From “Grist Action Guide”

“…where you put your hard-earned paycheck deserves a touch more consideration. Most major banks invest heavily in fossil fuel extraction and infrastructure — which means that if you put your cash in them, you’re enabling climate change and probably wreaking havoc on someone’s land or water.”

Credit unions are usually better options than major banks, at least in terms of energy investments.

• Profits are member-distributed across the board.
• Their investments tend to be more local and stimulate business within communities.
• By virtue of being member owned, there’s more opportunity for members to dictate the bank’s activity.

Read on to find out if your current bank is a big fossil fuel backer and what you can do to get your cash out of coal, oil, and gas – here.

“Climate Change? Follow the Money”

NYTimes By Lennox Yearwood Jr. and Bill McKibben

“..the money inside the vaults of banks like Chase is driving the climate crisis. Cutting off that flow of cash may be the single quickest step we can take to rein in the fossil fuel industry and slow the rapid warming of the earth.

JPMorgan Chase lent over $195 billion to gas and oil companies.

For comparison, Wells Fargo lent over $151 billion, Citibank lent over $129 billion and Bank of America lent over $106 billion. Since the Paris climate accord, which 195 countries agreed to in 2015, JPMorgan Chase has been the world’s largest investor in fossil fuels by a 29 percent margin…

There are few financial institutions untouched by these climate change-causing investments. Amalgamated Bank, Aspiration and Beneficial State Bank are notable exceptions. Local credit unions rarely have major investments in fossil fuels…

..It makes sense to go after the other center of power, too: the vast financial empire centered in our country. Insurance companies like Liberty Mutual and asset managers like BlackRock have also, through their investments in fossil fuels, enabled climate chaos.”

Congratulations to the Parks Department for getting these done on time and quite beautifully.

Thank you to the Manhattan Borough President and Council Member Chin and Community Board 3 for their steadfast support both financial and political.

It might be two or more weeks before they are available to the public but very glad to have the Park area back for park use hopefully by springtime.

And..eager to move forward to reclaim this building for community use for recreation equipment, community space, resiliency and emergency hub and so much more!

CAPITAL IMPROVEMENTS NEEDED:

• Return of the Stanton StoreHouse to active community use creating an engaging and safe hub for all who use the park.
• 1) Programming coordinated by University Settlement in partnership with the Stanton Bldg Task Force, community partners and residents
•  2) Indoors and outdoor activation includes programs in park stewardship, fitness, recreation, ‘green culture’ and education
•  3) Highlights:  Daytime workshops, after-school youth programs, evening community meetings and more 
• Flexibly equipped with storage for gardening and recreational equipment, emergency communications. 

All SDR Park Coalition goals here.

Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer’s Office:

The Community Boards play an important role in improving the quality of life for all New Yorkers. The purpose of each New York City Community Board is to encourage and facilitate the participation of citizens within City government within their communities, and the efficient and effective organization of agencies that deliver municipal services in local communities and boroughs.

The CB’s responsibilities according to charter – educate yourself on the actual role and responsibilities and authority of Community Boards.

 https://www1.nyc.gov/assets/cau/downloads/pdf/know_your_community_board.pdf 

Also useful guide on details of the job: https://www.manhattanbp.nyc.gov/communityboards/ 

FROM: The Lower East Side Ecology Center Petition:

To Sign Petition: HERE

“Each week, more than 3,500 households depend on LES Ecology Center’s compost program, which began on the Lower East Side in 1990 and is centered at the East River Compost Yard. We offer ten drop-off sites for food scraps, prevent hundreds of tons of organic material from entering landfill every year, and have been introducing countless New Yorkers to the benefits of composting. LES Ecology Center collects and composts these scraps at the Compost Yard, reducing truck trips to take the scraps farther away and providing additional opportunities for New Yorkers to learn the full lifecycle of composting. Local community gardens, schools, and block associations caring for street trees rely on our finished compost to help their plants thrive. The Compost Yard is at the heart of our local environment.

Now, the City is seeking a construction contract to destroy the East River Compost Yard and create a temporary lawn in its place. Not only will this cut off New Yorkers from composting and effectively kill our community compost program, but it will also be a tremendous waste of taxpayer dollars that the City is trying to hide. The plan is moving ahead without any community input and was not even publicly announced at recent community board meetings.

If you support composting, please let the City know how you feel. We demand that the Compost Yard stay operational until the 2023 reconstruction for this section of the Park actually starts. We also demand that the City engage with the LES Ecology Center to finish the design for the renovated Compost Yard as part of the ESCR.”

Contact: 

Mayor Bill de Blasio: BDeBlasio@cityhall.nyc.gov

Council Member Carlina Rivera: District2@council.nyc.gov

Parks Commissioner Mitchell Silver: 

https://www1.nyc.gov/assets/home/mail/html/maildpr.html

Department of Design and Construction Commissioner Lorraine Grillo:

https://www1.nyc.gov/site/ddc/about/contact-form.page?recipient=Lorraine%20Grillo

From Green Map System:

LESEC’s Community Compost program processes food waste from over 3,500 households each week; 150 of these drop off food waste directly at the East River Park compost yard. The plan to move the compost yard to Harlem will directly affect these households, and will uncouple the compost operation from the Ecology Center’s vitally important and very popular educational programs, which will remain on the Lower East Side. 

LESEC’s yard in East River Park raises the perceived value of composting, plus it minimizes vehicle miles traveled from drop off sites, further reducing GHGs and overheating. It produces healthy soil that will otherwise need to be procured and trucked in (generating even more VMT and GHGs). In 2019, LESEC’s finished compost augmented the soil in 20 local parks.  

To minimize disruption to this important grass-roots community organization, the compost yard must stay operational until construction for this part of the Park, slated for 2023, begins. Furthermore, the City must engage with LESEC to finish the design for the renovated compost yard as part of the ESCR construction as it will yield high quality compost and soil critical to the vitality of East River Park’s new vegetation and restoring habitat for thriving biodiversity. 

Raising public interest in composting has not been easy, especially on the Lower East Side where there are few residences with curbside collection containers. What LESEC has established is authentic community climate participation and an accessible, everyday mitigation action. Keeping it in the park has been a universal demand and accommodating LESEC is listed in your public presentations. ..public awareness of this plan occurred only recently, during the holiday season.    

Transparency, engagement and resiliency go out the window with this surprise, ill-conceived plan. True mitigation would ensure LESEC’s compost yard is supported in East River Park. ..at minimal expense, Pier 36 can provide peaceful riverside recreation and relaxation space..It’s remarkable you have not made this pier more accessible to the whole community along with the new Eco Park at Pier 35. I have had to bring this up at multiple CB3 Parks committee meetings and have discussed it with Wil Fisher of EDC, without a satisfactory response. 

Delivering food scraps to a composting site is a gateway to impact-reducing habits. It’s wrong to tell New Yorkers their mindful actions don’t matter and to make a mockery of this scientifically proven practice of reducing NYC’s solid waste crisis. In addition to making NYC’s ZERO WASTE and 80 x 50 goals less attainable, replacing the compost yard with a lawn will diminish NYC’s standing on the C40, UN 2030 Goals, Climate Emergency and all other international standards. 

I urge all the elected and appointed officials.. to stand with me and prevent this grave climate folly.

Sincerely,

Wendy Brawer

Sustainability designer, LES resident and Director, Green Map System

From Chinatown Partnership and Chinatown BID:

Save the Date: Lunar New Year 

Saturday January 25 2020

11:00 am Sara Roosevelt Park at Grand Street

From The Hort (Horticultural Society of NYC):

A Roundtable Discussion of the Plants and Pests of Sara D Roosevelt Park

Happy 2020!  REGISTER FOR THE RAT ROUNDTABLE! 

There is room for only 50 people, so register TODAY!

Date And Time

Location

Join us for lectures and a roundtable discussion of the

Plants and Pests of Sara D. Roosevelt Park

1:00pm lectures followed by panel discussion

Light refreshments provided and all participants will recieve a $2 Essex Market coupon

Learn current practices in SDR Park and hear from:

• Jamil Phillips, District 3 Park Manager, New York City Department of Parks
• Caroline Bragdon, Director of Neighborhood Interventions, Bureau of Veterinary and Pest Control Services New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene
• Pamela Ito, Director of Education, The Horticultural Society of New York

This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Youth and Community Development in partnership with New York City Council Member Margaret Chin.

“At the Lower East Side Ecology Center, an acre of land that sits between the FDR Drive and the East River, some 3,500 people drop eight tons of food scraps in a communal container every week.”

Wasted Potential: the consequences of NYC’s recycling failure

Politico: Sally Goldenberg and Danielle Muoio

“Businesses, stores and restaurants, which are part of a separate, loosely regulated system of commercial trash, recycle only 24 percent of the 3 million-plus tons of trash they produce each year, according to a recent report on the industry. A sweeping city law passed last year aims to change that.

Meanwhile, the city’s construction and demolition industry, which produced 6.4 million tons of garbage last year, according to a state official, recycles half the time.

The result: Year after year, New Yorkers rely on rail, barge and trucks to ship trash to methane-producing landfills and toxin-emitting incinerators. The total haul cost the city $409 million last year, a price tag that ballooned after City Hall reformed its waste management system in 2006.”

Read on here.

Let’s not be a city that is taking a front line position on the climate crisis in name only?