But the big ticket factor in choosing the winner was the extent to which politically green cities "followed through in their lifestyle choices". And this was largely detrmined by checking hybrid and Toyota Prius registrations as a percentage of total vehicle registrations. While the article bunched Albany and Berkeley together as the two greenest cities in California, the implications of the statistics presented made for a clear inference:
Total hybrids Priuses
Berkeley* 5.20% 3.8 %
Albany 2.48 % 1.7 %
El Cerrito 2.30% 1.4 %
*Based a study of Berkeley zip code 94707
Well now, when AlbanyCentral staff members took a hard look at this, brows began to wrinkle (to say nothing of noses). Why would the UCLA researchers study the complete cities of Albany and El Cerrito but only one zip code out of ten when it came to the City of Berkeley? We decided to put this question to Professor Sanders P. Landers who, as many of you surely know by now, runs a small consulting business out of his garage.
AC: Well, Professor, what's your view of this study?
Landers: Two initial reactions. First, the study brings to mind the old adage: "There are lies, damn lies, and statistics." And second, someone in Berkeley obviously "got to" the researchers. Was it a free solar panel? Or maybe a flash water heater? Who knows.
AC: Hey, that's a serious accusation. What on earth do you base it on?
Landers: Zip code 94707 is basically the Berkeley Hills give or take. Forbes magazine does a listing of the 500 most expensive/affluent zip codes in the U.S. and 94707 slides home at number 160! Hardly your typical middle class neighborhood! Moeover, based on Wikipedia and other web sources, 94707:
--Represents less than 10% of Berkeley's population
--Has a median household income of around $100-120K, as against about $51K for all of Berkeley.
Also:
--It's often stated that 20% of Berkeley's population stuggles along with incomes below the poverty
line. We have reason to believe that only four of those people live in 94707.
--Finally it is reported that Berkeley has 26 registered sex offenders, only two of which live in 94707.
AC: So what you're saying is that only a handful of folks in 94707 are bothered by weird sexual fantasies or hard-pressed to put food on the table. The rest enjoy the time to reflect on world problems, and the intellect and resources to think green, and buy Pruises?
Landers: Precisely. And dealership experience bears this out. Despite such hard hitting slogans as "Nobody Beats Berkeley" and "Decidedly Different", Berkeley Toyota salespeople will privately admit that they have difficulty in placing denizens of Berkeley's flat land behind the wheel of a Prius. In fact, they sometimes call southwest Berkeley a "Prius Free Zone", whereas 94707 is known as "The land of low hanging fruit".
AC: So let's have it, then. Which city ranks as California's #1 for green city?
Landers: Before I answer that, I should explain that we use the latest SIM CITY game software to do our computer modeling--the same software used by the Mayor to play SIM CITY with Albany.
Now in our model the city of Albany stays the same, of course. But when we crank the Berkeley stats for the entire city of Berkeley (not just 94707), the true percentages for hybrids and Priuses emerge as follows:
Total Hybrids Priuses
Albany 2.48% 1.7 %
Berkeley 1.30% .8 %
AC: Amazing! The answer is clear as a bell!
CONGRATULATIONS ALBANY!!
#1 GREEN CITY IN THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA
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