Ed, or Santa Monica's Environmental Directory

What do you think of Ed? That's Santa Monica's favored cartoon dude, used to illustrate the city's Environmental Directory (PDF).

Hot or not, Ed's your enviro man, educating Santa Monicans on air quality, farmers' markets, transportation, and everything in between. If you live in, or are planning to move to, Santa Monica, I strongly encourage you to download this Environmental Directory (PDF) to get a sense of the enviro-services and opportunities in the area.

At first I thought the Environmental Directory simply highlighted the city's environmental services. Turns out, Santa Monica's Ed relies A LOT on the work of independent nonprofits. In the "Ocean Water Quality" section, nonprofits Heal the Bay and Surfriders Foundation are named first, with city resources falling at the bottom of the list of resources. In the "Air Quality" section, the South Coast Air Quality Management District -- a larger governmental organization that oversees Orange County and parts of L.A., Riverside and San Bernardino counties -- tops the list, followed by the nonprofits National Resources Defense Council and Breathe California, before going on to recommend general books on the topic.

This may, of course, be the most efficacious presentation of resources available to city residents. Maybe all cities should weigh the roles of the federal, state, county, and state agencies as well as the locally active nonprofits in putting together its environmental directories.

On a more practical level, here are the numbers Santa Monica residents should call to report any enviro-violations:

My biggest peeves: wasted water, abandoned trash (i.e. half-destroyed furniture left in the alley), and loud leaf blowers. I call about this stuff, but rarely see the results I hope for. And like-minded readers are writing in about these issues too. It's time to investigate --

Comments

[gman]

If the "Hotlines" in Santa Monica are anything like the city hotlines in Santa Barbara, blatant violations of state and city environmental laws get mild if no response.

Having the Hotlines (but no real violation enforcement) is relatively cheap and easy. Makes the local "leaders" feel good (as if they were making a difference).

Cheers.

[russell Hollenbeck]

In the Portland area, we have two major resources. The Metro website covers a three county region. The city of Portland provides great resources for business, and individuals through the Office of Sustainable Development. The City of Santa Monica has been very progressive on both communications and actions towards the path of sustainability.

http://www.metro-region.org/index.cfm/go/by.web/id=24199

http://www.portlandonline.com/osd/