Here's an outstanding article from the Wenatchee World, sharing how Wenatchee was named the 5th greenest city in America...GO WENATCHEE!
City named one of nation's greenest places
By Rick Steigmeyer and Michelle McNiel, World staff writers
http://wenworld.com/sub/story.php?id=1173381873-824-507
WENATCHEE - Add green to the list of attributes Wenatchee can claim as it climbs the ladder of America's most desirable places to live. No, this has nothing to do with the city's famously short Saint Patrick's Day parade.
We're talking green as in air and water quality, organic food production and clean power generation. The Al Gore type of green.
Wenatchee has been named to yet another list of appealing dwelling places. This time by Country Home magazine, a sister publication to Better Homes and Gardens and Ladies' Home Journal. Country Home has 1.25 million subscribers.
"We are seeing a real interest by readers in exploring eco-friendly choices," Country Home Editor-in-Chief Carol Sheehan said in a prepared statement.
The magazine named Wenatchee as the fifth greenest city in America in which to live in its survey of 379 metropolitan areas. The listing of the Top 10 "Best Green Places" comes out in the magazine's April issue, on newsstands March 20.
"That's great!" said Roger Clute, executive director of the Wenatchee Valley Convention and Visitors Bureau, who said he had not yet heard about the article.
"In my travels around the country, I've seen some pretty ugly cities," he said this morning. "Wenatchee is a beautiful environment. We certainly benefit from our natural assets, the Columbia River and the mountains surrounding us."
Burlington, Vt., earned top honors in the rankings. Corvallis, Ore. - at No. 3 - was the only other Pacific Northwest city to crack the Top 10. However, Seattle was ranked No. 5 on a list of Best Green Large Cities with populations greater than 500,000. Wenatchee was third on a list of cities under 150,000 population.
Magazine Managing Editor Grant Fairchild said data used to pick the 10 cities came from the U.S. Census Bureau, U.S. Department of Transportation, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Department of Agriculture and U.S. Green Building Council.
Cities were rated based on air and watershed quality, mass transit use, power use and the number of organic producers and farmers markets.
In a news release, the magazine referred to Wenatchee as the Apple Capital of the World, and lauded its efforts to teach young people about alternative energy sources. It pointed out that local high school and college teams compete in the world's Solar Drag Race with battery-less, sunlight-propelled dragsters.
"We thought to ourselves, ‘If we could live anywhere in the U.S., where would be the best green place to live?"' said Fairchild. "That was the kicking-off point. We thought it would be a fun thing for the readers and fit right in with our theme."
Wenatchee has found itself on a handful of national lists since officially becoming a metropolitan area in the 2000 Census.
Last year, the city was named the safest metro area in Washington state based on crime stats, and the 13th most secure place to live among small cities by Farmer's Insurance Group.
The metro area was also picked by Money Magazine to have the second-fastest-growing real estate values in the country last year. In a separate survey released last week, the city was found to have the second highest home price increase in the country from the fourth quarter of 2005 to 2006.
The Associated Press
contributed to this report.
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Top 10 green cities in America
1. Burlington, Vt.
2. Ithaca, N.Y.
3. Corvallis, Ore.
4. Springfield, Mass.
5. Wenatchee
6. Charlottesville, Va.
7. Boulder, Colo.
8. Madison, Wis.
9. Binghamton, N.Y.
10. Champaign-Urbana, Ill.
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