Betsy Gotbaum Publicm Advocate for the City of New York
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
TWELVE FOR Responses to plaNYC: A GREENER, GREATER2030 NEW YORK compiled by BETSY GOTBAUM PUBLICM ADVOCATE FOR THE CITY OF NEW YORK April 2007 April, 2007 My fellow New Yorkers: On Earth Day this year, Mayor Bloomberg unveiled a broad and ambitious plan to make New York “the first environmen- tally sustainable 21st Century city.” Like many New Yorkers who have long advocated for innovative, long-term solutions to the environmental, transportation, and development problems we face, I am encouraged that the Mayor is rising to meet the challenge head-on. With the city expected to gain approximately 1 million new residents by 2030, action is not only advisable — it is necessary. A plan, however — even one as far reaching as the Mayorʼs — is just a first step. For the 127 proposals in plaNYC to be realized in a timely and effective manner, the administration will have to work together with elected officials, experts, and advocates to develop strategies for implementation and to engage New Yorkers in a discussion of how the proposal will affect their lives. The purpose of this compilation of articles is to facilitate a dialogue among the administration, advocates for environmen- tally sustainable urban planning, and the people of New York City. In the pages that follow, you will find expert opinions on several key aspects of plaNYC: Transportation Alternatives on curbside parking and bicycle and pedestrian street safety Andrew Albert on expanding subway capacity Dr. Robert E. Paaswell on traffic congestion and congestion pricing New York Climate Rescue on energy issues and global warming Sustainable South Bronx on brownfield cleanup and local water quality New Yorkers for Parks on park and street tree maintenance Hilary Baum on sustainable food systems The Cloud Institute for Sustainability Education on environmental education in city schools Nature Network on continuing discussions around wildlife habitat and waterfront development issues Tom Angotti on community-based land use and environmental planning The Association for Neighborhood and Housing Development on affordable housing My hope is that these individuals and groups will be joined by many others in an ongoing conversation about how plaNYC can be improved and implemented over the years. For our city to become truly sustainable, we will need a plan that ad- dresses workforce development, public benefits, education, and care for seniors and the disabled. New Yorkers in all five boroughs and every walk of life deserve a safer, healthier, more livable city. We all share the responsibility of meeting this goal by the year 2030. Betsy Gotbaum Public Advocate for the City of New York M Office of the New York City Public Advocate 1 Prepared By: Laurel Tumarkin Director of Policy and Research Daniel Browne Deputy Director of Policy and Research Philip Silva Policy Research Associate The opinions contained herein are not necessarily the opinions of the Office of the Public Advocate. Nor do they necessarily reflect the opinions of all of the contributing individuals or organizations. 2 Office of the New York City Public Advocate Open up NYC streets for pedestrians, cyclists, & buses Transportation Alternatives Transportation Alternatives, a 5500-member, NYC-area non-profit citizens group, was founded in 1973 during the explosion of environmental consciousness that also produced the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts and the Environmental Protection Agency. TA seeks to change New York Cityʼs transportation priorities to encourage and increase non-polluting, quiet, city- friendly travel and decrese — not ban — private car use. M If you think our transit system needs ex- be done quickly include: adding express bus panding or our streets need fewer cars, then lanes; increasing pedestrian crossing times; there is a lot to love about the 16 “green” trans- and transforming more parking spaces into portation initiatives in the mayor’s plaNYC: A wider sidewalks and bike lanes. The necessity Greener, Greater New York. of carbon reduction only adds to this urgency. While many specifics have yet to be an- Major funding for the plan’s linchpin — a nounced, the plan includes solid outlines for $50 billion laundry list of transit improvements an $8 London-style congestion pricing system; — depends on $500 million in annual reve- $50 billion in transit improvements; and better nue expected from the Manhattan congestion bicycling, walking, and ferry services. charge. Therein lies the plan’s potential undo- Even for the 5 percent of outer-borough ing. For the congestion charge to become a re- workers who now drive to Manhattan, there is ality, it first must gain the approval of a gaunt- a lot to like. Drivers’ transit options are only let of state legislators who, with a nudge from going to get better, and everyone will benefit the powerful parking and automobile lobbies, from cleaner air and thinner traffic. could easily block it. In the transportation world, it is a widely If Mayor Bloomberg and Deputy Mayor known (if seldom acted upon) fact that cars are Dan Doctoroff want to ensure the security of toxic to dense cities. Car drivers consume 10 their green transportation legacy, they should times more valuable street space than commut- pursue a green transportation solution that is ers traveling by bus, bicycles, or on foot. The conspicuously absent from their plan. This so- city also faces an influx of 1 million more resi- lution could at once relieve traffic congestion dents by 2030, along with an estimated 83 per- citywide, raise much-needed revenue for street cent increase in truck traffic by 2020 over 1998 improvements, and be implemented without levels. And major development projects, such the approval of the state legislature. The solu- as Atlantic Yards, are also poised to unleash a tion? A citywide increase in the price of curb- torrent of transportation demand. All this being side parking. true, the mayor should instruct his new Depart- Last year, the press reported that most ment of Transportation commissioner to waste Manhattan-bound drivers drive out of choice, no time in advancing completion dates for the not necessity. A more recent study by Schaller less capital-intensive aspects of the plan, which Consulting uncovered the reason why: most cede more street space and priority to bus rid- drivers do not pay for parking. As any trans- ers, pedestrians, and bicyclists. Things that can portation expert will tell you, the carrot of free Office of the New York City Public Advocate 3 parking is too irresistible for drivers to refuse, even when they have decent transit options. Government workers have coveted (and often counterfeit) parking placards. All drivers have access to a bounty of free and $1.50-per- hour spaces, even if they have to circle the block for 40 minutes to find a vacant one. Because the under-priced curbs are at or near saturation, cruising for parking spaces accounts for up to 45 percent of all traffic on city streets. By increasing metered parking to a level that frees up vacancy and reduces cruising for parking spaces, by charging residents for pref- erential parking on public streets and by clean- ing up the rampant misuse and abuse of city-is- sued parking permits, Mayor Bloomberg could redress a root cause of traffic congestion while generating a windfall to fund street improve- ments. Mayor Bloomberg and Deputy Mayor Doctoroff deserve a lot of credit for mounting a coordinated attack on the big plagues of the 21st Century city: traffic congestion, climate change, and increasing population. That their plan man- ages to wed the audacity of Robert Moses with the pedestrian populism of Jane Jacobs makes it all the more impressive. With a new generation of street and transit improvements funded by congestion pricing, Bloomberg and Doctoroff are poised to move mountains, if only they can move Albany. As a hedge, they should tackle what they can clearly control: New York City’s broken parking poli- cy. M 4 Office of the New York City Public Advocate “City Ticket” could improve mobility on NYC transit Andrew Albert Andrew Albert is the Chairman of the New York City Transit Riders Council, a group that represents the interests of NYC bus and subway riders. In 2002, he was appointed to a non-voting seat on the Board of the Metropolitan Transportation Author- ity. The NYC Transit Ridersʼ Council was created in 1981 by the New York State Legislature. It meets on a monthly basis to discuss issues of importance to transit users. M Mayor Bloomberg’s plan for improving The mayor’s plan, in part, is predicated transportation in New York City by the year on creation of the Sustainable Mobility and 2030 proposes a number of innovative projects Regional Transportation Financing Authority, that should be seriously considered for imple- or SMART. Some critics may see this as an- mentation. other faceless bureaucracy, and it’s question- The plan’s transportation section begins able whether the state would be willing to con- with the story of Brian Block, whose commute tribute funds to a new organization. There’s a from Cambria Heights, Queens to Manhattan risk that SMART would face the same political has been a struggle for more than 20 years. Mr. challenges as the MTA’s Capital Program, with Block takes a bus to the Parsons/Archer hub in legislators demanding their slice of the pie in Jamaica, and then the E train to Manhattan — a exchange for approval. These concerns will two hour commute. The Transit Riders Coun- need to be dealt with through ongoing dialogue cil has championed, with some success, a “City with transportation advocates and policy mak- Ticket” pilot program that could help residents ers as the mayor moves to implement the plan.