This picture was taken while I was on my morning bike ride to school. It had rained the night before and one of the sewer drains was overflowing with water, as is depicted in the photograph. Additionally, there was a man, who is not depicted in this photograph, who was using a broom to sweep away the excess water in an attempt to clear the flooded curbside.

This picture is not one that depicts a unique situation since flooded sewers are abundant all across New York City. This unfortunate reality shows that the New York City sewer system is not equipped to handle a large amount of rainfall. As climate change slowly becomes an inevitable reality, cities across the country and the globe have to start preparing for harsher and more abundant storms. The fact that New York City’s sewer system is already overwhelmed by an ordinary rainstorm raises serious concerns of how this same system will fair against a much fiercer opponent. This picture portrays the immediate need for New York City to think of ways to improve its infrastructure so that it can combat harsher storms. Just as Mayor de Blasio proposed to extend the island of Manhattan to combat flooding, the city needs to continue to brainstorm solutions that will combat the negative elements that climate change will inflict upon our society.

This is a photo that was taken of the roof of the New York Institute for Special Education that is located in the Bronx. I was fortunate enough to be able to volunteer there as a part of my community service obligation for Macaulay. While many institutions across New York have been receptive to the city’s sustainability efforts, I believe that the most active institutions are the New York City schools. This picture represents one of the initiatives that schools are taking in order to continue the fight for New York City’s sustainability. Other initiatives include zero waste schools, water conversation programs, and cultivating school gardens.[1]

While it is important that all institutions enact sustainability initiatives, I believe that is especially important that schools spearhead these initiatives. One reason is that it is important for schools to educate their students with regard to promoting and practicing a sustainable lifestyle. Another important reason that schools should be leading these initiatives is to encourage students to get involved and to become active participants in helping New York City fight for sustainability. In general, it is very inspirational to see schools, like the New York Institute, fronting the battle for sustainability.

[1] https://www.schools.nyc.gov/school-life/buildings/sustainability

Different variations of these signs can be found all over New York City and although they differ slightly, they all fight for one common goal—to prevent dogs from ruining the greenery. While there are obvious implications of why these signs exist, I believe that there is a slightly deeper meaning to them. If you look at these signs through a sustainability lens you can see that these signs seek to uphold the sustainability efforts that are brought about by these small, but numerous, green areas. As a result of New York City’s heavily urban setting, any greenery, even the smallest of patches, are significant. Although individual patches are small, together they cumulatively contribute to New York City’s sustainability effort each and every day. Therefore, it is signs like these, that uphold the integrity of these green spaces, that allows us to continue to further our sustainability effort.

I was walking down 14^th street, next to the L train construction sight, when I noticed this strange looking orange box. As you can tell from the photo, the box says that it is from Wang Technologies and that it is a Geotechnical Instrument. Unfortunately, I had no idea what this little box’s purpose was.

After doing research on the Wang Technologies website, I concluded that this box is used to monitor the quality of life around geotechnical projects, which are ones that involve the ground and earth materials. Essentially, the purpose of this little box is to monitor things like dust, noise, groundwater, and air quality around a geotechnical project, like the L train construction.

This photo demonstrates how something so small can make a significant contribution to New York City’s sustainability. The purpose of this box is to help sustain areas that surround major geotechnical projects by monitoring the health and safety of these areas. It is small items like this box from Wang Technologies that demonstrates the ability of small things to have an impact on New York City’s sustainability.

Sources:

http://wangtechnology.com/areas-of-expertise/geotechnical-structural-instrumentation-monitoring/

https://www.deepexcavation.com/en/Geotechnical-instrumentation-monitoring

https://www.google.com/search?q=what+is+a+geotechnical+project&oq=what+is+a+geotechnical+project&aqs=chrome..69i57j0.5370j1j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

This picture represents the new Citi bike initiative of adding an arsenal of electric bikes to the docks around New York City. For those of you that are unfamiliar with Citi bike current events, in the past year, Citi bike began to release new electric bikes to their inventory. These petal-assist bikes can hit up to speeds of 18 miles per hour, making any riding experience better and faster.

Recently, Citi bike announced that they would be releasing an additional 4,000 bikes across the city. A big reason for the increase in electric bikes is to alleviate the adversity that has fallen upon commuters who use the L train.

I believe that this new initiative from Citi bike is a really interesting way of combating L train construction and a good way to attract new riders. This will hopefully increase the demand for Citi bikes especially because it will make for a much faster commute for bikers. As I reiterated on multiple occasions, the transportation system is pivotal in New York City’s effort to remain sustainable. As a result, it is creative initiatives, like these, that will help New York City combat obstacles, such as subway construction, that will allow New York City to continue to be sustainable.

I’m sure that everyone is familiar with the spots in New York City that look similar to this one. This is a picture of Dias Y Flores, which is a small community garden that is located by my apartment in Manhattan. I believe that this picture is a good representation of New York City’s effort at breaking up the heavily urban setting with some greenery. These types of small green parks can be found all over Manhattan and it allows city dwellers to go and enjoy a greener area every now and again. It is these types of initiatives that show New York City’s awareness of the need for greenery.

In addition to the role that these community gardens play in breaking up the urban city, I also believe that these community gardens have an important role in the fight for New York City’s continued sustainability. It is clear that a major way that New York City can continue its sustainability is to create a greener environment. As a result, these community gardens that are found all over the city were the first step at creating a slightly greener New York City. Subsequently, it is the role of these parks as the first steps in creating a greener New York City that allows them to help the city in the fight for its sustainability.