The Environment

The importance of thinking globally and acting locally has never been more apparent. New York City and each of our communities must help lead the way on climate change, and toward a more sustainable way of living. At the community level, creating new parks and greenways, supporting the cause of environmental justice, promoting better transit and alternative modes of transportation, and greening our homes and businesses are just some of the ways we can help make New York one of the most sustainable cities in the world.

Hurricane Joaquin – what you need to know to be prepared

Posted on October 2, 2015

As you know, there’s a chance that Hurricane Joaquin is headed our way. We don’t know its exact path, and hopefully it will head out into the Atlantic, rather than make landfall, as the most likely current forecasts predict (you can stay up-to-date via the National Weather Service, and the NYC Office of Emergency Management).

But since there is a real chance that the storm could hit near NYC, we should be ready. If the storm does hit, it would likely be Monday or Tuesday, so please use the weekend to make sure you’re prepared: Read more »

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Whose visions for Gowanus? Come take a look.

Posted on September 16, 2015

You may have seen the recent New Yorker cover on Gowanus, in which artist Adrian Tomine makes fun of “people eating their organic kale and quinoa salads while gazing across the opaque, fetid water.” It’s a funny cover, and it’s good to be able to laugh at ourselves (and our neighbors). And there are certainly many ironic contradictions around the Gowanus Canal these days.   

But the issues we face in Gowanus are serious ones: How do we confront the legacy of industrial pollution, and the challenges of climate change and resiliency? How can we create inclusive neighborhoods – with room for working- and middle-class families, for public housing, for artists, for manufacturing – amidst skyrocketing real estate values? What’s the right balance of housing and jobs? Can we preserve, (or even strengthen) the mixed-use, eclectic, creative character of the neighborhood amidst change? Read more »

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Your Neighborhood Needs You!

Posted on September 10, 2015

Our 5th year of Participatory Budgeting NYC (PBNYC) is about to kick off, and we need your help! 

The PBNYC process gives New Yorkers the power to decide how to spend tax dollars in our neighborhoods. If you’re not familiar with PBNYC, here’s how it works: Read more »

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Following up from the Climate Change Town Hall

Posted on July 29, 2015

Thanks to many of you for attending last week’s Town Hall Meeting on Climate Change. We had a great room, full of engaged community residents, who came eager to work together on the steps NYC must take to confront one of the great challenges of our generation.

As we heard, the problems we face are daunting. New data from the NOAA shows that the global warming trend continues, with May, March, and June of 2015 all breaking previous records. Leading climate scientist James Hansen and a team of experts have put out a new study (not yet peer-reviewed, but still alarming) that resulting multi-meter sea-level rise could come much faster than previously thought.

The good news is that the scale of response – by global activists (like the 350,000 of us who took part in the People’s Climate March last fall), in public policy, and now even from Pope Francis –  is growing as well. Hopefully, and with all of our help, it will become commensurate with the challenge we face.  Here are some steps you can use to stay connected and continue to take action. Read more »

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Earth Day 2015: Toward a more sustainable NYC

Posted on April 22, 2015

This Earth Day, I’m relieved that spring is finally here, after such a long and harsh winter.

But even as the weather lifts our spirits, we urgently need the reminder – the inconvenient truth – of the enormous work we must do to confront climate change if we want to have a safe planet to hand over to our children and grandchildren. The evidence is ever-more incontrovertible.   

Today, New York City took some strong steps in the right direction. I’m enthusiastic about Mayor de Blasio’s announcement of the City’s new One NYC Plan for a sustainable and resilient city, and one that works for all New Yorkers. Income inequality and climate change are the twin crises of our generation – so it is smart, urgent, and morally compelling to fight them together. Read more »

Dark days, and brighter ones

Posted on December 30, 2014

The waning days of 2014 have been dark ones for New York City. The killing of Detectives Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu made real the worst imaginable fears for those who put their safety on the line to serve our communities. Reactions to their murders highlighted tensions among New Yorkers – around how we understand the challenges of public safety and policing – and have risked setting us against ourselves.

Just a few weeks earlier, here in the 39th Council District, we lost 14-year-old Mohammad Naiem Uddin in a traffic crash that reminded us that our efforts to improve traffic safety and reduce speeding have not yet done enough.

Still, as the year turns, I remain truly grateful for what we’ve done together. Democracy can be messy, even painful. We don’t all agree on how to understand the problems, and certainly not on the solutions. But I am genuinely glad about what we’ve achieved together in New York City in 2014. While much of the rest of the country is stuck in a place of political polarization, we have moved forward in tangible ways to make lives better for many New Yorkers. Read more »

Letter to the Editor: Bagging Plastic

NY Post
08/06/2014

As co-sponsors of the City Council bill to reduce plastic-bag waste, we’d like to correct inaccuracies in “The City Council’s E. Coli Fans,” by Brad Gertsman (PostOpinion, July 31). Read more »

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Compost collection is coming to Park Slope

Posted on May 8, 2014

Big news: this month, the NYC Department of Sanitation will expand the curbside compost collection pilot program to large parts of Park Slope and Gowanus (south of Union Street from the Gowanus Canal to Prospect Park West—click here to see a map). 

Compost collection has been so popular and effective for our neighbors in Windsor Terrace (as well as on Staten Island and in the Bronx) that it is now expanding to several new neighborhoods, including Park Slope and Gowanus. Participation is totally voluntary—and easy. Composting will divert our City’s waste from landfills and save millions of dollars in taxpayer money, so I hope you will consider taking part. Read more »

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Bridging Gowanus Second Meeting Thursday

Posted on March 19, 2014

On Thursday, we are holding the second community planning meeting about the future of Gowanus. The meeting is Thursday, March 20 from 6:00 to 9:00 pm in the Wyckoff Gardens Community Center.

Last fall, I joined together with Congresswoman Nydia Velázquez, State Senator Velmanette Montgomery, Assemblywoman Joan Millman, and Council Member Stephen Levin to announce Bridging Gowanus, an inclusive community-driven planning process to develop a long-term vision for a safe, vibrant, and sustainable Gowanus.

Bridging Gowanus is an effort to bring together a wide range of community members to identify broadly-shared goals, discuss different viewpoints, and build consensus around a neighborhood framework for the infrastructure and land use regulations needed in the Gowanus Canal area. Read more »

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