Foreword
Re-creating Albuquerque as a Sustainable Community: Our Common Challenge
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A sustainable community meets its current needs in ways that enable future generations to meet theirs. The environment and economic development are partners in this effort to create a balanced, liveable city. Citizens who sustain their communities will preserve their environment. People who understand their connection to the earth will live in ways that will allow future generations to thrive as well. It was on these principles that Albuquerque's Environmental Story was first envisioned, written, and used.
Why do we need an Albuquerque's Environmental Story? Now in its second revision as Albuquerque's Environmental Story: Toward a Sustainable Community, this book has been used for two decades as an introduction to the unique environment right here in our home town, to give students the opportunity to observe, to think about current and future policies, and to carry out hands-on experiments and actions within their environment - all of which build in young people not only the confidence that they can make a difference collectively in creating a sustainable community, but also a conviction that, indeed, its sustainability is up to each one of them individually.
As Mayor of the city of Albuquerque, and father of two children who have grown up in Albuquerque, I know how important it is to involve the next generation now in preserving the environment for their future. I have committed my Administration to the idea of "Quality Growth" that ensures our quality of life and provides for a sustainable future for the citizens of Albuquerque and for the metropolitan region. I have undertaken a number of major initiatives including a quality growth policy and implementation strategy, and a strategy to rebuild the city's mobility systems. I formed a Quality Growth Council that includes my Chief Administrative Officers and Department Directors responsible for growth issues. I recognize the significance of our irreplaceable natural, historic and cultural resources. I believe in stimulating economic growth and small business without sacrificing Albuquerque's unique culture and enchanting natural areas. I am dedicated to ensuring that our children and grandchildren have the same quality of life we enjoy in Albuquerque today.
Albuquerque's Environmental Story: Toward a Sustainable Community symbolizes what a community of people can do when it is committed to a common vision. I wish to thank all of the hundreds of citizens, teachers, students, and city staff who have cared enough for their community to work on this revision for the past two years. I encourage all of you to read it, and more importantly, to use it to join our community's effort to appreciate and protect one of its most important resources - the environment in which we all live - and to create a community that is truly sustainable for this and future generations.
Jim Baca
Mayor of Albuquerque
(1997-2001)
