How Will New York City Build its Sustainability?
Author: Yangxin Bai;
Lately published on Common Edge by John Massegale that New York City is failing its citizens on the environment, and Online NYC Climate Dashboard confirms that New York City is not doing enough to meet its climate goals, which are to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 80% by 2050. Climate change can result in Extreme heat, Rise of sea level, Coastal storms, Extreme Rainstorms for the city’s future.
Building Energy-Wasting Towers
Buildings account for more than a quarter of the world’s energy emissions. Steel and glass can be responsible for more than two-thirds of the emission total. Mayor Bill de Blasio declared it on earth day three years ago. ” We are going to introduce legislation to ban the classic glass and steel skyscrapers that have contributed so much to global warming.” Not only windows conduct roughly five times more heat than traditional walls, exposing glass walls in high air summer sun and winter wind increase greater need for air conditioning, high-tech glass with heat gain resistain wastes a lot of energy in manufacturing which can cause the use of supertall glass more harmful to the environment.
As designing and shaping the city’s future, we still need to be cautious working toward the goal of “One NYC 2050: Building a Strong and Fair City”. 56 Leonard Street, known as “Jenga building” located downtown Manhattan, the stacking of apartments and sliding elements recalled Le Corbusier’s Unite d’Habitation in Marseille, France. This tall, slim, luxury residential tower is listed “one of NYC’s 10 most important buildings of the past decade”, but only scored 3 out of 100 on the Energy Star rating.
Transportation emissions
Transportation makes up approximately one-third of New York’s overall emissions. 83% of emission transportation come from private vehicles. We are improving as Citi Bike and lots of protected bike lanes were developed in the past years. Mayor Eric Adams pledged 900 million dollars to tackle the city’s traffic violence crisis and deliver a safer, healthier, and greener city. “Expansion of car-free streets is a giant step towards aligning New Yorker’s experience with this fundamental truth: To save lives and our planet, streets cannot just be for cars anymore,” said Deputy Mayor for Operations Meera Joshi. “Streets for people are not designed by traffic engineers.” European cities are far ahead than American cities in making safer streets and livable streets, including cyclists and pedestrians. Paris is moving towards “The 15-minute City” while American cities are too reliant on cars.
Last month the 2022 Open Street Program expanded 156 locations covering over 300 city blocks of Car-Free Earth Day celebrations, reminding us what could be like with reducing the number of cars on the street. We are doing improvements, bringing the goal closer to Vision Zero and bike Lane Hardening, but we still need to move faster to meet our goals. Contact us now.
