Seven Charlotte neighborhoods, ranging from a high-rise uptown condos to a suburban subdivision, have been selected to receive $80,000 in grants as part of the city's Neighborhood Energy Challenge Grant program. That program is one of 17 projects to be paid with a $6.5 million Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant the City of Charlotte won from the U.S. Department of Energy. The idea is to approach energy conservation efforts at a neighborhood level.
The neighborhoods are: The Avenue condos (210 N. Church St. uptown), the "EcoDistrict" (Villa Heights, Belmont, Optimist Park neighborhoods), Merry Oaks in east Charlotte, the NoDa neighborhood just northeast of uptown, Plaza-Midwood just east of uptown, Wilmore south of uptown and Spring Park in northeast Charlotte.
Daria K. Milburn, community energy conservation coordinator in the city's Neighborhood & Business Services department, says projects include bike rack installations, neighborhood light-bulb and shower-head swaps (where you turn in your old ones and get new ones that save electricity or water), promoting alternative transportation such as transit and bicycling. Spring Park is going to try to integrate solar power into street lighting. The Avenue will use different lighting in its parking garage to cut its electricity usage by about half. All their applications included education/awareness campaigns, she said.
Want to read more? Here's the memo on the project that went out to City Council members.
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14 comments:
Would love to see Madison Park included in this program.
Lets see some streetscape raingardens!
And yet we wonder why this country is broke.
My condo. in 3rd Ward applied but dissapointingly we didn't get the grant. However, congrats to our neighbors.
Going green.......Give it up!!!
It always cost more conservative GREEN $$$$$ to go liberal GREEN !!!
vote NO-GREEN
You should consider a name change for your blog. I think Tidy Town will work.
This is a good deal. If the Obama Administration had put the stimulus money into this, he and the country would be moving ahead instead of standing still:
-reviving passenger rail around the country
-light rail for the top 50 cities in the US
-rain water capture systems for residences
-solar panels for commercial bldgs. and residential structures and mega and small scale wind farms
-new generation nuclear power plants
Had we started some of these projects, everyone would be too busy working to pay attention to that crazy Yosemite Sam preacher in Gainesville, Fl talk about burning something he's never read.
Has a reporter asked him if he can read? What happened to journalism?
If it is so critical to "go green" then why do these people need to spend someone elses' green on it?
If I want to replace my current car for an electric car, why should everyone else have to fork over their taxes to me?
That is so wrong.
If it is so critical to "go green" then why do these people need to spend someone elses' green on it?
If I want to replace my current car for an electric car, why should everyone else have to fork over their taxes to me?
That is so wrong.
My neighborhood is going green without the need of a taxpayer hand out and supporting the economy as well! Lot's of money spent on grass seed, aerators, fertilizer, lime, lawn watering (no rain barrels here!), etc.
I'll have the greenest lawn for sure this year!
Flame away socialist hippies!
Hey Mary, why no report on one of Kotkin's latest articles: "Urban Legends: Why Suburbs, Not Dense Cities, are the Future" - http://www.newgeography.com/content/001722-urban-legends-why-suburbs-not-dense-cities-are-future
There is no way a condo can ever be "green."
Why?
Because EVERYTHING needed for life is brought in from the outside - water, food, energy, etc. At least in the 'burbs there is a chance to live somewhat off the surrounding land in the community, but not in a high rise crackerbox condo.
Well by that logic I can't be green because everything I consume comes from outside my body. I can't photosynthesize personally.
I fear these sorts of grants are not spent wisely. I love NoDa but the only thing that counts will be the light bulbs. It's already bike friendly, and it's too shady for many solar water heaters except on the business properties.
I've said this before and I'll say it again: Charlotte and Mecklenburg county can increase their sustainability substantially by including multi-family developments in the recycling program. The current program is deliberately designed for single-family houses only.
Out of one side of their mouths they complain how unsustainable single-family housing is, and out of the other side of their mouths they say that in order to get a special place to put recyclable material, you have to have a single-family house.
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