Andrew:

The town of Livingston can serve as a model for other suburbs on how to treat the environment. Livingston does many great things that have influence my life to make me interested in the environment. The town encourages all of its residents to be green in various ways and even teaches residents how to be greener. The Green Team can help a person learn to compost or just learn what can be recycled. But the town goes beyond just helping the residents and actually sets an example. Recently solar panels have been placed on all municipal buildings and on telephone poles, has switched to hybrid buses, and plants trees and shrubs continuously.

However the progress does not stop there. My home town is currently at the end of its “5 Year Strategic Plan” to continue to make Livingston a better place to live. In this short period of time I have seen the town change and shift toward making a community that not only cares about the environment, but is more educated about how each person can help. I have been to the workshops that teach people about rain water collection and composting and I have seen the signs spring up around town asking people to not idle their cars.

Livingston is different than other towns because people are willing to use their money to make a better community and most suburbs have residents who are not (Loker et al, 1999). In most cases what holds back a suburban community is that people are not willing to invest in management plans because they do not see it as feasible economically. My home town has been able to implement campaigns to manage the deer population, changeover to more efficient light bulbs in street lights, buy community hybrid vehicles and much more all with investments from the people of my town. Livingston truly is a model suburb town that many other towns could learn a lot from.

Check out these bloopers of our upcoming hit rap!

Check out this video about the towns we come from and feel free to leave your comments about your home town.

Also, please check out one of our recent interactive surveys in which people across the country answered the question of "what is the most sustainable lifestyle"?

http://storify.com/janinelover1/murica#

 Robin:
The Ithaca Gun factory sits atop Gun Hill, a local residential area in Ithaca, New York.  It was closed years ago but the ruins remain behind.  Back when guns were being produced in large numbers, guns were fired off the cliff to make sure they worked.

 

 

The problem is that the factory sat over Ithaca Falls, a large waterfall that contributes to Fall Creek, a long creek that spreads throughout the Ithaca downtown past many residential homes.  The water is toxic in many areas from the gunpowder residue still in the water.

Travis:

One of the local farmers in my area invested in a wind mill to cut down on the electricity bill.  The farmer said since they installed it in September the windmill has provided about 70-75 percent of the farms electricity.



    Agricultural can cause serious erosion of fields.

Andrew:

Even mid day in the suburbs there is always traffic because people need to drive to get everywhere.

However, the suburbs are not all bad. People in the suburbs do care about the environment and put up solar panels. Businesses, residents, and the town all put up solar panels around the town.