Why does NYLCVEF host forums and not debates? Let our senior vice president, Josh Klainberg, explain: There are a lot of debates that happen out there and as watchers of debates style trumps substance and you kind of lose what the issues are all about.
That’s why the candidates for Southold Town Supervisor took turns answering questions from the audience and moderator last night at the Knights of Columbus Hall in Cutchogue — so they could really get down to the issues. The candidates, incumbentScott Russell and challengerDamon Rallis tackled complicated issues like wastewater treatment, water quality, and natural resource protection in front of the packed crowd.
Our co-host for the evening was the North Fork Environmental Council and their president, Bill Toedter, moderated the discussion. “We think it’s very important to compare apples to apples about what people are saying about these issues and for you to come away with your own conclusions,” Toedter said whenaddressing the audience.
Learn more about the event in theEast End Beacon and make sure you’reregistered to vote so your voice will be heard on Election Day on November 3rd.
Members of theEast Hampton Environmental Coalition joined residents at the Amagansett Free Library last Saturday to hear from the candidates for Town Board about where they stand on the environment. The room was almost filled to capacity, clearly highlighting how important the environment is in this election.
Democratic candidates Supervisor Larry Cantwell, Board Members Sylvia Overby and Peter Van Scoyoc and Republican Candidates Thomas Knobel, Margaret Turner, answered almost 20 questions about climate adaptation, septic and wastewater issues, aquifer protection, estuaries, clean energy, dark skies, and quiet skies.
These forums allow the public to learn more about their elected officials and candidates running for office. Thank you to the EHEC who co-sponsored the event and the candidates for participating.
Election Day is just around the corner, make sure to check ourCitizen’s Toolkit to learn about registering to vote so your voice will be heard this November.
Last night, environmentalists in Schenectady packed the house to ask the candidates for mayor their position on a variety of environmental issues. Mayor Gary McCarthy and candidate Roger Hull touched on everything from recycling to biking to LED lighting at Proctors Theater.
Check out the opening statements from both candidates in our YouTube videos, below:
The event garnered lots of local media attention. Read some of the questions submitted by the audience and the candidate’s responses:
Thank you to our partner organizations the Sierra Club Hudson Mohawk Group, Mohawk Hudson Land Conservancy, Friends of the Woodlawn Preserve, and Environmental Clearinghouse of Schenectady.
Voters in Schenectady will go to the polls to decide their next mayor on November 3rd.Register to vote in your town if you haven’t already!
Throughout the fall of 2014, NYLCVEF brought together experts from different industries to discuss three big ways New York City can mitigate flooding, improve green space, and reduce waste. Our Dig Deep for a Greener New York policy forum series focused on Green Infrastructure, Funding an Equitable Park System, and Organic Waste and Composting.
On October 9th, we kicked off the series with our forum onGreen Infrastructure. Our panelists from a variety of government agencies and nonprofits discussed how the city can manage combined sewer overflows (CSOs), and use green infrastructure to mitigate flooding. New York City’s outdated infrastructure could benefit greatly from expanding green infrastructure and using it as a climate resiliency tool.
Our second forum took place on November 6th and focused onFunding an Equitable Park System. In order to provide a fully-funded city park system the city will have to dramatically expand annual operating costs. Where will the money come from? Our panel provided great ideas on different funding streams to make sure every New Yorker has access to a safe and updated park.
Our third and final forum focused onOrganic Waste and Composting. PlaNYC2030 set out an ambitious goal to divert 75 percent of our solid waste from landfills. With food making up 35 percent of all waste generated in New York City, composting represents a huge opportunity. More than 100 people showed up for this forum, where some new and exciting ideas were presented about how to make composting work in our city. WNYC wrote agreat article about the ideas presented by Councilmember Antonio Reynoso, and you can read more in ourwhite paper and recommendationsfor the City. Don’t forget to check out the packed house on ourFacebook page.
On October 9th, we kicked off ourDig Deep for a Greener New York policy forum series with our forum onGreen Infrastructure. Our panelists from a variety of government agencies and nonprofits discussed how the city can manage combined sewer overflows (CSOs), and use green infrastructure to mitigate flooding. New York City’s outdated infrastructure could benefit greatly from expanding green infrastructure and using it as a climate resiliency tool.
Learn more about the event by reading our white paper.
After the forum, NYLCVEF got to work putting the great ideas discussed together into our paper, “Green Infrastructure Recommendations for New York City.” The paper aims to help DEP and other agencies build on the positive steps they have already taken. The recommendations argue that New York City can and should be doing much more to significantly expand its green infrastructure program.
Growing the program throughout the five boroughs will not only improve our harbor’s water quality, but it will also reap critical environmental benefits such as climate and flood mitigation, a reduction of the urban heat island effect, and improved air quality.
“Given the frequency of extreme weather events and the on-going investments made to increase the city’s resiliency post Hurricane Sandy, there’s great potential for green infrastructure to help achieve many goals: improved water and air quality, flood mitigation, open space enhancement, and increased resiliency,” said Marcia Bystryn, President of NYLCVEF. “New York City can aim much higher. It’s time to build on the success of DEP’s pilot and maximize the potential of green infrastructure technologies citywide.”
Our third and final forum in our Dig Deep for a Greener New York policy forum series, focused on Organic Waste and Composting. Our panelists from a variety of organizations discussed different ways the city can make the most of composting and alternative methods on how to divert food waste from landfills.
After the forum, we got to work with the panelists and other experts to suggest concrete steps the city can take to make sure New York City is doing everything it can to make composting efficient and environmentally worthwhile. Today, we’re excited to announce the release of our paper highlighting our recommendations the city can act on.Download the whole report to get all the details.
Our key recommendations include:
Maximizing the use of anaerobic-digestion capacity at NYC DEP’s wastewater treatment plants.
Assessing the capacity of the city’s wastewater treatment system to expand on Newtown Creek.
Launching a pilot project to create exclusive franchise zones for commercial organic waste, giving new plants a long term supply commitment.
Considering measures to encourage the use of in-sink organic material grinders in appropriately targeted multi-family districts.
Establishing a “Save-As-You-Throw” system, which would provide an economic incentive for generating less waste, recycling more, and participating in community-based, centralized, or “in-sink” organics programs.
“Diverting organic waste is the key to achieving the City’s landfill reduction goals,” said Marcia Bystryn, President of the New York League of Conservation Voters Education Fund. “But it must resolve the severe need for more of processing capacity before further expanding organic waste collection.”
PlaNYC2030 set out an ambitious goal to divert 75 percent of our solid waste from landfills. With food making up 35 percent of all waste generated in New York City, composting represents a huge opportunity. More than 100 people showed up for this forum, where some new and exciting ideas were presented about how to make composting work in our city.
WNYC wrote agreat article about the ideas presented by Councilmember Antonio Reynoso at our forum, and you can read more in ourwhite paper. Don’t forget to check out the packed house on ourFacebook page.
In order to provide a fully-funded city park system the city will have to dramatically expand annual operating costs. Where will the money come from? Our panel provided great ideas on different funding streams to make sure parks across the entire city are safe and up to date.
Check out pictures from the packed room on our Facebook page.
After the forum, NYLCVEF worked closely with New Yorkers for Parks and analyzed the recently laid out New York City budget to present recommendations. Our report, Funding an Equitable Park System: Recommendations for New York City lays out concrete steps the City can take to help bring in new revenue for our park system.
Our key recommendations include:
The City should expand concessions in parks and divert 20% of revenues to a citywide parks equity fund rather than the general fund.
The City should create specific districts to fund new park developments and/or improve existing parks, including the creation of Business Improvement Districts and Park Improvement Districts.
The City should use tax increment finance, zoning incentives and development bonuses to leverage private dollars to fund the capital and maintenance needs of local parks.
NYC Parks should identify a specific method to fund the maintenance and operations of new parks and facilities at the time that the project capital budgets are developed.
Create a citywide park district, an entity that can levy property taxes to supplement the general fund budget with additional maintenance and operations funding.
“New York City has the premier parks system in the country but we’re lagging behind when it comes to how we fund our prized open spaces,” said Marcia Bystryn, President of NYLCVEF. “We look forward to working with the City to implement alternative funding strategies to help achieve a robustly-funded, well-maintained parks system that more equitably allocates resources.”
Excess levels of nitrogen plaguing Long Island waterways has resulted in several mass fish kills, shellfish losses, harmful algal blooms, wetlands destruction, and more. Earlier this week, NYLCVEF hosted a forum at Stony Brook University to discuss this issue that has been over 45 years in the making. Scientists, politicians, and environmentalists gathered to explore and tackle the two main challenges of this nitrogen crisis: technology and finances.
Panelists Walter Dawydiak of the Suffolk County Department of Health Services, Amanda Ludlow of Roux Associates, Theresa McGovern of VHB, and Professor Harold Walker of Stony Brook University identified poorly treated septic system waste as the main culprit of the nitrogen crisis. Approximately 70% of wastewater systems in Suffolk County rely on septic systems or cesspools that leach wastewater containing high levels of nitrate into the ground, or remain unsewered, which means that on-site treatment is not meeting clean water requirements.
The problem of leaching is technologically difficult and expensive to fix, which led the panelists to explore the technical aspects of new sewage systems. The panelists discussed the implementation of advanced septic systems throughout the county as a pilot project. The main problem of these upgrades is the cost – as much as $30,000 for an individual homeowner. Walker estimated the cost of installing on-site upgraded septic systems throughout the county at $6 billion. He stated a need for better technology that is more effective, more reliable, and more affordable.
Southampton Town Supervisor Anna Throne-Holst, President of Jove Equity Partners and co-chair of Suffolk Planning Board David Calone, and Director of Sustainability and Chief Recovery Officer for Suffolk County Dorian Dale confronted the issue of funding to implement these upgraded systems in the second panel session. Some of the financial options include doubling the county’s water quality sales tax, extending the Peconic Bay Region Community Preservation Fund money to be used for water-quality related projects, bonding, and tax-increment financing. The panelists believe that solving this water quality problem could end up financially benefiting the county and stressed that Long Island has the opportunity to become a front-runner in clean water planning.
This forum was only the beginning, we look forward to continuing our work on Long Island to find potential solutions to this critical water issue.
Click here to download the background paper prepared in advance of this event.
Thanks to Roux Associates for their generous support of this event.
Residents in the Hudson Valley’s Congressional District 18 know there are a lot of environmental issues facing their communities. That’s why it’s important to know where the congressional candidates hoping to represent District 18 stand on environmental issues like clean energy and natural resource protection.
Candidates Nan Hayworth and U.S. Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney gave their opinions on these important issues and more on Tuesday, October 14th at Bedford Historical Society’s Historical Hall (608 Old Post Road, Bedford).
The event featured lively discussion from the packed house. You can watch the whole debate in the video above.
The two spoke at a candidate forum sponsored by NYLCVEF — marking the second occasion on which the two have come together for such an event to discussion environmental issues. The last time these candidates met for a similar NYLCVEF environmental forum was in October 2012.
The two candidates laid out their sustainability records and took questions from the audience and a panel of environmental experts, including representatives from Scenic Hudson, Riverkeeper, the Daily Voice and the Pace Energy and Climate Center.
Issues called into question included the expansion of the Algonquin Pipeline, the closing of Indian Point and government response to the impact of hurricanes Sandy and Irene. The two candidates’ stances differed on many of these issues. Maloney opposes the expansion of the pipeline, while Hayworth supports the expansion. Maloney favors the shutting down of Indian Point, and Hayworth believes that keeping the power plant open is the better alternative to the larger carbon footprint of a natural gas plant.
As a nonprofit, nonpartisan and educational organization, the NYLCV Education Fund does not make endorsements in political races. Our goal with this forum was to educate Hudson Valley residents about environmental issues and elevate the public dialogue around sustainability.
Thanks to all of our partner organizations, as well as our media partners at WAMC Radio and the Daily Voice for making the forum a success.
