Corinne is a visual artist, publicist, and writer. Ms. Innis has a background in cultural anthropology and over ten years experience in the arts. She was a long time resident of the San Francisco Bay Area for almost 15 years. While in the Bay area, she gained a reputation by producing art exhibits as well as large dinner parties where she facilitated discussion about social and political issues. by Corinne Innis
Mayor Michael Bloomberg is the man! He is Gotham's suit-and-tied super hero of green. His out-of-the-box thinking is exactly what the city needed: Ideas such as congestion pricing and renewable energy for New York City, absolutely. His congestion pricing plan would charge for driving into the city during peak hours, thus encouraging the use of public transportation.
| His renewable energy program would install windmills on city bridges, solar panels on skyscrapers, and utilize tidal, geothermal and nuclear energy. These are very big ideas that may someday fulfill Bloomberg's dream of cutting the city's greenhouse gas emissions 30% by 2030 and make Gotham the number one producer of clean power in the nation.
However, in this age of information and technology, little ideas are often morphed by big ideas. This lesson was brought home a few weeks ago after entering the subway station at 14th St and 7th Ave in Manhattan. Standing on the platform, I was filled with contempt and anger as a result of being totally overwhelmed by the heat of the subway and the smell of stale baked-on urine on the platform. It was an evening that I will never EVER forget. I stood in that hell spot, that subway latrine, for 10 minutes, waiting for the Number 2 train. I spent the rest of the evening trying to get the smell of urine from my hair and nostrils. It is a pity that small ideas like respecting and revering our concrete jungle get lost in puddles of urine. Micro-environmentalism in urban areas needs to coexist and grow strong amongst bigger ideas such as protecting jungles and polar ice caps. |
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by Corinne Innis
Mayor Michael Bloomberg is the man! He is Gotham's suit-and-tied super hero of green. His out-of-the-box thinking is exactly what the city needed: Ideas such as congestion pricing and renewable energy for New York City, absolutely. His congestion pricing plan would charge for driving into the city during peak hours, thus encouraging the use of public transportation.
| His renewable energy program would install windmills on city bridges, solar panels on skyscrapers, and utilize tidal, geothermal and nuclear energy. These are very big ideas that may someday fulfill Bloomberg's dream of cutting the city's greenhouse gas emissions 30% by 2030 and make Gotham the number one producer of clean power in the nation.
However, in this age of information and technology, little ideas are often morphed by big ideas. This lesson was brought home a few weeks ago after entering the subway station at 14th St and 7th Ave in Manhattan. Standing on the platform, I was filled with contempt and anger as a result of being totally overwhelmed by the heat of the subway and the smell of stale baked-on urine on the platform. It was an evening that I will never EVER forget. I stood in that hell spot, that subway latrine, for 10 minutes, waiting for the Number 2 train. I spent the rest of the evening trying to get the smell of urine from my hair and nostrils. It is a pity that small ideas like respecting and revering our concrete jungle get lost in puddles of urine. Micro-environmentalism in urban areas needs to coexist and grow strong amongst bigger ideas such as protecting jungles and polar ice caps. |
New York is an urban environment. The New York experience will vary depending on whether you are part of the rank and file, the middle class or the affluent. My experience in the "Boogie Down Bronx" and other areas in Manhattan and Brooklyn make it clear that little ideas such as respect and reverence are not part of our collective conscience or pop culture. We need a movement to keep our urban environment clean and sweet smelling. Our standards are way too low. We are accepting of things that can easily be fixed. Before we discuss windmills, I need a green hero to examine why some people:
Careful examination may show that the problem is not that the city is not being cleaned. The problem may lie in the fact that there is a pervasive culture that believes that public areas are dumping grounds and dirt and filth are part of urban living. In order for environmentalism to stick in this city, there has to be a shift in our beliefs and behavior. Less than two weeks ago, I was in a fruit-and-vegetable store in a multi-ethnic part of the Bronx. A thick-waisted matronly woman stood in line in front of me. She suddenly made a loud sound, coughed and spit (with the precision of a construction worker). It landed on the floor in the middle of the aisle between russet potatoes and stacks of strawberry crates. Spittle next to food? Spittle inside a storefront? Again, big ideas morph little ideas and in my working class section of town in particular, a macro-environmental trickle down theory may not be working. |
| Wind turbine in Bahrain |
| Mayor Bloomberg is a big man with big green plans for the city. He is encouraging businesses to submit proposals for his renewable energy plan by September 19,2008. So, here is my plan: We need to build bridges that connect people to the bigger ideas that will enable New York City to become the greenest city in the world, an intellectual bridge. Such a bridge could successfully alter norms, public perception and attitudes of what is perceived as acceptable living conditions. I would like to see more regulation, education and a substantial amount of publicity and marketing geared towards promoting the notion that a clean city is also a green city.
A department should be created to rate and report on urban blight. It would hold governmental agencies such as the MTA, apartment building owners, storefront owners and everyday citizens accountable. The exteriors of all buildings and sidewalks would be expected to be routinely power washed. Fines for littering and urinating in public would be increased and strictly enforced. Those that contribute to urban blight would pay to keep the city clean and green. |
| Arch windmills on top of building |
| If the goal is to have a greener city by 2030, a whole generation of young people has to be educated to what this will mean in our urban environment. I propose that a curriculum specific to New York City be developed for grades K-2 to address the ideas of micro-environmentalism in urban areas. The curriculum would prepare students to think critically about their neighborhoods, larger ideas in the environmental movement, and the proposed changes for the City of New York. Ideas in social studies, ecology and civics would be examined. The Curriculum should involve community service, the arts, citywide school exhibitions, fairs and lots of contests, awards and prizes.
A key facet of this bridge to New York's future as a green city is the transmission of ideas to the general public. As a kid, New City launched a huge I Love New York campaign to change the image of the City. I still remember the TV commercials with the Rockettes. I think that the same needs to be done based on the idea that we need to keep our city clean and green. Famous New Yorkers such as Robert DeNiro or Jennifer Lopez could be used as "cheer leaders" in the effort to get New York clean and green. I believe that someday New York can serve as a model urban environment, from 14th street and 7th Avenue to the far corners of all the boroughs. This accomplishment can become a facet of New York City that is marketed internationally to tourists. New York is the most incredible city in the world. We all have to serve as its caretakers. The Green message has to include the common man, woman and child. The message has to be worked on and drilled into our collective consciousness via images and city programs. Otherwise we'll simply end up with roof tops filled with windmills and streets with litter and stale urine. |