Great Cities, Great Green: London

In the lineage of great cities, London certainly ranks up there in the Pantheon. Its chaos, the humour of its residents, its extensive tube system, its history all are reasons alone to love the city on the Thames. But along comes another.

Despite the incredible legacy of royal parks in the city, London has recently launched a new initiative to make the green infrastructure in the city center more robust and extraordinary than it was previously.

As reported on by Geoff Manaugh at WorldChanging, London is putting forth it's vision of a Green Grid in the city center that pushes sustainability out of the sole ownership of single buildings and into the public realm by linking parcels to one another:

The concept of the Green Grid is for a green infrastructure within and between built up areas that will link existing and new parks and open spaces. The Green Grid promotes the creation of high quality and multi-functional spaces, maximising opportunities for improving quality of life, footpaths and cyclepaths, biodiversity, leisure, recreation, tidal and fluvial flood risk management, grey water treatment, air quality, biomass, etc. The network will also provide the context for development, building community capacity for change through positive environmental improvements, enhancing land values, and changing the perception of East London as an area of industrial decline and low-quality environments.

This effort, it would seem, is a rich precedent for Seattle to look toward as we consider the future of our green infrastructure.