No, the most amazing thing about this is that "the greenest street in America" is in a city that doesn't have city-wide recycling. There are huge portions of Chicago that don't have recycling pick-up. All cans, bottles, paper, etc. just get thrown in the trash in many neigborhoods.

Maybe they should get their head out of their asses and start with city-wide recycling first.

@1, you have my support on that. truly, that is sad.

Honestly, this is a huge deal. Stormwater is one of the biggest environmental problems in the US, and largely ignored by the media.

Usually, I don't go for Mudede's hyperboles, but in this case, I am glad to see someone hyping pervious pavement.

Very interesting. Chicago's problem with run-off is directly related to the fact that much of today's built area was originally marshland. In hardening surfaces and filling in the swamps the growth of the city destroyed the natural filtering capacity of the land.

@1 & @2,
Indeed, while I'm glad this steet is established, city-wide recycling is necessary. I hail from Chicago and any step in the greener direction is fine by me.

The biggest environmental challenge with limestone cement is carbon emissions: cement production causes ~6-8% of global human emissions of carbon, most of which result from chemical reactions when heating limestone. Promising alternatives are starting to appear. I especially like the kind that traps atmospheric carbon: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-na…

Then move there, Tonderai. They have a South side that's fulfilled your urban nightmare.

I saw my first patch of permeable pavement in Seattle recently, at the new Greenhouse apartments in Columbia City. At first I thought that construction wasn't finished, but then I realized what I was looking at. It sort of looks like cottage cheese or big Styrofoam pellets. I hope this means I'll be seeing a lot more of this stuff as other new projects get finished.

@6 is correct.

Part of why the SR-99 Tunnel of Ungreen Wastefulness is such a global warming and ecological nightmare.

And that's before you add the lights and fans and pumps running 24/7 365 ... well, except for when the factor 7 to 9 earthquake burns out the fans cuts off the power and everyone trapped in the tunnel dies.

But, hey, aren't tunnels below sea level fun!

:-o