New Yorkers’ Approval for Bike Lanes Growing: Poll
A Quinnipiac poll released Thursday showed that a strong majority of responders, 56 percent, endorsed the city’s bike lanes, citing that it’s greener and healthier for people to ride bikes. This is a two-point increase from Quinnipiac University’s March poll. Paul Steely White, executive director of Transportation Alternatives, said of the support, “New Yorkers like bike lanes because bike lanes are good for all New Yorkers. Separate spaces for pedestrians, bicyclists, and drivers keep everyone out of each other’s way and out of harm’s way.”
Paerdegat Basin Overflow Facility Officially Operational
Environmental Protection Commissioner Cas Holloway officially turned on the new $404 million Paerdegat Basin Combined Sewer Overflow retention facility Thursday morning. The Paerdegat Basin CSO facility consists of four retention tanks, with screening apparatuses that can hold 30 million gallons of sewer overflows, and another 20 million gallons can be stored in the connecting sewers. “By making upgrades like this to the city’s aging sewer system and investing in green infrastructure in our communities—such as parks, green roofs, porous pavement, and roadside plantings—we can curb sewage overflows citywide. These smarter practices on land will prevent water pollution from the start and make New York City a better, greener place to live,” said Lawrence Levine, senior attorney at the Natural Resources Defense Council. The facility is a major component of PlaNYC, Mayor Bloomberg’s sustainability blueprint for New York City.
Special Education Preschoolers’ Trike Race for Charity
Bronx-based New York Institute for Special Education (NYISE) children raced in the ninth annual Bike-a-thon fundraiser on Thursday for St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital. The 3- to 5-year-olds raced their tricycles around their building demonstrating their motor skills and their community citizenship by supporting the charity. NYISE employees and departments sponsored the preschoolers’ efforts and the money was donated to support treatment of children with cancer and other diseases. The New York Institute for Special Education, founded in 1831 as The New York Institute for the Education of the Blind, is one of the oldest and most respected schools in the nation that provides specialized services for children with disabilities.
City Council Members Support Living Wage Rally
City Councilors Brad Lander, Letitia James, Jumaane Williams, Margaret Chin, Melissa Mark-Viverito, and Stephen Levin joined Living Wage NYC representatives at a rally to demand passage of the Fair Wages for New Yorkers Act. Supported by the City Council, the legislation would ensure taxpayer subsidies create more living wage jobs. The gathering also challenged the results of Mayor Bloomberg’s living wage study, considering it biased and “rigged.” The study, done by the Economic Development Corporation and released earlier this week, found that the living wage proposal would result in between 33,000 and 100,000 job losses for the city.
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