March 22, 2011 | 10:17 AM | By

DeFazio’s renaming sustainability contest

FILED UNDER: Sustainability, Peter DeFazio, United Streetcar

Step right up! Oregon Congressman Peter DeFazio is offering a free bottle of wine to the person who can come up with a better word for ‘sustainability’ and ‘livability.’ We need a new label for those concepts, he says, because, new Republican leaders in the U.S. House of Representatives hate those terms and won’t authorize government spending on them.

OPB News reporter Rob Manning sent me this clip from yesterday’s announcement of a $4 million fabrication bay and test track at United Streetcar.

Manning told me U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood got an explosive round of applause at the United Streetcar event for suggesting his department’s livability grants be renamed “Portland grants.” Can we count that as the first entry in the contest?

Interestingly enough, as I was hunting around for the legislation DeFazio refers to early on in that clip, I found a story that quotes DeFazio himself questioning the term “livability.” Last year, DeFazio stopped the transportation department from freely spending $200 million in highway money on livability grants as part of his push to get Congress and the White House to pass a long-term transportation bill:

“If Congress is to authorize a new livable communities program, we should do so as part of a comprehensive surface transportation authorization – not as part of an annual appropriations bill,” DeFazio stated in a letter to fellow lawmakers.

  • http://twitter.com/talonpoint Gabriel

    I like DeFazio, but this just demonstrates how clueless the Dems are in the face of the right-wing propaganda machine. We need to stop running away from our ideals, as if “re-labeling” something is going to somehow convince the GOP to ignore the massive campaign contributions they get from their pollutocrat benefactors. They’re looking at their bottom line, and to hell with the rest of us. We need to play hardball, go on the attack and call them out for their suicidal, scientifically and morally bankrupt policies that seem to be adhering quite closely to the shock doctrine playbook which promises that if you make things bad enough, people will accept any solution to a short term crisis.

    And seriously, a bottle of wine? How about a gift basket of artisan cheeses and opera tickets to go with it?

    The GOP may be short-sighted and belligerent, but at least they know how to message without sounding like effete and tweedy semioticians.

  • http://twitter.com/talonpoint Gabriel

    I like DeFazio, but this just demonstrates how clueless the Dems are in the face of the right-wing propaganda machine. We need to stop running away from our ideals, as if “re-labeling” something is going to somehow convince the GOP to ignore the massive campaign contributions they get from their pollutocrat benefactors. They’re looking at their bottom line, and to hell with the rest of us. We need to play hardball, go on the attack and call them out for their suicidal, scientifically and morally bankrupt policies that seem to be adhering quite closely to the shock doctrine playbook which promises that if you make things bad enough, people will accept any solution to a short term crisis.

    And seriously, a bottle of wine? How about a gift basket of artisan cheeses and opera tickets to go with it?

    The GOP may be short-sighted and belligerent, but at least they know how to message without sounding like effete and tweedy semioticians.

  • Anonymous

    Last year I spoke at a League of Cities conference in California. Our message for the few decades has been about ‘sustainability’ both in our planning and in our technology business. When I was asked to speak they said I had to get rid of the word sustainability of nobody would show up because of all the Green certification mumbo-jumbo that cities have had to deal with that does not have the results to justify the expense. Unfortunately politicians, developers, builders and most of the general public group the word ‘green’ with ;sustainability’. In fact just try to find an engineering, planning, or architectural website that does not have the word ‘sustainable’ in their mantra… yet what exactly do these consultants offer that is actually ‘sustainable’? Certainly not those cookie-cutter subdivisions, not urban development that is a sea of roof-top and paving!

    My book, ‘Prefurbia – reinventing land development from disdainable to sustainable’, is all about developing and building solutions that cost less to implement, reduce the environmental impacts and builds one’s sense of self-worth and accomplishments by creating developments that provide a more attractive home and neighborhood at less cost than conventional and traditional methods, harnessing echnology and innovation. I do not see a probem with the word sustainability, because what ever it gets replaced with will be miss-used, miss0quoted, and become fodder on websites in the same meaningless manner.

  • Anonymous

    Last year I spoke at a League of Cities conference in California. Our message for the few decades has been about ‘sustainability’ both in our planning and in our technology business. When I was asked to speak they said I had to get rid of the word sustainability of nobody would show up because of all the Green certification mumbo-jumbo that cities have had to deal with that does not have the results to justify the expense. Unfortunately politicians, developers, builders and most of the general public group the word ‘green’ with ;sustainability’. In fact just try to find an engineering, planning, or architectural website that does not have the word ‘sustainable’ in their mantra… yet what exactly do these consultants offer that is actually ‘sustainable’? Certainly not those cookie-cutter subdivisions, not urban development that is a sea of roof-top and paving!

    My book, ‘Prefurbia – reinventing land development from disdainable to sustainable’, is all about developing and building solutions that cost less to implement, reduce the environmental impacts and builds one’s sense of self-worth and accomplishments by creating developments that provide a more attractive home and neighborhood at less cost than conventional and traditional methods, harnessing echnology and innovation. I do not see a probem with the word sustainability, because what ever it gets replaced with will be miss-used, miss0quoted, and become fodder on websites in the same meaningless manner.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=556771775 Toni Tabora-Roberts

    These folks are exploring the idea of “thrivability” – http://thrivable.wagn.org/. I like the aspirational tone.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=556771775 Toni Tabora-Roberts

    These folks are exploring the idea of “thrivability” – http://thrivable.wagn.org/. I like the aspirational tone.