Berkeley becomes first city to divest from U.S.-Mexico border wall companies
The Bay Area city won’t do business with government contractors that work on Donald Trump’s pet project.
Cities
San Francisco moves to divest $1.2B from companies financing Dakota Access Pipeline
The board approved a resolution introduced by Supervisor Sandra Lee Fewer urging City Treasurer Jose Cisneros to add the Dakota Access Pipeline to the list of screening factors he considers when making city investment decisions.
Police departments in the 7 cities of Virginia have all appointed LGBT liaisons
Police in Chesapeake, Suffolk, Norfolk, Hampton, Portsmouth and Virginia Beach had already created the position. Local law enforcement agencies are taking proactive steps to foster a relationship with the LGBT community and establish an ongoing dialogue to better serve the community.
Barcelona to ban old polluting cars in 2019
Barcelona will begin banning cars older than 20 years on weekdays in 2019 in a bid to curb the city’s air pollution problems.
London’s black cabs go electric
Any motorized vehicle will have to meet strict exhaust emissions standards or pay a heavy surcharge to commute around the city center. Electric vehicles (EVs) are one way for drivers to stay compliant and move about freely on the city’s streets.
India’s capital Delhi just banned all disposable plastics
“The National Capital Territory of Delhi shall take appropriate steps against storage, sale, and use of such plastic material at the above-mentioned places and it shall stand prohibited with effect from January 1, 2017,”
Washington, D.C. passes 8 week paid parental leave bill
The new legislation will grant all full- and part-time workers in the city eight weeks of leave at up to 90% of their full weekly wages for birth, adoption or fostering.
Portland adopts surcharge on CEO pay in move vs. income inequality
Moving to address income inequality on a local level, the City Council in Portland, Ore., voted on Wednesday to impose a surtax on companies whose chief executives earn more than 100 times the median pay of their rank-and-file workers.
Copenhagen now has more bikes than cars
A new study shows the number of bikes in Copenhagen is now officially higher than the number of cars. Over the last year, an additional 35,080 bikes have been tallied, resulting in a total bike count of 265,700.
Dubai is building the world’s largest concentrated solar power plant
Earlier this year, the Dubai government approved the largest concentrated solar project in history. The array is slated to produce 1,000 megawatts of energy by 2020 and possibly 5,000 megawatts by 2030.