The highlight of today’s Plan Commission meeting: four new strip shopping centers, all with a moat of parking in front, many with “green roofs.” (Agenda item 12, which was left off due to a typo, was a Target.)

Why does black parking lot + green roof = green? Wouldn’t there be a much greater environmental impact, at much lower cost, if the parking lot were green (pervious surface, at least, or maybe no parking at all!) and the roof were black, or white, or silver?