Who really knows what started the current green love fest that is taking over our city and the rest of the country?  All I know is that I love it. I hear people reference Al Gore's film "An Inconvenient Truth," which made the issue of global warming a recognized problem worldwide, as the watershed moment. That's good enough for me. What interests me most is seeing more people take action against this global environmental crisis. Fortunately, we live in a city that takes green seriously.

As long as I can remember, I've had a passion for the planet. My interest in turning off light switches to save electricity, taking care of the animal kingdom and riding my bicycle started when I was a little kid growing up in the 1970s right here in Cincinnati. I lived
in mostly older neighborhoods that encouraged walking and bicycling to school, parks and local stores. We rarely ate fast food. And we certainly didn't buy bottled water.

As a teenager, I lived in Madeira. This built-out older suburb on Cincinnati's northeastern border is a model for community involvement and now has the county's highest recycling rate. I helped organize paper drives, wrote papers on wildlife conservation and took the bus downtown whenever I had the chance. I was obsessed with saving wildlife and natural areas. I still don't know why I didn't pursue a career in that field.

I ended up studying urban planning at the University of Cincinnati, where my taste for environmentalism became more focused. I gave up meat, desired to never own a car for any real length of time and lived in apartments around the university and downtown so that I could walk or take the bus to class. I knew I wanted to save older places such as Cincinnati in this era of continued suburban expansion.

It seems fitting that I now own and operate the city's first green general store, Park + Vine. I love that the store has quickly become a vital part of Cincinnati's link to the green movement. It gives me the chance to combine all my interests in one place. I meet some of the most amazing and impassioned people in the city. Plus, I get to align my entrepreneurial ambitions with local causes.

So while I've moved around a bit and lived in and visited other places, it's Cincinnati that molded my convictions about how to live a full and responsible life. Cincinnati has all the makings of a city that can mastermind great ideas, nurture creativity, and chart new directions.