John Hennessy III,
P.E.
REGIONAL PLAN ASSOCIATION (RPA) The following is an excerpt of The Fourth Regional Plan: Making the Region Work for All of Us Most of the public institutions that govern the region were established in a different era. Because of this legacy, the region’s 782 municipalities are responsible for critical decisions about land use, property taxes, […]
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If the Regional Plan of New York and Its Environs, from 1922, was about realizing that New York City was part of a larger regional economy and natural ecosystem; if the Second Regional Plan of 1968 was about trying to concentrate unconstrained sprawl into a constellation of regional cities; and if the Third Regional Plan of 1996 was about reinvesting in the infrastructure systems of the region to reassert our prominence on the national and international stage—then the lesson we learned from four years of data analysis and public engagement is that the Fourth Regional Plan is about creating and recreating our public institutions, and shaping them to make positive change happen.
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Without new affordable homes and walkable neighborhoods, housing markets tighten and costs rise, leading to less disposable income, longer commutes, the need to work longer hours, more stress, and poorer health for the region’s households. This disparity falls most heavily on the region’s lower-income households who, as referenced in RPA’s report Pushed Out, have seen housing costs rise unabated and continue to get pushed further away from central, walkable areas with access to jobs2. But it affects others as well – young families, seniors and anyone who needs affordable housing and doesn’t want to or can’t spend hours a day behind the wheel.
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Part of the new, state-of-the-art bridge replacing the aging Tappan Zee over New York’s Hudson River opens Friday. Norah O’Donnell climbed to the top of the Gov. Mario M. Cuomo Bridge with New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo to find out what it took to get the bridge built on time and on budget in four years.
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Each day over 1.6 million people commute into Manhattan, the 21st century’s leading global city. For the last 25 years, more and more of those people have been coming from west of the Hudson River. Over that time, the number of jobs in Manhattan has only increased by about 75,000, and the number of daily commuters traveling from New Jersey grew by 70,000, from 250,000 to 320,000…As a result, rail trips in and out of Penn Station have nearly tripled in the last 25 years, bus trips have grown by 83%, and PATH ridership is up by 27%. RPA’s research projects that this trend will continue over the next two decades, requiring far more capacity than the existing facilities can provide. Work trips to Manhattan could increase by 72,000, or 24%, by 2040, while trips to all of New York City could increase by 148,000, a 38% increase, as job growth in the other New York City boroughs rises even faster.
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The coal industry has been in decline for nearly a century. That’s good news, since it means less carbon and pollution. But there’s a catch: It can also means fewer jobs and tax revenue for coal communities…But, wait. There is a way to make moving on from coal a win-win proposition. Watch our video to see what happens when labor, environmental, and community groups come together to forge a path forward.
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As the findings make clear, when New Yorkers are left stranded on the subway platform or stuck in a tunnel, they are missing classes and job interviews and doctor’s appointments. They are running late to pick up or drop off their children or care for elderly relatives. They are losing wages and putting their jobs in jeopardy. In short, when subway performance declines, so too does the health, financial security, and quality of life of everyday New Yorkers.
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Innovative upgrades helped double this waste water plant’s wet-weather processing capacity to 720 million gallons per day, while increasing sediment and grit removal to 92 percent and reducing odor. To reduce discharges into the East River, the project team utilized advanced 4D modeling technology to deliver four new treatment components— totaling $1.3 billion—and inspected the interiors of eight, 140-foot-high egg-shaped anaerobic digesters that sit atop the plant. They also implemented a biogas program that is expected to heat nearly 5,200 homes and reduce annual greenhouse gas emissions by more than 90,000 metric tons by the end of this year.
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“Interesting fact: two thirds of the people that used to travel between Washington and New York used to travel by the shuttle, by air, and a third by rail; and now the numbers are reversed: it’s two thirds by Amtrak or other regional rail and a third by air, and I think that speaks to the resurgence in rail. And I think also increasing numbers of travelers are interested in being responsible commuters, whether it’s a trip across the Hudson or a trip to Washington, and I think that influences their choice of commute and travel as well.”
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A short movie about Broadway in Saratoga Springs and how bike lanes can be added to greatly provide a safe and less stressful space for bike riders.
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