By Josh Rogers

Any green activist worth his weight in flowers has spent hours reading environmental impact statements (EIS). Even though the reports are typically prepared by agencies anxious to start work, they still have info that may derail or kill a project.

Some might even pity the applicant who leaves something out. Westway, the grand plan to develop the West Side on top of Hudson River landfill, was delayed fatally two decades ago because officials did not consider its effect on striped bass.
A traffic engineer I know who has prepared many environmental statements for the city and who has attacked others for neighborhood activists once told me that he could find holes in any EIS—including those he wrote.

The voluminous reports attempt to look at every possible effect of a project on the environment except one: What is the impact of printing environmental impact statements?

The final EIS for the Second Avenue Subway project is three volumes long and five and a half inches high when stacked up. Prior to the final report, there were draft versions, scoping documents and revisions to previous reports that were dutifully sent to community board offices, libraries, affected government agencies and others.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority sent out 400 copies of the final report and kept 100, said agency spokesperson Kevin Ortiz, who quite aptly calls it “one of the biggest public works project in the world.” He said putting reports online has lessened the demand for paper versions, which may mean that in the future, the MTA will take a softer line on printing so many hard copies.

Some of the previous reports are still in the Community Board 8 office, but the subway project is not even close to being the biggest one in terms of report size. That honor goes to the proposed East River waste transfer station near 91st Street. The bound volumes consume over 30 inches on one of the board’s bookcases.

“They haven’t sent anything for a year. I think they’re done,” said Latha Thompson, the board’s district manager, with hope in her voice.

The big environmental groups generally shy away from talking about the irony of killing trees as part of an effort to protect the environment.

Public policy analyst Charles Komanoff said the tree casualties are “pretty depressing” given that “gotcha moments” in environmental statements don’t come often. The original idea behind the creation of the EIS 40 years ago was to take the politics out of decisions, but the reports fail on that count, he said.

“It’s not a panacea,” said Komanoff, who works on reducing traffic. “At the end of the day, it’s only politics.”
The statements stay in the city archives long after boards and libraries get rid of them. Thompson said she has received conflicting information on how long she should hold onto an EIS, so she has settled on 10 years. That means she’ll be getting rid of the subway statements in 2014, long before the project is fully built—assuming, of course, that the day will in fact come.

Her West Side counterpart, Penny Ryan, does not have reports as long, so she’s not worried about storage space. But still, they do seem to take on lives of their own.

“You’re welcome to come visit them,” she offered.

Josh Rogers, a contributing editor at Manhattan media, is a lifelong New Yorker. Follow him on Twitter
@JoshRogersNYC.

Hello, uptown residents of Manhattan! Manhattan Media, our parent company, announced last week that they are bringing back Our Town Downtown, a newspaper focused on all of the arts, news and culture happening below 14th Street.

The publication was last published in 2007, but has returned and will merge with the New York Press. Our Town Downtown offers a spin on the traditional newspaper and is more of a hybrid newsmagazine for Lower Manhattan. Catering to the 25- to 40-year-old set, Our Town Downtown will focus on education, real estate, arts and culture.

The first issue will launch Sept. 1 and the second issue will feature a 9/11 anniversary special section. We encourage you to take a peek. You might live uptown, but let Our Town Downtown be your guide to Lower Manhattan.
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Marissa Maier
Managing Editor, Our Town Downtown

Our Town Downtown

Now, can we please try to figure out how to solve the perennial problem of Manhattan residents and workers who find it near impossible to hail a cab from 4:30 to 6:30 each afternoon and early evening?

We’ve all experienced it. You’re off to an important meeting on the other side of town and mass transit isn’t a viable option. So you press your luck and stand out on the street with your hand up trying to get a cab. Is that a light I see in the distance on top of that cab? you think to yourself. Darn, it’s off duty. And there’s another. And another.

And so it goes.

And you’re late and stressed out after a half hour as you resignedly succumb to an exorbitant $30 black car ride. Why does it have to be this way? Can’t shift changes be staggered during the course of the day?

Of course they can.

Commissioner Yassky, Mayor Bloomberg, are you listening?

That is the case with the recent non-story in the New York Post about Queens Congressman Joe Crowley’s decision to have his wife and three young children live with him in Washington, D.C, rather than his home district.

“Having them where I am during the workweek allows me to be there to tuck them in at night and help with homework,” Crowley told the Post, which seems to be trying to turn a virtue into a vice here.

An elected leader doing his job in Congress by representing his district well during the day, and then going home to be with his wife and kids at night is a problem? What planet is Diaz and the Post living on?

Isn’t this the newspaper that feasted on another Queens-Brooklyn Congressman’s sexting infidelities? Isn’t Diaz the same self-righteous man who claims to want to protect the institution of marriage?

We say “three cheers” for Rep. Crowley for getting his priorities straight and pointing the way not just for all politicians but, moreover, all working fathers. Being home to help with homework and tucking your kids in is job number one, whether you are a congressman or a businessman or a waiter.

Don’t attack Rep. Joe Crowley. He should instead be named “Father of the Year,” especially in a profession where the men have not exhibited much family-minded behavior in recent years.

Late last year, the words “dysfunction” and “Albany” were so often intertwined, we thought they were a compound noun.

But now, after the dramatic end of the legislative session and the “Marriage Equality” victory, one man has changed our view of state government.

Andrew Cuomo is indeed the right man, at the right time. His whole career—actually his whole life—prepared him for this moment, when he almost single-handedly broke down another civil rights barrier that could end up being a tipping point in the treatment of gay people in America.

His ability to gain passage of the “Marriage Equality Act,” which came on the heels of a tough, prudent bipartisan budget, an extension of rent control and a property tax cap, among other important legislative victories, shows us once again what decisive and hard-working leadership can accomplish.

While it may be a bit early to talk about the presidential race of 2016, it is not too early to suggest that President Barack Obama consider Andrew Cuomo as his running mate in 2012. Joe Biden will not be the next Democratic nominee for president in 2016, and thus will add nothing to a second-term ticket; Andrew Cuomo is a political star on a meteoric rise. His addition to the presidential ticket next year would bolster Obama’s chances and help ensure that Democrats would stay in the Oval Office well into 2024.

The 102-year-old matriarch lived a full and fruitful life in Massachusetts, raising a son and a daughter who have become public servants and who were, even more importantly, great children who respected and cared for their elderly mother.

Charlotte Bloomberg exhibited the same plain-spokeness and lack of pretension that have made her 69-year-old son a successful businessman and mayor. Apparently not overly impressed by her son’s immense self-created wealth, she often told him not to let “success go to your head.”

The Mayor was said to call his mom every day; this should be a lesson to all of us who let our busy lives interfere with staying in close contact with our elderly parents. If the Mayor of New York, who has more than 8 million people to care for, can still find time to call his mom each day, then we all should be able to.

Charlotte Bloomberg must have been very proud of the successes her son achieved, and lived long enough to witness his political success and even rumors of a presidential run. She lived a long life and was liked by all in her neighborhood. That’s about as good it gets in this earthly life.

By Staff

When we look back at America’s history, it is hard to believe there was a time when African-Americans were slaves and women did not have the right to vote.

When private clubs excluded Jews. When public transportation made blacks sit in the back of the bus.

When separate and unequal was the law of the land.

One day very soon, we hope, our children will look back with the same disbelief and ask: “Why did your generation treat gay people as separate and unequal? Why was their love not recognized in the same legal way that we recognize heterosexual love?”

Hopefully, we will soon have a better answer for them. “All that is true,” we will have to admit, “but in 2011 in New York State everything changed. Finally, an enlightened legislature, led by a very smart governor named Andrew Cuomo, changed this shameful treatment of gay people and passed the ‘Marriage Equality Act.’”

This is the moment that Albany can finally prove that it stands for justice and not just corruption and dysfunction.

In his short time in office, Governor Andrew Cuomo has leveraged overwhelming popularity to make necessary budget cuts and deliver an on-time budget. He brought together stakeholders in the health care industry to reform Medicaid and make some painful cuts in a collaborative way.

Now he tackles things like “Marriage Equality,” a civil rights issue that he has championed since his successful campaign for governor. All that is standing in the way of this long overdue legislation are a number of backward-thinking Republicans in the State Senate and a few misguided Dems like Rubén Díaz Sr.

The names of the men (and women) who oppose this bill risk becoming permanently on the wrong side of history, like the Senators from the South in the 1800s who clung to neanderthalic beliefs about African Americans and their second-class citizenship.

We are a nation built on the dream of equality and the pursuit of happiness. If gay couples want to marry and build families like heterosexuals have been able to do for centuries, we should roll out the red carpet for them. In a society where almost half of all marriages end in divorce, where a high percentage of children grow up in single-parent households, we should be encouraging those who want to build stable homes with the full force of the law.

We implore Governor Andrew Cuomo, State Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos, State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and all the legislators they lead, to do the right thing and restore our faith in government.

In future weeks, we’ll make the case for non-partisan redistricting and other reforms that Albany can do to make our citizens once again trust their leaders.

But for now, we make this one simple demand: vote in favor of the “Marriage Equality” bill now and correct the civil rights injustice of this generation. Senators, we will be watching your votes, and we will not forget those who stand in the way of justice in New York State.

So that is why we find it hard to believe that our political leaders in the City Council would even consider impeding Walmart’s entry into the New York market.

We already have K-Mart, Target and Costco in Manhattan, so it is specious to argue that a large chain will be a small business killer.

Furthermore, in an economy where consumers need more choice and cheaper alternatives and our local job market could use the boost provided by companies that want to do business here, we must do all we can to make our city hospitable to big companies like Walmart.

Walmart says that their polling of New Yorkers show that 71 percent of city residents want them to open stores here. That makes sense; Walmart has talked about opening stores in underserved neighborhoods and providing fresh fruit and vegetables in areas that have little of these.

Walmart’s entry into New York is a very good boost for our economy and will force local retailers to compete more efficiently. Best of all, New Yorkers who are struggling to make ends meet will be able to save money on their grocery and shopping needs.

Sounds like a no-brainer to us. The City Council should stop grandstanding on this issue and embrace Walmart’s entry into New York.

Intro 328, introduced by East Side Council Member Jessica Lappin, will allow the city to raise the license fee for an unaltered dog from $11.50 to $34, and this additional revenue will go to a city fund to implement a dog population control program.

The other piece of legislation passed, Intro 425, introduced by Queens Council Member Peter Vallone Jr., would prohibit pet owners from restraining animals outdoor for longer than three hours in a continuous 12-hour period. Law enforcement agents can levy fines of up to $500 or three months imprisonment for violators of this new law.

Chained dogs can become more aggressive due to long confinement, which also exposes them to potential injury from other animals.

We applaud City Council Speaker Quinn and her colleagues Lappin and Vallone for looking out for man’s best friend with these two new laws.

Over the past eight years, the DOE has replaced more than 90 schools across the city, many of which have doubled (if not more) the graduation rates of the schools they replaced.

We know what’s possible because we’re seeing schools in Harlem, for example, educating the same neighborhood kids as these failing schools and getting completely different results. Harlem has become a national model of how great things happen when you give families more and better options—there are district schools and charter schools doing phenomenal work and we need more of them.

At the high school level, new schools like the ones on the campuses of Martin Luther King High School, Park West High School and Seward Park High School are just a few examples of the high-performing options now available to students. And on West 84th Street, the former Brandeis High School now houses four new high schools, including the new Frank McCourt High School for Communications, which has become another great option for Manhattan (and citywide) parents.