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Environment

While serving as Chief of Staff to Assembly Member Jonathan L. Bing our office received an honor from the New York League of Conservation Voters for introducing environmentally friendly legislation that helped enable the MTA's Select Bus Program.

As someone who grew up in New York City and State the environment including our City and State parks, greenways such as running and bike paths, and waterways are of integral importance. As a child I grew up playing in Carl Schurz and John Jay parks, and as an adult I've hiked in our State parks with Surprise Lake Camp, biked over 75+ miles of our greenways with Transportation Alternatives, swam across the East River with NYC Swim and in the Hudson River with the New York City Triathlon, and trained everywhere with the Asphalt Green Triathlon team.

As an avid user of our City and States natural resources, you won't find a better advocate for our environment. After all what other candidate would fight to keep the City's rivers clean enough to swim in?

Manhattan Express CB8’s Last-Ditch Effort to “De-Privatize” UES’ Queensboro Oval by Jackson Chen

http://www.manhattanexpressnews.com/cb8s-last-ditch-effort-de-privatize-ues-quee...

“We don’t have enough parks in the district,” Kallos said. “We have some of the lowest numbers of parks space per capita. Any place we have park land, we need to be using it as park land for the entire community.”

According to a study done by a parks advocacy organization in 2013, Kallos’ District 5 ranked the fifth worst in the ratio of land area to parks space out of all 51 Council districts.

In the New Yorkers for Parks’ study, the district falls far short of the standards set out by the group, which call for 2.5 acres of total open space per 1,000 residents. Kallos’ district scored only 0.47 acres of open space per 1,000 residents.

The group’s study also noted that the balance between public use as a ball field and private use as tennis courts shifted in 2012 to the advantage of the courts’ operator, when it secured an additional six weeks of time that keeps the bubble in the park into June.

To combat what they deem a slow creep of private use, Kallos said he would be working with the community board by reviewing the current contract with Sutton East, making sure the contract isn’t renewed, and trying to secure city funds to revert the park into public space year-round.

“In order for this to work, we’re going to have to pay a lot of attention between now and 2017 and make sure this contract doesn’t get renewed,” Kallos said.

Issue: 
Environment

Natural Resources Defense Council New York City Poised to Adopt Plastic Bag Fee to Curb Street Litter and Waterway Pollution by Eric A. Goldstein

https://www.nrdc.org/experts/eric-goldstein/new-york-city-poised-adopt-plastic-b...

The New York City Council is expected to vote this afternoon on legislation that would place a five cent fee on single use plastic and paper bags—a forward-looking initiative designed to slash the seemingly endless stream of plastic litter in the nation’s largest city.

The bill would place a five cent fee on plastic and paper carryout bags dispensed at supermarkets, grocery stores, convenience stores, pharmacies. Fees collected would be retained by the retailer, but shoppers who bring their own bags with them would be exempt from all charges.

Issue: 
Environment