Location: With the Richard Ravitch report scheduled to come out Dec. 5 and the financial state of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, there’s been some buzz about congestion pricing being put back on the table. Do you think there’s potential for that, and do you think that would be a good thing?
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One of the central elements of Mayor Bloomberg’s plan for a sustainable New York City is to improve mass transit and get people out of their cars and into busses and subways. In addition to better and more frequent transit service, the city also needs to ensure that the price of mass transit is kept Read More
There is a small town America that is idealized in myth and literature, but even in the internet age thrives outside our largest cities. In these places community spirit and what used to be called civic virtue (or values) is nurtured through local schools, churches, little league, scouts and a wide variety of community based Read More
The city is creating a new office to clean up brownfields for development, an issue outlined last year in its PlaNYC sustainability plan. Officials have said the existing incentives for landowners to clean up the sites do not provide sufficient push to remediate. With the reformed program, the city hopes, will come quicker Read More
Earlier this week, New York Times reporter Felicity Barringer filed an excellent story on San Francisco’s successful waste management strategy.
The story discussed San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom’s zeal for keeping garbage out of landfills. Currently, his city keeps 70 percent of its disposable garbage out of landfills.
You might think that would Read More
Expanding parks is not supposed to be this difficult.
“This is the worst situation I’ve ever encountered in terms of [dealings with] the community,” said Carol Greitzer, a former councilwoman from the West Village who helped start a group called 250+ Friends of New York Parks. It opposes many of the Bloomberg administration’s park Read More
When we walk down Broadway in Manhattan, we sometimes forget that New York is virtually surrounded by water. In fact, the five boroughs have 578 miles of shoreline. If global warming ends up melting enough sea ice at the poles to cause the sea level to rise, New York City is in a world of Read More
A little more than a year ago, Mayor Michael Bloomberg launched his pathbreaking "PlaNYC 2030" urban sustainability plan. According to the city’s own progress report on the plan’s first year:
The implementation of PlaNYC’s 127 initiatives requires the effort of more than 20 City agencies; the help of our Sustainability Advisory Board; partners Read MoreYesterday, Dan Hendrick of the New York League of Conservation Voters stopped by City Hall, just in time to chat about Earth Day!
The group just published a report about environmental initiatives (besides congestion pricing) that legislators and the public can pursue.
As for how to celebrate Earth Day, Hendrick suggests Read More
As David Paterson took the oath of office as New York’s 55th governor earlier this week, you could almost taste the sense of relief in legislative chambers. Our new governor gave a remarkable, deeply personal and engaging talk and then left to face the challenges of rebuilding the broken machine of state government.
With Read More
