Stories tagged with "land use"

Wanted: Hard Data on Local Sustainability

Posted by Glenn on October 29, 2007 - 8:00pm in The Oil Drum: Local
Topic: Environment/Sustainability
Tags: data, electricity, energy, land use, liquid fuels, local, social capital, statistics, walkability [list all tags]

Now that New York has had six months since Mayor Bloomberg's PlaNYC sustainability plan, kicked off and they have released their interim report on their progress, I thought I might take a step back to think about how we evaluate sustainability at the local level.

Here at The Oil Drum, we love good data. We love hard objective data that can not only tell a story, but highlight the importance of a particular issue in a crisp fashion. However at the local level, data is not as easy to locate or not consistent enough to make an objective positive statement. The result, as many have probably realized, is that local discussions become inherently normative, political and frankly, messy.

So, help me find some data at the local level...

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NYC's Past as a Model for Sustainable Planning

Posted by Glenn on February 11, 2007 - 4:06pm in The Oil Drum: Local
Topic: Environment/Sustainability
Tags: climate change, conservation, development, global warming, land use, mixed use, new york city, public transportation [list all tags]

The good folks at NYC's PlaNYC 2030 sustainability office have just released a series of short powerpoint presentations establishing a baseline on a variety of sustainability metrics and their analysis on future trends.

It paints a somewhat troubling picture of where we are now and where we are headed. Moreover, only some of this is within our own control. Because Global Warming is by definition not locally controlled, NYC might do everything in its power and still face major consequences of rising sea levels along with many other global port cities. In many senses though the point is not that NYC will be the decisive place where carbon reductions are found and the battle is won. Rather it's to show that NYC is doing more part in the fight against global warming and can continue to make great strides in reducing it's contribution. My hope is that NYC can be a shining light in the fight to reduce greenhouse gases, a showcase city proving that reductions in Greenhouse gases are not just possible, but economically efficient and increase quality of life. And when I say NYC, I'm really talking mostly about the infrastructure built in the 19th Century (dense, walkable, mixed use land use) and early 20th Century (extensive mass transit system complete with subways, regional train system and trolleys).

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Integrating Energy, Transportation and Land Use

Posted by Glenn on October 1, 2006 - 3:40pm in The Oil Drum: Local
Topic: Demand/Consumption
Tags: energy, land use, oil, peak oil, public transportation, transportation, zoning [list all tags]

It's impossible to think of ways of curing our overwhelming addiction to oil and other fossil fuels or significantly cutting our greenhouse gas emissions just through altering the source of our primary energy production. If one truly wants to achieve greater efficiencies and demand reductions, you have to start including two important policy areas: Transportation and Land Use.

We recently discussed New Jersey's Transit Oriented Development projects in local communities - the Transit Village program that encourages mixed use development around mass transit hubs.

Today, Jeff Zupan of the Regional Planning Assocation and Martin Robbins and Scott Weiner of Rutgers University calculate the efficiency difference of workers commuting to suburban office complexes, versus those that commute to downtown business centers. They write about it in today's NY Times opinion section:

A recent Rutgers study documented the energy benefits that derive from commuting to cities by public transit versus commuting by car to suburban work sites. We found that driving to a suburban office campus in Morris County's Parsippany-Troy Hills area consumed 57 percent more energy than taking a train or a bus to downtown Newark. If the substantial job growth predicted over the next two decades was in downtown Newark and similar cities instead of in distant suburbs along highways, New Jersey would see huge energy savings. Nearly 11.5 million gallons of gasoline a year would be saved by increasing the number of jobs in downtown Newark, essentially doubling them, instead of locating them in the suburbs.

This shows that energy, transportation and land use policies are all connected. So, how can we change the path of job creation and development away from the suburbs and closer to denser population and mass transit hubs?

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NY State Community Preservation

Posted by Glenn on April 21, 2006 - 9:35am in The Oil Drum: Local
Topic: Demand/Consumption
Tags: food, land use, preservation, sprawl [list all tags]

Ok, I normally don't like to do fundraising on TOD, leaving it in the wisdom of each of you to decide where you should put your money. But this appeal from the Environmental Advocates of NY struck me not just because it is working on a anti-sprawl land preservation issues but mostly because they are asking for so little to achieve their goal. They only need $200 to meet their goal to get an ad placed in the Legislative Gazette to promote a piece of legislation against sprawl.

New York State is losing almost 200 acres of forests, fields and farms to new development every day. Historic downtown districts are falling further into disrepair as big box stores open on the outskirts of town.  

A law currently before the NY legislature would give our cities and towns the ability to protect the heart and soul of their communities. We need to educate NY lawmakers about solutions to this growing problem.

Thanks to the generosity of many of you, we have raised almost $800 to publish a special Earth Day supplement in the Legislative Gazette, the must-read newspaper for elected officials in the Capitol. We need to raise $200 more to meet our goal!

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