Kent Portney's "Our Green Cities" Blog

Visit to Kansas City

I had the opportunity to spend a couple of days visiting Kansas City, and checking out what is being done there in its effort to try to become more sustainable.  Kansas City has had a sustainability program for a couple of years, and it is starting to put the pieces together. One of the more impressive things about what KC is doing has to do with the metropolitan-wide reach of the effort. KC is a fairly sprawling city. It does have a defined downtown area, but the city itself is pretty large and expansive. Beyond the boundaries of the city proper, the suburbs are pretty sprawling as well.  So a lot of what is being done related to sustainability is operating across municipal boundaries.  I had the opportunity to have lunch with David Warm, the Executive Director of the Mid-America Regional Council, the metropolitan planning and policy agency.  This Council has been integrally involved in KC's climate protection program, and the city's Green Impact Zone initiative.

Kansas City and Sustainability

I am headed early next week to give a talk on sustainable cities at the University of Missouri -- Kansas City. Kansas City is one of those places that is definitely making great progress, and somewhat under the radar screen of many people.  But Mayor Mark Funkhouser, the city council have, and the Mid-America Regional Council, have done a lot of terrific work in support to sustainability.

You can get a sense of what KC has been doing by checking their sustainability report.  As in many cities, there are lots of people who are not aware of the city's commitment to sustainability and many of its constitutent parts, including climate protection, smart growth, and many others.  Yet the city's leaders seem to be highly committed to acheiving a wide array of specific results.  KC is definitely a city worth watching.