Living in Gotham City isn’t exactly what many think of as “living green”. Most of us have to travel a bit to just sit under a shady tree, 8 million of us live together in a small geographical area, and there’s the traffic noise and car alarms to deal with. There’s plenty of ways we can try to do our part, though, and it’s not just by living live in small quarters where we make the most out of the space we’ve got.
Photo from Flickr by Barbara L. Hanson
The first thing that comes to mind is buying local, seasonal food at the green markets — they’re everywhere! Dairy, eggs, fruits and veggies, honey, bread, wine, meats, and flowers! It’s all there. You can even bring your food scraps for composting to many sites around the city. If your window sill isn’t large enough to satisfy your green thumb, you can join a community garden. Don’t feel like cooking tonight? You can always have a meal where local ingredients are on the menu. City Harvest is right there at the end of the day at many restaurants collecting food for the hungry that would normally go to waste. No need to buy bottled water here either — just look for Tap It stickers on cafes and restaurants where you can refill your own water bottle for free.
Interested in beekeeping or raising chickens? You can do that too!
Yes, there’s many vehicles on the streets but most of us do all our shopping by foot and if it’s too far to walk, there’s our amazing mass transit system that will take you all over the five boroughs by bus (some of which are hybrid) or subway. You can even get around like our messengers do by cycling through the city on our many bike lanes or routes.
We can choose “green power” and recycling is made easy in our buildings with bins. There’s even trash cans for recycling around the city for while you’re out on foot!
Photo by The Green Mommy
Let’s not forget the Public Libraries here too. With so many around the city, the book you’re looking for is bound to be at one of them so there’s no need to buy it, which really helps to save a bit of space that you really don’t have anyway!
This is so cool. I am blown away by all of your green options.
I am so convinced that urban areas are “greener” than rural–your land use is SO much more controlled and efficient! I never knew about the city composting, though. Very interesting!