One thing I love about Portland is the city's dedication to the environment. While I don't have any experience with other large cities, being that Portland is the only big city I have lived in, I may have a biased view. But I feel like Portland is always a leader when it comes to being a "green" city. Sure, there are still many things that could be improved, but things like converting the Trimet buses to run on biodiesel, as well as continually developing the public transportation system in order to decrease the number of cars on the road, and building many of the large buildings downtown out of recycled materials as well as implementing creative ideas to use nature to conserve energy and water seems like a good start.
Also, Portland seems like a very volunteer friendly city. There are tons of ways you can volunteer, and again, this could be true of other big cities, but I find there's so many things I want to volunteer for that I don't have the time. But, in honor of Earth Day, Matt and I volunteered through SOLV to spend our Saturday volunteering at an elementary school in Hillsboro. We dug up weeds and planted trees, bushes, and flowers in order to boost morale and just make the elementary kiddies enjoy their school. There were many other projects going on at the school that day, but that was the part that we spent our time on.
SOLV is a great organization and I have volunteered for them before. They do things like the Oregon coast clean-up which I have yet to participate in but want to.
I think America as a whole is becoming a more environmentally conscious nation. I think we still have an incredible amount of changes to make as well as many obstacles to overcome. If you want to read more about some changes I'm making in my life and why, please go to my latest blog posting. I think if we all do one thing it is a start.
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