It seems inconceivable given the overwhelmingly positive developments of the past few weeks, but the city wants to increase parking in Manhattan by some 20,000 spaces, and is defending itself in court for the right to do so.
The Bloomberg and Spitzer administrations are working together to hold on to a rezoning provision that would dramatically increase required parking inventory for new development in the Hudson Yards area on the far West Side. The parking plan is a holdover from the failed Jets stadium deal -- and it's illegal, according to the Hell's Kitchen Neighborhood Association (HKNA) and others who have filed suit against Mayor Bloomberg, City Planning Director Amanda Burden, the MTA and the New York Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC).
The suit alleges that the parking requirements, adopted in 2005, are in violation of a 1982 agreement to keep the city in compliance with the Clean Air Act. Further, plaintiffs question the validity of the city's environmental impact statement regarding planned development for the area.
For its part, the DEC is attempting to remove references to parking from its Clean Air Act State Implementation Plan (SIP). The state currently limits the amount of parking that can be attached to development below 60th Street, but the DEC says parking should not be considered part of the SIP since the city was not legally required to consider parking as part of its compliance strategy. Further, the DEC says parking falls under the jurisdiction of city planners, not state officials.
Read more...Critics of congestion pricing often claim that small businesses will bear an unfair burden if the Mayor is successful in implementing his plan. But yesterday, a diverse group of small business leaders from throughout the five boroughs gathered on the steps of City Hall yesterday to voice their support for the Mayor's PlaNYC initiative. From The Campiagn for New York Future's press release:
The organizations and leaders who stepped up today to support the Mayor's plan and enlist in the broad-based Campaign for New York's Future included:
- New York City Hispanic Chamber of Commerce
- Manhattan Hispanic Chamber of Commerce
- Dumbo Improvement District
- National Supermarkets Association
- Chinese Chamber of Commerce New York
- New York Industrial Retention Network
- 86th Street Bay Ridge Business Improvement District
Said Maria Alvarez Castro, President and CEO of the Manhattan Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, "By and large, small business owners in New York City also live here. They want what is best for their families and the City's future and are willing to support sensible efforts to create a healthier environment to live and work."
Added Tucker Reed, Executive Director of the Dumbo Improvement District, "Change is not an option. It is an urgent priority. Global warming, traffic congestion and health problems, such as asthma and lung disease, are getting worse and will continue to worsen absent serious measures, such as the far-reaching PlaNYC initiative. It is time all of us got on board with solutions."
Joe Ithier of the New York City Hispanic Chamber of Commerce said, "In addition to the enormous health benefits of PlaNYC, it will be obvious to any small business owner, who studies the full details of the initiative, that the package of proposals, if enacted, would benefit virtually all business in virtually every industry throughout the five boroughs."
A delegation of approximately 30 members of the Campaign for New York's Future are traveling to Albany today to meet with more than two dozen state legislators and other public officials. Today's trip follows a series of meetings on Monday in which key coalition leaders joined Mayor Bloomberg to call for urgent State action on the Mayor's key PlaNYC initiatives. Today's press release (care of Howard Rubenstein) lays out some of Bloomberg's key legislative goals up in Albany:
The Campaign for New York's Future is advocating urgent action, prior to June's close of the current legislative session, on key PlaNYC initiative requiring amendments to State law. These actions comprise four main categories:
Transportation - Among other actions, the coalition is advocating creation of a new Sustainable, Mobility and Regional Transportation (SMART) Finance Authority; authorization to use cameras on buses to enforce Bus Rapid Transit lanes; and authorization of residential parking districts within New York City.
Energy - Key proposed actions include authorization to create a New York City Energy Planning Board with representatives appointed by the Governor, the Mayor and utility companies; creation of a New York City Energy Efficiency Authority; authorization for the New York Power Authority to issue long-term power contracts; amendment to the City Charter requiring that the City dedicate 10 percent of the City's energy bill to be used on energy conservation projects; and tax abatements for the installation of solar panels.
Brownfields - The Campaign for New York's Future is calling on Albany to amend the State Brownfield Cleanup Program to reallocate tax credits, incentivize greater community participation, and expand eligibility to cover New York City specific contamination; and to authorize creation of a voluntary Brownfield cleanup program targeting 600 acres of brownfields in the City not currently eligible for the State program.
Air and Water Quality - The coalition is calling on Albany to amend Tax Law to provide for a local sales tax exemption on all hybrid vehicles purchased within New York City; and amend the Real Property Tax Law to provide property tax abatements on the installation of green roofs to reduce stormwater runoff.
In addition to launching a new website, two leading members of the Campaign, Environmental Defense and the Partnership for New York City, released a 30-second advertisement this week to correspond with the Mayor's trip to Albany. The ad highlights Bloomberg's call to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 30 percent, create cleaner power plants, improve mass transit and reduce traffic pollution, "Together we can save the environment. But the clock...is ticking."
The ad is currently on the air in Albany and New York City, and, of course, it's on YouTube.
The PlaNYC team has released the technical report providing the detailed background data for the transportation recommendations made in Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s April 22 Long-Term Planning & Sustainability speech. It’s a big download — 25 megabytes and 166 pages — but if you are a New York City transportation policy wonk, it’s totally worth it.
The report provides a comprehensive rundown, in one place, of all of the various transportation initiatives that are currently planned, underway or being discussed for New York City. Those who have been following the work of independent consultant Bruce Schaller will recognize some of this material. (Speaking of which: Is Bruce Schaller the Bill James of New York City transportation policy, or what? When is city government going to offer the guy a job?)
The report contains some really interesting maps and charts, like the one above, graphically depicting where Manhattan-bound car commuters come from. The map is broken down by census tract. Height represents the total number of single-passenger drivers and color represents the percentage of commuters who chose to drive alone to workplaces below 96th Street. A darker color means a higher percentage of single-passenger drivers and a lighter color means more people used transit, walked, carpooled or used a ferry or bike. It turns out that only 4.6% of New York City residents drive to work in the Manhattan core in single-passenger motor vehicle.
Here’s another great factoid from the report: If New Yorkers owned cars at the same rate as the rest of the nation, it would take 11,000 acres, or all of Manhattan below 136th Street, just to park them end to end.
"Janette Sadik-Khan has a superb mix of public and private sector transportation management experience and she will make great addition to our team. She's joining us at an exciting time, as we use the last 979 days of our Administration to enact policies to set this City on the course for a better future," said Mayor Bloomberg. "Janette has the skills and the experience to meet the challenges of overseeing our vast transportation infrastructure, to ensure that people can move around our City safely, and to continue to lead the DOT by implementing innovative and exciting policies."
"I am pleased to be joining Mayor Bloomberg and his team, who are continuing to show leadership by articulating a bold new vision for New York. I look forward to working with the men and women of DOT to realize that vision," said Janette Sadik-Khan. "My first priority is the safety of our residents as they use the networks of roads and bridges that connect our City, and I will focus on making our system more sustainable and achieving a full state of good repair for our aging infrastructure. I am very happy to be returning to city government at such an eventful time."
"This is an exciting time to be joining the Bloomberg Administration and I want to welcome Janette to DOT," said Deputy Mayor for Economic Development and Rebuilding, Daniel Doctoroff. "Because we recognize that transportation is linked with land use, energy, housing development, air and water quality, we truly operate as a team, and I know that Janette will be an integral part of that as we work to meet the challenges that the Mayor has laid out as part of PlaNYC."
Sadik-Khan's first day on the job is May 14th.
Bookending his much-vaunted Earth Day speech with congratulatory video clips from California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Mayor Mike Bloomberg called for New Yorkers to take the initiative in the international fight against global warming, positioning himself as a leader on the issue.
"Climate change is a national challenge, and meeting it requires strong and united national leadership," the mayor said to an appreciative invited audience at the American Museum of Natural History. "The fact is, the emerging consensus among scientists is that, to avoid serious harm, we must reduce our emissions by 60 to 80 percent by 2050. That means we can't -- and we won't -- wait for Washington. The time to act is now."
Bloomberg set forth some particulars of an ambitious agenda -- dubbed PlaNYC, and first floated at a speech he gave last December -- for remaking the city's infrastructure in order to prepare for a city with 1 million more inhabitants by the year 2030. Many of the initiatives he announced were aimed at reducing New York's output of greenhouse gases 30 percent by 2030, creating "the first environmentally sustainable city of the 21st century." The mayor got a big round of applause when he said, "The science [on climate change] is there. It's time to stop debating it and to start dealing with it."
Bloomberg's wide-ranging speech covered everything from affordable housing to cleaner power plants to refurbished parks to cleanup of brownfields. And as expected, a plan for cars to pay to enter Manhattan was a key part of the mayor's wish list. "As long as we're at the Museum of Natural History, let's talk about the elephant in the room: congestion pricing," said the mayor, getting a good laugh.
Here are the basics on the mayor's congestion-pricing plan:
Bloomberg, in anticipation of criticism that has already begun, rolled out a lengthy defense of the idea, mentioning equity -- in effect, congestion pricing would level the charge for entering Manhattan, regardless of which crossing is used -- along with economic and health benefits.
"As the city continues to grow," the mayor said, "the costs of congestion -- to our health, to our environment, and to our economy -- are only going to get worse. The question is not whether we want to pay but how do we want to pay. With an increased asthma rate? With more greenhouse gases? Wasted time? Lost business? And higher prices? Or, do we charge a modest fee to encourage more people to take mass transit?
"I've thought about this question a lot. And I understand the hesitation about charging a fee. I was a skeptic myself. But I looked at the facts, and that's what I'm asking New Yorkers to do. And the fact is in cities like London and Singapore, fees succeeded in reducing congestion and improving air quality. Many people are already paying to drive into Manhattan -- there are tolls on most bridges and the four tunnels. But to avoid those tolls, many people drive through neighborhood streets. That not only clogs the streets, it increases air pollution -- and asthma rates."
WABC's John Gambling spoke with Michael Bloomberg this morning. In anticipation of the Mayor's Earth Day speech, they discussed everything from congestion charging to light bulbs. Below are some highlights from their conversation; you can download to the entire show here.
On congestion pricing:On Plan NYC:If you were to charge, and I'll let you know on Sunday at 12:30, you would take the money and invest it in mass transit. We have to do a much better job of providing mass transit to parts of the city that never invested in it in the past and now we are paying for it.
If you were to design the ultimate system, you would have mass transit be free and charge an enormous amount for cars.
On global warming and energy:A book lays out 127 different things we think we should do and the cost of every one of them, and the benefit. A handful will not be very controversial and a handful will be very controversial, most will be sort of in the middle.
We have problems right now. Asthma and congestion cost everybody a fortune because the traffic is so bad, and if you think it's bad now it's going to get worse.
People argue about global warming. I can't tell you how fast the oceans will rise, whether they'll rise. I can just tell you a handful of things: dirty air isn't good for you to breathe and we aren't doing our environment any good by dumping all this crap into the air.
You want to solve the energy crisis in this country, you've got to either raise gasoline taxes or force manufacturers to make more fuel-efficient cars. That's the biggest thing you could do.
The once traffic-filled street between Trafalgar Square and the National Gallery is now a thriving plaza.
Climate change is a greater threat to London than terrorism, one of the city's top planners said yesterday.
Debbie McMullen (right), a one-time New Yorker who heads implementation of the "London Plan," made this matter-of-fact announcement at a Tuesday evening forum, sponsored by the Forum for Urban Design and the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, and held at the Center for Architecture in the East Village. As New York awaits the unveiling of Mayor Bloomberg's PlaNYC 2030, McMullen outlined the "spatial development strategy" that London Mayor Ken Livingstone has spearheaded during his seven years in office.
Like PlaNYC, the London Plan, published in 2004, is designed to help mitigate the environmental impacts of a predicted one million new residents in the coming decades. Backed by the power of the Greater London Authority (GLA) -- a city-wide governmental structure established in 2000 -- the London Plan integrates sustainable development practices with innovative social and economic policies.
As London becomes "younger, more female and less white," said McMullen, the city wants to build 305,000 new housing units over the next 10 years, spread throughout its 32 boroughs. The London Plan calls for 50 percent of those units to be priced for low- and moderate-income citizens. New construction standards cover insulation requirements, building orientation (to make the most of solar power potential), green (or "living") roofs, and renewable on-site energy.
To reduce CO2 from vehicle emissions -- in addition to congestion charging, which McMullen said has reduced car trips by 50,000 per day -- the London Plan prescribes that scattered "town centres" in the boroughs be linked by public transport routes radiating from the city core, along with other light rail and tram service. The city's canals are to be relied upon for ferrying more freight and waste, reducing truck traffic on the streets.
The plan is aimed at nothing less than making London a "zero emission city," said McMullen, with CO2 reduction targets of 30 percent by 2025, and 60 percent by 2050.
A few weeks ago I attended the first of the Community Leader meetings for the PlanNYC 2030 Sustainability initiative. I thought Streetsblog readers might be interested in some reflections on this from a neighborhood environmentalist perspective.
All and all, I'm extremely happy that this initiative is moving forward and the city is starting to take a long term outlook and prioritize environmental sustainability. But there are some areas of concern on my part that I thought you would be interested to hear.
Jeffery Kay, the NYC Director of Operations, gave a 30 minute presentation by using mostly the same slides as the Mayor used last year out in Queens. As far as I can tell, there is not much new information, except some stuff that I got out of the Q&A. The point of the meeting was to somehow motivate "Community Leaders" to have meetings about the 10 goals within their own organizations and give them feedback. But aside from the current glossy spread, they provided no additional resources (despite some great background presentations tucked away on their website), background information or kits or anything that would help facilitate that or provide a neighborhood or block association with anything tangible. This was a real lost opportunity in my opinion, especially when they had gone to such lengths to just have just "community leaders" attend this event. They need to really engage and have hands-on discussions, tangible options for people to consider with regard to land use, transportation, street design, etc with community groups about building sustainable neighborhoods.
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