‘World’s coolest’ neighborhood for 2022 named after you
This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2013, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
There’s a neighborhood in the metro area that may not have that many residents but is really a pretty cool place to live.
That’s because its residents might be the most environmentally aware of any neighborhood on the planet, thanks to a long-term goal of turning a run-down industrial area into an area of green living that doesn’t stink.
“I mean, what you are walking through or driving through is a neighborhood filled with trees that are 10 to 15 years old,” said Jeff Schmoyer.
A lifelong resident of the Santa Cruz, Calif., area, Schmoyer is president and CEO of Greenway Environmental Group, a nonprofit organization that provides an all-encompassing environmental vision for the South Bay area.
Greenway is working with other environmental groups and the city of Santa Cruz to bring the area to fruition.
But this isn’t a neighborhood with a lot of trees and no industrial activity. It’s a neighborhood surrounded by the University of California campus and a large naval base.
“My neighborhood is sort of, as some people say, a bedroom community,” Schmoyer said.
And that bedroom life starts with you.
The Greenway Environmental Group is a nonprofit organization aimed at helping neighborhoods get off the grid in a world that often thinks of a low-energy lifestyle in terms of cars and appliances and the need to make a few extra dollars off the grid every paycheck.
But, as Schmoyer points out, “The majority of households in this country are still powered by energy produced using fuel-based energy sources, which produce emissions of greenhouse gases and other pollutants.”
Greenway is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that is currently in its second year of a three-year program started in 2010 to turn a mostly derelict industrial area in Santa Cruz into an area of greener living.
One year ago, the group began working with the city of Santa Cruz to develop a master plan for the South Bay. Now, it is putting the finishing touches on the plan, which is due to be voted on in July