Adi Talwar
The Bay is a critical habitat for birds, supporting some 325 species.
This week, City Limits has examined how New York City’s water renaissance is working out in two places that represent our waterfront past and present: Newtown Creek and Jamaica Bay. Here are images from both:
It is one of the most polluted waterways in the country. It’s at the crux of efforts to restore health and improve access to New York’s waterways. And from the vantage point of a small motorboat, Newtown Creek somehow manages to be beautiful.
The bay is considered the crown jewel of the city’s green spaces, home to hundreds of species of birds, fishes and marine life. It’s a ecosystem unique within the entire Northeast coast just a hour subway ride from downtown Manhattan. The proximity to the city makes Jamaica Bay a unique wild environment in urban setting but is also its major threat.
Along Newtown Creek and Jamaica Bay, decades of work are slowly restoring neglected waterways. Now comes a new challenge: Making sure New Yorkers can use those liquid assets in harmony with industry and nature.
The disparities built into the city’s property tax system can be hard to fathom. So one architecture firm tried to tell the story in 3D.
For years, New York City has wrestled with the impact of combined sewer overflows on local rivers, creeks, canals and bays. But while raw sewage is certainly a problem, simple rainwater might pose an environmental challenge that’s harder to address.
An already belated effort to bring city rivers and bays up to Clean Water Act standards appears to have stalled because of a legal dispute involving Albany’s approval of the city’s cleanup plans.
While composting food waste is better that simply burying it in landfills, both techniques have their costs, and both involve a fundamental failure: The food could have been eaten.
A skyscraper is more than just a building. And Manhattan’s new generation of supertall buildings are more than mere skyscrapers. They are an expression, to some, of wealth’s metastasizing supremacy.
Many city property owners see a source of greener power in that ball of fire 93 million miles away. The risk of a fire closer to home, however, can make it problematic to erect solar panels on many buildings.
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