Photo Credit: NYCDOT
With the Citi Bike program expected to open in May, the New York City Department of Transportation has its sights set on giving Brooklyn cyclists more room to ride across the borough. The proposed Brooklyn Greenway Project will add 14 miles of bike lanes from Greenpoint to Sunset Park in addition to extended sections in Red Hook and the Brooklyn Navy Yard that are set to be complete in 2014. The initiative, planned in collaboration with the Regional Planning Association, encourages green infrastructure along the Brooklyn waterfront and provides a recreational destination for pedestrians, visiting tourists and residents alike.
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New Yorkers who’ve found themselves majorly annoyed that the city would not accept salad containers, plastic fast food boxes and other rigid plastics for recycling are in for some good news today. This afternoon, Mayor Bloomberg is expected to announce the expansion of NYC’s recycling program to include all rigid plastics. The hope is that the move will not only allow more materials to be recycled going forward but it will also eliminate much of the confusion about which kinds of plastics to wash and put in the recycling bin and which to simply throw away. Stay tuned for more information about this important development as it comes in.
The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art has changed extensively over the past few years, and this morning the school announced that after 150 years of offering a free education, it is planning to charge a tuition. The prestigious school is known mainly for two things – turning out industry giants like Daniel Libeskind, Milton Glaser and Alex Katz and being one of the last tuition-free colleges in the United States. But after two years of financial struggles and intense debate, the Union has decided to implement a “sliding scale” tuition starting in 2014.
New York’s electric vehicle charging program just got another boost. Leviton, the maker of Evr-Green charging stations, was recently awarded a $1 million grant by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority to install electric vehicle charging stations throughout the state. The funds will help Leviton support Governor Andrew Cuomo’s “Charge NY” Initiative—a $50 million program that will add 3,000 public and workplace charging stations over the next five years.
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.
This morning, Mayor Bloomberg announced plans to transform the Bronx’s Kingsbridge Armory into the world’s largest indoor ice facility. The design calls for the historic landmark, which has been vacant since 1996, to be redeveloped into the Kingsbridge National Ice Center (KNIC), a 750,000-square-foot ice facility boasting nine year-round indoor regulation size ice rinks. When complete, the center is expected to attract more than 2 million visitors a year.
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In an effort to delay tobacco use among young adults, public health advocates are proposing a new law that would raise the legal tobacco purchase age from 18 to 21. City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, who is behind the new proposal, will be joined today by City Health Commissioner Thomas Farley and public health advocates to discuss the new legislation.
Just in time for Earth Day today, the NYC Taxi and Limousine Commission rolled out six Nissan LEAF taxi cabs for a year-long pilot program that will evaluate what it would take to successfully adopt electric vehicles into the city’s fleet. If the pilot program is successful, the city estimates that one-third of all NYC taxis could be electric by 2020. Mayor Bloomberg kicked off the launch by taking a spin in one of the taxis this morning.
Some of New York’s colleges and universities have been quietly making every day Earth Day with a series of efforts to boost sustainability and conservation. From adding green roofs to their buildings to installing new wastewater management systems, many
New York City’s goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 30 percent by 2017 has taken another step in the right direction. At a press conference at Rockefeller University yesterday, Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced the expansion of the PlaNYC Carbon
If you’re in the market for well-made furniture built with reused materials, you’ll definitely want to check out this year’s BKLYN Designs showcase of Brooklyn-born furnishings in May. One of the show’s prime purveyors of understated, recycled design, Bien
The ROGAN store on the Bowery has been a green fashion destination for so long that we were shocked to hear about its departure from the retail location it’s held for over a decade. The iconic, upscale eco-boutique set the stage for sustainable style in
Photo: Christine Schmidt
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
