美国国家公共电台 NPR For One City Manager, Climate Becomes A Matter Of Conscience

 

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

City planners can play a role in the effort to slow down climate change. How? Well, for one thing, they can create neighborhoods and transit¹ systems that let people live without cars. For one city manager here in California, though, this mission led to a conflict with his voters and also a personal crossroads. NPR's Dan Charles has this story.

DAN CHARLES, BYLINE²: Steven Falk laid eyes on the city of Lafayette for the first time 28 years ago, driving there to interview for a job as an assistant to the city manager.

STEVEN FALK: I loved it from the very first minute I got here.

CHARLES: He saw emerald-green hills with neighborhoods filling the valleys in between. You're close to nature in Lafayette, but there's also a commuter³ train that puts you in San Francisco in half an hour.

FALK: It seemed like I had reached some kind of paradise.

CHARLES: The people in Lafayette are mostly wealthy, educated, environmentalists. They voted 3-1 for Hillary Clinton. And Steven Falk became their city manager, the town's CEO. He looks the part - dark suit, red tie, managed everything from police to potholes⁴. Then in 2005, he read a series of articles by Elizabeth Kolbert in The New Yorker about global warming.

FALK: And they scared the daylights out of me.

CHARLES: He started noticing evidence of climate change himself. He remembers sliding down glaciers⁵ in the Sierra Nevada Mountains as a 9-year-old kid backpacking with his dad.

FALK: When I became a parent, I began taking my own kids to the mountains, and we did the same trip. And the glaciers are gone.

CHARLES: The more he learned, the more it kept him up at night, this growing threat.

FALK: The analogy I've used is, I say, the house is on fire and our children and our grandchildren are trapped in the attic⁶. And so what are we going to do about it?

CHARLES: Now, there are things a city manager can do about it, but they can be controversial. Steven Falk ended up in the middle of a battle over what gets built on some land right near the heart of his city.

FALK: Well, I brought you to this place in particular because what we're looking at here is a surface parking lot that sits immediately adjacent to the Lafayette BART station.

CHARLES: BART is Bay Area Rapid Transit, that train to San Francisco. This is also close to shopping. So here is one way to fight global warming - build lots of housing right here where people can live without driving cars and burning gasoline.

FALK: It just makes all the sense in the world that this parcel should have a multi-family housing development on it.

CHARLES: But development is a really sensitive topic in Lafayette. There's a whole citizens group, called, Save Lafayette, that's been fighting it. Here's one resident of the city, Martin Stryker, at a city council meeting last June.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

MARTIN STRYKER: People have chosen to live in Lafayette for the quality of life here away from the city. Don't destroy our rural communities.

CHARLES: Now, Lafayette has approved hundreds of new housing units in the central downtown area in recent years, but Falk wanted to move faster. Tensions came to a head this past summer over a new California law that lets BART go ahead and build housing on land that it owns near its stations, like that parking lot. Falk liked the idea. Lafayette City Council members, though, considered it a power grab by the state. They asked Falk to go to the state capitol and take a public stand against it.

FALK: I drove to Sacramento not feeling good about it, and I went into the Senate hearing room. And I saw this line of speakers, and I realized that I had to get up and speak against this bill. And that was the moment I knew I had to resign.

 

CHARLES: Which he did. Yesterday was Steven Falk's last day on the job. At his final city council meeting, there were speeches celebrating his accomplishments⁷. Nobody mentioned climate change. Dan Charles, NPR News.

1 transit   

n.经过，运输；vt.穿越，旋转；vi.越过

参考例句：

• His luggage was lost in transit.他的行李在运送中丢失。
• The canal can transit a total of 50 ships daily.这条运河每天能通过50条船。

2 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 commuter   

n.(尤指市郊之间)乘公交车辆上下班者

参考例句：

• Police cordoned off the road and diverted commuter traffic. 警察封锁了道路并分流交通。
• She accidentally stepped on his foot on a crowded commuter train. 她在拥挤的通勤列车上不小心踩到了他的脚。

4 potholes   

n.壶穴( pothole的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Potholes are also home to tiny desert animals. 洞穴也是弱小动物的家。 来自互联网
• If you're going to enjoy the good times, you've certainly got to deal with some potholes. 如果要享受甜美的胜利果实，当然要应付这些战绩不佳的指责压力。 来自互联网

5 glaciers   

冰河，冰川( glacier的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Glaciers gouged out valleys from the hills. 冰川把丘陵地带冲出一条条山谷。
• It has ice and snow glaciers, rainforests and beautiful mountains. 既有冰川，又有雨林和秀丽的山峰。 来自英语晨读30分（高一）

6 attic   

n.顶楼，屋顶室

参考例句：

• Leakiness in the roof caused a damp attic.屋漏使顶楼潮湿。
• What's to be done with all this stuff in the attic?顶楼上的材料怎么处理？

7 accomplishments   

n.造诣；完成( accomplishment的名词复数 )；技能；成绩；成就

参考例句：

• It was one of the President's greatest accomplishments. 那是总统最伟大的成就之一。
• Among her accomplishments were sewing,cooking,playing the piano and dancing. 她的才能包括缝纫、烹调、弹钢琴和跳舞。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》