Next mayor must continue to fight climate change
No wonder people want to be mayor. Not just in Santa Fe, but in cities across the country, mayors are making a difference with innovations, new ideas and projects that bring visionary ideas to the local level. It’s an exciting time, especially considering the stagnation in political will and creativity at the national level.
For example, in Long Beach, Calif., Mayor Robert Garcia is helping his city go all out against the heat of the sun. As a coastal city, Long Beach has concerns about rising sea levels because of climate change, to be sure.
But even more dangerous, Garcia told Wired magazine, is the threat of the sun. But innovations at the local level can beat back that threat.
Writer Lucy Sherriff explains, “Over the past few years, Long Beach has broken a slew of temperature records. In May 2015, the city reached 100 degrees Fahrenheit, a temperature last recorded in 1967; a 93-degree day in November 2016 broke a 1996 record. Last month, the mercury hit 104 degrees, surpassing 1965’s 99-degree high. By 2050, average temperatures in Long Beach are expected to increase between 2.3 degrees and 2.7 degrees.”
In what Sherriff describes as “urban heat islands” — think cement and fewer parks and plants — the high temperatures are particularly damaging. Often, the mayor said, those hot spots are concentrated in poorer parts of town.
Back in 2015, Garcia used his State of the City address to declare that he wanted Long Beach to become a “climateresilient city.” He commissioned the Aquarium of the Pacific to assess the city’s vulnerabilities and find solutions. Most vulnerable to heat, according to the report? People who are young, poor and elderly, out of a city of 470,000. (The city even operates cooling centers in public buildings on hot days.)
The plan in Long Beach calls for more parks, the planting of 10,000 trees in poorer areas of town (two studies there showed tree shade can reduce temperatures by as much as 3 degrees.) To find water for these new plants, Garcia also will be emphasizing infrastructure and building a city that depends less on automobiles and more on bikes and public transportation. His planners are taking the city apart, region by region, looking at ways to utilize solar, reduce concrete, capture rainwater and plant trees on a broader scale.
We have written before about steps all cities, including Santa Fe, can take to help lower temperatures. Already, Santa Fe has taken important steps in putting in place green building codes, using solar panels on city property, building bike paths through the city and improving bus transportation. More will be needed, including creating a greener Santa Fe — trees in medians, reduction of concrete and more shade in general. One place to start would be in front of the downtown library, where trees have become stumps.
The city, after all, has a goal of being carbon-neutral by 2040, with the Sustainable Santa Fe Commission presenting a plan to get us there.
Planting trees, reducing the amount of asphalt, even such things as painting rooftops white, are all ways to reduce temperatures. In our dry climate, we will need to capture more rainwater and recycle the water we do have.
Mayor Javier Gonzales’ Verde Fund (which may or may not continue in the next administration) was one way to fund such projects. The next mayor will have to decide the best way forward to put in place lasting sustainability — and that’s an important question for all candidates during the campaign, including those running for City Council.
As Garcia is showing in Long Beach, preparing cities for the changing climate must be part of the broader goals for a city’s future.
Santa Fe’s next mayor will be charged with moving us forward, taking the baton from Gonzales and past mayors who have understood that preparation for the changing climate has to start at the local level.