Nation's Cities - May 21, 2012

2 NatioN’s Cities Weekly
May 21, 2012

COLuMNISt
Water Plan for the Century: Philadelphia’s breakthrough

by Neal Peirce
WASHINGTON -- Could
it be serious -- a major American
city makes water conservation
the linchpin of its 21st-century
planning, the ticket to a future
that’s both “green” and eco-
nomically vibrant?

But the benefit may go
beyond budget savings, argues
Howard Neukrug. He’s the
civil servant who started espous-
ing the new conservation strat-
egy in Philadelphia’s Office
of Watersheds 14 years ago.
Now promoted to water com-
missioner by Mayor Michael
Nutter, Neukrug explains why
a smart and conserving water
policy can make a crucial dif-
ference for his city’s future.
First, it’s a route to environ-
mental and social justice. Poor
areas have more than their
share, he argues, of streams
laden with pollutants, plus
buried or neglected waterways
that are hard to reach and not
very attractive when one does.
So a city assist to “green”
and improve those areas, mak-
ing them accessible, safe and
natural, with buried streams
revived and more communi-
ty open space created, is key,
Neukrug insists, not just to
the city’s environmental sus-
tainability, but to real equity
issues: improved safety and
physical attractiveness. Such
steps, he argues, don’t just cre-
ate more greenery, save energy
and cool the region in an era
of global climate change. He
contends they will also enable
Philadelphia to draw a larger
share of residents able to pay
their bills -- undergirding the
city’s economic and environ-
mental sustainability.

Streets are being rebuilt
so that storm water typically
gets diverted into gravel beds
under the rights-of-way and
sidewalks, the old inlets and
sewer connections preserved
to accommodate just the very
heaviest downpours.
A start’s been made to install
porous street surfaces that
absorb water directly; Nutter
showed up at one location,
remarking later: “I poured a
gallon of water on the street
and it just disappeared.”
Some 15 parks have been
made over with new trees or
underground basins to absorb
runoff; in alliance with the
Trust for Public Land, efforts
have begun to transform
500 acres of public land into
green play spaces by 2015.
Separately, the public schools
are being engaged to redeem
ugly asphalt-paved schoolyards

see page 8, column 1
LetteR tO tHe eDItOR
Re: Last Print edition of Nation’s Cities Weekly, April 30

Talk about times changing: In
1978 when the National League
of Cities launched Nation’s Cities
Weekly, Dar Webb was the pub-
lisher and I was an associate
editor and writer, both of us
working for Fred Jordan, who
was at the time the Director of
Communications. We had been
publishing a monthly magazine,
Nation’s Cities, which I had
joined the year before. When
the shift from a monthly maga-
zine to a weekly newspaper was
announced, I wasn’t sure how
I felt about it. Within a short
time, I was very happy. The
weekly got news and informa-
tion out faster than the monthly,
obviously, and it still had room
and time for longer features.
It seemed like the best of both
worlds. And so it continued for
the seven years I stayed at NLC.

Anyway, I remember when
the Weekly started. Particularly
I remember that when the first
issue was to be printed, Dar
went through every step of the
process with the paper – riding
herd on it through the typeset-
ting (she had to find the hyphen
key on the typesetter for the
makeup crew) and layout, then
keeping a close eye on the print-
ing, and then riding with the
bundles of printed papers to the
mailing house. Now a days, that
can all be done by computer,
of course; and by the way, I’m
sending this electronically.
As the paper grew, those of
us on the editorial side (Peter
Nye, Allison Hallingby Dodge,
and Laura Turner are the ones
I remember ) would take turns
supervising the paste up (this
was before completely electronic
paste up and layout) at whatever
graphics shop was doing the job
for us. And we continued to
write: short news stories, news
from Congress and the White
House, NLC news, and features
on almost anything of interest to
city officials.

Clint Page
St. Petersburg, Fla.
capage@gte.net

Nation’s Cities Weekly
Volume 35 Number 20 | ISSN 0164-5935 | May 21, 2012

Official publication of the National League of Cities
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