When residents want to eat, they wouldn’t have to walk more than a few blocks to find fresh fruits and vegetables. And if they want to catch their own food, residents would be able to wade into the Potomac and Anacostia rivers, throw out a line, and reel in a striped bass or white perch because waterways would be “swimmable and fishable.”
“We are deadly serious about this,” said Harriet Tregoning, the city’s planning director. “We have all these people who are moving to Washington. . . . We can take this opportunity and redefine our city in some important ways.”
After a six-month review that included 125 meetings and more than 700 community participants, Gray (D) has finalized what he calls a “Vision for a Sustainable D.C.” by 2032.
The plan includes short-, mid- and long-term policy goals that Gray hopes will guide his and future administrations. However, the proposal does not include funding sources for goals that could cost billions of dollars to implement, making some of them dependent on aid from an already cash-strapped federal government.
“It’s a statement of where the mayor thinks the city’s values and direction should go,” said Robert H. Nelson, a professor of environmental policy at the University of Maryland. “But whenever anything comes up that is actually going to cost money, this statement is not likely to have a huge impact in terms of the debate. . . . Anything that has a 20-year goal becomes more symbolic.”
Although some ideas seem improbable — such as being waste-free within 20 years — administration officials said the plan would help local officials conceptualize the future of the city. Some changes could begin immediately.
“They may seem far-fetched given our history as a city, but not so much if you look at what other cities around the world are doing,” said Christophe Tulou, head of the D.C. Department of the Environment. “The goal is to have D.C. be visionary in as many areas as possible and, when you add it all up, for D.C. to be the greenest, healthiest, most livable city in the U.S.”
According to the report, a copy of which was obtained by The Washington Post, the administration is hoping to require “energy audits” of all buildings “periodically and at the point of sale” within a few years to gauge their usage. Also in the short term, online tools or forums would allow residents to calculate energy usage.
The short-term efforts to highlight energy use would set the stage for potential long-term strategies for pricing fossil-fuel reliance. The plan calls for a 50 percent reduction in emissions and energy consumption in 20 years, and envisions a 500 percent increase in green jobs.
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