UPCOMING TALKS:

December 11 2019: NYC Water Rising – What is NYC doing about it?

Speakers: Kate Boicourt, WaterFront Alliance. Johannes Sayre, Independent Researcher.

January 8 2020: How to get involved with the 2020 elections.

Speaker: Ariel Hayes, Sierra Club National Political Director.

ALL PROGRAMS HELD AT:

Seafarers International House
123 East 15th Street, corner of Irving Place, Manhattan
Doors open 6:30pm for refreshments; Program 7:00 – 9:00pm.

HOW TO GET IN TOUCH:

NYC website: nyc.sierraclub.org
Facebook: facebook.com/nycsierraclub
Instagram: instagram.com/nycsierraclubgroup

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PAST EVENTS:

JANUARY 10: ISSUES FROM TRANSPORTATION HELL

William Henderson – Executive Director of Riders Council to MTA
Nick Sifuentes – Executive Director of Tri-State Transportation Campaign
Letitia James – Public Advocate

At the January 2018 Sustainability Series, Public Advocate Letitia James emphasized the importance of making improvements to NYC’s broken, overburdened mass transit system. Specifically, she highlighted the devastating environmental impacts associated with more of the public using taxis, cars, and ride sharing services rather than risk taking subway trains that frequently break down or fail to show up. James also spoke about the need for the NY State government to increase funding for the MTA, as subway fare is often used to subsidize infrastructure for projects upstate.

Next, William Henderson, Executive Director of Riders Council to MTA, spoke about the huge burden the MTA faces every day in bearing over 5 million riders per day on average anywhere they want to go, hugely decreasing street congestion and providing a safe, environmentally friendly, cost effective method of transit for more riders than the next 15 city transit systems around the US combined. Along with that burden, he mentioned that MTA is hugely in debt due to a lack of funding from the state as well as a failure to always take preventative measures in improving train infrastructure, thus leading to expensive upkeep after long-term damage has often already been done. He emphasized that public input via social media, phone, and town halls is necessary to get on-the-ground feedback as to the conditions of our trains, as well as to the types of improvements that would help riders the most (for instance, the count-down clocks have proved a huge success in customer satisfaction, while increasing accessibility for disabled passengers is a vital next step at many stations). For more information, check out www.pcac.org or contact Henderson at Whenders@mtahq.org.

Finally, Nick Sifuentes, Executive Director of Tri-State Transportation Campaign (TSTC), stressed that it’s cheaper and more beneficial to improve bus service rather than rehaul our subway – buses are also better for helping the disabled. Additionally, TSTC supports congestion pricing, which has been in effect in London for ten years and has demonstrated success in Hong Kong. Among other things, congestion pricing would involve placing tolls on the four East River bridges and applying the money collected towards mass transit improvements. Finally, he stressed that change is urgent: forget pilot projects for electric buses, we should work to roll these buses out as soon as we can! Learn more at Tstc.org and Blog.tstc.org, or contact Sifuentes at Nsifuentes@tstc.org.

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FEB. 14: LOVE OUR URBAN TREES

Carsten Glaser – Sr. Consulting Arborist at Glaeser Horticultural Consulting, Inc.

 
Samuel A. Bishop – Trees NY, Director of Education & Arborist


Jennifer Greenfeld – Assistant Commissioner Forestry, NYC Parks

MAR. 14: PESTICIDES ARE POISONS

Sarah Evans, PhD MPH – Children’s Environmental Health Center, Mt. Sinai, NY
Alexis Andiman – Earth Justice, Assoc. Attorney, Sustainable Food & Farming Program
Patti Wood – Grassroots Action in Long Island, Pt. Washington NY, Ex. Director

APR. 11: OVER CONSUMPTION & ECONOMIC GROWTH

Joshua Farley, PhD – Institute for Ecological Economics, Univ. of VT
Reverend Billy (Talen) – The Stop Shopping Choir
Kelly Dennings – Social and Behavior Change Fellow For New Dream

May 9: POLITICAL ACTION: What We Can Do

Celeste Morris – President of MorrisonAllsop Public Affairs
Peter Iwanowicz – Executive Director, Environmental Action NY
Loren Blackford – Sierra Club President