Sustaining The Nature Of New York Paul Zappitielli

EAB In a previous presentation, I discussed the creation of an Environmental Awareness Blitz (EAB) to address the problem of environmental ignorance in New York City. I advocated the creation of advertisements, similar to those used by the MTA, to target New Yorkers in specific areas throughout the city. The advertisements would be strategically placed in the five boroughs, addressing particular problems effecting those specific neighborhoods.

EAB Of the many problems faced by people from my community, Bayside, the problem of dependency on gasoline is by far the worst. I have chosen to take a leap from simple advertisements to an actual plan for dealing with automobile traffic throughout Bayside. But it is vital to understand the automobile problem in the city and its roots.

The Power Broker Though it is grossly unfair to blame one person for the unrestrained expansion of the automobile for much of the first half of the 20 th century, Robert Moses did more than any other New Yorker to shape the city into the highway central it is today. While many of his public projects were for good, many were also for bad. Moses despised public transportation and doomed the city by building every one of his highways without a railroad link. A railroad link would have been invaluable to the city’s highways, not just for traffic, but to ease the excessive gasoline usage that makes New Yorker’s ecological footprint so very large.

The Power Broker The average New Yorker has an extremely high ecological footprint. This is, in part, due to the fact that New York is a virtual maze of interstate highways and arterial parkways. Unfortunately for our ecological footprint, these highways are here to stay; as embedded into neighborhoods as the people living there are.

The Power Broker Like the cornerstone of a building, the skeleton of the city is shaped by his overarching hand in the form of three lane highways. Since the time of Robert Moses, city project planning and environmentalism have been cursed by the double edged sword of community expansion. Communities are now too large and too strong to invoke any sort of change that deviates from what already exists. This is why any new public project would need to be built in accordance with the existing frame of the city.

Air Train But a seemingly hopeless plan began to take serious form in 1997 in the form of Air Train. Air Train provides a rail link from the Jamaica Railroad-Subway Station to JFK International Airport. The train runs atop the median of the Van Wyck Expressway. Nowhere is this more true than with the Van Wyck Expressway and the Air Train. The Van Wyck Expressway is synonymous with unyielding traffic jams for miles heading to JFK airport.

The Air Train Plan Calling for something similar on many of the roads throughout the city would ease traffic and congestion. This is why I call for an “Air Train Plan” Environmentally, taking a train to and from work, as opposed to driving, would save money on gasoline. And building atop existing thoroughfares is the only conceivable mass-transit solution to New York’s dependency on the automobile.

The Air Train Plan Of the two highways that cut through Bayside, only the Cross Island Parkway would be suitable for an Air Train Plan. The Clearview Expressway runs only from The Throgs Neck Bridge to The Grand Central Parkway. The Cross Island Parkway, however, from the Whitestone Bridge to Sunrise Highway, is longer and would be able to serve more residents. This Cross Island Railroad Project should be one of many railroad expansion projects for the city’s roadway system.

EAB But highway expansion alone will not be enough. In order to deal with the increased population in Bayside, other expansions of mass transit are needed.

West Side Expansion Mayor Bloomberg, Governor Pataki, Robert Johnson and other billionaires are striving to build a West Side Stadium in part of a West Side Expansion of unused property on the Hudson. Part of this West Side Expansion Plan calls for the extension of the IRT 7 Subway Line to the proposed stadium.

East Side Expansion I, however, am not a billionaire. But I call for expansion of the 7 line as well. Except, I call for the expansion on The East side (of the city), not The West Side (of Manhattan). I call it East Side Expansion. I call for extending the old IRT Subway line further into Queens along Northern Boulevard, terminating at the proposed Cross Island Railroad Station

East Side Expansion The subway system in the city services most of the five boroughs with the exception of the East Side of Queens. Nearly all the subways were built over 50 years ago, when the eastern termini were mostly rural and empty. However, since that time, there has been much expansion east of the termini of the major lines (7,F,E,J,Z,A). Therefore an East Side Expansion, of at least the 7 line, would be appropriate.

East Side Expansion This East Side Expansion would do wonders for public transportation in Bayside. It would cut down on automobile usage and congestion along many highway routes (such as the LIE, Clearview, and Whitestone Expressways and the Cross Island and Grand Central Parkways). It would also reduce the ecological footprint of most Baysiders whose footprints, like mine, are dangerously high.

Sustaining The Nature of New York In order to sustain the Nature of New York, changes must be made. Necessary expansions of mass transit must be made before our ecological footprint becomes too large and human life is no longer sustainable in the five boroughs. Implementation of The Air Train Plan and The East Side Expansion are viable public works projects that would protect New York from destroying itself.