SantaFe.com

The new Santa Fe Convention Center, scheduled for completion in late summer of 2008, faces all the hurdles of municipal construction plus a few more, owing to its location in a historic city and the desire to build and operate the center in as 'green' a manner as possible.

In a town poised to commemorate the 400th anniversary of its founding, the impact of new construction on its most historic district is taken seriously. In a time of increasing awareness about the global consequences of local actions, large-scale construction is best done in a considered, earth-friendly manner. In an era...

Friday, March 14, 2008
courtesy of Santa Fe Convention & Visitors Bureau

There comes a time in the life of every city—usually when it is at a critical cross-roads, when its future is at stake—when it has to decide which other city it doesn’t want to be.

That was true for Portland, Oregon in the early 1970s.

It’s true for Santa Fe now.

Back in the 1970s I was an assistant to the young mayor of Portland who had run for office on a campaign that said, “Ours is a city with much to cherish, much to save, and too much to lose to remain idle.” In fact, Portland was at an inflection point. San Francisco to the south was established as a sophisticated city; Seattle to...

Friday, February 29, 2008 at 1:28 AM
by Alan M. Webber • SantaFe.com

Every city likes to think there’s something special about it.

Boston, for example, likes to tout its combination of blue-collar toughness and Harvard intellectualism. New York will always be the place where, if you can do it there, you can do it anywhere. Chicago has big shoulders and Mid-Western pragmatism: it’s the city that works! Los Angeles, on the other hand, isn’t about working—it’s about glamour, glitz, and gold.

Look around America and you’ll see it’s true: Cities of all sizes, shapes, histories and heritages have something they can point to that let’s them say, We’re different.

Tuesday, January 15, 2008
by Alan M. Webber • SantaFe.com

Do you know that “climate change” now has its own language and acronyms?

CDM – Clean Development Mechanism

CDP – Carbon Disclosure Project

CTS – Carbon Trading Systems

ESG – Environmental and Social Governance

GHS – Greenhouse Gas

IPCC – Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

A current list of biofuels: algae, biodiesel, cellulosic ethanol and corn-based ethanol.

In the near (we hope) future, these acronyms and biofuels will be household terms. In future columns on sf.com, we will delve into each of these, analyzing their costs and benefits, and what is specifically happening...

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Maybe if I didn’t have a pulse, I wouldn’t be getting caught up in the green revolution happening everywhere around me. To avoid it seems impossible, now that the global reach for oil exploration has begun knocking on our back door. If a label boasting, “certified organic” does not seduce me around every corner; someone is surely to be standing in line next to me and prepared to say, “You know you can buy those organic.” Try ordering a coffee without treading on one’s social consciousness. Look into the eyes of someone ordering a latte. “Do I take the sleeve or not take the sleeve,...

Tuesday, January 15, 2008
by Melanie Moore • SantaFe.com