CIVITAS In Action

UPDATE:Bike Legislation and Bike Share 
The NYC City Council recently passed legislation aimed at strengthening enforcement and creating tougher safety standards for commercial delivery bicyclists. The law requires businesses employing commercial bicyclists to mandate that these employees enroll in a bicycle safety course and requires the NYC DOT to post the contents of the course on their website, which will include safe bicycle practices and the “rules of the road.” Starting in early 2013, the unit will issue citations to employers who are violating the laws in an effort to help keep pedestrians safe and ensure that commercial cyclists are riding safely on NYC streets. 

The Department of Transportation’s NYC Bike Share program has been postponed until March 2013. The program, operated by Alta Bicycle Share, attributed the delayed launch date to software problems. The program will begin with 7,000 bikes at 420 stations in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens. It is to be privately sponsored by Citi and MasterCard, and privately operated, with no public funding, by NYC Bike Share LLC. The Bike Share program, being called Citi Bike, is a self-service system that provides members with easy access to a network of thousands of bicycles, a convenient and inexpensive alternative for travel. Bike Share also leverages the city’s great mass transit system, extending the reach of transit into areas that are not easily accessible. 

Solid Waste Management Plan and East 91st Street Marine Transfer Station 
In July, the CIVITAS board of directors sent a letter to Mayor Bloomberg and Speaker Quinn voicing concerns about the proposal to rebuild and reopen the Marine Transfer Station (MTS) at East 91st Street. In the past, CIVITAS has stated support in favor of the principles of the Mayor’s Solid Waste Management Plan, but that support for the MTS proposal has been contingent on the legitimate concerns of the surrounding neighborhood being taken into account. While the proposed design addresses some of those issues, there remain significant community concerns about the MTS plan. The letter’s full text is on www.civitasnyc.org. 

The Marine Transfer Station at East 91st Street

Since 2005, CIVITAS has been active in the NYC Department of Sanitation’s citizen advisory group which is focused on lessening the proposed facility’s impact on the surrounding community. CIVITAS will continue to play a watchdog role in ensuring the restrictions in the MTS’s environmental permits are enforced. 

Newsrack Box Enforcement 
CIVITAS is continuing the campaign to improve enforcement of newsrack box violations, and to push for a NYC Council oversight hearing on maintenance and better legislation. During summer 2012, Alex Ritscher, a CIVITAS intern and Syracuse student, tracked and reported over 110 newsrack violations in neighborhoods across the five boroughs. Violations included the following: having no door, bags of trash located inside the box and placement inside crosswalks. In August, CIVITAS volunteers located more than 160 Learning Annex newsrack box violations between 59th and 96th Streets, York and Fifth Avenues. Of these violations, more than half of the boxes were completely empty, and 39% had only a one-page flyer. Learning Annex is estimated to have thousands of boxes on New York sidewalks, and many have been observed to be empty for long periods of time. 

Three Learning Annex newsrack boxes on Lexington Avenue at 67th Street. 

Heating Oil Workshop 
In June, CIVITAS sponsored the latest in the ongoing series of air quality and heating oil community workshops. Located at the Chapin School, the meeting was open to all but outreach was targeted to co-op boards, superintendents, institutions and other residents of buildings east of Third Avenue. 

The June 4 air quality and heating oil workshop at the Chapin School. 

Attendees were given an overview of the harmful effects on air quality of No. 6 “dirty” heating oil; an introduction to the role of engineering firms in evaluating a building’s fuel consumption and conversion requirements; and a brief overview of financing options. The issue is of particular relevance to the Upper East Side, which has some of the worst air quality in New York City. Outreach and meeting organization were led by Sam Myers, a Hunter College graduate intern, and the CIVITAS Environment, Infrastructure and Transportation committee, chaired by Gorman Reilly and Jim Tripp. It was organized in partnership with Isabelle Silverman of the Environmental Defense Fund, and Kenneth Camilleri, a consultant to Mayor Bloomberg’s Clean Heat initiative. Stay tuned for future meetings in 2012 and 2013. To learn more about the heating oil initiative, visit: www.civitasnyc.org/cleanair. 

To read the complete fall 2012 issue of CIVITAS News, visit www.civitasnyc.org/civitas-newsletters/