Speaker 1: We have another good panel here.
I think the program says "Green Cities, Myth
or Reality" and we've got two guests that
are probably pretty uniquely qualified to
discuss this question from two very different
perspectives.
Mayor Daley obviously ran one of the biggest
cities in the world and certainly one of the
biggest cities in the United States.
Pretty hands on experience with questions
of how do you make a city green, work better
and more livable.
Bill McDonough has been thinking, writing,
speaking, doing for years from the sort of
architectural and I would say more theoretical
end, although with increasing hands on which
we'll get to in a second.
Two perspectives.
Mayor Daley let me start with you.
I'm going to ask the same question to both
of you but let me start with you.
When you talk about a green city or city that
has an environmental consciousness, but from
the point of view of citizens, what are the
first priorities?
When you're running a city, what are the first
priorities that people want from their government
in terms of a better environment to live in?
Mayor Daley: Right.
First when I got elected in 1989, everybody
thought a green city would be St. Patrick's
day painted green.
You have to look at, okay, what's the responsibility
of the city.
First of all, it's cleanliness.
That alone, you know ... Speaker 1: Pick up
the trash.
Mayor Daley: The airport, pick up ... Everything
around, the parks, everything is a program
and not just city, it's a private sector.
It's the community block clubs, all of them,
dealing with the cleanliness of the city.
Then after that, how do you really show people
the differences?
You start doing landscaping.
You put a landscape committee ... You start
finding out ... You start, basically, planting
trees.
Get the community involved.
A reentry program of people who've not worked
and get them involved in a training program.
Then you're doing social conscious and then
you're basically helped the environment.
Then you have to tell them why're planting
trees.
You have to explain how important that is
to the air quality.
Then after that ... Speaker 1: Who's against
planting trees?
Mayor Daley: You'd be surprised.
Everybody said that ... Media came ... You
have to cut your budget, cut that first.
The media said "Why are you spending money
on trees.
You're just beautifying the city."
That's why you explain but you have to explain
to them how environmentally important that
is.
Then they have to adapt.
Then you have to have the city lead by example.
Usually government mandates everybody else
to do it and exempts themselves.
We tried to do, is we said "We're going to
start being a green government."
What we did is, every building is certified
dealing with the U.S. building council.
We had the first platinum public building.
All public buildings are basically built with
the U.S. Green Building Council.
Then, after that, we have a Green Center of
Technology to educator developers, architects,
engineers, contractors, trade associations
and unions how important environment is in
regards to the new technology coming into
retrofitting buildings, building new buildings,
adapting your code to the new technology.
If they're going to build green, give them
a special permit to do that as quickly as
possible.
Then, of course, you look at the water situation
and conservation.
What type of building, what they're doing
inside the building.
The public wants it but they don't understand
sustainability.
They can't figure out what it is but they
want someone to lead this.
From my experience, we don't have a national
plan for the environment.
It's basically the city or the private sector,
non for profits doing it.
If we had a national plan, just an agenda,
and said "Here's what it is.
You may disagree or agree with it, at least
we have a blue print."
That's one of the problems that cities and
states have.
Speaker 1: No, I want to come back to this
because I want to talk you about regulation
as a helper [inaudible 00:04:02].
Let me get to Bill McDonough.
For now, you've worked on all sorts of different
versions of this problem of green buildings,
green cities, green communities, what's your
first priority?
What is the first priority as you are thinking
about how to design a green community or a
green building or a green factory?
When you look at that problem, what do you
think of first?
What has to happen first?
Bill: Well, I think we need a much bigger
plan as Mayor Daley's pointed out.
In that context, I got a call a little while
ago to design a new factory in India.
At 2:00 in the morning I sent my first sketches
off that night to India.
It's a motorcycle factory.
It will be the largest in the world.
I just put the structure on the outside to
keep the factory free because, you know, I
build factories.
Then I can use it for solar collectors and
in between the gang trusses, I can use it
for greenhouses.
All of a sudden, we're designing a million
square feet of buildings that have as many
jobs on the roof as they do inside.
Speaker 1: So you have ... This is another
... Bill: Growing food.
Speaker 1: Growing food on the roof.
Bill: On the roof, yeah.
It's all cost effective since I need the structure
anyway ... I can make it tall and light.
It's less steal and I get the greenhouse space.
Now all the people go to work and we make
oxygen in the building instead of taking air
... Four air changes a hour of desert, humid,
dusty air.
We actually have walls of pants that create
the oxygen for the workers directly and save
huge amounts of money.
What it's about is that carbon belongs in
soil, not in the atmosphere.
We don't have an energy problem.
This whole conference is quit astonishing
because we keep hearing about the energy,
we don't have an energy problem.
We have lots of energy.
That's the point.
We have a materials problem.
A big one.
It's carbon, a material we should know and
love because it's us, in the atmosphere where
it's a toxin.
A material in the wrong place is a toxin.
Carbon, in the atmosphere, is a toxin.
Wake up, smell the coffee, get on with it.
If you just said "All toys can be painted
with lead and we're going to allow that in
our children's mouths."
How long do you think we want to do this?
Well, what do you think we're doing to the
atmosphere.
If you design and you go "Wait a minute, carbon
is an asset.
Earthbound, go.
Work, jobs, go.
Fresh healthy food, go.
Water, out of the atmosphere, go.
Speaker 1: When you go to clients, especially
in the developing world, India and China,
I want you to talk about China.
Maybe use this question to talk about China.
Are they concerned when you present an idea
like this?
We're going to put a green roof and we're
going to have this sort of open, kind of unusual
architect ... Bill: One of my first green
roofs, by the way, was for him.
Mayor Daley: That's right.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Well ... Bill: City hall, Chicago.
Speaker 1: Isn't the first response of these
clients "That's going to cost a lot" or "That
doesn't seem functional to us."
How do you get through that barrier?
Bill: Let me focus.
For Bill Ford, he asked me to read to the
River Rouge.
In public, he never told me in advanced he
was going to do it.
I said "Why did you give me this assignment
in public without talking to me first?"
He said "Because I could never have gotten
permissions because you've never done this
before."
Speaker 1: His name's on the building.
Bill: My name's on the building but he said
" Lets go create share holder value."
What we did is the world's largest green roof
and a landscape that was quite astonishing.
What happened there is interesting.
We used nature to meet the clean water act.
It was forty-eight million dollars worth of
three chemical treatment plants, four miles
or pipes and seventy auto workers standing
around praying it doesn't rain.
Right?
Is that value for a company?
We used the green roof and it was thirteen
million dollars.
We saved forth thirty-five million dollars.
When I had to go to the board approval for
phase one, one hundred and fifty million,
I came and I said "I have a minute and a half
to make this presentation and I understand
why.
You're a hundred and seventy billion dollar
enterprise.
You've got eleven meetings a year.
Here's a hundred and fifty million.
It's worth about a minute and a half.
I've almost used up my thirty seconds and
I'll finish by saying this projects for the
birds and that is true.
Now, in the last minute since you're five
[inaudible 00:07:56] in the car business,
let me point out that what we just did is
saving you thirty-five million dollars in
capex and, with the Ford Taurus at a four
percent margin coming out of Chicago, this
is the equivalent of me walking in here and
me offering you an order for nine hundred
million dollars worth of cars."
Approved.
That is how you do this.
Okay?
Mayor Daley: Also, Ford was a very good citizen
of Chicago besides using technology, retraining
work force, they came when the stewards were
dealing with environmental problems in and
around the Ford plant.
They adapted it, they put money into it and
saving much of the open lands there.
Speaker 1: Now, I want to ask you about lessons
learned.
This doesn't always go smoothly and Bill I
think you know that.
You've got a project now in China.
Bill: We've some ... Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah so tell us about your engagement
with China because you also had a project
a few years back in China which, as I understand
it, did not really go as well as you would
have like.
Bill: Oh yeah, no.
Mayor Daley: Experience is really important.
Speaker 1: What were the lessons you learned
in doing this.
Bill: First of all, I think the Ford thing
is a good example.
When we went into it, you don't know what
you're doing.
You just know you have this desire to solve
for this issue.
We found that agreeing with technology in
Germany.
It had been used by the stasi for camouflage
because we needed something light and cheap.
In China, I've had some very amazing lessons.
One was a little village where we went in
and we were doing it mostly pro bono, trying
to help out, and they said "Can you help out
in the little village?".
The person that was in charger of it, the
local mayor/developer, just went off and did
this crazy thing and built forty houses out
there and said "This is it."
He didn't pay any attention to the things
we were saying about "Lets build to local
capacity.
Lets figure out how the local people can build
it.
Lets do straw.
Lets not move all the farmers to the" ... You
know.
They just did it and what a lesson because,
you know, like a tar pit.
What you realize ... I was talking Ann Marie
Sastry earlier and she said "The thing is,
intention is not execution."
When you work with China, that is hugely important
because ...Speaker 1: Now you're working with
China again is that correct?
Bill: What I insist on ... Speaker 1: What
is ... Bill: I'm now the client.
Speaker 1: You're at the client.
Bill: I want control and we go the money and
it's our project and we're in charge of it.
First thing we do is convene everybody.
Just like Mayor Daley did in Chicago.
You bring in all the parties.
You see what had happened in that village,
the mayor said "Oh, I talked to everybody.
This is what they all want."
But we never got to talk to everybody, etc.
They just did it and they do it fast because
the way you get promoted in China, you have
a five year plan.
Every politician's doing a five year thing
and then they're leaving it to the next mayor
to clean it up or watch it degrade.
Then the third mayor will take it over and
do it over again.
They all get promoted because of this five
year plan.
Speaker 1: Intention is not execution and
I guess you can say the same thing about Chicago,
right?
Mayor Daley: Well, yest.
You need, basically, a business community.
Become your advisors and work with them.
That doesn't mean a difference of opinion
but they have to be part of the solution.
The same way the non-for-profits and the citizens
in government.
There always has to be that.
Government cannot do it alone.
I've always said "In the environment, it's
the land, air and water."
From my view
point, government has to lead by example.
On green roofs, we lead by example.
Bill: Exactly.
Mayor Daley: Once we lead by example, then
we have over seven million square feet of
green roofs today because they knew we were
serious about this.
We weren't going to mandate to the business
but we were going to do every public building
dealing with green roofs, green environment.
Everything was concerned about that and we
started cutting the cost down.
That was a major issue, dealing with the cost.
Then we had several service districts.
Tax increment financiing to retrofit many
historical buildings.
Otherwise, most of them will be demolished
or abandoned so what do you do with their
air conditioning, their heating?
What do you do with their windows?
What do you do with their roofs and everything
like that?
Speaker 1: Are buildings the biggest issue
in terms of urban energy use or do you also
have to think about the transportation grid?
Do you have to think about things like storm
water?
[crosstalk 00:12:03] Mayor Daley: We have
to think about the construction of the buildings,
especially dealing with energy concerns and
the environment.
Of course, public transportation.
We're building the same system we built a
hundred years ago.
Same cars, same public transportation.
We have to really change that.
China's lead the way with technology from
Germany and the rest of the world.
We have to adopt inner city public transportation
and that's what we have to adopt.
Water conservation is very important in Chicago
even though the Great Lakes.
We formed the Great Lakes meeting of Canadian
mayors, U.S mayors and we found that both
Canada and the United States didn't tell anybody
where they're spending the money on the Great
Lakes.
We passed resolutions.
Both the President and Prime Minister of Canada
has, basically, public awareness.
We can find out where they're are spending
the money on the Great Lakes.
Conservation's very important.
If we don't have conservation of water, that's
one of the great assets we'll lose.
Slowly but surely over the years.
Speaker 1: Bill, when you go around the world
and you look at cities, who's got good ideas?
Lets talk about, and if it's relevant to you,
transportation.
Where do you see good ideas in transportation
that's not as energy intensive, not as carbon
intensive.
Is it somewhere in Brazil?
Is it the United States?
I don't think so, by the way, in the United
States.
Where do you see good ideas?
Bill: Well, it's fascinating.
Given this conference, let me do a little
skipping through the decades, if we job back
to Curitiba, Brazil in 1980's and we look
at Jaime Lerner and what he was able to do.
Getting Volvo to make buses, [inaudible 00:13:41]
and basically build a subway system above
the ground.
That's quite astonishing which has then been
replicated by Bogaton and other people and
built on.
I mean really practical, brilliant piece of
work and, also, creating a new form of currency
in terms of transportation because he could
pay people to bring out their garbage in tokens
for transportation.
If you couldn't afford to go to work, you
could turn in your garbage and get a token
which could get you either an organic garden
that the city was building in their flood
plans or you could get to work.
Speaker 1: You saw the trash problem resolve.
Bill: He created a new form of currency which
is quite astonishing and health and food.
Amazing city.
Then we move on and Bogaton's taking that
up and other people join.
If I can jump ahead, what I find really exciting
about this conference, when you talk to be
like [inaudible 00:14:27], what I'm interested
in is the cities and modes of transportation,
highways in the center, have pulled the families
apart.
Families moved to the burbs for their middle
period.
The young people get out of college.
They want to wear black and go to cities and
find mates.
Then they have kids so they want a swing set.
When they get older they're going to want
to come back to the city.
They don't want to be out there with the swing
set.
We got to bring the generations back together.
What I finds fascinating is we watch people
being able to live past sixty-five or a few
of us ... I'm there, getting ready.
We're good, we're good.
I'm okay.
If we think about it, I would like to see
us taking all of the see technologies with
GPS and have the elders driving the children
to their violin lessons using GPS.
There is no reason we can not go from that
bus, which is still a linear system, to an
automatic delivery system of children to wonderful
things all over by the elders who are driving
around talking to children and hanging out
in greenhouses growing food for the day and
drinking coffee and talking to their friends
instead of filing them in cabinets.
The generations being brought back together,
is the thing we destroyed, could actually
heel us.
It's quite fascinating.
Speaker 1: [crosstalk 00:15:38] You look at
the global cities initiative, you're looking
around at different parts of the world as
well, right?
Mayor Daley: One of the things with transportation,
1955 we built the expressway going west and
public transportation was built in the middle
of the expressway.
With the Dan Ryan runs south and the Kennedy
going north, public transportation.
No one followed that in the country.
No one in the federal governments or the state
governments.
Then, what we came ... When we looked at the
Olympics a number of years ago, what happened
is we divided the city because of the expressway.
How about covering parts of it for parks and
basically bringing communities together.
Then I looked at landscaping, we landscape
along the expressway.
When you talk to engineers, you talk about
landscaping.
They want to talk about concrete along the
expressway.
It's very interesting.
Speaker 1: Additional concrete along the ... Mayor
Daley: Yeah, more and more.
You have to have the will to do it and what
you do is you make the communities and around
those expressways feel part of it.
They're part of the solution and the landscaping,
the noise.
Eventually, we have to cover these because
you want to bring the communities together.
Speaker 1: Right because in the 50's, 60's
and 70's the freeways were basically [crosstalk
00:16:52].
Mayor Daley: That should have been our public
transportation system all the way out as far
as [crosstalk 00:16:57].
Speaker 1: Here's the problem and, again,
you both must know this perfectly well, where
are the resources going to come from to cover
the freeways?
Lets use that.
Where do the resources come from?
Mayor Daley: My theory is that the way we
set it up infrastructure from the federal
government, then state, then the local.
What you have to do is you have to have, I
believe, a commission set up of some fed,
state and local and business community.
A sector.
Six and six.
Three forts to make decisions.
Where the money comes from?
Off shore profits that everybody's making
and then want to bring it back.
Bring it back on a five percent tax.
Then say that you're going to contribute fifteen
percent into infrastructure fund each year.
Speaker 1: At a national level?
Mayor Daley: At a national level.
Every company.
Then x amount of money will come from local
and state governments.
When there's a project going ... We're going
to do a water and sewer project, not in Chicago
but in the metropolitan area includes Indiana
and Wisconsin and we say to ourselves in that
area "What do you require?
You don't like classic piping.
You require certain laws, rules and regulations
that cost more money than anyone else.
Whether it's the federal, state and local,
then you evaluate all the laws and rules and
regulations.
That's cost you more money.
It's not safety.
It's not better efficiency.
It's cost more money.
That twenty-five billion comes down to maybe
twenty-one billion.
Speaker 1: Do rules and regulations, and we
were talking about this earlier.
Do rules and regulations that are ostensibly
or that are aimed at helping the environment
actually help push development out into the
suburbs and create more sprawl.
I'm talking about sort of the super fund and
hazardous waste brown field problems.
Mayor Daley: It all does in a sense that EPA
is not an agent that comes to work with you.
It's like the FBI coming and knocking on your
door and you're saying "Here they are."
Even as a mayor "Oh my god, the justice departments
here.
They're going to file a lawsuit, they're going
to put a judgement in.
They want you ... You're going to have to
raise all this money overnight."
What happens is,
there's lack of really cooperation.
First of all, cities were formed in the country,
then states, then we decided to form a country.
What it is now is they have to evaluate.
What I did as the mayor, we started evaluating
our laws and rules and regulations.
"Why do we have that law there?
How long has it been in affect?
Why do they have the rules and regulations
in each department?"
Then you can eliminate those.
You find out who put those in.
Then you find out there's not real regulation,
it's a bureaucracy interpreting the rules
and regulations.
That's another thing they have to come with.
I think they're necessary but you have to
evaluate all of them of what the intention
to do.
Speaker 1: Bill, as you were, are the rules
that govern constructions in cities or buildings
in cities, are they a help or a hindrance
if you're looking toward a goal of a greener
city?
Bill: For me, my job as a designer is to envision
the future and then render it visible if I
can.
When I was asked by NASA to look at doing
the Mars station, I said "Wait.
Why do we go to the red planet?
Why don't we go back to the blue one first?"
We just finished building, for the federal
government, NASA's new research center.
It can produce a hundred and twenty percent
more energy than it needs from renewables
and purify it's own water.
It was done with a normal budget, a federal
building, ahead of schedule.
You want to talk about a lead building less
carbon, how about a building like a tree?
See?
If you think about it, we took five thousand
years to put wheels on our luggage.
We're not that smart, really.
If you think about like a tree, if you could
do a building or a city like a forest, that's
what he was doing, you see?
When they say "What are you
doing, beautification?"
He was building a city like a forest.
Speaker 1: Beautification sounds like an elitist
thing.
Bill: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Felt like Johnny Appleseed.
Bill: I see a picture of Toyota.
Can you believe that they have an ad that's
a picture of a tree and it says "Our aim,
zero emissions."
You've got to be kidding.
This thing's emitting oxygen, thank goodness.
Speaker 1: I want to leave zero emissions.
I want to leave some time for questions but
I want to ask both of you and I'll admit that
this is a somewhat personal agenda.
As both of you know, we spoke earlier, I live
outside of Detroit.
Detroit right now, has just been taken over
by the state of Michigan.
I'm just saying this for members of our audience
who might not think about Detroit everyday,
that it is the symbol of urban failure.
Possibly globally but certainly in this country.
I want to ask both of you what you would do
about Detroit.
Bill, I'll start with you.
What would you do, just briefly, what would
you do to make Detroit greener and functional
in away that it isn't now.
I know you worked in Deerborn, you probably
have some thoughts.
Bill: I would do the kind of thing Mayor Daley
did, I would convene.
Bring people together.
I would do like Curitiba did.
This is an odd evocation but I think it's
really essential.
The real fundamental question that we have
today as design is "How do we love all the
children of all species for all time?"
The question is about the kids and what jobs
should they have?
What hope do they have?
It starts there.
That's where they devastation will come from
is the people losing any hope.
That they become desperate, they become mean,
it becomes terrifying.
We start with that.
That's why when Curitiba made every decision
the question Jamie Lerner asked was "How do
I love my children?"
You see?
When they built libraries, instead of building
a mausoleum downtown for books, he put them
in all the little communities so every kid
could get there in twelve minutes.
Then the citizens complained because the people
in the [inaudible 00:22:35] outside the city
limits were sending their children in to use
the libraries inside Curitiba.
He had to stop that.
He said "Why would I stop that?
Are you kidding?
If we don't love those children too, those
children will grow up and hate the city.
If they grow up and hate the city, they will
come in and destroy the city."
I start with those kids.
We can talk about, if you're going to start
spending federal money ... When I hear five
billion dollars for an L&G thing or when I
hear politicians get up during the election
and say "I think we should have energy security
in America."
I agree completely.
Energy independence, absolutely.
"I think we should use public lands so we
can have energy independence."
I say "Absolutely."
"I think we should drill in Montana."
Absolutely not.
Okay.
"I think we should get a pipeline from Alberta
to Texas."
Absolutely not.
What do you want, eminent domain, really?
I thought you guys were into ... Nevermind.
Anyway, we used eminent domain already, as
he pointed out, to build a federal highway
system.
It was a security system for our cities.
Eisenhower did it and it was "Get out of there
in a hurry with a nuclear blast and mobilize
our forces if we need to."
Speaker 1: Right.
People forget that.
Bill: We built a highway system and guess
what?
It's public real estate and it's ready for
solar collectors.
Lets go.
Speaker 1: Mayor Daley, tell us about what
you're doing in Gary because I guess that's
kind of relevant to the Detroit question.
What would you do?
Mayor Daley: First, you need a history of
Detroit [inaudible 00:23:55] then given to
us.
Then in turn, tell [inaudible 00:23:58].
Take your federal money, restore them and
you'll have many universities and housing
for students and housing for the professors
and staff people.
You'll create a mass down there.
You'll starting getting boutiques and younger
people.
Families coming down and then in turn, you
take the rest of the property there and you
evaluate that.
Most expensive properties along the water
at their gross point.
Then you'll look at what type of housing you're
going to build there.
Then start building.
Then move some of the people ... There's like
one home on a block ... Then you start moving
people into better housing, affordable housing.
Then you create the most environmentally,
technology city in the world.
You go to Bill and say "Here, we want to do
something different for new manufacturing
in the automobile industry, the chemical industry.
All these industries and make that the center
point of the Midwest."
That's what I would do.
Speaker 1: I'd like to open up for questions.
If there are any.
I got to do this again.
Bill: If I could make one more point.
Mayor Daley: In Gary, Indiana ... I lecture
at the University of Chicago so I have my
graduate, undergraduate helping Gary, Indiana,
Eighty-five thousand people, we put foundation
... The other university's behind it.
They've become the advisors to a newly elected
mayor.
Harvard graduate, Lori, African American woman,
honesty.
It's exciting because we should never give
up on people or part of our a country.
We've given up on Detroit and Gary.
They're all over and we should not do that.
We, as a nation, can do much better to restore
those urban communities in order to protect
the environment.
Bill: Last point, I think it's important mixed-use
and liver-work.
Just remember that.
For transportation, if you don't have to go
somewhere because the factories aren't dangerous.
We've done five [inaudible 00:25:48] where
the water coming out [crosstalk 00:25:49].
Speaker 1: Instead of having the factory over
here, have the [crosstalk 00:25:52].
Bill: Mix it all up and get the kids in there.
Speaker 1: That's a cultural shift for sure.
We have questions?
Yes, there I saw you first and then over in
this direction.
Speaker 4: I'm sorry, I came in late.
When you're talking about green roofs, are
you speaking of roofs with things growing
on them or are you talking primarily about
non reflective roofs or wide roofs or something.
Bill: We're talking about things that insulate
the roof.
Produce oxygen, provide bird habitat.
We're also talking about farming.
We're doing a whole series of projects right
now where all the roofs of the ... Imagine
Paris growing it's own food.
Imagine on the roofs.
Imagine that.
Mayor Daley: In the city of Chicago, we have
the largest beehives on public roofs.
What we did there is we have a reentry program,
an offender program, that basically deal with
the honey and everything else.
It's a training program.
It's amazing.
You start telling people how all of a sudden
there's butterflies and everything else on
top of city hall and other public buildings.
All the value of the buildings around looking
down, increase.
Residential or office buildings.
Speaker 1: I know Chicago delivers a lot of
different products to the world but honey
was not one that was on my list.
Mayor Daley: Yes.
Would you believe that?
We have the best honey because of the lake
effect.
Speaker 1: Makes sense.
Mayor Daley: Promoter.
[inaudible 00:27:18] honey, no.
Speaker 1: See him afterwards.
Yes?
Speaker 5: What a thrill to be quotes by Bill
McDonough, first off, and to the assembled
colleagues let me just say, it's the dreamers
who turn everything upside down.
When you hear these ideas, to all the colleagues
I would say they sound crazy
until they're not.
Thank you.
My question to you, maybe it's a bit of challenge
question, I have kids.
Many of us in the audience have children.
Schools have become a vault.
How can we use city regulations and architectures
to open up children's schools and become more
part of the community?
Mayor Daley: Right.
I took responsibility in 1995 and it wasn't
part of the community.
It was isolation.
It was like a prison system.
What we did is, first of all, I started landscaping.
Landscaping, I had the student adopt, each
class adopt trees.
Take rid of the asphalt.
Making it environmentally friendly and then,
especially in the new construction, making
sure that all the added activities of the
school could be used on weekends and after
school.
Of course, my wife started the largest after
school program.
Making a school a community center and not
just an educational institution.
Creating a learning environment during school,
after school and weekends.
There must be created learning environment.
You have to open those schools whether suburban
or city.
You take suburban schools, they're only used
less than 40 hours a week unless you're on
the football team or the swimming team.
They're not used by the community.
From my view point, that's creating a learning
environment.
Then we get our children much more active
in culture and sports and become really part
of a community instead of just all leaving
school as quickly as possible.
I try to make the school a community center
and to me, that is the issue especially in
big cities.
The reason why people leave big cities today
is the lack of good quality public education.
I'll be very frank.
I mean, you talk to anyone.
I started talking about middle class schools
and you thought "What do you mean middle schools?"
Yes, we can create middle class schools with
twenty-five percent kids on scholarship who
are poor, mixed racial, ethnic, religious
and you can make that a quality school.
Unfortunately, that's why you have the suburban
sprawl.
They're moving out of cities and farther out
of the inner part of the suburban area for
better schools.
That's why, to me, everyone has to take responsibility
for a school system.
Bill: I think the question of this conversation
on green cities is focused on that question
alone.
These children ... Imagine a city where the
monarch butterfly has been announced that
we are down to two point nine acres in Mexico
from twenty nine twenty years ago.
The Arbor Foundation created an app for kids
to track monarch butterflies about four years
ago.
There are now nine hundred thousand children
in America tracking the monarchs on their
smart phones.
The children love those butterflies.
Why are the monarchs decimated because the
way we do herbicides and our farming, we no
longer have weeds because we have round up
ready everything.
All the milk weed are deed.
Chicago could take that verge and say "Well,
what we used to call weeds is now monarch
habitat."
Speaker 1: Redefine it.
Bill: Cities are more bio diverse than farming,
big time.
What if a city restores bio diversity?
What if we say "What birds fly over head?"
Welcome them home.
"What butterflies are here?"
Let those kids in those schools be in a world
bigger than they are and get rid of that asphalt
because it is two words assigning blame in
this context.
Speaker 1: Is there another question?
I have to remember that line.
Another question?
I'm sorry, it's really hard for me to see.
Over here.
There you go, sorry.
Speaker 6: It's Truman Semans from GreenOrder
and Clean Tech Group, part of the eco-system
of the city is the economic eco-system and
all the flows in and out has a lot to do with
the transportation.
Has a lot to do with the jobs.
I wonder what the opportunity is to redesign
cities trying to kind of take local work to
the ultimate and produce as much as possible
of everything that's need, products and services,
within the city.
What are the ways that a city could do that?
Could approach that and really try to have
as much of it's economy internally producing
the jobs everything that's needed within that
environment?
Mayor Daley: Well, if you see the way that
cities are built, they had manufacturing districts.
I live next to stock yards and manufacturing
and when it was isolated.
Those communities around it really worked
in there.
What's going to happen is the manufacturing
is going to change because of technology and
the environment.
You're going to manufacturing in office buildings,
it's not what you think building cars, trucks
and everything, it'd be some type of manufacturing
which is environmentally friendly, has technicians.
You don't send your child to a vocational
school.
You don't send your child to work in a factory.
You send your child to be a technician.
People understand that so from my view point,
that's how you'll have to look at a city.
Completely different this century than the
last century.
Don't repeat all the mistakes of the last
century and that's what Bill's pointed out.
We have to look completely different in this
century and we're not.
We're the same way.
We're trying to look at each issue separate.
Education, that's separate from the environment.
It is now separate from business and so, my
viewpoint, the cities have to change.
This is a great opportunity for Gary, Indiana
or Detroit to show that it can be done.
You can create opportunities and you create
jobs for all types of people.
From the lowest end to the highest end in
regards to employable positions in their cities.
Speaker 1: We'll have to leave it there.
Thank you so much.
Thank you, both of you.
Mayor Daley: Thank you.
Bill: Thank you.
