Click here for slideshow.

We’ve covered the controversial U.S. Concrete plant opening along Red Hook, Brooklyn’s scenic waterfront a couple of times before, but it’s better described with photos.  For some background, click here.  Click the photo to your left or here to see the photo slideshow.

On Earth Day, April 22, 2010, PlaNYC turned three. Mayor Michael Bloomberg celebrated the birthday of his wide-sweeping plan to reduce carbon emissions by 2030 with festivities in Times Square. Pepsi was there to show off its new recycling machines. Office Depot made an appearance to display its double-flush toilets and hand out gift bags. We stopped in at two of the more PlaNYC-related booths: the Parks’ Department table to talk about the MillionTrees NYC initiative, and the booth for Transportation Alternatives, an advocacy group that promotes low-impact modes of getting around town.

We brought back the following reports for you, which touch on some of the more successful elements of PlaNYC, and some that might need improvement. Continue Reading

U.S. Concrete finally opened its Red Hook plant on March 15. Looming largely next to Ikea, it is operating below capacity due to economic constraints, according to a recent NY Post article.

Residents are worried about the plant’s effects on Added Value (the community farm across the street), nearby sports fields, food vendors, and the scenic waterfront, which draws tourists from across the city. Although the plant is not in full operation yet, people expect its 30 to 40 concrete-mixing trucks and dust to damage the air and be hard on the cobblestone streets.

“The farm (Added Value) is literally across the street from Red Hook Park, and I like to play handball there or run track,” said Narcisco Rosado, a 16-year-old resident who volunteers at Added Value. “How am I going to be able to do that if you know, you need to breathe, and I’m breathing in that dust? It’s not very healthy for me and that’s going to affect my health. And it’s not just my health, it’s everyone’s health, everyone who goes here.”

For now, residents must wait for the plant to be in full operation before they find out how much it will affect their beloved neighborhood.

See our previous post for more detail on the plant.

For a while, community farms around the city have been gaining popularity – there are now about 600. And especially over the past year, there’s a growing trend: farms are moving to NYC rooftops in most of the boroughs.

Earlier this decade, Chris and Lisa Goode grew a small farm on top of their building in Little Italy (see NYMag article), and eventually made a business in rooftop architecture around the city.

One farm the Goodes helped develop is Rooftop Farms in Greenpoint opened in 2009, a 6,000 square foot urban farm on the roof of an industrial building.  They used a crane to put the soil on the roof, and now grow a variety of vegetables and even have an apiary.  Read this article from the “Not Eating Out in New York” blog about it.

Roberta’s Pizza in Bushwick, Brooklyn, also boasts rooftop greenhouses and a small farm nearby, where they grow their own produce for their restaurant.

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Many New York City Greenmarkets are certified organic. However, all the city’s Greenmarkets are interested in keeping water, soil and air free of pollutants. The city’s water supply is derived from reservoirs northwest of the city, where farms aid in protecting our water. Over a dozen Greenmarket farms are in NYC’s Watershed. It is also more energy efficient to buy from a Greenmarket. According to GrowNYC transporting food long distances uses a great amount of energy. It takes 435 fossil-fuel calories to fly a 5 calorie strawberry from California to New York. Fossil fuels wreak havoc on the environment by contributing to global warming, acid rain and smog. Local foods travel short distances and therefore uses less energy.

Below is a list of Greenmarkets located throughout New York City.

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Whew, it’s been a busy few weeks in environmental news in New York City — and most of it looks ahead.

Instead of following the mayor’s plan for cleaning up the site, the EPA has designated the Gowanus Canal as a Superfund site (ExplainThePlan will be live-blogging an EPA meeting tomorrow night). Affordable housing will mostly be preserved, not built, and will be a continuing effort of private and public partnerships. Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer is pushing for including food production in PlaNYC 2030.

In the spirit of updating the City’s environmental landscape, we caught up with Dan Hendricks from the New York League of Conservation Voters about the next phase of PlaNYC 2030 (check back on Monday for more). An updated set of priorities is scheduled for 2011: “The PlaNYC is required to be updated every four years, so this really creates a great opportunity for us to think about what needs to be added and what needs to be changed,” he said.

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MillionTreesNYC is part of the city’s PlaNYC initiative to plant and care for one million trees during the next ten years. Launched in 2007, it hopes to increase the city’s urban forest by 20 percent. The city will plant 60 percent of trees in parks and city spaces, while the other 40 percent will be planted by private organizations and communities. So far 315, 678 trees have been planted.

Below is a break down of the estimated number of trees, to be planted in the city.

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Savvy New Yorkers have always made use of a profitable pairing–the cab share. But it looks that NYC’s ubiquitous yellow taxis plan to take a page from the Dollar Vans’ M.O. The Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC) will begin a pilot project this Friday that offers serious discounts ($3 to $4 per ride) to those willing to ride with strangers, according to the Post and Gothamist. The rideshares will run during rush hours (6am–10pm) from designated spots in mid-Manhattan.

You will be able to catch these cabs areas including:

• West 57th Street and Eighth Avenue, with drop-offs on Park Avenue between 57th and 42nd Streets
• West 72nd Street and Columbus Avenue, with drop-offs on Park Avenue from 72nd Street to 42nd Street
• East 72nd Street and Third Avenue, with drop-offs on Park Avenue from 72nd Street to 42nd Street.

PlaNYC always hoped to lower emissions from the City’s taxis by reducing idling, encouraging regular servicing and increasing the number of fuel-efficient vehicles. This new sharing-is-caring tactic, however, is new. It may also be another way in which the recession and budgetary issues could alter the City’s approach to grappling with sustainability.

Belt tightening, eco-friendly or too close for comfort? Let us know…

*Image Taxi in the Streets of New York City courtesy of Caulfield under Creative Commons Licensing.

Hello. It’s Friday. Yes it is.

Here’s what’s happening around town and abroad on the enviro-policy front:

*PlaNYC should be widened to encompass food production and distribution, remaking the city’s approach to how we shop, eat and trash our meals. That’s the argument Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer made this in a report this week that grew from the NYC Food & Climate Summit held in December. Read more at Crain’s.

*Faked emissions tests let nearly 21,000 smoggy vehicles back on streets in and around New York City, the Times reported. A suspected 3,500 inspection sites may have fudged their figures.

*Encouraging home-ownership was a key initiative when PlaNYC was unveiled on Earth Day in 2007. But the Great Recession has changed the landscape. Despite continual drops in prices, many affordable housing units are not selling, the New York Times reported , in part because potential owners cannot get loans.

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*Wired posted a great piece on the future of electric cars as discussed at a panel, “The Road to Widespread Adoption of Electric Vehicles”, at the New York Academy of Sciences this week. After the January release of the City’s report on adopting electric vehicles in NYC, the panel’s findings are particularly interesting:

“The people of New York appear ready to embrace the electric era… But the city doesn’t seem particularly interested in making the changes needed to adopt the infrastructure before EVs start selling in considerable numbers.”

Read the Wired account – which includes a look at electric vehicles in other cities nationwide – here.

*In the Queens neighborhoods of Warnerville and Meadowmere, 90 homes now have for the first time access to the City’s sewer system. Raw, untreated sewage was previously being pumped directly into Jamaica Bay, NY1 reports. The project cost $37 million.

*Meanwhile, in Brooklyn, a Community Board meeting connected residents of CD7 to trees. The Brooklyn Eagle reports that residents can request a tree through 311 or through community board liaisons. The project is PlaNYC 2030′s MillionTreesNYC, which aims to create more parkland in the five boroughs.