New York: Green City?

Is New York an environment-friendly city?  Many might say no.  There's a lingering prejudice that environmental thinking flourishes best in the wilderness, not the city.  It's also often assumed that this city in particular is too consumed with "making it" to consider the state of the planet.

But that view makes no sense.  Living in a big city saves energy and other resources: New Yorkers produce, on average, only about one-third the greenhouse gases of the average American.  No wonder, since there's less driving and more walking and transit riding here than anywhere else in North America.  Sustainability is hardwired into big cities.

The city also seems eager to pursue environmental initiatives.  Walking and cycling the streets over the last few weeks I've noticed the following:

Another new bike lane grows in Manhattan

First, an ever-expanding network of bike paths.  Every second or third street in Manhattan has a bike path, many separate from traffic lanes.  Some bike lanes even have their own traffic lights (last time I saw that was in Copenhagen).  Although it's experiencing some financial issues, the bike share program supports 35,000 rides a day (yesterday four of those were me).

Sometimes people even look at these

A few streets have been pedestrianized, with tables and chairs replacing traffic.  American cities don't yet place in the international standings of bike-friendliness, but it's good to see the effort being made. 

The streets have abundant recycling facilities: separate containers for bottles and other recyclables.  And the city is running several pilot composting programs.  Our building participates: I noticed one morning a truck below our apartment window, picking up tons of compostable stuff.

Soon... tons of compost

And as I've paced the streets I've been interested to see a multitude of small parks and gardens, many the result of community initiatives.  Some are due to people pushing the city (like Canal Park: more than a century old, obliterated in the 1930s for the construction of the Holland Tunnel, then recreated in 2005).  Some are the creation of neighbors picking up shovels and seeds themselves (here's Annie's Garden, which I found in Brooklyn).

Annie's Garden -- community project in Brooklyn

Canal Park -- lower Manhattan

 A majority of the city's taxis are hybrids.  So are many city buses.  (On the other hand, the streets remain infested with big black SUVS.  Must be a lot of Tony Soprano wannabees out there�.)

These and other initiatives are described in PlaNYC, the city's sustainability plan adopted in 2007.

And yet.  Many dimensions of a city's environment aren't included in the highly visible, feel-good initiatives I've noted above.  For example, ten years ago I wrote in Nature's Experts about the challenges of contamination and environmental justice experienced in New York's "lead belt": the neighborhoods where exposure to lead remains a stubborn reality, especially for many children, due to lead paint and other hazards.  The city appears to be making progress, but the city's own maps indicate the lead belt still exists.  Community activists continue to press for action on this hazard.

And now, in the aftermath of October 2012, and Hurricane Sandy's storm surge (which flooded a good piece of New York) the word is resilience.  Having been given a taste of the salty apocalypse, the city is spending billons to make the city less vulnerable to storms and a rising ocean.  "Fix and Fortify" is the transit authority's mantra � a somewhat military framing of the challenge of making the subway able to withstand storms (Sandy flooded several tunnels; one is still closed for repairs).

Which leads me to wonder: between the attention to highly visible "green" initiatives � bike lanes, recycling, community gardens � and the imperative of resilience in the face of storms and a rising ocean, are less visible environmental hazards and injustices, such as lead, receiving the attention they need?