I will be using my hometown of Grand Rapids, Michigan for this assignment. In the neighborhood I grew up in it was very urban oriented. There were streets for automobiles but it was a narrow two way street. The sidewalks were wide and accommodating for walking, biking, skating and running. There were convenient stores and shops, the famous Frosty Boy, and parks within walking distance. The population of the metropolitan area is roughly 1,027,703. When I was growing up I do not remember the area feeling much like a ‘big city’ it felt smaller and like home. Obviously, it has grown much since I was younger and living there but even now the downtown area still has a ‘smaller’ feel. Many of the streets have pylons that can be raised to block vehicle traffic, they do this many times a year for different events and functions.

The first city I will discuss is Copenhagen. As I mentioned in the previous paragraph, Grand Rapids has pylons they can raise to restrict vehicle traffic. They do this many times throughout the year, much like Copenhagen does, for events and other things. I think that my hometown can take a lot from how Copenhagen operates. If they permanently removed or severely reduced the amount of vehicle traffic in certain downtown areas they would significantly reduce the amount of pollution they produce. Another benefit to reducing or eliminating vehicular traffic from certain downtown areas would be to increase public use spaces. As seen in Copenhagen, the reduction of vehicles did not lessen business as predicted but increased it overall. Making public spaces more appealing to pedestrians brings more foot traffic to shops and retailers in the downtown area that they wouldn’t normally have on a busy city street.

The second city I will discuss is Detroit. As both cities are located in the same state I think this is fitting. While the outlying areas of Grand Rapids are rural and a lot of farmland; it could still be very beneficial for the downtown area of Grand Rapids to begin urban farming. Even turning public spaces into small vegetable producing gardens that are still functional would be advantageous. Restaurants could utilize roof top farms. Many of the parks in the downtown area could be planted with gardens while still maintaining their aesthetic qualities and retaining their functionality as parks and gardens. The combination of reducing vehicle traffic and adding urban farming into the downtown area would significantly reduce the cities carbon footprint and greatly increase its sustainability.