Upper Green Side

Has Bloomberg Lost his Eco-Transpo Mojo?

Bloomberg Announces PlaNYC

Early in his second term as Mayor, Mike Bloomberg seemed to suddenly “get-it” on sustainable transportation and livable streets issues. Even under former Commissioner Iris Weinshall in 2006, a Renaissance seemed to be taking place. Then came his appointment of Janette Sadik-Khan as Transportation Commissioner in the spring of 2007 whose been nothing less than an inspiration.  On Earth Day of that same year, Mayor Bloomberg laid out his bold vision for a sustainable New York City, with congestion pricing as the central piece of the sustainability puzzle for NYC streets.

Even on the campaign trail last year his rival former Comptroller Bill Thompson struggled to differentiate himself against Bloomberg, and was forced into the awkward position of actually advocating against Bus Rapid Transit, bike lanes, and many of the public plazas that the revived DOT has rolled out.

But the latest plans that the DOT have proposed this month for Select Bus Service (NYC’s not quite version of BRT) are much less than inspiring. An incremental step forward yes, but nothing transportation advocates get very excited about. In fact, aside from a few disconnected protected bike lane segments that lack critical connectivity to become a real anchor of the bike network, there’s not much to get passionate about. When the reactionaries start complaining of the changes occurring on the street, it’s not clear who will be that inspired to turn-out at Community Board meetings to explain the benefits aside from city bureaucrats that residents already distrust.

We hope that the DOT is listening to the many criticisms of the plan for it’s lack of boldness. Boldness would be bus lanes that have real protection against encroachment from private passenger automobiles & taxis. Boldness would be a full length protected bike lane that includes critical links in east Midtown, currently one of the most dangerous spots for cyclists. And Boldness needs to come from the Mayor himself (as we suspect that he gave the OK for this watered down version).

For those in Community Board 8, there’s still a public meeting on February 25th at the NY Blood Center Auditorium, 310 East 67th Street (between First & Second Avenues). Please express yourself and we’ll keep you updated on future oppurtunities to give your input on this.

Lappin Proposes Office of Road Safety

In Jessica Lappin’s community newsletter today she announced an interesting new proposal that she’s rolling out with Transportation Alternatives next week: A separate Office of Road Safety.

Every year, approximately 200 New Yorkers are killed on New York City’s roads. Despite this, the NYPD is more interested in the smooth flow of traffic than in keeping pedestrians and bikers safe.

The city should rethink how we manage and design our streets. I will be introducing legislation on February 11 to create an Office of Road Safety within the Department of Transportation. This office would coordinate across multiple city agencies to reduce the incidence of traffic violations, crashes, injuries, and fatalities. It would be made up of representatives from the Department of Transportation, the NYPD, the Department of Health, and the District Attorneys’ offices and would detect and improve problem areas in the city.

In support of this bill, I will be co-hosting a press conference with the group Transportation Alternatives on Wednesday, February 10 at noon on the steps of City Hall. Come stand with me in support of safer streets for all New Yorkers. It’s time to make safety a priority on our roads.

This is a very positive development. The proposal is a straight attack on the NYPD’s poor record in enforcing basic road safety laws. Perhaps this will get Commissioner Ray Kelly’s attention. It’s also another step in getting the Mayor’s office to rethink how it thinks about streetspace. And it suggests that the City Council wants to get more aggressive in pushing a safe streets agenda. All positive signs in our opinion.

What We’re Reading: 2/4/10

The Queensboro Oval (in tennis mode)

• Vancouver Olympic medals made out of recycled e-waste
• The denser the City, the better the city
• Stalled building sites being turned into parking lots
• Fairway to 86th? Whole Foods to 57th & 2nd?
• and now for your viewing pleasure: a Coyote on Ice, in Central Park
• How to create a quality place
• Wild NYC – great photos of NYC parks
• an injection of federal cash for the City’s big SBS bus plans

New East Side CSA

a CSA pick up (photo via Just Food)

A new Community Supported Agriculture program is coming to the East Side. Located just south of Upper East Side proper, the new Turtle Bay CSA will distribute out of the Vanderbilt YMCA on 47th between 2nd and 3rd Avenues starting this June. Turtle Bay CSA is still in start-up mode but they will be meeting with their prospective farmer soon and are looking to recruit interested share-members. Check out http://turtlebaycsa.wordpress.com/ for more info!

Also be sure to check out our round up of local CSA’s to find one in your neighborhood.

What We’re Reading: 2/3/10

chilly ride

• Obama renews focus on alternative fuels; bio-fuels get big money
  
• Finally! New UES elementary school will help reduce crowding
  
• An oasis in the “food dessert”: local food markets in poor communities
  
• The DIY carbon credit exchange
  
• Now coming to a backyard near you: local greenhouse gas monitoring
  
• The data is out: green roofs actually do work
  
• No money down! Lease this solar panel today!
  

The Upper East Side Ruins

Not quite the Renwick Ruins, but ruins nonetheless

Head east on 73rd Street until you nearly hit the river and you’ll find the ruins of the former DSNY Sanitation garage, presently collecting dust and growing weeds. The site is probably one of the last develop-able lots on the entire Upper East Side, a testament to how popular (and overcrowded) the neighborhood has become. The DSNY demolished the old garage (and its famed smokestack) a few years ago and had planned to replace it with a new state-of-the-art facility. The onslaught of the Great Recession and City budget cuts have shelved the new garage (for now at least) and the site sits as a quiet monument to the bursting of the Great Real Estate Bubble. UESiders are not immune to battles over garbage trucks. See here, and here. But thankfully, the UES hasn’t needed the services of Tony Soprano and his merry band of celebrities, yet. But that might be changing real soon…

Next week the Environment & Sanitation Committee of Community Board 8 will hold a discussion (with a DSNY representative present) to discuss current safety issues at the site, as well as possible interim uses. Some ideas Upper Green Side would like to see include temporary park usage or even a community garden (currently none exist on the Upper East Side). A dock for the giant Con Ed steam powerplant also sits just across the FDR at 74th Street. It is currently under consideration to be reused as a new ferry landing. With completion of the Second Avenue Subway years away, a new ferry landing would help facilitate a “blue highway” on the East River, giving UES residents a more scenic option over the always crowded Lexington Line. Access to the ferry (as well as to the East River Greenway) could also be included in a temporary park design.

But let’s not jump to conclusions. We’ll learn more at next week’s Community Board meeting and will report back on what we find.

More pictures…

Cap & Trade on the Rocks In Senate

Upper Green Side doesn’t wade into national politics too much, preferring to focus on local issues that we can make a difference on. But Global Warming is an issue that transcends local, state and national boundaries.

There are many ideas on how to control carbon emission. The one that had gained the most consensus at the national level was called Cap & Trade: Place an overall ceiling on the amount of carbon and other greenhouse gases emitted while allowing large emitters to buy & sell emission permits. This would create a market for lowering emissions and financially reward those companies that could reduce emissions faster and most cost effectively.

Today, President Obama, who ran on a platform that included a Cap & Trade proposal, which passed the US House of Representatives told a crowd in New Hampshire that there might not be enough votes in the Senate:

The most controversial aspects of the energy debate that we’ve been having: The House passed an energy bill, and people complained about, well, there’s this cap and trade thing, and you just mentioned, you know, let’s do the fun stuff before we do the hard stuff

Incentivizing clean energy is great and we hope the Senate does pass that, but without a mechanism in place to put a ceiling on overall emissions, there’s no real way to guarantee that overall emissions would reduce in the short or long term.

We encourage folks to start making more noise about this and start reaching out to their representatives about the importance of putting a real ceiling on greenhouse gas emissions

What We’re Reading: 2/1/10

so that's where the water goes!

• Map Of The Day: Where Does Your Flush Go?
• Can White Roofs Battle Global Warming?
• Roll-Down Gates
• How Much Would a “Smart Grid” Reduce Carbon?
• Governor Announces Solar Energy Project for New York
• Study Finds a Tree Growth Spurt

100 Green To Do’s

Yesterday, the NYC Green Codes Task Force submitted over 100 recommendations to Mayor Bloomberg and Council Speaker Quinn on how to green the City’s building codes, focusing on ways to reap energy savings from construction and renovation work.

In New York City, buildings have long been the number one contributor to green house gas emissions, estimated to represent about 75% of all emissions. If NYC is going to get serious about reducing its impact on the environment, the focus must start with what we have an abundance of in this City: our ubiquitous buildings.

One of the more timely recommendations would impose higher efficiency standards for heating systems and ban inefficient boilers in the city’s largest buildings. The recommendation comes not long after the release of the new Community Air Study (PDF) that clearly shows  how polluted NYC’s air really is.

Another simple proposal: increase stair access in buildings so that more people will choose the stairs over the elevator. Improvements such as more visible signange and transparant glass to draw people to stairwells could help influence people’s vertical decisions. In fact, taking the stairs could become NYC’s new weight-loss program: research shows that taking the stairs on a regular basis could prevent 18% of the City’s average annual weight gain or a total of 550,000 pounds per year.

What We’re Reading: 2/1/10

• In Portland, Growing Vertical
  from NYT > Environment
• Green from the Inside Out returns!
  from Solar One
• Converting Coal Plants to Biomass
  from Green Inc.
• Panel Suggests 100 Ways Buildings Can Be Greener
  from NYT > N.Y. / Region
• YouTube – 3rd Avenue El – early 1950’s
  from www.youtube.com
• Number Six Sludge: Now Available in Manhattan’s Greenest…
  from greenbuildingsNYC
• Another Way to Look at E-waste
  from GOOD