A few weeks ago, Arlington Country - the smallest geographic self-governing county in America (at 26 sq. mi. or 67 sq. km)- embarked upon something pretty big. A 28-member blue ribbon committee formed at the beginning of the year to push toward reducing greenhouse gas emissions met to first measure the amount of green house gasses the county emits, and then to develop processes that will bring such emissions down drastically in next ten years.
Although going green and alternative energy pursuits are hardly new in communities in America, according to Joseph Pelton, chairman of Arlington County's IT Advisory Commission, that meeting was significant. "Arlington became one of the first communities in America to decide to work with industry as well as the Federal Government and think tanks to create a comprehensive energy plan," he said.
This plan will include buying more wind-generated electricity, giving tax breaks for hybrid cars, mandating new public buildings to be green-certified, and handing out energy-efficient light bulbs to residents.
This is not to say though that Arlington is only now taking its first steps towards going green. This county of about 210,000 residents has long considered itself eco-friendly, from developing clusters around its Metro stations, to encourage its residents use public transit, to its obsession for parks and tree canopies.
Still, Arlington's decision to take on global warming this month is noteworthy. According to Chesapeake Climate Action Network, a local environmentalist association, such a comprehensive push to reduce emissions was unusual for the region and a first in Northern Virginia.
But Arlington has another type of alternative energy to boost of: it is, as its administrators claim, "a convenient, vibrant, diverse, fun place to live, work and visit...and it's different from any other place in the Washington, D.C. region."
According to Louis Zacharilla, Intelligent Community Forum (ICF), the New York-based think-tank, Arlington stands out for keeping its identity intact despite being under the heavy influence of the federal government.
"In the shadow of Washington, D.C. this country has become an economic, educational, and quality of life leader through information technology broadband and especially a tradition of collaboration," he says.
Indeed Arlington's eminence as a smart community stems from a history of community involvement and historical political process that combines traditions of "good government," civic input, community service, and technical and political innovation. The Arlingtonians call it the Arlington Way which is a "mindset that includes the residents of Arlington in government policy making instead of a remote government deciding on everything," says Pelton
A good example of this inclusive policy making is its Long Range Planning Commission. In the mid 1970s, when the Washington, D.C. Metro system was being envisioned, Arlington established this commission to view the future of the County synoptically.
Pelton says it attempted to solve a host of issues, including revitalizing of the then deteriorating commercial areas, utilizing Metro stations to strengthen urban planning goals and creating a strong long-term tax base, improving community coherence and identity, and most importantly, for re-investing in long-term goals for a better community in terms of transportation, basic infrastructure and governance, and the environment.
Moreover, this committee also strengthened the Arlington educational system at all levels, from pre-school to university-level instruction.
"Arlington is one of the most educated cities in USA today," says Pelton. In 2008, about 90% of all graduating high school seniors in Arlington County attended college that resulted in 38 percent of the populations having graduate degrees.
"That's a remarkable high percentage making Arlington feature among the highest percentage of people with bachelor's or graduate/professional degrees in the Washington DC area (after the City of Falls Church, Virginia)," says Pelton.
The Long Range Planning Commission also takes credit for the county's award winning arts programs; for ensuring that it has one of the lowest crime rates in USA; and for building its nationally recognized transportation systems.
The County's administrators say Arlington is essentially a proactive, as opposed to a reactive, community. Its philosophy is that if it is not moving forward with planning and investment in a better quality of life, better governmental services and modernization it will, in effect, be falling behind.
That realization, says Pelton, has also ensured that the county use ICT to best possible advantage.
Consequently Arlington is wired almost end to end via a free broadband system starting from the various County offices to the entire public education school system. Besides, it also has broadband wireless hotspots in key commercial areas and community gathering places.
To ramp up its emergency preparedness and disaster recovery system, Arlington has just completely built out a new what it describes as a "state of the art" Emergency Communications and Disaster Response Center that integrates Arlington Police, Fire, and EMT services as well as two mobile emergency command centers.
Developed days after the 9/11, this emergency preparedness and disaster recovery system is notable for handling a wide range of potential emergencies through innovative means. It includes a 1600-Watt speaker outdoor voice warning system for a half-mile radius at Pentagon City, Ballston, and Courthouse (areas where there is a significant amount of foot traffic and high rise offices), as well as an alerting system over the short messaging service.
These apart, in the last five years Arlington has also modernized its information systems and system of governance, which according to its administrators have resulted in benefits "too numerous to detail briefly."
Two examples however are its extensive library system and its "Acorn" search capabilities and e-book access program, and "ACE", a new cashiering system, which handles all taxation collection and processing system for the County.
Arlington County is also a vibrant and interdependent matrix of government, civic, commercial and not-for-profit components working collaboratively together to achieve a diversity of goals for the benefit of the larger constituency, says Pelton.
Arlington today is one of the most diverse urban communities in the U.S. with over 125 nationalities - including 16% hispanic, 8% Afro-American, and 9% Asian/Pacific Islanders - and citizens who speak over 100 languages.
Clearly all these have been rewarding as well. The County was named by ICF as one of the 2010 Top Seven Communities of the Year on January 21, that makes it one of only two communities in the U.S. to receive a "Top Seven" award.
ICF said Arlington managed to achieve this feat not only for being a vibrant community, but also for its E-government services and energy and sustainability initiatives.
For its residents however, despite being home to some of the most influential organizations in the world - including the Pentagon - Arlington continues to be an urban departure from crowded streets and gridlocked traffic. Arlington is both a an intelligent community and one of America's preeminent places to live or visit.
Indrajit Basu is the International Correspondent for Digital Communities.
Photo by OZinOH. CC Attribution-Noncommercial 2.0 Generic
