The Wake

With each revving engine, climate change threatens our lifestyle and very existence. Many Americans make efforts to “go green” by recycling, but how often do we ignore the effects our other actions undoubtedly have on the environment? Driving is a necessity, cutting meat out of your diet is for ultraliberals and the factors that go into choosing a house don’t include sustainability.

But four local mayors gathered Feb. 15 at the Mayors Summit on Affordable Housing’s GREEN Issues: Environmental and Economic Sustainability in the Hubert H. Humphrey Center to say that maybe sustainable and affordable housing options should be available to Twin Cities residents. Maybe a house’s sustainability should be a factor in the complicated process of building homes.

Mayors Chris Coleman of St. Paul, Stephanie Klinzing of Elk River, R. T. Rybak of Minneapolis and Nancy Tyra-Lukens of Eden Prairie met in the Cowles Auditorium to discuss what they can change to become more environmentally friendly and to explain some of the biggest challenges to the development of sustainable housing. The Weisman Art Museum cosponsored the Mayors Summit, along with the Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs, the Family Housing Fund and the American Institute of Architects Minnesota, in coordination with the HOME House Project: The Future of Affordable Housing, an exhibit at the Weisman that runs through April 30.

With his first question, moderator Ed Goetz, professor and associate dean for academics at the Humphrey Institute, asked the mayors about the important elements of affordable green housing in their cities. Surprisingly, the first response, made by Coleman and reiterated by the other mayors, wasn’t in obvious relation to housing, but to transportation. Building homes along major transit corridors is a first step in making affordable housing “more green,” he said. “Transportation is the big issue,” Tyra-Lukens continued. If affordable housing is conveniently located, low-income residents can save money in gas expenses and such measures would decrease pollution.

The great-sounding idea has complications, though, as even the mayors admitted. “The cost of land makes [affordable housing] difficult” for Eden Prairie in particular, Tyra-Lukens said, because the city doesn’t have a lot of inexpensive land available along convenient transit ways to build affordable housing. “And adding the green component makes things more difficult,” she said. Rybak added, “The holy grail right now is land use.” Tyra-Lukens said there are no barriers to green developments in Eden Prairie, but there are no incentives either. She said she hopes that will change, but the city “is still new to green affordable housing.”

The ease of small consumer efforts is another important part of making urban residential settings green. “The private market is doing a disservice to those of us who care about green issues,” Rybak said and referred to the high prices of organic food in grocery stores as a comparable example. “I want to challenge the [housing] industry to come up with some models that are affordable and sustainable.” Klinzing agreed that she wants to see longer-lasting and recyclable materials promoted. She said that if green materials such as environmentally friendly concrete and roofs made of metal instead of asphalt were better advertised, usage would go up and prices down.

Longer-term and larger-payback alternatives need to be employed, not just the options that are “low-hanging fruit,” such as energy-efficient appliances and compact fluorescent bulbs, Tyra-Lukens said. Developers and other members of the housing industry often make the decisions that determine what type of materials are used and if city regulations provide incentives to go green, a huge impact could be made on the environment.

Goetz’s second question tied in directly. He asked what cities would need to provide incentives to developers for building green housing. Coleman acknowledged that developers might never focus on green issues without incentives and directives from the city, but that everyone needs to begin thinking “holistically, with green lenses.” Klinzing pointed out that cities often bargain with industrial and commercial builders and said that more emphasis can be placed on environmental issues to get a green agenda into action.

Rybak came out swinging and said, “Let’s face it. We are a capitalist society that’s driven by the bottom line.” He said the public needs to be better educated in regards to environmental issues, but that he thinks this is an issue that Minnesotans care about.

The summit also included four expert panelists. Rick Carter, senior vice president of architecture and engineering at Minneapolis’ LHB office, Caren Dewar, former deputy regional administrator with the Metropolitan Council, Tasoulla Hadjiyanni, assistant professor in the Department of Design, Housing and Apparel and a refugee of Cyprus and Gretchen Nicholls, the executive director of the Center for Neighborhoods. Each panelist had a chance to bring up a related issue or ask questions of the mayors.

“People don’t understand the impact of daily actions on the globe,” panelist Dewar said, disagreeing with Rybak’s statement that the public considers the environment an important issue, referencing the electorate’s selection of a president who doesn’t prioritize environmental policy as evidence of the public’s ignorance and apathy. “We need to put our votes where our values are,” Rybak agreed. “What is more important than global warming?”

“We have to have a larger discussion on the role we’re all going to play,” Coleman said. “You might not justify the unit-specific costs, but you have to look at the infrastructure.”

Hadjiyanni challenged the mayors that perhaps environmental sustainability isn’t the only sustainability crisis. She’s worried about “cultural sustainability.” She said that 40 percent of Minnesotan immigrants are refugees, which is three times the national average. Consideration of housing layout, plot size, kitchen location and sleeping space is important to cultural sustainability because immigrants lives are like Jenga blocks, she said. If too many blocks or a block particularly important to their cultural foundation is removed, the tower can topple, which equals stress, anxiety, emotional disorders or even death, she said in an interview. “All affordable housing that goes up needs to have a cultural code-check,” Hadjiyanni said. “A lot of housing stock is not appropriate for extended families,” Rybak admitted.

But Coleman, confident in his convictions, disagreed. “I will firmly defend that climate change is the issue we need to focus on or we’re all going to perish,” Coleman said in response to panelist Hadjiyanni’s prioritizations. “Whole communities are being wiped out because of the effects of global warming.”

“We are choosing not to prioritize affordable green housing. We need to change our fundamental thinking,” Coleman continued. “You don’t have to stop bathing to be considered environmentally friendly. You don’t have to be an extremist.”

And as mayor Rybak pointed out, the size of the summit’s crowd and the willingness of the mayors and panelists to meet for the discussion show that the Twin Cities is ready and waiting for sustainable housing.