NYC Hopes Green Plan Will Spread Like Smoking Ban
Date: 23-Apr-07
Country: US
Author: Joan Gralla
However, the Republican mayor declined to say whether such a plan is part of the green or "sustainability" improvements he will unveil on Sunday that he believes must be made by 2030 when the city's population will have grown by 1 million.
The mayor believes that influx, which will give what is the nation's already largest city more than 9 million inhabitants, will require billions of dollars of spending on roads, bridges, tunnels, water mains, sewers, new power plants and 250,000 new homes, according to Friday's New York Times.
A mayoral spokesman was not available to comment on the article, which said Bloomberg also will offer tax and other incentives as part of his Earth Day plan.
On his Friday WABC radio show, the mayor said New York City's new plan could spur the nation and other countries to follow suit, like his ban on smoking in bars and restaurants.
Bloomberg's press officers, in a statement, said only that the mayor's "PlaNYC" resulted from months of studies and public meetings, adding it "will also allow us to meet the mayor's goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 30 percent."
"We are unwilling in this country to deal with our energy dependence," said Bloomberg.
Bloomberg is often asked whether he will run for president, and he again did not rule that out, though he noted New York already has two candidates, Democratic US Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and former Republican Mayor Rudolph Giuliani.
The Times also said the mayor will propose a new public authority -- whose board the city will control -- to carry out many of the functions the state's agencies, such as the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, now perform.
Bloomberg, on his radio show, said that getting the state to approve "congestion-pricing" would be politically difficult, though London and Singapore already charge motorists stiff fees for driving during rush hour.
He added that city children suffer from some of the highest US asthma rates. Though much of the pollution that worsens that disease comes from outside New York City, Bloomberg stressed that the city could greatly improve its air quality by clearing traffic. "The real problem is local," he said.
Businesses that now cannot get deliveries would also benefit if Manhattan's streets were less crowded, he said.
The mayor added that not charging tolls on the city's four East River bridges caused traffic jams in Queens and Brooklyn, as well as Manhattan.
Manhattan-bound drivers crowd streets in the outer boroughs that lead to the city's bridges to avoid paying tolls on the state mass transit agency's tunnels, he said.
New tolls on the city's crossings could be credited against stiff new charges for driving on Manhattan streets during busy hours, he said, though he did not reveal if the fee for rush hour drivers would be US$8 fee, as the Times article said.
"You'd take the money and invest it in mass transit," Bloomberg said, explaining some of the outer boroughs badly need new mass transit links.
Motorists in Brooklyn and Queens would see a "great improvement" in the form of fewer traffic jams as drivers would no longer have an incentive to avoid the crossings that now have tolls, he said.
"The city lost its courage to keep investing in subways back in World War Two," said Bloomberg, who has made the city's US$2.1 billion investment in a new Times Square subway extension a centerpiece of his tenure.
Earlier this month, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority of the State of New York held its third or fourth ground-breaking ceremony for a new Second Ave. subway line for Manhattan's East Side, which was first proposed in 1920.