Fairfax is a slow city

Fairfax is a slow city. Officially.

The town received its CittaSlow certification last night as the second CittaSlow city in the U.S. after Sonoma. Sebastopol became the third CittaSlow city.

"When you slow down you pay attention," said Councilwoman and Sustainable Fairfax Executive Director Pam Hartwell-Herrero, who spearheaded the effort to turn Fairfax into s slow city.

CittaSlow – Italian for "slow city" – is a program than evolved out of the Slow Food movement. Cities can become certified as CittaSlow cities by meeting a number of criteria for environmental sustainability and quality of life. The criteria included arts, music, culture, and community building, said Hartwell-Herrero. Out of the 54 different criteria, a city must meet half to receive certification.

Sustainable Fairfax worked with the town, the General Plan Advisory Committee, the Chamber of Commerce and the Planning and Building Department to go through the extensive application process.

"We learned a lot about our community in the process," said Hartwell-Herrero.

What a town does with the slow city certification is up to them. Presumably, they will continue efforts to slow down – though those efforts may not come about quickly.

"It's honoring what we've done, but also reminding us there's more to do," said Hartwell-Herrero.

One of the first things Fairfax will be doing in its new slower capacity is co-hosting a Chamber of Commerce mixer at the new wine bar 123 Bolinas – a wine bar that focuses heavily on local foods and wines. That mixer, on Aug. 31 at 5:30 p.m., will feature Hartwell-Herrero introducing the CittaSlow project to the business community and Fairfax Planning Director Jim Moore speaking on the high cost of free parking.

Working with local restaurants is one of the focuses that CittaSlow Fairfax hopes to have. The program will encourage the restaurants to highlight and acknowledge the areas in which they use local, organic or seasonal foods.

"You can't just slap a CittaSlow sticker on the window of every business," said Hartwell-Herrero.

CittaSlow International is actually working on a process for businesses to become CittaSlow certified. Although there is an international movement for cities to slow down, in the U.S. there are just three towns: Sonoma, Fairfax, and Sebastopol.

"You are very much a part of a very small group of towns that are focused in the same way as each other and are looking forward to learning from each other," said Virginia Hubbell of CittaSlow Sonoma Valley, who helped Fairfax through its application process.

With the addition Fairfax and Sebastopol, CittaSlow USA was founded. There are 135 CittaSlow towns in 20 countries.

Hubbell commended the town and Sustainable Fairfax for their efforts and for how far they'd already come.

Hubbell and CittaSlow Sonoma Valley Board member Gary Edwards presented Hartwell-Herrero with a snail as the CittaSlow symbol.

"Hopefully, everytime you see a snail, you'll think of slowing down," said Hubbell.