Hip hop mogul Russell Simmons has his sights set on tackling food deserts in New York City by bringing quality food to low-income neighborhoods. Simmons has teamed up with Hajj Hasaun Muhammad and his partner Luanna Williams to launch “Quality Access Grocery,” which will provide underserved communities with access to fresh food at affordable prices. Their ambitious plan to roll out these stores in some of the city’s poorest neighborhoods will hopefully keep moms with strollers, little old ladies and other people looking for healthy produce from having to travel miles to find it.

Read the rest of Russell Simmons Wants to Open Quality Access Groceries to Combat Food Deserts in NYC testing

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Post tags: diabetes nyc, East Harlem, food access, food deserts, food justice, Green cart initiative, new york city food deserts, obesity nyc, quality access grocery store, russell simmons, south bronx, trader joes, whole foods market nyc

With only seven months before he makes his final departure from his post as mayor, there is speculation that Mayor Bloomberg wants to end his term by building barriers along they NYC waterfront to protect against future storms. A number of sources say that the mayor will propose the installation of several removable steel panels in key flood-prone areas, including a permanent barricade at Newtown Creek, a toxic waterway that sits between Brooklyn and Queens. The verdict is still out about whether the mayor’s possible plans will actually be effective and worth the price tag to prevent major damage to the city during hurricanes to come.

Read the rest of Can Mayor Bloomberg’s Steel Panels Save New York From Flooding During the Next Super Storm? testing

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Post tags: bloomberg steel barrier, Catherine seavitt nordenson, governor cuomo, Hurricane Sandy, mayor bloomberg, mayor bloomberg steel panels, new york harbor, newton creek, ny flooding, ny waterfront, ny waterways, nyc storm barrier, rockaway, sandy hook, Staten Island, storm barrier nyc, storm panels nyc, storm surge barriers, wetlands

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Post tags: climate change, eco art, expo 1, glacier, Ice, Iceland, installation, melting glaciers, melting ice caps, MoMA, MoMA PS1, new york, Olafur Eliasson, ps1, Spring 2013, Vatnajökull, your waste of time

Read the rest of 6 Perfect Picnic Spots to Visit in NYC testing

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Post tags: alley pond park, central park, green spaces nyc, greenbelt moses mountain, nyc, nyc best parks, nyc parks, nyc picnic, nyc picnic spots, pelham park, prospect park

Throw your suit in a messenger bag and strap on your helmet because today is Bike to Work Day! Thousands of New Yorkers will be trading in their car, bus or subway commutes for a zero-energy alternative that is also a blast – and it’s not too late to join in on the fun! Bikers still have until 10 am to take advantage of one of several fueling stations greeting bicyclists this morning. So pick up a coffee, a coconut water or a snack and ride into the sunset (or into the office, since they’re probably expecting you). Click through to find out where you can score a bit of grub and reflective decals on your way to work (and perhaps even get an invite to a super cool after-work bike party).

Read the rest of Today is Bike to Work Day in New York! testing

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Post tags: bike share, bike to work day, bike to work week, brooklyn bridge, Brooklyn roasting company, citi bank bike share, citi bike, Hudson river greenway, joyce kilmer park, league of American bicyclists, Manhattan Bridge, nyc bicyclists, nyc bike paths, nyc bike share program, Queensboro bridge, staten island ferry, Transportation Alternatives, vita coco

PHOTO: KENDALL RODRIGUEZ FOR NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

If you attended public school in NYC, you probably remember the burgers having “warts” and boat-shaped pepperoni pizzas with enough grease on top to cause a small oil spill. While those memories will always hold a fond place in our hearts (and quite possibly our arteries), we’re excited that the new generation of students at PS 244Q will have some better food options during their formative years. The elementary school in Flushing, Queens recently became the first public school in New York – and one of the first schools the nation – to serve an all-vegetarian lunch menu. Curious to see what a typical day’s selection might include? Read on to find out.

Read the rest of First NYC Public School to Serve Only Vegetarian Meals is in Flushing, Queens testing

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Post tags: Active Learning Elementary School, First School to Serve Only Vegetarian Meals, flushing queens, flushing school, flushing vegetarian school, meatless school, p.s. 244, ps 244, ps 244q, vegan meals, vegan school, veganism, vegetarian, vegetarian meals, vegetarianism

Recycling your old electronics is about to become a lot easier in NYC. This week, New York City Sanitation Commissioner John J. Doherty announced the launch of a new residential electronics recycling program called “e-cycleNYC” in partnership with Electronic Recyclers International (ERI). The free recycling service will be provided to buildings with 10 or more apartment units in each borough, so instead of lugging your broken 42’’ plasma through the subway to an e-waste drop off, you can save your strength for more important things like planting trees and composting.

Read the rest of New “e-cycleNYC” Program Brings Electronics Recycling Right to Your Doorstep testing

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Post tags: commissioner john j Doherty, ecycle nyc, electronic recyclers international, electronic recycling, electronic waste nyc, electronic waste recycling nyc, new york city sanitation, recycling nyc, recycling services nyc

There’s something fishy going on in a Central Park lake, and environmental officials aren’t too happy about it. Officials are on the hunt for an invasive and toothy predator known as the northern snakehead fish that is wreaking havoc on the local ecosystem. This super fish, native to China, Russia and Korea, can live out of water for days in certain conditions and it tends to prey voraciously on other fish, frogs, crayfish and other aquatic species. Its existence in our waters is so disruptive that New York State prohibits the possession, sale and live transport of snakehead fish and their viable eggs.

Read the rest of Frankenfish Threatening Local Aquatic Life Has NY Environmental Officials on Edge testing

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Post tags: central park, department of environmental conservation, harlem meer, invasive fish, melissa cohen, nyc predator fish, snakehead fish

Image via NYC Mayor’s Office Flickr

Rockaway Courthouse has sat empty for decades, but plans are now in the works to give it new life as a much-needed hospital in a community that faced the 2012 closure of a major health center, not to mention the blows of Hurricane Sandy. Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the New York City Economic Development Corporation recently announced that developer Harmony Group will resurrect the abandoned 24,000-square-foot historic building and use the structure to establish a multi-specialty ambulatory center. The rehabilitated building is expected to house medical tenants and outpatient surgical services that will include ophthalmology, urology, obstetrics, gynecology, and orthopedics.

Read the rest of Abandoned Rockaway Courthouse to Be Resurrected into State-of-the-Art Hospital testing

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Post tags: Hurricane Sandy, mayor bloomberg, New York City Economic Development Corporation, nyc hospital, nyc medical center, peninsula hospital, rockaway courthouse, rockaways, The harmony group

The NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) recently announced an exciting new design competition asking architects for ideas on how to rebuild the Hurricane Sandy-stricken Rockaways. Called “For a Resilient Rockaway” (FAR ROC), and organized by L+M Development Partners, The Bluestone Organization, Triangle Equities, Enterprise Community Partners, and AIA, the initiative is asking for proposals on how to redevelop the 80 acre Averne East site that was hit by the hurricane last October. The design contest is specifically seeking sustainable development plans for coastal and flood-prone areas that incorporate mixed-use, mixed-income communities.

Read the rest of “For a Resilient Rockaway” Competition Seeks Sustainable Plans to Rebuild Sandy-Ravaged Queens testing

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Post tags: AIA New York Center for Architecture, Bluestone Organization, Department of Housing Preservation and Development, eco design, for a resilient rockaway, green design, L+M Development Partners, Mathew M Wambua, rebuilding Rockaway, rockaways, sustainable design, Triangle Equitiies

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Post tags: audubon center, central park, earth day, earth day 2013, earth day nyc, eileen fisher, family earth day events, grand central, greenhouse, high line, Hurricane Sandy, jacob javitz center, jetblue, New York Restoration Project, New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, prospect park, Union Square, urban green energy, what to do for earth day

Though it might sound like something you’d read in the Onion, one MTA board member has expressed concern about the threat of electric eels to the forthcoming 7 train line extension. According to DNAInfo, Charles Moerdler is putting aside research that contradicts his beliefs, and is pushing for the MTA to use plastic piping as an alternative to metal, brass or iron in an effort to avoid potential damage due to the electrified fishes. Years ago, Moerdler was an attorney who represented the Javits Center when it was first being built, and says that a mandatory environmental review revealed evidence of electric eels living in the Hudson River at that time. In that case, Moerdler was granted a rare waiver that allowed the Javits Center to use plastic piping instead of metal, but could the same claim be valid for the 7 line?

Read the rest of Could Electric Eels Be a Threat to NYC’s 7 Line Subway Extension? testing

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Post tags: 7 train, Adam lisberg, Charles moerdler, chris bowser, cornell university, cornell university water resource institute, electric eels 7 train, Hudson River, Hudson river eel prject, New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, nyc mta

It’s baaaack! Our favorite showcase of the hottest made-in-Brooklyn home designs took a hiatus for a few years but now BKLYN Designs is back and ready to make a splash from May 10-12. This carefully curated tradeshow will bring together a bevy of leading Brooklyn-based designers of contemporary furnishings, accessories and more, so if you’re in the NY area, don’t forget to pick up your tickets here.

Read the rest of Don’t Miss Brooklyn’s Freshest Green Furnishings at This Year’s BKLYN Designs in May! testing

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Post tags: adam frank, bklyn designs, bklyndesigns, brooklyn designs, connie lam, eco design, eco furniture, editors choice awards, Jeremy pickette, john randall, mark Jupiter, Roberto Gil, vaishali patel

Image Credit: Frances L Fruit / Shutterstock.com

Great news for anyone who commutes from NJ to NYC: the city is thinking about extending the number 7 train right to Secaucus, New Jersey, meaning a ride from Midtown would be just about 16 minutes. The current mode of transportation that many NJers employ to get into Manhattan, the Path train, is less than ideal and the other option, buses out of Port Authority, isn’t much better. For New Jersey residents, the hassle of living over yonder while making a living in a New York office can prove to be a tiring experience, but the possibility of a 7 train line extension could mean a world of difference.

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Post tags: 7 train, 7 train to jersey, bryant park, commuting, frank lautenberg station, grand central, Hudson River, Michael Bloomberg, new jersey transit, nyc transit, PATH Train, Penn Station, port authority, secaucus, seven train, Times Square

If you’re looking for yet another sign that the end is near, the media has been buzzing (pun-intended) with reports that billions of cicadas will be burrowing out of their underground holes soon and swarming the East Coast of the United States. Okay, so “Cicadapocolypse” – what many entomologists are calling the insects’ mass exodus from the ground – may be a bit sensational considering that the bugs would hardly hurt a fly, but the event likely will be painful to our ears. Some experts predict that the noise the cicadas emit could even be comparable to the sound of a New York City train.

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Post tags: brood II, brood II cicadas, bug infestation, cicada, cicada apocolypse, cicada invasion, cicada swarm, cicadapocolypse, cicadas, east coast cicadas

Now in its second year, the Folly Competition – a two-month residency project sponsored by the Architectural League of New York and Socrates Sculpture Park that explores the tradition of 18th and 19th century folly gardens – has announced a winner. Toshihiro Oki, Jen Wood, and Jared Diganci of Toshihiro Oki Architects took home top honors for their design, tree wood, which was selected out of 150 submitted proposals, and their folly will soon be realized within the grounds of Socrates Sculpture Park in Long Island City. Follies are traditional garden structures which have no discernible purpose except to draw the eye to a specific view. The competition, judged by a panel of architects, designers and artists, seeks to explore the overlapping intersection of architecture and sculpture that draws on the techniques of the two disciplines.

Read the rest of Toshihiro Oki Architects Win Folly Garden Competition with Fanciful Design for Socrates Sculpture Park testing

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Post tags: Architectural League of New York, folly competition, Georg Rafailidis, jared diganci, jen wood, Julien Leyssene, Keefe Butler, Long Island City, Marc Maurer, Nicole Maurer-Lemmens, nyc parks, Public Art, Socrates Sculpture Park, Stephanie Davidson, toshihiro oki, Toshihiro Oki Architects

Read the rest of The Fancy Fox Thrift Shop Opens Near 5 Pointz and PS1 in Long Island City testing

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Post tags: 5 points, 5 pointz, Carolina Penafiel, graffiti long island city, local project, Long Island City, long island city thrift shop, The Fancy Fox, thrift shop long island city, thrift shop queens, thrift shopping nyc, vintage shop queens

MoMA PS1’s VW Dome 2 – the temporary cultural center created after Hurricane Sandy left Rockaway Beach severely damaged – opened last Friday with a performance by singer and Rockaways resident Patti Smith. The geodesic dome structure will be up for the next month and is located in a parking lot between Beach 94th and 95th Streets. The opening kicked off a full series of exhibits, lectures and performances centered around rebuilding the storm-ravaged neighborhood.

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Post tags: expo 1 new york, Hurricane Sandy, kevin boyle, MoMA, moma call for artists, moma geodesic dome, moma rockaways, open camera sessions, patti smith, rebuilding the rockaways, rick horan, Rockaway Beach, the wave, VW Dome

Get your hands dirty with JetBlue Airlines and the New York Restoration Project as they host the sixth annual One Thing That’s Green day on Saturday, April 20th in Highland Park on the border of Queens and Brooklyn. The weekend tree-planting project will bring together 500 community volunteers to plant over 2,400 trees and will be the first major event to help restore some of the 30,000 trees the city lost during Hurricane Sandy.

Read the rest of Help Plant 2,400 New Trees in NYC with JetBlue and the New York Restoration Project testing

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Post tags: earth day, earth day 2013, highland park, Hurricane Sandy, jetblue, jetblue airlines, Long Island City, New York Restoration Project, nyc tree planting, one thing that’s green, tree planting, tree planting nyc, volunteering

Read the rest of WASTED: Artist Alex White Mazzarella’s New Exhibit Explores Social Inequality Using Recycled Materials testing

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Post tags: alex white mazzarella, eco art, green art, recycled art, resobox, sustainable art, wasted, willets point gentrification, willets point junkyard, willets point queens

Image via Brooklyn Grange Facebook

The Brooklyn Grange is opening up their one-acre rooftop farm in Long Island City, Queens as a local hub for solar composting. The new system will repurpose food waste and scraps gathered from local restaurants and residents and turn them into valuable fertilizer for the farm’s planting projects. Downstairs coffee shop neighbor Coffeed is even in on the action, donating used grounds from their shop to help grow more vegetables and herbs for the farm.

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Post tags: big!compost, Brooklyn grange, build it green nyc, chris bivens, coffeed, composting, composting nyc, composting queens, dna info, Long Island City, o2compost, peter moon, solar composting, solar energy, urban farming

Image via Control Group

Good news subway riders! The MTA is rolling out a series of high-tech, touch screen subway maps to make navigating the train system a bit less intimidating. No more awkwardly hovering over a stranger on the train to check out the subway map behind them or squinting your eyes trying to locate your stop on the graffiti-covered platform map. Control Group and CBS Outdoor will be adding the electronic kiosks to several stations to help keep passengers informed about service delays and outages (just expect a few ads thrown in between actual the actual information).

Read the rest of NYC Straphangers Rejoice: MTA Rolls Out New High-Tech Touch Screen Subway Maps testing

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Post tags: barclays center, Bowling Green, cbs outdoor, Control Group, digital out of home technology, grand central station, interactive subway maps, MTA, nyc interactive subway map, nyc mta, nyc payphones, paul j fleuranges, Penn Station, subway map kiosks, touch screen subway map

Image via City Harvest NY Facebook

Deputy Mayor Linda I. Gibbs and the Mayor’s Fund to Advance New York City announced a new grant program yesterday that will provide more than $1.7 million in funding for city-wide emergency food networks that served communities in need during Hurricane Sandy. Many food pantries and soup kitchens served the influx of new clients during the aftermath of the hurricane despite struggling to rebuild their own facilities. The much-needed monies will support the post-Sandy distribution of thousands of meals throughout the hardest hit communities, helping to rebuild emergency food locations in Sandy-affected areas.

Read the rest of NYC Mayor’s Fund to Provide $1.7 Million to Food Pantries Affected By Hurricane Sandy testing

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Post tags: city harvest, Deputy Mayor Linda I. Gibbs, FEMA, food bank for new york city, Hurricane Sandy, mayor’s fund to advance new york city, meagan sheekey, new york food pantries, nyc emergency food assistance, nyc emergency services, nyc food pantry locations, nyc snap program, red cross of greater new york

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Post tags: 6bc garden, alley pond park, botanical garden nyc, clinton community garden, Fort Greene, greenbelt park, Hells Kitchen, nyc spring, spring in nyc, spring time in new york city, Staten Island, van courtland park, where to see spring bloom in nyc

The controversial QueensWay plan to turn an abandoned Queens rail line into an elevated park resembling Manhattan’s High Line is getting even closer to fruition. The Trust for Public Land, the organization working to transform the 3.5 miles of land into a public green space, recently submitted a request for development proposals. The project is seeking a company to conduct a feasibility study to test the soil, structure and estimated costs of construction in an effort to bring the hotly debated park to life.

Read the rest of QueensWay High Line-Style Park Getting Closer to Reality Despite Resident Opposition testing

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Post tags: dna info, Friends of the QueensWay, governor andrew cuomo, high line park, marc mattsil, no way queensway, nyc abandoned rail lines, nyc public parks, opponents queensway, queens parks, queensway, queensway park, trust for Public Land