Regular gbNYC readers are familiar with our complicated relationship with Mayor Bloomberg. Yes, the diminuitive orange squillionaire is perhaps a bit too eager to put the brakes on progress at the behest of NYC’s mega-developers, but Bloomberg has also contributed mightily to New York City being one of the greenest big cities in the world. Is he tacky, jerky, peremptory? Yes, yes, and yes, but given his aforementioned good works and the fact that local government is where the green action is these days, gbNYC has basically no choice but to give the Mayor a modified, limited hat-tip on sustainability. That said, his vaunted MillionTreesNYC thing is another story. While it’s hard to argue with it in theory — trees are objectively pretty sweet, and everyone from Robert Frost to baby beavers knows this — the multimillion-dollar private/public project to boost the number of NYC trees by (yes) a million by 2017 fairly smacks of fatuous, celebrity-style green activism.
Tag Archives | Michael Bloomberg
LEED 2009 Creeps Into New York City’s Greener, Greater Buildings Plan
By Stephen Del Percio on February 11, 2010 in LEED Commentary, LEED Creep, Legislation, New York City
Although the costs of auditing were raised by opponents to the plan earlier this year, mandatory energy audits are now required every ten years, though buildings certified under LEED 2009 for Existing Buildings: Operations & Maintenance or which receive EPA’s Energy Star label are exempt. It’s this exemption that’s of particular interest to us here at GRELJ.
That’s Super: Bloomberg, Realty Advisory Board, 32BJ Join Forces to Green City’s Superintendents
32BJ and Mayor Bloomberg are working together to bring 1,000 supers (for starters) up to speed on the most current green practices as part of a labor-management partnership called One Year, One Thousand Green Supers.
2008 Vintage of Microturbines Now Operating on Lafayette Street
By Stephen Del Percio on March 28, 2008 in Greenwich Village, Legislation, Manhattan, New York City, Retail
At Astor Wines and Spirits, two microturbines are providing enough electricity to heat, cool, and power the store and its upstairs cooking school and gallery space.
Installation of City’s First Microturbines Under New Code Completed in Battery Park City
By Stephen Del Percio on March 11, 2008 in Alternative Energy, Battery Park City, Intellectual Property & Technology, Legislation, Manhattan, New York City
The first set of microturbines to be installed under new New York City legislation authorizing their operation has been completed in Battery Park City.
