billion to 1 trillion plastic bags are consumed worldwide ... Which equals over 1 million plastic bags used per minute. (Find out what we're doing to ban plastic bag, and how you can help NOW, after the jump!)

Not ready to bite the bullet and purchase a bike yet? You can now give it a spin by renting one in Fairmount Park! Today, Mayor Nutter, Philadelphia Parks & Recreation and Fairmount Park Conservancy welcomed Wheel Fun Rentals to Fairmount Park at 3 locations: Lloyd Hall (Boathouse Row), Love Park & Bathey House/Trolley Car Cafe in East Falls. These bike rentals won't be strictly benefiting (Find out more about these new wheels after the jump!)

Dear Mayor Nutter, Yesterday was a great day. I woke up at 6 AM to run with 39,999 of my closest friends down Broad Street. It made up for missing the Supermoon thanks to a bunch of clouds on Saturday evening. Given that this was my fourth time for the Broad Street Run, I was pretty calm awaiting the start gun. But I heard your proclamation that you wanted to make Broad Street the biggest 10 miler in the WORLD. Kudos, Mayor.  I appreciate trying to get Philly on the map. I even high-fived you after I crossed the start line in support of your ambition, Greenworks and more. Yet running yesterday reminded me of how much waste is created from one (average) 1:40 minute run. Especially when 40K people run.  Since you've already proclaimed we want to make Philadelphia America's Greenest City by 2015, why can't we combine the two ideas and make Broad Street Run the Biggest Environmentally-friendly Philly Race?!? Here are a few observations of the Broad Street Run and suggestions on how we can green-i-fy both the expo & race:

This past Tuesday, April 10th, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, Mayor Michael Nutter & city officials signed an official agreement at the Fairmount Water Works that recognized Philadelphia's Green City Clean Waters Plan as an innovative approach to storm water management.  This is huge - basically, Philly's setting the standard as a national model for green infrastructure. Sooo what does this mean to me? Does it sound like spanish to you? It means this: Philly's #1 again! I'm quite excited to share

Psyched to "Keep Up the Sweep Up?" Philly Spring Cleanup Day is April 14, 2012 from 9 AM - 2 PM! Last year alone, over 12,000 volunteers helped with over 250 projects and collected an incredible 1.3 million pounds of trash. Let's make it bigger this year. Mayor Nutter kicked off the campaign at