Fatimah Ali: The queen of green

MY TWO grandchildren are excited about celebrating the Irish part of their heritage today.

Like millions of others, Dylan, who's 8, and Kaya, 5, want to paint the town green in commemoration of St. Patrick's Day, the celebration of the man who, according to legend, helped spread Christianity throughout Ireland near the end of the fourth century.

I told the grandkids that although I'm donning green as well today, I will not be downing any green beer or green potatoes. Although I do have Irish in my bloodline, my reasons for going green have little to do with shamrocks and more to do with helping to save the environment.

When Vice President Biden visited Philadelphia to launch the White House Task Force on Middle Class Families, he talked about the need to boost the economy with green jobs.

He says green jobs will help rescue Philadelphia from its deep economic slump because those jobs pay 10 to 20 percent higher wages. But, whether Philadelphia is worthy of green grant money remains to be seen, as this city has a long way to go in marketing its assets to attract new businesses.

FIRST, THERE'S the outside perception that Philadelphia is filthy and crime-ridden and, unfortunately, statistics show that the city is both.

A recent trip to the airport, where the smell of nearby stinky smokestacks has now seeped to the inside of the terminal (before it was only noticeable on the highway) is a sharp reminder that attracting green companies to move their businesses here could be a daunting task.

More examples: City Hall's basic operational systems are still paper-filled and antiquated, and we know that some citizens' attitudes about caring for the environment are even more ridiculous.

Take the woman I watched on Lincoln Drive the other day. As we both pulled up to a stop light, she actually had the nerve to instruct her children to open the car door and place their fast-food garbage on the street.

Since there was no police officer in sight to enforce the anti-littering laws, I almost followed her to call her out about it, but thought the better of it when I realized that her rude behavior was most likely symptomatic of someone who wouldn't take kindly to criticism from a stranger.

Then there's a neighbor who lets her dog use the sidewalk as a bathroom and never cleans up behind him. When I talked to her, she denied that the mess comes from her dog. Since I've actually watched her do this, I simply called the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, which issues a written warning and then a $300 fine.

All of this may seem a little far afield from my efforts to go green, but my point is this:

Philadelphia is the land of potential, and I'm tired of hearing about what could happen if we only got our act together.

Now I want some action. If each one of us works just a little bit harder to keep the city clean, it becomes a more attractive place to live. Maybe even enough to start to put a dent in the population decline that's been plaguing the city for decades.

When the vice president spoke at Penn a few weeks ago to promote green jobs as a method for raising the standard of living for middle- and working-class Philadelphians, we should have all taken notice of his message enough to also start thinking about what we could do individually to help clean up the city. Having pride in the place you live is key to getting others to want to stay here - and move here. And growing the city's population as well as its business presence can only generate more revenue for the city's coffers.

In my house, we are becoming more conscientious about reducing our carbon footprint, and incorporating simple things into our daily life helps. I insist that we make consistent efforts, no matter how small, like turning off lights, keeping the heat down and recycling everything from paper to plastics (which we're working to get rid of completely).

It includes simple things like using supermarket bags as trash-can liners, turning containers that held baby wipes into pencil cases instead of buying new ones and limiting how many times we open the refrigerator.

None of this is very fancy, but while the mayor dreams of making Philly the greenest city in America, having each of us pitch in just may help us all to achieve that goal. *

Fatimah Ali is a journalist, media consultant and an associate member of the Daily News editorial board.