The city’s Dining Out NYC program creates new rules restaurants must follow when offering sidewalk or roadway seating, which go into effect Aug. 3. CLARIFY News’ student reporters spoke to restaurant owners and employees near Midtown about their outdoor dining setups.
CITY VIEWS: OPINIONS and ANALYSIS
Opinion: New York’s So-Called ‘Clean Fuel Standard’ Is Anything But
Stephan Edel |
“If New York follows California’s lead on this, we risk running into one of the biggest concerns arising from the program—an oversupply of credits from renewable diesel and dairy biogas that negatively disrupts fuel prices and floods methane emissions into the atmosphere.”
ARTS and CULTURE
Opinion: Free NYC’s Block Parties from Suffocating Red Tape
Jackson Chabot, Elana Ehrenberg and Rebecca Macklis |
As warm weather returns and the summer approaches, we are reminded that the streets, sidewalks, parks, and plazas of New York City are our civic commons. New Yorkers should be able to dance in the streets, sidewalks, and curbs if they want to.
Brooklyn
Opinion: Clean Air Legislation Offers a Road to Justice for New York
Marcela Mitaynes and Elizabeth Yeampierre |
“Passing this legislation before the end of the session allows legislators to implement a transformative emission reduction strategy, significantly improving air quality for their constituents, especially for communities living and working along bus routes and near bus depots.”
Boroughs
Opinion: Proposed Vending Bill Would Hamper City’s Sidewalks
Erin Piscopink and Robert J. Benfatto |
“Vending is a commercial enterprise that creates private income. Sidewalks are for all of us, and until now the city has sought to ensure that all those items that encroach on pedestrian space constitute a public service, such as parking meters, trees, and fire hydrants.”
CITY VIEWS: OPINIONS and ANALYSIS
Opinion: Embracing Progress―Reflecting on the City’s Role in New York’s Sustainable Future
Sana Barakat |
“Setting our sights on the future, I am confident in the city’s ability to not only catch up with, but actually surpass Local Law 97’s next target: a 50 percent carbon emission reduction goal by fiscal year 2030.”
CITY VIEWS: OPINIONS and ANALYSIS
Opinion: New York City’s Young People Need Spaces of Their Own
Molly Delano |
“By engaging students in conducting research and advocacy in the process of creating and running programs, and maintaining the street itself, schools can turn Open School Streets into canvases for students to reimagine what their communities can and should look like.”
Government
Budget Cuts Could Make it Harder for NYC Govt to Reduce Its Carbon Footprint
Mariana Simões |
The government agency tasked with ensuring city owned buildings and vehicles don’t contribute to climate change is facing a $1 billion cut to its preliminary capital commitment plan. Of those, $775 million directly impacts environmental efforts.
CITY VIEWS: OPINIONS and ANALYSIS
Opinion: As Congestion Pricing Approaches, QueensLink Must Move Forward
Andrew Lynch, Noelle Hunter and Jasper von Seeburg |
Whether in Ozone Park, Richmond Hill, Woodhaven, Forest Hills, or Rego Park, the sentiment was the same: parks are great, but transit is needed more. If there is the opportunity for both, all the better.
CITY VIEWS: OPINIONS and ANALYSIS
Opinion: Congestion Pricing is a Step Forward for NYC
Cody Lyon |
“Congestion pricing is just one of many tools that will help tame some of the city street chaos a generation of car-centric planning left us with. And one of the primary benefactors of congestion pricing will be automobile drivers themselves.”
Government
More New Yorkers Are Struggling to Afford Public Transit: Report
Jeanmarie Evelly |
Transportation and anti-poverty advocates are pushing the Adams administration to provide an extra $55 million in the next budget to expand the Fair Fares program—through which low-income New Yorkers can qualify for half-priced MetroCards—to include people earning up to 200 percent of the federal poverty level, or about $60,000 for a four-person household.