The sun, the warm weather, golf and the arts are what typically attract retirees to Southern Arizona. For those choosing to live at La Posada in Green Valley, there’s a new consideration: green living.

“The average age of our residents is in the mid-80s. They are a very politically active and environmentally conscious population,” says Tim Carmichael, director of marketing for the nonprofit continuing care retirement community for people ages 62 and up. “Most of the changes we’ve been making at La Posada have come about through our residents suggestions who are concerned about water and energy usage. So we’ve taken that on and have hired Pepper Viner Homes as the developer for the planned Park Centre Homes neighborhood which we hope to break ground on by the end of 2009.”

None of the 35 homes to be built will be owned by residents. Instead they’ll pay an “entrance fee” that on average will be about $450,000 — 70 percent of which gets returned when the resident leaves. The fee, along with additional monthly maintenance costs also provides for of having medical staff nearby.

La Posada’s 35 homes won’t be for sale, residents will instead pay a partially refundable “entrance fee.” Advertisement

As for being green, all of the homes will be energey efficient and built with low-VOC (volatile organic compounds) in the cabinetry, paints and flooring. (VOC are carbon-based chemicals that evaporate at room temperature and can be harmful, especially from sustained exposure.)

Read more…link goes to Inside Tucson Business

Published  March 23, 2009

By Mae Lee Sun

Yes he did and I was there.  In that human sea of two million on a sunny, 20 degree day in D.C. to testify to the fact that indeed, a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens, neighborhood to neighborhood and email to email, can in fact change the world.

Although awe inspiring in it’s historic ramifications, as tiny American flags were waived in the air and babies of all colors were held to the sky in homage to a brighter, more culturally, racially and economically diverse future, and while I cried, my friends cried and the whole darn mass around us cried, the Inauguration of the first black president went far beyond a kumbaya moment.  That would trivialize the power of the people who, one by one, felt they had voted for change, hope and what is in the best interest of humanity over self-interest, fear and planetary destruction.

Photo by Carrie Abels

So now that it seems we’ve picked the right person for the job, who and what is responsible for translating our voted for hopes and values into action? Action that will bring forth the dream of a sustainable future and green economy?  And how long is this plan going to take?  After all, our new president is just one guy, albeit a truly exceptional one.  But he has neither the time nor ability to clone himself into a mass of thousands to execute the task at hand- putting one million hybrid cars on the road that get 150 miles per gallon on the road by 2015; to implement cap-and-trade to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 80 percent by 2050; to create five million new (green) jobs by investing 150 billion over the next 10 years into private business to build clean energy; and the list of initiatives he’s committed to goes on.

Bill Snape, senior counsel based in D.C., for the Center for Biological Diversity, remains hopeful that the progressive environmental platform and promises that Obama ran on, will come to fruition.  But he’s also skeptical to what degree it will actually be green vs. green washing due to the other kind of powerful force- business- that he says has and always will be at the forefront of the Washington political scene regardless of whichever party has taken office.

“I’m going to state the obvious.  The last eight years (of the Bush administration) have been a complete environmental disaster and a failure from an energy perspective. A lot of resources were funding Bush and Cheney who were oil men and locked into dinosaur-like thinking but I’m laying this out as a premise.  Now we have this president who really does represent ‘Hope’ because he gets the big picture, he gets that we have to look at creating new jobs and new forms of energy.  He picked a cabinet who understands the issues.  That said, the real significant questions are how the Democrats and moderate Republicans are going to go about making these changes- but at least we aren’t in the state of denial of the last eight years,” says Snape, adding that his major concern is where the money for green technology and jobs is going to go and how it’s going to be tracked.

Photo by Carrie Abels

For example, Snape wonders if the Obama administration’s upcoming CAFE standards and endangered species/global warming rules will be governed by the best available science or by the oil and gas industry who compromise to the lowest common denominator.  The same question holds true with regard to any global warming bill that Congress eventually passes.

With a stimulus package that’s in the billions and a document that approximates 1600      pages, who’s to know what’s really in it?  As a veteran of the Washington political scene, Snape says backroom deals are commonplace, promises with large price tags are made and that in itself makes it impossible to monitor and accurately manage that huge of an undertaking that won’t be complete until several years from now.

“It’s an incomprehensible amount of money.  Some of that money will go to the very industries that caused the problems in the first place, (oil, gas, auto) and not the ones’ who are committed to energy efficiency,” he says, arguing that both Democrats and Republicans are involved in the collusion and that when it comes to down to business, it’s just how D.C. works.

“It’s (D.C.) greased with money and it’s how everyone is kept happy and gets their piece of the pie…even many environmental groups will be happy with any little change because they’re so fond of working with Obama and feel he can do no wrong.  We all feel a sense of hope but he’s not a messiah.  He’s bound by political processes and he needs to be pushed.”

Henning Matthaei, managing director of Wind Power Planners, a cutting edge wind technology firm, based in Hamburg, Germany, prays this isn’t the case.  He says that many Germans and much of Europe have faith in the Obama energy agenda and feel that significant changes can happen through the new administration that would have positive consequences across the global economy.  Matthaei has hopes of bringing a successful German-based system of fixed pricing for power purchasers to the U.S., specifically to the southwest and New Mexico where wind is abundant and other resources, like water, are scarce.  As a successful entrepreneur, with founder and fellow German, Lorenz Berends who has built wind farms in France, Germany and throughout Europe, Matthaei wants to help the U.S. plan, build and maintain wind power utilities.  He says it would be a safe investment and one that would stimulate a sustainable, green economy with the development of a green grid; transmission lines, wind power, solar power and electric cars.

Photo courtesy of Wind Power Planners

“Even before Obama was elected the U.S. planned on developing 20 percent of its power from wind energy by 2030…it’s a multi-billion dollar business all over the world.  We (Germany) are a leading source for sustainable systems but just don’t have a lot of open space in Germany left- but we know the technology and can assist in bringing it to the U.S.  Places like central New Mexico have a lot more wind in relation to the proportion of inhabitants it could serve so there is a much bigger potential here,” he says, adding that wind resources in New Mexico alone are estimated to be around 50 GW.

Even so, PNM, the state of New Mexico’s public utility company, has received requests for interconnection from planners for up to 2000 MW- the equivalent of nearly four nuclear power stations.  According to Matthaei, that is a “kick in the ass for anybody who has environmental concerns” because he feels wind power can be developed decentralized and be in harmony with nature and its inhabitants. “That’s why we (WPP) develop much smaller wind farms and keep in contact with the concerns of people who live around them,” he says.

Matthaei feels one of the biggest power struggles however, is money and politics much in the way Snape asserts.  Even if you’re smart, talented, care about the environmental impact of sustainable energy development and even if you’ve got technological expertise like WPP, breaking into the energy market, green or otherwise, is hard.  The bigger, existing players in U.S. and global energy dominance, like BP (aka Beyond Petroleum and formerly British Petroleum), have been able to lease enormous tracks of land from the U.S. government, like they did with oil drilling, to keep the smaller players like WPP, out.  Since BP is one of the largest energy and oil corporations in the world, operating in over 100 countries with an annual revenue close to 300 billion dollars, is there room for a so called green economy that is truly value-based, to emerge unscathed and separated from politics, big business and profit?  Is that all bad?

Gary Hirsch, chairperson for Vistage International in Tucson, a private, executive think-tank of CEOs from small to medium-sized businesses locally (and much larger worldwide) says that profit doesn’t have to be a four letter word when it comes to implementing energy and environmental policies.  Having worked for an energy company in D.C. prior to moving to Olympia, Washington, and then settling in Tucson over four years ago, Hirsch asserts that profit in and of itself is not bad and the real question is whether it’s obtained in a way that benefits society as a whole, regardless of what size the company is.

“A bumper sticker in an Olympia food coop parking lot said, “Profit is Theft.”  That’s utterly ridiculous.  Profit is reward for risk, for thinking smart and for being ahead of the curve with new ideas for products and services.  We need to remember that 75 percent of the jobs created in the US each year are created by small to medium sized businesses, not by the giants that make the news daily but by the businesses founded, owned and quietly operated day-to-day by your neighbors. These businesses may employ from a handful to more than 500 people who can count on a paycheck and benefits for each day they work. For many, their loyalty and commitment are without question, but we can’t compare that with the concerns of the owner who every single day must be thinking about whether there will be enough cash to make payroll, keep the lights on, pay suppliers and fund benefits. Profit, when it’s there, is the reward they get for juggling this load every single day,” says Hirsch.

From his experience in working within both the public and private sector, Hirsch also feels that this is an enormous responsibility and for the most part, this business population is scared that the current administration will add regulatory and tax burdens that take them past the breaking point—the point at which he says they say “It’s just not worth it any longer,” particularly as they are forced to lay off competent, dedicated workers just to keep the doors open.  “And many of the business people I meet and work with day to day claim they are drawing nearer and nearer to that point.”  So how is it that entrepreneurial green guys like Matthaei realistically become part of the new green economy, one not controlled by huge, corporate profiteers who may overlook environmental and social concerns?  It almost seems a double-edged sword if what Hirsch asserts is true. And what kind of position does that put Matthaei and Snape in as each try to lobby for greater governmental accountability and equitable spending on the development of green energy programs?

Hirsch asserts that lest we err by casting the small business owner as ultraconservatives, they are actually a rather diverse group- as represented by Matthaei and WPP.  Many clearly share the social and environmental agenda of the current administration and share the national pride of electing an African American president. But, as Snape mentioned earlier as well, there is a great deal of concern within the business community at large about the extent and efficacy of planned government spending.  The question essentially comes back to where and to whom is all this money going to go?

“Business owners believe that they will be the ones called on to pay the lion’s share of the costs without necessarily deriving benefits, even as their cost of doing business mounts. They question the wisdom of omitting “buy American” clauses from the stimulus bill and like most Americans, view much of the bailouts paid to date as folly.

Do we paint a picture of the business owner as self-interested? Of course we do. Policy is a balance of represented self interests. But for the small to medium sized business owner who has been called “the engine of American business” they question whether under this administration their interests and the extent of their contribution to society and the economy will be adequately represented,” says Hirsch.

And even with a commitment to transparency in government under the Obama administration, only time will tell if the green economic growth we’ll be referring to is what gets passed from pocket to pocket.

Mae Lee Sun is a local freelance writer

(photos posted online differ from what appears in print)

Published May 2007

by Mae Lee Sun

ust west of I-10, sandwiched between Congress Street, St. Mary’s Road, and Silverbell Road, sits Menlo Park—one of Tucson’s oldest neighborhoods. Mac Hudson, president of the Menlo Park Neighborhood Association (MPNA) has family who’s lived there for years, although not as long as some residents whose family history in Menlo Park spans multiple generations. Most have gone about their business, working close to Downtown, where access to services like shopping and banking were convenient. When many of those businesses closed in the 70s and 80s, including El Banco, the white building that sat on the corner of Linda Avenue and Congress Street, some residents moved out, leaving older adobe and brick bungalows and former agricultural land to fall into disrepair or be abandoned.

In 2003 however, Hudson, along with a few friends and neighbors, poked around the scrubby, vacant lots, scattered with mesquites and thought these structures could somehow regain their use. One idea they had was to transform a crumbling 1905-era double-brick home with a detached coach house at 17 North Linda Avenue into a community center and public garden. After the house was purchased by Pima County in the 1980s, it served as a residence for county employees, including Ward 1’s present City Council Member, Jose Ibarra.

Hudson says, “Myself, along with other Menlo Park residents and neighborhood association members, formed the Linda Avenue (LA) Subcommittee to talk about what we wanted to see happen with the house and the land. We knew from the beginning, having spoken with past neighborhood leaders who had saved the place from destruction in the 90s that we wanted to honor the architecture and cultural traditions of the past. But we also wanted to be forward-thinking by making Linda Avenue sustainable beyond that, creating a space the neighborhood could use and learn from.”

So, off the MPNA went, searching for ways to fund the project, managing to mobilize support from the private and public sectors. They were successful in obtaining $250,000 in county bond money granted in 2004. Some of the bond money was used to hire Richard Fe Tom of The Architecture Company to complete an architectural assessment, gearing the property toward adaptive re-use. The exterior structure of 17 N. Linda was then stabilized. Concurrently, dozens of residents, children and local Chicano artists, including those associated with Raices Taller 222 (RT222), a Latino-based art gallery, planned to paint a 60-foot mural on the west-facing masonry wall that divided the property with El Rio health clinic. The participants, including Ceci Garcia and David Tineo of RT222, had such a good time, they extended the mural to a final span of over 200 feet and gave it a colorful ending. The mural however, was only one aspect of what Joanie Sawyer, Program Associate for PRONeigborhoods, and Ann Audrey, Environmental Projects Coordinator for the City of Tucson’s Office of Conservation and Sustainable Development, say has pulled this unique neighborhood and project together.

“The mural on the Linda Avenue Project is a good example of how to have fun and proves how possible it is to accomplish something when people work together. I also saw how at the end of the day, members of the neighborhood were able to trust that they could count on one another where before, they were skeptical about what could be achieved,” says Sawyer, whose organization funded the mural through its small grants program. PRO Neighborhoods remains involved, not only because they subsequently granted the MPNA additional funding to take things to the next level, but because PRO Neighborhoods’ role, says Program Manager Judith Anderson, is to provide assistance to groups wanting to effect change in their communities by helping them build partnerships with the public and private sector, even jumping in with “peoplepower” if needed. PRO Neighborhoods has also helped other neighborhood groups achieve similar goals, including the progressive neighborhood of Dunbar Spring, where residents have modeled many of the principles of revitalization that have been integrated into the Menlo Park LA project. Aubrey then stepped in as a representative of the City to oversee the water harvesting plans and supported the MPNA’s workshop series on sustainability, which was paid for by the second PRO Neighborhoods grant.

“You can plunk in basins around trees anywhere but if you’re not looking at the land ten years down the road, you’re going to miss the real challenges that come with first doing a site assessment to see what exactly you’re dealing with,” says Audrey. “You want there to be an integrated approach that can mitigate the noise issues and transient traffic on that particular site off of Congress and I-10 as well as look at how the outdoor space can be designed so that people can gather there year-round.” Audrey’s chief role is to help neighborhoods get their environmentally-based projects off the ground. The energy and success, however, comes directly from the commitment on the part of the residents, she adds, and not from the City or outside groups, although her office has effectively assisted the mid-town neighborhood of Blenman-Elm in planting trees in the right-of-ways and the central/northwest Keeling Neighborhood in designing a green pathway or “greenway”. She expects more neighborhoods to follow in the footsteps of Menlo Park with residents turning flat, dry, urban lots into lushly landscaped and sustainable garden/community spaces. The how-to workshops were taught by Audrey and local permaculture experts Brad Lancaster and Dan Dorsey of the Sonoran Permaculture Guild, who introduced residents to sculpted trenches and basins, planting in native “guilds” with mesquite, ironwoods, blue palo verde, grey thorn and quail bush, and showed them how to integrate the existing chunks of broken concrete from the site back into the landscape design.

Although the project is hardly complete, it’s this kind of enthusiasm and community-wide effort that Richard Elias, chairman of the Pima County Board of Supervisors, feels will preserve both the quality and way-of-life for older, residential neighborhoods. “As a fifth-generation Tucsonan, I know what neighborhoods mean to the people who live there. Menlo Park is a good example of a neighborhood under extreme stress and pressure from the millions of dollars in development related to Rio Nuevo, which is right across the street from Linda Avenue. Menlo Park is also a good example of a neighborhood that has taken a stand to protect its cultural resources by turning the neglected eyesore of 17 N. Linda into an asset that will be of great benefit to everyone. We’re here to help them accomplish that.”

And if taking on the 17 N. Linda Avenue site weren’t ambitious enough, even with the assistance and support of organizations citywide, the intrepid MPNA, who throughout the project has partnered with Chicanos Por La Causa—an award-winning community development corporation that represents and serves the Hispanic community—is also discussing plans with the County to expand their vision through appropriation of the old El Banco structure next door. Its current temporary function is to house the County’s wireless radio operations, but the MPNA is in the process of developing a business plan for it called “El Banco del Artes”, a haven for arts and culture in the neighborhood. The plan also includes a “Museo de Barrio” as well as a café/gift shop to encourage the project’s long-term financial sustainability and independence from County funding. However, they’re still considering ideas, all of which would not be put into action until agreements on El Banco’s use are finalized with the County.

For more information, contact Menlo Park Neighborhood Association at 628-4927; PRONeighborhoods at 882-5885; City of Tucson Office of Conservation and Sustainable Development at 791-4545; Sonoran Permaculture Guild at 624-8030; and Chicanos Por La Causa at 882-0018.