Precious New York (photo: Carl Heilman/Governor's Office)
Warmer spring weather ushers in reminders of the natural beauty we have in New York, from the vibrant blooms of the dogwood and magnolia trees to the return of migratory birds singing. People swarm back to our local parks where picnic baskets and roller skates make a long-awaited resurgence. The Hudson River teems to life with the reappearance of kayakers who can be spotted from way above by hikers in the Catskills.
We enjoy some of the most marvelous landscapes the United States has to offer, and we must do more to protect them. We cannot afford to take our natural beauty for granted.
Legislation recently passed in the State Assembly and currently pending in the State Senate would establish a goal for New York to conserve 30% of our land and water by 2030 to preserve the state’s natural wonders and ensure every generation can enjoy and benefit from our water, woods, and wildlife. Sponsored by Assemblymember Pat Fahy and Senator Todd Kaminsky, New York’s 30 by 30 legislation mirrors the goals of the federal “America the Beautiful” initiative to conserve at least 30% of our nation’s land and water by 2030, a goal developed by scientists alarmed by the rapid loss of plants and animals happening around the world.
If passed by the State Senate and signed into law by the Governor, this important measure would direct the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and other state agencies to create a conservation plan to protect biodiversity and avoid the worst effects of global warming. The plan will prioritize conservation and restoration projects in disadvantaged communities, honor Tribal sovereignty, and preserve critical habitats and migratory corridors for wildlife.
The world is at a pivotal point, as we face dual crises from rapid habitat loss and climate change. The Nature Conservancy remains strongly committed to supporting legislation that protects people and wildlife for generations to come. The passage of 30 by 30 will be a momentous win for New York and will help address many pressing threats not only to our famous scenic landscapes, but to the health of our communities. A statewide goal would reinvigorate collaborative efforts to conserve the lakes and bays where we swim and fish; the farms that grow our food; the forests and wetlands that provide wildlife habitat; the sources of our clean drinking water; and the places New Yorkers rely on for jobs, adventure, and solace.
The Nature Conservancy is proud of the hard work and extensive collaboration that went into advancing a 30 by 30 goal for New York State. We’re excited to see it passed in the Senate and signed by Governor Hochul and look forward to collaborating further to help the state achieve this critical goal.
New Yorkers often set an example for how to usher in a better future. Last month, the New York Legislature and Governor prioritized environmental investments in the state budget including the $4.2 million Clean Water, Clean Air, and Green Jobs Bond Act that will go before voters this fall and a $400 million Environmental Protection Fund. This November, we all need to flip our ballots and vote yes to pass the Bond Act, a once-in-a-generation opportunity to protect clean drinking water, create jobs, reduce pollution, and build parks.
We applaud our state leaders for recognizing the importance of conserving the natural resources we all depend on and look forward to celebrating the enactment of 30 by 30 legislation. Let’s continue to build on this momentum by supporting the Bond Act to protect clean water, create jobs, and improve quality of life in communities throughout New York.
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Jessica Ottney Mahar is New York Policy and Strategy Director at The Nature Conservancy. On Twitter @jessicaottney & @nature_org.
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Suraj Patel, the author, on the campaign trail (photo via Patel campaign)
Today, it’s hard not to be frustrated. The cost of everything – from rent to gas to groceries to clothes to even toys - is going up. At the same time inflation also has another nefarious side effect: wages - which were already stagnant - essentially went down as inflation went up. This is an inflationary pay cut and it means workers are being squeezed from both sides. Rather than putting our heads in the sand, or pointing to alternative data points to try and deflect people's pain, it’s time for real solutions.
I am running for Congress in New York’s 12th Congressional District and I have a plan to get costs under control; I call it “The Abundant Society.”
To start, we need to understand just why costs are going up. Unprecedented supply-demand imbalances driven by the pandemic and exacerbated by the war in Ukraine and covid zero policies in China have led to a spike in inflation not seen since the 1980s. This episode of inflation is layered on top of decades of escalating costs for essential parts of life such as housing, healthcare, education, and childcare.
At the same time, even though the economy is recovering, it’s still leaving lots of pain in its wake. This is not academic for me, I spent the last year dealing with covid-related foreclosures on our family business while making sure workers still had healthcare and benefits. So just because we are “recovering” does not mean we emerge without deep wounds.
The United States has made an unprecedented labor market recovery coming out of covid but now we must turn our attention to expanding the long-run productive capacity of our economy – by making our supply chains more robust, building better and cheaper infrastructure, and lowering the ever-rising costs of childcare, healthcare, higher education, and housing.
However, for too long, the reflexive response of politicians has been “No” and it’s caused a crisis of scarcity and staleness. We need new leaders who are ready to step up with bold, new, fresh ideas to help us not just recover but be the city we truly aspire to be. The Abundant Society plan has a single goal: to make New York and the country a better place to live for everyone, and that starts with getting the cost of living under control and making it easier to live, raise a family, and start a business.
All of this begins with getting inflation under control, and to start, President Biden must suspend the Jones Act and Foreign Dredge Act. The Jones Act is an archaic maritime law that requires goods shipped between U.S. ports to be transported on ships that are built, owned, and operated by United States citizens or permanent residents while the Foreign Dredge Act requires dredging vessels to be built, owned, and operated by United States citizens or permanent residents.
The Jones Act has strangled Puerto Rico, especially during natural disasters, and makes it cheaper for Hawaii to import oil and gas from Russia than from domestic sources. Just a few weeks ago, a container ship was stuck in the Chesapeake Bay for over a month, something that could have been resolved in much less time if it weren’t for the Foreign Dredge Act. These antiquated laws have failed to produce a sizable domestic maritime fleet or a dredging fleet capable of meeting the demands of the 21st-century economy.
President Biden must also suspend all non-Russia-related tariffs. A recent report from Hufbauer, Hogan, and Wang at the Peterson Institute for International Economics found that suspending tariffs would result in a one-time reduction of 1.3 percentage points on the consumer price index, a commonly cited indicator of inflation. Doing this would nearly halve the gap between inflation and wages.
The COMPETES Act, which provides money for domestic manufacturing of semiconductors, equips the Commerce Department with an assistant secretary to oversee supply chains, and more, is still stuck in congressional conference. This bill, which has been in the works since 2020, should’ve been sent to President Biden’s desk within the first 100 days of his presidency.
While Congress passed a historic bipartisan infrastructure bill — a long-overdue necessity to increase our economic productivity and capacity — construction costs are so high that this investment won’t go nearly as far. Congress must get to work on a bill to drive down infrastructure costs so we can truly ramp up our capacity and build quicker, better, and more infrastructure.
Long before this current episode of inflation, the costs of childcare, healthcare, housing, and higher education have been prohibitively expensive for decades, squeezing the pockets of American families. We must bring these costs down so the pillars of middle-class life are far more attainable and affordable for more families. Self-imposed supply constraints and decades of stagnation have resulted in a crisis of scarcity, a high cost of living, and staleness that has broken the promise that led my parents to immigrate to this great nation: education, opportunity, and social mobility.
We can reverse this by enacting smart policies that tear down obstacles in these sectors and build up supply. When it comes to the modern essentials of American life, we must become a society of abundance.
We can do this by eliminating supply constraints of our own making by getting rid of burdensome red tape, reinvigorating robust antitrust enforcement, and simply building more. More public colleges and universities, more housing, more hospitals and healthcare providers, and establish a federal grant program for school districts to create a public option for childcare similar to France’s crèches.
Locally here in New York, the political culture of 'No' has led to a livability crisis. No to a blood center, no to upzoning high opportunity neighborhoods in the city, no to capping the FDR Drive, no to a living shoreline to save the East River waterfront. We need new leaders who are ready to say 'Yes.'
We have the power and the tools to help people right now, and the Abundant Society will help make it happen. We don’t have a second to lose, too many are struggling.
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Suraj Patel is a candidate for United States Congress in New York’s 12th district. On Twitter @surajpatelnyc.
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Penn Station area rendering under current proposal (photo: MTA)
New York State’s plan to reconstruct and expand Penn Station through a complete redevelopment of the blocks surrounding the station will have one of the most transformational effects on our community for the next century. The current station is the result of one of the worst planning decisions ever made in this city: razing the architectural marvel that was the former Penn Station and replacing it with the claustrophobic underground maze we deal with today. It is critical we use this moment to be bold and commit to a new station that New Yorkers 100 years from now will be proud of.
More than a year after the announcement for a new Penn Station and the accompanying above ground redevelopment, we still do not have an actual transportation plan. What we have is a real estate plan that will completely reshape the area around Penn and not necessarily for the better. Our local elected officials, working with the community and other stakeholders, have won changes to the plan from Governor Hochul and Empire State Development but agree more must be done. While the new — but not yet final — plan includes new affordable housing, it is paltry in scale and is proposed for blocks that may not even be developed.
The plan relies almost entirely on large new commercial towers to finance the project. A recent analysis by New York City’s Independent Budget Office shows that Empire State Development still has not provided details on how the financing for this massive project will be structured, how much revenue would be collected from the new development, and what will happen if revenue falls short of the project cost. It is appropriate for government to fund large infrastructure projects and we should be able to take pride in that. But they must be managed properly and result in a world class upgrade – something New York isn’t always great at. Creating an opportunity for private development to subsidize public infrastructure projects can be beneficial, but only when the public interest is prioritized and comes before real estate coffers are lined through the ability to build new buildings.
Over a year after the project was announced, details are still in short supply. While new development should factor in future commercial growth, a diversity of development that includes housing as well as Class B and C office space for small businesses will create a more secure financial deal for taxpayers while protecting the needs of the local community. Relying on private development to fund infrastructure projects is never ideal and New York State should also aggressively pursue the maximum amount of federal dollars and ensure New Jersey pays its fair share.
Streetscape improvements surrounding the station must be bold and progressive. They must incorporate global best practices for urban planning, create open space, prioritize pedestrians, and connect into the community. The city can make these changes to the streetscape today, and it should, with a robust community engagement process.
The buildings around all of this must be cohesive and not only planned for the interior experience, but relate to the space outside, too. This must not be another Hudson Yards. But if nothing is done about the giant elephant sitting on top of all of this, Madison Square Garden, these public spaces will be obstructed by the logistical needs of the Garden just as they are today. That is not acceptable. A final plan can only claim to improve the surrounding area if ESD brings the Garden to the table and at minimum requires operational changes.
The plans to renovate and expand Penn Station will soon undergo review through the National Environmental Policy Act. NEPA requires the state to propose and examine alternative plans, and the plan to expand the station by razing the block south of Penn in order to add new platforms has an alternative that must be given a thorough examination. The state must pursue a path to increase station capacity without using eminent domain that would displace local residents and businesses.
One alternative that will be examined is transforming Penn Station from a terminal where rail lines end to a “through-running” station, where trains coming from either direction would continue through Penn as if it was like any other station. This way, a rider heading to Queens from New Jersey would stay on their train through Penn rather than changing to a different train on a different network run by a different agency. Cities around the world from Philadelphia to Paris have transformed their transit networks to through-running with great success, and New York should follow their lead. Through-running would require fewer platforms and transit experts say Penn would not need to be expanded to the south under this plan.
One of the challenges a through-running plan faces is the fractured nature of the transit agencies that utilize Penn Station. Between Amtrak, NJ Transit, the LIRR, and eventually Metro North, there are simply too many cooks in the kitchen. Penn needs a head chef. The dysfunction of having three disconnected commuter rail lines is an unacceptable situation for a 21st century city and region, and is holding us back from planning a new Penn Station and truly improving our transit system.
While it may be idealistic to think we can unite the rail lines under one agency, it is a conversation that needs to happen. Governor Hochul can break through the dysfunction facing the Penn Station renovation by appointing a singular head to coordinate and manage the entire project. This person will have the power to break through a singular agency’s self-interests and also be held accountable for promises made to riders and the local community, as was done for the rebuilding of Lower Manhattan and the World Trade Center via the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation.
If we don’t seize this opportunity to rebuild the world class Penn Station that we deserve, we will have failed yet another generation of New Yorkers. They will look back on leaders of this time the way we view those who demolished the original Penn Station: with shame and disgust.
City residents deserve a transportation hub that seamlessly connects them to the surrounding region. The local community deserves streetscapes that benefit them and new development that meets their needs. Commuters deserve not to spend every day in overcrowded and oppressive passageways and platforms. New York must deliver a better, bold vision for Penn Station, because the current plan can’t yet leave the station.
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Tony Simone is a Hell’s Kitchen resident and candidate for State Assembly in the 75th District. On Twitter @tonysimone.
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