Re-inventing Urban Spaces: Green Alleys

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Chicago Green Alley at night

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            One of the central tenets in making sustainability work is re-imagining the way we use public urban spaces. This involves turning inefficient utilitarian spaces into urban amenities that are vital to the city’s social and environmental fabric. Most environmentalists agree that urban areas are by nature more sustainable because of their density. To make our urban areas more sustainable, we have to find ways to incorporate city infrastructure into natural systems in an efficient manner.

            One of the most innovative approaches to this concept is the Chicago Green Alleys project.  The city has about 1,900 miles of public alleys, yet much of this public space was relatively un-used, dirty, unsafe, and prone to flooding during the winter months, because most of the alleys are not connected to the existing sewer system.  City officials decided to drastically re-envision these public spaces as resources to the city.  With a few changes alleys could help manage storm water, reduce the urban heat island effect, promote recycling, and provide pedestrian-friendly thoroughfares.  

            Thus, Chicago unveiled its Green Alleys Project, an effort to transform virtually all the alley space in the city in an environmentally friendly manner.  The three main focus points of the project are:

1.     Install permeable pavement to reduce runoff

2.     High Albedo pavements to reduce the heat island effect

3.     Use recycled materials in construction, such as recycled concrete aggregate

The project also aims to provide more lighting to these areas with dark sky compliant light fixtures, which directs light downwards, instead of outwards.  The city discovered that the initiative would actually save them money in the long term because it limits flooding during the winter months, and is cheaper than connecting all the alleyways to the existing sewer system.  Having permeable pavement is also very useful in that rainfall is actually able to re-charge the groundwater for the city, thus saving the city money and effort from pumping water from elsewhere.  The program has been enormously successful and well received. Since the pilot projects began in 2006, the city has resurfaced 15-20 alleys per year.

Other cities have begun to follow Chicago’s lead in turning alleys into a public asset.  The city of Los Angeles is in the process of instituting their own green alley project, yet in accordance with their own city needs.  The program would be less about controlling stormwater, due to the more arid climate, and more about creating more public green spaces.

Los Angeles is considered the most park poor major city in America, with only 7.8 % of its city space devoted to parks.  It is imagined that the green alley project can be focused on providing green linkages and pedestrian paths, in a notoriously pedestrian un-friendly city. 

Most of the existing alleys in LA are in dense single-family residential neighborhoods, and the majority of these are in South Los Angeles.  Many of the alleys have become dangerous havens for criminal activity.  The goal would be to give these spaces back to the public for use, and in turn increase the green space of the city. 

These green alley projects use existing spaces in a new progressive way.  An important aspect to remember is that the projects are site-specific; there is no universal solution for all urban areas. It is creative ideas using mostly existing infrastructure that will quickly transition urban areas to sustainable havens. Alex Steffen, the editor of the Worldchanging blog and website states, “We need urban infrastructure that allows us to live in harmony with the natural systems that sustain us-we need to start thinking of the entire planet as home”.