Great Lakes Echo (http://greatlakesecho.org/tag/urban/)
A recent report from WalletHub, “2022’s Greenest Cities in America,” ranked Buffalo, Madison, Cincinnati and Milwaukee among the Great Lakes region’s best for engaging in cleaner, more sustainable habits.
Since 2019, just over a dozen inner-city families in the heart of Minneapolis have cared for small prairies full of native plants in the boulevard strips adjacent to their homes. The project is aimed at increasing urban biodiversity. It is called City Backyard Science and is funded by the University of Minnesota Institute on the Environment.
Bees in the D’s new pollination center is expected to increase the fruits and vegetables produced in Detroit community gardens. The pollination center, breaking ground in April, will be home to roughly 100,000 honeybees in multiple hives.
Despite having some of the worst air quality in Chicago, as documented in the city’s most recent Air Quality and Health Report, industry continues to relocate to the Southeast Side.
Many people, including researchers, have regarded Detroit as a food desert. Yet the term food desert is no longer correct in describing all of Detroit. The U.S. Department of Agriculture considers a census tract to be a food desert based on its poverty rate and the proportion of residents living more than a mile from a supermarket or large grocery store.
Just 2 miles south of Cohoes, New York, sits the Saratoga Sites public housing community and the Norlite Hazardous Waste Incinerator. Smoke and dust from Norlite’s hazardous waste incinerator cause daily problems for Saratoga Sites residents.
Urban areas are getting hotter. Trees can help.
Chicago environmental groups are pushing to protect urban gardens from fines levied for having too many weeds.
“Accidental Wilderness” is a collection of essays and photographs describing the origins and ecology of Tommy Thompson Park in Toronto, named for a former Toronto Parks commissioner.
A $2.9 million cleanup of contaminated sediments along the Detroit River will help bring a new look to the Motor City and set the stage for the completion of the Riverwalk by linking two popular waterfront parks.