Friends of Brook Park JOIN BOROUGH PRESIDENT CARRION & COUNCIL MEMBERS TO ENDORSE PLANYC

Friends of Brook Park JOIN BOROUGH PRESIDENT CARRION & COUNCIL MEMBERS TO ENDORSE PLANYC

The List of Environmental Organizations Endorsing PlanNYC2030 to Create A Greener Greater New York Continues to Grow

Friends of Brook Park joined Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and Borough President Adolfo Carrion today as they endorsed PlaNYC with a growing list of elected officials, labor, business, civic, health advocacy and environmental organizations supporting the 127 Initiatives that Mayor Bloomberg laid out on Earth Day.

"Congestion Pricing will mean cleaner air for the City, and that means less asthma for all of us", said Harry J. Bubbins, Director of Friends of Brook Park. "It is clear that the next Mayor of New York will have to exhibit this kind of leadership for our environment and economic development." he added, while holding up the "South Bronx Says Si" sign that served as the backdrop for the press conference held on the green roof of Bronx Borough Hall.

“PlaNYC will benefit people in the Bronx and throughout our City and the entire region. Working with our Department of Citywide Administrative Services, the Borough President has already installed a green roof here at the courthouse, which is an example of the type of conservation measures that our plan envisions,” said Mayor Bloomberg. “The Borough President and the Assembly Members and all of the officials here today, are doing what’s right for the people that they represent by endorsing this plan and working to get it enacted and I’m proud to stand here with them today and have their support.”

“After taking time to carefully analyze the Mayor’s PlaNYC proposal, I am proud to announce my support for the congestion pricing plan,” said Bronx Borough President Carrion. “From reducing traffic and asthma-inducing pollution and improving public transportation options throughout the five boroughs, the mayor’s plan will put New York City on a path to an even greener and greater future.”

Last December, Mayor Bloomberg challenged New Yorkers to generate ideas for achieving ten key goals for the City’s sustainable future. New Yorkers in all five boroughs responded, and the result was PlaNYC, 127 initiatives focusing on the five key dimensions of the City’s environment – land, air, water, energy and transportation. PlaNYC proposals run from the relatively easy to achieve, like the already-underway replacement of thousands of traditional incandescent light bulbs in City buildings with compact fluorescent lights, to proposals that have never before been tried by a major American city, like planting mollusks in polluted waterways to naturally clean them. Together, these initiatives will help meet the challenges faced by New York City as its population continues to grow, with an expected 1 million more people arriving between now and 2030, while at the same time reducing the City's greenhouse gas emissions by 30%.

Included in PlaNYC is a proposed pilot program to charge drivers a fee to enter the central business district in Manhattan. Revenue generated from the fee would be earmarked for much-needed transit improvements. More than $30 billion in regional transportation infrastructure improvements would be made possible through congestion pricing revenue.

In addition to the 140 environmental, health, civic, business and labor organizations that are supporting PlaNYC , there is also Council Member Melissa Mark Viverito.