Walkability features in a housing development are known to be beneficial for health as well as for social relations and safety in the community. Similarly, the presence of grocery stores and farmers' markets that residents can walk to are known to improve nutritional intake and health.  

Conclusion

Municipal authorities should adopt Fair, Green, Smart® as criteria for approving development plans within their jurisdiction. The socially responsible investment (SRI) community should also adopt these criteria in rating companies and allocating funds to investment portfolios. Green is so rapidly becoming the standard for new buildings that if housing developers don't build green today, they are essentially building housing that is already obsolete. Planning authorities should not permit obsolete construction within their jurisdictions as this will prove costly not only for residents of obsolete housing but also for the local jurisdiction. Communities that fail to create safe and welcoming places for ethnic minorities, immigrants, and sexual-orientation minorities lose the vitality, innovation, entrepreneurial energy, and financial investment that these groups can bring in. Local jurisdictions already know that a reputation for bigotry or intolerance is not an attractive feature for the community; promotional material for cities and towns in recent times never highlight this feature, and, in fact, take pains to conceal past bigotry and racial discrimination. Openly embracing Fair as a principle in all aspects of local governance will go a long way in American families viewing the locality as a livable community.  

Providing affordable housing for a diverse workforce within communities where people provide their services combines Smart, Fair and Green; reducing commuting distance is going to be important to lower harmful gas emissions and conserve energy. When teachers, security personnel, etc. can afford to live within the communities where they work, there is greater stability in the community.

Today Green is popular. Cities that can show-case cutting-edge green technologies will attract tourists and new residents. They will generate confidence among investors in city projects and municipal bonds. Cities can signal their modernity, idealism and sophistication by adopting and highlighting green projects. Fair, Green, Smart®  is the soundest way for a less-known jurisdiction to get on the map-for tourism, best practices, fiscal stability, and sustainability.  

There is an inevitable connection between social justice, economic justice, and environmental justice. The common thread between these ideas is aesthetics. Racial discrimination offends one's sense of aesthetics, as does gross, unjustified economic inequity, and polluted air and water.  There is another sense in which housing in America should consider aesthetics and that is in the physical appearance of housing and neighborhoods. Homes and streetscapes can be pleasing to the eye without being economically costly. With a proper consideration of aesthetics  in all aspects of housing policy, the new motto for housing should be "Fair, Green, Pretty, Smart®." Yes, comma after "Pretty." 

Dr. Nandinee K. Kutty is an economist and a policy consultant. She is an editor and contributor for a new book Segregation: The Rising Costs for America (Routledge 2008). Dr. Kutty was formerly a professor at Cornell University. Her e-mail address is nndkutty@aol.com. 

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