via huffington post.

We know that sustainability as a concept has remained nebulous. Save for the idea that it implies an equitable distribution and consumption of resources, that will not compromise future generations use of said resources, we have little else to agree on about what sustainability looks like in action, in day to day existence.

I recently read an essay in Grist, Environmentalism’ can never address climate change, written by David Robert, who literally opens his piece by saying, “I’m not an environmentalist and these aren’t environmental challenges.” It made me think about what exactly the challenge is then. What kind of challenge is the climate change (and related sustainability) challenge then?  The idea that framing matters is not new; communication scholars have long been studying the fallout—both positive and negative—from the way in which we talk about certain issues.  Somehow though, we in the climate movement seem to have thought we were exempt from this phenomenon for far too long; that somehow data would speak for itself.  Don’t get me wrong, there were plenty of people thinking about how to talk about this stuff before; artists, scientists, policy makers, students, but to make an impact, to have a critical mass, we all need to have a shared vocabulary and clear vision about what we want, when we want it, how we get there and most importantly how we talk about it.

I see the new blog as an opportunity to showcase and discuss living proof of sustainability, of people working towards a clear vision, and not always through novel technology (although, yes, sometimes we will discuss this), but more importantly, a reading between the lines of where we are and where we want to be. In Robert’s essay, he argues that if we succeed at the sustainability challenge (a big if, he points out), it will be a groundbreaking, revolutionary new model. “…it will be a tidal shift in human history on par with the agriculture, industrialization, or democracy itself.”

The difference is, those that lived through these histories only had a slight understanding of the massive impact they were about to have on the physical and social operating systems of the planet. We, on the other hand, with our science and blogs (and science blogs), living in the data explosion era, know better, maybe.  So, let’s get to it. We have a lot of re-making to do.

I took some of our fabulous CISC interns on a kayaking voyage up the Bronx River a few weeks ago. And this is what they had to say about it.

“New Yorkers tend to think inwards and underground about their city: Central Park and the subway. But lately, this has been changing.  Boating organizations and environmental groups have sprung up in the past half-century to increase awareness of the waterways critical condition and importance to the City.  As summer outreach and planning interns, we decided to take a kayak trip with one of these organizations, the Bronx River Alliance, to experience hands on the effects of the City on our waterways.

The Bronx River, New York City’s only freshwater river, runs 23 miles long from the Kensico Dam in upper Westchester County through 13 Westchester municipalities to where the East River converges with Long Island Sound. This once beautiful and thriving body of water is now a contaminated conduit for industrial and residential wastes.

The Bronx River Alliance formed in 1974, has taken remarkable strides in trying to restore this river back to its original serenity. This organization develops community outreach initiatives, conducts research on the River’s ecology and serves as an advocate for the River and its surrounding community. BRA’s work illustrates how dedicated citizens who are adamant about preserving our environment can and do make a difference.

However, their hard work is not immediately evident upon emerging from the Hunt’s Point subway station. We had never been to Hunts Point, but we were aware of the controversial developments of Robert Moses and their devastating toll it  had on the Bronx.  As we walked toward the Bruckner Expressway overpass, it wasn’t hard to see that the area is plagued with social ills. In a city as wealthy as New York, the hard truth is that poor communities bare the brunt of environmental ravages. The built environment of Hunts Point is a veritable death trap. The expressway is at least 5 lanes across, with no pedestrian walkway to be spoken of; truck after truck barrel down the road, amidst incessant car honking and exhaust fumes. Walking up the crumbling steps to cross the gritty overpass, was not welcoming. In lieu of shrubs and flowers, the overpass offered only concrete and graffiti.

Crossing the bare concrete overpass, we entered Concrete Plant Park. With parched grass, a lack of trees and no real social gathering point, the “park” falls desperately short of being an inviting public space. It would be hard to imagine a similar scene anywhere in Manhattan. In Hunt’s Point and other parts of the Bronx, the environmental inequity that exists between those communities that receive waste and those that produce it – those that dump and those that get dumped on – is hard to miss.

As we set off in our kayaks, we saw a garbage dump, a scrap metal recycling center, and parking lots lining a good portion of both riverbanks.  As we passed, we noticed a certain stench.  It would be simple to conclude that the smell originated from these concrete yards of the industrial age.  However, even in areas where trees line the river, the smell lingered.  Why?  The smell didn’t come from the dump; it came from the water itself.

In theory, the water shouldn’t be polluted.  The City’s fourteen water purification centers can process all the water used and release a purified form back into its estuaries.  So why is there sewage in the water?  Because of NYC’s antiquated sewage planning.  The city uses a combined sewage overflow system (CSO) to handle both human waste and regular runoff water.  This type of system accounts for 70% of the NYC sewage system according to the New York City Department of Environmental Protection (NYCDEP). On a normal, rainless day, the system is able to collect and process all of the fluids running through the system.  However, when it rains, there is too much water for the system to handle, and thus the overflow water is redirected straight to the estuaries, untreated.  That means raw sewage –shoots straight into the river.  To contextualize, Hunt’s Point’s largest CSO, CSO 007, collects an estimated 1.7 million floatables (garbage and solid matter) each year.

Despite the smell, and the murky water filled with human biproducts, we paddled along. Our guide Miguel began pointing things out to us, that the river is an ecological home, not a deserted wasteland and that there is a vibrant ecological community regenerating along the Bronx River in Hunt’s Point. The contaminated and brackish waters are home to unusual species of edible plants and a host of wildlife. Along the banks of the river rare conifers, fruit trees and medicinal plants such as Mugwort thrive.  Japanese Knotwood grows rampant-a vestige of a naturalist’s planting from the 1850s and indicative of the rich biological history of the area.

We saw Egret and Heron that nest along the river. Striped Bass and Blue Fish are indigenous, and although not advisable to eat, neighborhood fishermen cannot be dissuaded.  We witnessed a gentleman bathing en plein air just a stone’s throw from the ominous CS007, and a rope swing was rigged up in a tree where kids jump into the river to swim. Community youth were also exploring the River along with us. Miguel introduced them as youth from, Rock the Boat - an organization that trains youth in traditional boat building and water ecology.

Wrapping up the three and a half hour trip, we emerge tired and with mixed feelings.  On one hand, it’s pretty depressing to see the state of the river due to the lack of foresight when creating the sewage system, and how we haven’t moved to significantly clean up the area.  Also, people shouldn’t have to live around these conditions. But on the other hand, organizations like the Bronx River Alliance and Rock the Boat increase exposure to these issues so that they don’t go unnoticed.  And at the same time, young people out on the water are gaining valuable skills while they hopefully, become more engaged in solutions and the restoration of  these important places.

As part of its 25th anniversary, Summer Stage has branched out from its home base in Central Park, with over 100 events at venues across the city, in all five boroughs. For a full line up, visit the Summer Stage site.

The events to be held at the East River Park venue will offer free bike valet parking, as the foundation has partnered with the wonderful folks over at Transportation Alternatives. The idea behind the collaboration is to “give greater access to cyclists…and to provide an incentive to utilize alternative means of transportation, and promote the use of green spaces in the Lower East Side.”

The service begins at the event on Tuesday, August 4th and will continue for the duration of the 13 days of free public programming at that venue. Roll on over and hand your bike off to the experts.

Ranging from violence–hitting executives with oily fish, (the Quentin Tarantino approach) to gussying ourselves up after a breakup– leaving that bad BP boyfriend behind (the glamour mag approach), the suggestions for punishment indicate  creative, intelligent and heartfelt concerns about how we might deal with BP once the oil stops gushing. How we move beyond behavior that inherently involves high risk, low probability disasters, and that is we, as in all of us, is another question.  That would require us to lose the vindictive spirit and focus on how we might, for example, do all those retrofits and behavior changes that might lessen the massive thirst that BP quenches. Some suggestions from Slate readers asked BP to fund renewable energy research and development in a  dollar for dollar match on what they pay in damages. I love this suggestion.

Ideas are clearly flowing. But is the political will, the political creativity up for the challenge? Until then,  welcome to the world of ideas…and the blogosphere.

But what about the small scale tiny cracks in the concrete jungle that serve as brief reminders of the benefits and beauty of these other elements that often seem to evade us? How can we all play a role in finding space for those cracks? Two words: seed bombs. Last year, the Bed Stuy Meadows project worked as an intervention in this vein. And this year, the good people at DoTank in Brooklyn, are running an urban agriculture Do It Yourself workshop to teach the art of the seed bomb (as well as home composting and window farming. Full disclosure, I am helping out with compost skill share component.)

But this intervention, the GreenAid Change for Change seed bomb dispenser is just fabulous. What if this were in every store where chicklets and runts and gum balls were sold? What if children nagged their parents for a quarter so they could throw this gum ball shaped object onto the ground outside their house and see what came up in the cracks of asphalt or in the street tree bed? It could inspire wonder in younger urban children who are not necessarily exposed to the rites of spring in the same way as those outside of a city are.  And going back to the idea of beauty as utility, would it benefit everyone in the space–not just youngens–by creating spaces that promote a higher quality of life? Again, more research is critical. But this intervention takes a product that we are already used to as a consumer and retrofits it for the public good. I like it. Now, just to make them.

If you ride a bike in the Big Apple, you might notice a few things:

-There are more people riding.

-There are more bike paths.

-There are still plenty of potholes.

-There are higher hostilities from drivers.

While the city’s most biker-friendly transportation commissioner yet is changing the face of city streets with more pedestrian plazas and cycling infrastructure, it seems that we are still living in a transit limbo. We still lag far behind places that intentionally value and promote bike culture. Copenhagen is the ideal model on an international scale with bike lanes that are practically as large as street lanes. And Colorado is considering the creation of a bike lane for the commute specifically from Boulder to Denver. But in New York City, while the numbers are growing, there still aren’t enough people to populate such lanes. So, bikers continue to ride on both sides of one way streets–which is legal as long as you are still moving with traffic. Or, they ride entirely illegally, in the face of oncoming traffic. Either way, cars do indeed seem frustrated and yes, the honking has intensified

But in my opinion, there is still a sense–or perhaps a growing sense–that your ride is a political statement and not just a form of transit.  This is especially so in parts of Manhattan where biking is the opposite of enjoyable except for the adrenalin rush. And in a part of Brooklyn, it has actually become a political and cultural divide. The bike path in south Williamsburg has had a funny disappearing act. (I would recommend reading the back story on that one. NY Mag did a very interesting article on the tensions of a shifting neighborhood.)

There are studies–and debates about the numbers cited–showing that more people are biking.  But at the same time, the NYPD confiscated a truckload of bikes without warning and without notice of where bikes were going, according to Gothamist. We might just be experiencing growing pains.  And hopefully the eventual product will be worth the struggle.

Resilience. via: http://maryjaneryan.files.wordpress.com/2009/08/resilience.jpg

SEED Magazine has an excellent article on urban resilience. Its header reads: Merging complex systems science and ecology, resilience scientists have broken new ground on understanding—and preserving—natural ecosystems. Now, as more and more people move into urban hubs, they are bringing this novel science to the city.

Discussing examples that range from the loss of wetlands around New Orleans–that ironically were destroyed during the construction of the levees as well as natural gas exploration–that ultimately helped contribute to the tragedy of Katrina’s effect, to the spoiling of 25 million liters of raw milk in Australia when natural gas power supply was knocked out, the article discusses the concept of resilience on an urban scale. And while of course there are parallels between ecosystem design and urban design, the fundamental basis of resilience is diversity, redundancy, and variety. These things are often seen as “inefficient” on an urban scale.

This might seem theory heavy to you, but it really was one of the most fascinating articles I have read in a long time. And real life applications–contemporary and existent–examples are used for every sub-heading. So, yes, while there are lofty concepts, the reality of our urban world is the basis for discussion.

And of course the question of climate change is never far removed. A brief excerpt reads:

“A key feature of complex adaptive systems is that they can settle into a number of different equilibria. A lake, for example, will stabilize in either an oxygen-rich, clear state or algae-dominated, murky one. A financial market can float on a housing bubble or settle into a basin of recession. Historically, we’ve tended to view the transition between such states as gradual. But there is increasing evidence that systems often don’t respond to change that way: The clear lake seems hardly affected by fertilizer runoff until a critical threshold is passed, at which point the water abruptly goes turbid.

Resilience science focuses on these sorts of tipping points. It looks at gradual stresses, such as climate change, as well as chance events—things like storms, fires, even stock market crashes—that can tip a system into another equilibrium state from which it is difficult, if not impossible, to recover. How much shock can a system absorb before it transforms into something fundamentally different? That, in a nutshell, is the essence of resilience.”

Take time to read this article. I promise you will be thinking about synergies afterward as well.

Bing’s proposal is based, in large part, on a study produced by Data Driven Detroit.  Pasted below is text from an NPR interview with Kurt Metzger, director of Data Driven Detroit.

Downsizing is a word you hear a lot in these economically troubled times. It usually applies to tight budgets or lost jobs. In Detroit it also now describes a controversial plan from the mayor’s office.

Mayor Dave Bing wants to reshape the city by getting rid of buildings that are vacant or in shambles. He also wants to transplant residents who live in neighborhoods that are desolate and dilapidated beyond repair. He says it’s too expensive to provide city services in areas that are much like urban deserts.

Much of the proposal is based on data collected by Kurt Metzger. He’s a demographer and the director of Data Driven Detroit, an organization that collects data for the city and for nonprofits. It’s also called D3.

Mr. Metzger, welcome to the program.

Mr. KURT METZGER (Director, Data Driven Detroit): Thank you so much. It’s great to be on.

NORRIS: You undertook a block-by-block study of Detroit, 139 square miles. What did your study find?

Mr. METZGER: We had surveyors go out and actually collect information in every single parcel in the city of Detroit. And just to give you the real quick analysis, we found better than a third of the land – and that’s of 139 square miles – we estimate better than a third of the land in the city of Detroit is either vacant land right now or contains buildings that need to be torn down. It’s amazing. I mean, New Orleans is about 70 square miles. We’re talking that better than 40 square miles, better than half of New Orleans is vacant land.

Now, of course its interspersed around the city, so that’s where the issues about going into neighborhoods where there’s a lot of vacant land. But a lot of one or two homes still left on streets. These are neighborhoods that are going to have to be gone into and trying to think about how do we start to move people into other areas.

NORRIS: When you were doing this survey, what did you hear from people who are in the neighborhoods? I imagine that some of the homeowners have been there for a very long time and have watched their beloved neighborhood slowly deteriorate. And they’re probably worried about finding themselves now on some sort of relocation hit list. When you were working on the survey, what did you hear from people?

Mr. METZGER: There is a general fear that I’m going to be uplifted and put someplace else. I’m really comfortable in my home regardless of what’s happened to the neighborhood. What are you going to do to me?

NORRIS: But they are going to be uplifted…

Mr. METZGER: Well…

NORRIS: …and moved someplace else.

Mr. METZGER: Yes. Yes. But I think there’s a way to work with them and help them to understand that this will be better for them in the long run.

NORRIS: How do you compensate people who have to move? Because as I understand it, they’re entitled to 125 percent of taxable value for their property. But their property values have plummeted; have deteriorating along with the surrounding property, so how do you make them whole?

And we have some very ambitious friends who are imagining putting a small patch of concrete near NYC City Hall to good use.  DC’s most important lawn–perhaps the nations most important lawn– is gearing up to carry its 2nd season of fresh produce. This is the first time The White House has had a productive yard since Eleanor Roosevelt’s WWII victory garden graced the premises. At that time, 40% of America’s produce was grown on small plots that made up the victory garden movement. I can’t quite think of a parallel in today’s patriotism. But New Yorkers! Pay attention to this and sign yourself onto the movement.

From the NY Times Diner’s Journal:

But today, “The hope is that a vegetable garden can be planted in front of City Hall in time for a nice tomato harvest this summer,” said Daniel Bowman Simon, who is organizing a petition drive to hand over to Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg.

A Heated Community Board Meeting. Via Brooklyn Vegan

What to do with the 9 acre park that is the official merging place of Brighton Beach and Coney Island? Residents in the neighborhood claim that the space–Asser Levy Park–is actually in Brighton Beach only and many of them are the primary opposition to what the borough president, Marty Markowitz wants to do with the space. Currently, it stands as a slightly rundown park with a small amphitheater. Markowtiz has visions of grandeur. A brand new amphitheater that would seat 8,000 people–the largest in the city–would become a neighborhood attraction. Markowtiz dreams of Neil Diamond rocking out in there. Others are not so keen on this idea.

The NY Times has an article with different perspectives from various community members on the issue, but essentially, the city says parks are a public asset. They do not belong to one neighborhood in particular. And the borough president wants to revamp the aged Coney Island. Folks from the area say there is no reason their residential neighborhood should become a loud venue for outsiders and they would like to keep it the way it is. I personally am with the city in theory. Parks are limited and so we should be willing to share them. HOWEVER, in practicality, I don’t understand why economic development and recreational space improvements always have to do with stadiums or music venues. My two cents: Keep it a mellow park. Invite artists to design sculptures that might talk about rising coastlines or other water front issues.  Invite residents from other neighborhoods to come and discover what is there, but keep it public, people.

Issues of open space and development are not absent. According to the article, “New York City lags well behind other cities in green space. It offers 4.6 acres of parkland per 1,000 residents, compared with a median of 6.8 acres in the nation’s 13 most densely populated areas, according to the Trust for Public Land. Of the five boroughs, Brooklyn has the second least amount of parkland per person, after Manhattan, officials from the parks department say.” More reason to keep it open and public rather than concrete and private.

Opponents seem to have found a loophole they can certainly try and exploit. Amplified sound is not permitted within 500 feet of a school or place of worship during their open and functioning hours. A nearby synagogue will seek to have this applied during the sabath, Friday nights and Saturdays, prime warm weather concert times.

This debate is going to heat up…We will try and keep up on it.