November 2007 EVALUATING ONLINE CARBON CALCULATORS INSIDE THIS ISSUE by Daniel A
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THE W AGNER P LANNER Newsletter of the NYU Urban Planning Student Association November 2007 EVALUATING ONLINE CARBON CALCULATORS INSIDE THIS ISSUE by Daniel A. Doyle (MUP ‘08) generally lead these footprints to shrink and swell in tandem. How- Online Carbon Calculators ur planet’s resources float ever, there are exceptions. Should by Daniel A. Doyle p. 1 some mighty privileged life- we use cleaner fuels to raze a for- O styles. Regrettably, policies est, our ecological footprint could City of Water Review of unchecked plunder for short- conceivably balloon while its car- by Michael Freedman-Schnapp, p. 3 term gain make for a bleak future. bon counterpart remains largely Arming citizens with a tool for self- unchanged. These analyses have Interview with Prof. Ingrid Ellen examination is a virtuous effort some notable overlap, yet we by Sarah Wu, p. 4 since we can’t manage what we would be remiss to use them inter- don’t measure. It’s no small task changeably. to measure environmental impacts Urban World Population Growth by Michael Kodransky, p. 5 such as carbon dioxide emissions, When I tried three carbon calcula- but numerous carbon calculators tors online to tally my own carbon are emerging on the internet as an yield, I was hoping for a hard and Planner Poll easily accessible re- fast baseline. Instead, Results, p 6 source to make this “Online carbon I found my pounds of feasible. calculator sites CO2 emitted annually Economic Reform in Vietnam varied widely. The by Theresa B. Do, p. 7 often generate more The hope is that our EPA’s (U.S. Environ- choices and their ef- questions than mental Protection Grassroots Work in Sunset Park fects on the planet answers.” Agency) calculator by Ben Winter, p. 8-9 become more trans- estimated that my ac- parent. One is anointed with a tions accounted for upwards of Urban Design Class Poster Session “carbon footprint” by answering 33,000 pounds of CO2 annually, Compiled by Michael Kodransky just a few questions about driving while Nature Conservancy had my and Theresa B. Do, p. 10 habits, energy bills and frequent actions producing under 22,000 UPSA Scholarship flyer miles. Yet it should not be pounds. by Yvonne Martinez, p. 11 confused with an “ecological foot- print.” They differ in that an eco- A third calculator, found on cli- logical scorecard tracks an individ- matecrisis.net, generated a number ual’s natural resource use against that was less than half of the EPA’s the earth’s ability to regenerate figure. The wide range of results these materials. can be attributed partially to dif- ferent information requested by Carbon scores estimate the amount each calculator. Nature Conser- of CO2 emissions released from our vancy, for instance, did not ask for material lives. Conventional meth- heating/electricity costs. ods of generating electricity would (Continued on pg. 6) Urban Planning Anytime at: http://www.nyu.edu/wagner/urbanplanning Urban Planning Program Robert F. Wagner School of Public Service New York University 295 Lafayette Street New York, NY 10012 THE W AGNER P LANNER NOVEMBER 2007 2 THE W AGNER P LANNER http://www.nyu.edu/wagner/ A LETTER FROM THE EDITORS urbanplanning Two development paradigms discussed in many planning conversations is Volume 4, Issue 1 about which approach works better: top-down or bottom-up. Grassroots November 2007 organizations rallying communities to understand the stakes at hand have one perception, while governments that unveil their ambitious vision for CHIEF EDITORS Michael Kodransky change have another. Ultimately, the needs of constituents should be at Theresa B. Do the core of any discourse. Buildings, roads and other infrastructure exist for people and not the other way around. CONTRIBUTING EDITOR The NYC Comprehensive Waterfront Plan developed under Mayor David Yvonne Martinez Dinkins in 1992 aimed to guide and stimulate different uses along the city’s edge. Mostly, it was a top-down plan to get derelict lots on the waterfront redeveloped. Portions of the 578 miles of NYC waterfront have already COPY EDITORS been transformed into new neighborhoods like Battery Park City. Others, Denali Dasgupta Melanie Ochser like the cluster of towers envisioned for Greenpoint-Williamsburg in Brook- Courtney Wolf lyn, have yet to be fully completed. Unlike Battery Park City, which was developed on landfill from the World PHOTOGRAPHY Trade Center site, the plans in Brooklyn are in an existing community with Emre Edev many diverse stakeholders. Other neighborhoods in Brooklyn, such as Sun- Sherilyn Tran set Park, are already organizing before any plans have even been con- Danise Malqui ceived. SPAN, a grassroots organization, tries to engage the numerous groups that call the neighborhood home to understand how potential CONTRIBUTING WRITERS changes might affect them. Daniel A. Doyle Michael Freedman-Schnapp These particular scenarios are not unique to NYC. In other municipalities Ben Winter and countries around the world, communities are dealing with government Sarah Wu visions for revitalization and growth. In Vietnam, enhancement of infra- structure to accommodate an increasing population is being done by de- centralizing some of dense development in core cities through improve- ments in the transportation network. The Wagner Planner is the independ- ent student newsletter of the Urban The introductory urban design course taught by Professor John Fontillas Planning Student Association (UPSA) of the Robert F. Wagner Graduate and Steve Stainbrook is one place where students at Wagner are chal- School of Public Service at NYU. lenged to think about top-down and bottom-up. Physical plans can be im- posed on a community from blueprints put together by a professional de- All currently enrolled MUP students, sign team or through interaction with community members at charrettes. alumni and faculty are encouraged to submit material to The Wagner We hope you enjoy the articles in this issue of The Wagner Planner that Planner. Please email letters to the deal with some of these themes and many more. editors and any other contributions to: [email protected] Michael Kodransky and Theresa B. Do THE W AGNER P LANNER NOVEMBER 2007 3 REVIEW OF DOCUMENTARY FILM ON WATERFRONT ISSUES IN NYC by Michael Freedman-Schnapp (MUP ‘09) small, semi-accessible bor) counter Doctoroff point by strips of parkland for point. They eloquently state that the here is a renaissance of sorts the public. well-paying jobs at the ports, fuel happening on New York har- depots, ship repair facilities and wa- T bor’s waterfront. Since the In the film, Philip Lopate, author of terfront factories support tens of early 20th century, when trains and the 2004 book Waterfront: A Journey thousands of blue-collar families automobiles replaced passenger fer- Around Manhattan, calls this new throughout New York City. Although ries, commercial use has dominated paradigm for the city’s edge a these facilities continue to undergird New York City’s waterfront. Now, “weird tradeoff” that brings no “real the region’s economy, they face im- in the wake of massive investments interaction between the waterfront minent displacement from residen- in New Jersey’s container terminals and the streets that abut it… taking tial, big-box retail and hotel devel- shifting the vitality of the commer- out all the street life.” opments. cial port to the west, a motley of recreation-seekers, environmental- New York City Deputy Mayor for Eco- Doctoroff’s vision for a gleaming ists, developers and “harbor district” con- politicians have turned trasts with that of an- their eyes towards the other member of the waterfront as a key re- Bloomberg administra- source for the area’s tion in the film, New growth. York City's Director of Long-Term Planning and The most visible part of Sustainability, Rohit this rediscovery of the Aggarwala. Emphasizing water’s edge is the pri- the need to keep sew- vate residential devel- age out of the harbor, opments rising all along create green roofs, and the harbor—from mod- adopt sustainable wa- ernist towers going up in terborne transit, Aggar- Williamsburg, Brooklyn wala seems to be sing- to faux-Swiss chalet ing from a different style condos sprouting in hymnal. City of Water Jersey City. Yet in the shows the contradiction shadows of these build- of Bloomberg’s develop- ings are new parks, waterside bicycle nomic Development, Daniel L. Doc- ment and sustainability plans by the trails, intrepid recreational boaters toroff, appears in City of Water as juxtaposition of these two admini- and a still-essential working water- the voice of the city planners, politi- stration officials—though the admini- front of tugs, barges and fuel depots. cians, developers, real estate inter- stration would insist they are one Between these forces that meet at ests and construction trades that are and the same. the high tide line lies a complex and responsible for bland riverside devel- rapidly-changing debate. opments like Queens West in Long Prominent in the film are numerous Island City and Newport, a master- local advocates who steadily bring City of Water, a 30-minute film di- planned “mixed-use” community in more people onto the water in row- rected by Loren Talbot of the Metro- Jersey City. Saying that the working boats, sailboats, water taxis and politan Waterfront Alliance and Jas- waterfront should be kept in areas even for competitive swims in the per Goldman of the Municipal Arts only “where it makes financial and Hudson River. City of Water makes a Society, explores the fissures of this spatial sense,” Doctoroff creates an convincing case for linking water ac- debate and lands squarely in the aura of inevitability for this type of cess, recreation and improvement of camp of promoting recreational op- development.