San Francisco is Incredibly Walkable

The SustainLane 2008 US City Rankings of the 50 most-populous cities is the nation's most complete report card on urban sustainability. The study's indicators focus on which city's public transit, renewable energy, local food, and development approaches are most likely to limit the impacts of fossil fuel dependence. SustainLane's rankings also reflect tap water and air quality, walkability, park space and roadway congestion. They also factor in the growth of clean technologies that provide jobs and tax base expansion.

This year San Francisco remained in the #2 spot right behind Portland. SustainLane is especially happy with our Energy and Climate Change Policy, our City Innovation, and our Solid Waste Diversion. We ranked #1 in all three categories. SustainLane is not so happy with our Housing Affordability (we ranked 50th), Natural Disaster Risk (47th), and our Metro Street Congestion (45th).

Other interesting findings in the SustainLane study:

The study's least eco-friendly city is Mesa, Arizona, which has poor air quality, a lousy water supply and little local food and agriculture.

Right behind San Francisco is Seattle, followed by Chicago, then New York City.

Among the ‘gotta give ‘em points for trying' cities are: Columbus, Ohio, which moved from #50 to #30 in the last two years; Atlanta, which went from #38 to #19; and Cleveland, Ohio, which went from #28 to #16. In a reverse trend, Las Vegas dropped from #27 to #47; and Colorado Springs went from #26 to #43.