The green economy.

For several months I have been wrestling with this idea of Green Jobs and the Green Economy. Specifically, how can these jobs benefit me and my community? I also wanted to know what are green jobs. I hear politicians talk a lot about the green the economy, but nobody ever says what the green economy is.

If it's building solar cells and wind turbines, well, that sounds a lot like the old Blue collar economy except we are building "green" things. I've read hundreds of articles on the green economy, but nothing that has really addressed my questions. Then I cam across ARC. ARC is the Applied Research Center. Their focus is on "racial justice through media, research, and activism." while reading their website I came across a report/ call to action they did called "Green Equity Toolkit: Advancing race, Gender, and Equality in the Green Economy." This was exactly what I had been looking for.

Not only do they define what a green job is, but also how people on the lower end of the income scale, and in neighborhoods like mine, can get these jobs and how they will benefit the community as a whole. It is a good read and I suggest you at least glance over it.

If this is the green economy I can get behind. This is what we need.

PS. They define a green jobs as: Well paid, career track jobs, that contribute directly to preserving or enhancing the environment. If a job improves the environment, but does not offer a family-supporting wage or a career ladder to move low-income workers into higher skilled occupations, it's not a green job.

Russell Fall Festival

The Russell Neighborhood Fall Festival

Saturday Nov 21st 5-9PM

18th and Madison.

(right behind West Chestnut Baptist Church)

Live Music and Free Food!

Come and here one of Louisville's Best Jazz/Funk/R&B bands 502

Can we do this in Russell and or downtown Louisville?

Sorry for the long time between postings, but my radio show has been taking a tremendous amount of my time. But I'm back and will be posting more often.

I'm pretty sure getting a developer to build something like in Russell is pretty much nil to none. However, I would love to see new housing built in Russell that really resembles the style of architecture that is already here. Something that would really convey the urban feel of the neighborhood before Urban Removal..I mean Urban Renewal put the wrecking ball to Russell's eastern half. Here is an example of what I'm talking about in New Jersey. Can you imagine something like this on Market Street. How cool.

Speaking of new developments I was reading one of my favorite blogs Broken Sidewalk and cam across this post on Big Box living in the city. I've seen a couple of these in Chicago, but this article reminded me of what Louisville could do. We all know that there is a serious lack of retail in downtown Louisville. We also know that if we were to get any big box retailer they would need a ton of space and parking. In other cities they solved this problem by putting the retailer inside of these large condo/office buildings. Parking is located either underneath the building or a garage is built in the structure it self. Take a look at the pics below. The first pic is of another condo/office building in Vancouver. As you can see there is a Home Depot and a grocer on the ground floor. The really cool thing is that there is rooftop garden/ green space on the roof. The second pic is from Broken Sidewalk and features a condo office building with a Whole Foods on the ground floor.