Taking Sustainability Seriously: Economic Development, the Environment, and Quality of Life in American Cities.

By Kent E. Portney. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2003. 312p. $65.00 cloth, $25.95 paper.

In an original and broad analysis, Kent Portney examines 24 cities, extending geographically from Seattle and Portland to Chattanooga and Jacksonville, on the basis of their sustainability. The term means a combination of environmental protection, economic smart growth, and social justice. It is borrowed originally from natural ecology, and later from the analysis of developing countries. Typically, sustainability is a positive value, winning favor from the ideological Left.

Portney creatively ties his analysis to the literature of urban affairs, synthesizing more than a hundred theoretical books and articles. Many are from international relations and comparative government. For example, he frequently uses the Brundtland Commission report to the United Nations and covers the Green Metro Index of the World Resources Institute. He maintains that environmental protection is the single most important element in a city's sustainability effort. Air- and water-quality problems go beyond the geographical boundaries of a city, hence are hard to control. Solid and hazardous waste is subject more to municipal control with recycling and brownfield remediation.

Advocates of sustainability recognize that not all economic growth is beneficial, since some may worsen the environment by polluting the air and water, producing sprawl, creating traffic congestion, and sucking tax dollars out of the central city. The goal, which Portney applauds, is smart growth. This includes eco-industrial parks, cluster development, and financial incentives for desirable companies. Chattanooga, for example, has fostered the manufacturing of electric buses.

Portney next addresses the communitarian strain in sustainability, which he finds to have difficulties. He notes, for example, that this process may conflict with the practicalities of cleaning air and water, and downgrades the benefits of expertise. Moreover, on a number of occasions, he points out that communitarian promoters lack empirical evidence of its success.

Social justice is supposed to be the third virtue of sustainability. On the one hand some recent evidence suggests that the burden of pollution falls disproportionately on African Americans, Latinos, and the poor. Yet Portney observes that land-use plans may protect affluent white neighborhoods. More pressing aspects of social justice may be schools, housing, and the criminal justice system, which are not closely connected to environmental protection.

Besides its extensive discussion of the literature, the book quantifies sustainability in 34 variables, ranging from zoning and brownfields to solid-waste recycling and bicycle paths, combining them to make a single index. Seattle and San Jose score high and New Haven and Milwaukee score low among the 24 cities with good programs (pp. 70–71). In his concluding chapter, Portney ambitiously calculates a Pearson's R for his variables. He finds that a high poverty rate correlates negatively. An older and better-educated population correlates positively. Being located in California, Oregon, or Washington state correlates positively. Yet overall, the statistical analysis does not show clear connections, which Portney accepts, concluding “that there is really not a single kind of city that finds sustainability particularly appealing” (p. 237).

In spite of the book's wide scope, detailed exposition, and statistical analysis, the reader can easily conclude that the concept of sustainability is flawed. While the author is not a cheerleader, he obviously likes the idea and seems a bit disappointed with the statistical results. A more elaborate analysis might tease out more correlations. An N of 24 is small, and all the cities are ones with good programs. Perhaps they could be paired with 24 cities without programs.

Although Taking Sustainability Seriously seeks to emphasize the role of cities, rather than the national government, it neglects the dominating role of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in air- and water-pollution control. Nor does the book mention the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. This is in spite of an excellent discussion of institutional capacity on page 33. Although one statistical variable is the percent voting for Clinton in 1996 and Gore in 2000, political party is otherwise ignored. Parts of the book are heavy reading, and it could benefit from simpler definitions presented earlier in the chapters.

Overall, Portney had made an important contribution to urban studies with imaginative connections and far-ranging discussion. His knowledge of the field is extensive and his insights are trenchant.