Greensboro=Cool City

Greensboro Mayor Keith Holliday signed the US Mayors Climate Protection Agreement tonight. Literally.

There was some ambiguity about whether the resolution Greensboro was considering actually joined the city in with the rest of the Cool Cities across North Carolina and the rest of the country. So in her closing comments to the Council, Kim Yarbray came right out and asked Holliday to sign the USMCPA right there in front of the packed chamber if the Council passed the resolution before it.

The 75+ Cool Cities supporters in attendance applauded loudly while the Council and city staff chuckled.

But after the Greensboro Council unanimously passed the agreement, Holliday got up from his chair, walked over to the speaker's podium and signed it before a cheering crowd.

I have thoroughly enjoyed every single one of our groups' Cool Cities campaign but the Piedmont Plateau Group took it to another level with this one. Multiple meetings a month for almost a year for the Cool Cities team. 50% + plus Action Alert response rates. Huge turnouts at Council meetings. Meaningful community partnerships. They deserved the joy that tonight produced.

Thank you also to the Greensboro City Council and City Manager Mitchell Johnson for their work on this issue and patience with us over the months! Every Council Member has received over 200 e-mails and a slew of phone calls on this issue and we appreciate their vigilance.

Mr. Johnson gave a great list of things Greensboro is doing and hopes to improve upon to meet its goals and I will showcase some of those things here over the rest of the week.

Congratulations to PPG and Greensboro, North Carolina's 21st Cool City!