Cohen highlights how although many cities are investing in sustainability efforts, a truly sustainable city in both its processes and its infrastructure will support a renewable energy-based global economy using city culture and foreign nation’s models for reference.

Although every time I enter NYC gallery posts tab and see trash pictures, NYC has been implementing sustainable initiatives for a while, such as Highline Park and Zero Waste initiative. I think in the United States, environmental consciousness needs to developed outside of progressive cities and that’s hard to do so with our current political climate. But, we will definitely see more trends and development of sustainable transportation and smart parks in cities.

Many of the issues regarding sustainability and resiliency lies behind financial support. Without adequate funding, who will clean those subway tracks or plant those trees?  A simple answer is to increase taxes to raise revenue, but that would obviously create public dissent. According to the reading, a more creative solution is needed. Instead of outright taking a percentage of their paychecks, the government can introduce new ways to increase spending. For instance, many of the bills that we pay (TV, internet) used to be free. Driving in congested areas used to also be free. Now, we pay these fees (aka hidden taxes) without realizing that they’re basically just taxes.

Cities throughout the world are proposing ideas to better implement sustainable measures. Although ambitious, these measures represent a step in the right direction if stopping global climate change and improving the lives of citizens are to be prioritized.

Other cities and countries may be ahead of us in terms of sustainability and/or resiliency, and other places may be struggling, just like we are, or even at a worse place. It isn’t a competition to see who can be the most sustainable city; rather, we should all be looking for ways to improve and innovate ourselves by looking at other cities as examples. The worst thing is sitting back and doing nothing.

New York City is not alone in having sustainability issues. Many other cities experience congestion, waste, and pollution, but they all figure out how to adapt and adjust new ideas to improve the cities. We just have to proactively start attacking one issue at a time.

When reading about all of these projects that revolve around how to better use resources and manage wastes and such, I find that everyone begins ambitious, and this was the same with the chapters I read. My takeaway was that with ambition, comes large scales which brings large costs. I find that while many of the proposed projects we read about make sense and should solve the issue, the discussion about where all this money comes from is smoothly passed over as something that will be figured after the project is announced. This is a big issue because as I’ve read in the Cohen chapters, there are many different actors to consider when making these kinds of projects (businesses, government, organizations, citizens…). That’s why the TransMilenio project seemed cool because while it was overly ambitious, it implemented both public and private companies and was a very joint-effort project.

I think that the smart grid was a good solution because it was small-scale but modular so it could be developed to help the entire city later on. The plan also made it very easy to include different actors as the project expanded (different electric and heating companies). The only issue I found was having to put the power core thing underneath the ground. The jungle underneath NYC is already a mess, is digging a hole and putting another thing in really a good idea?

After reading Sustainable Cities, I learned a lot more about China’s ever-expanding railway system. China currently has 19,000 kilometers of high speed railways and are set to build 30,000 more kilometers in the next 5 years. By 2020, all of China’s cities with populations greater than 500,000 will be connected by high speed railways. One of the reasons I was so fascinated in learning about China’s rail system is because much of the progress made was accomplished with the last 15 years. The first set of bullet trains only opened in 2007. While China’s effort in expanding this method of transportation has already been seen to be helping the economy, some question how all this construction is being funded. In addition, it is unlikely that such rapid development would be able to be mirrored in America since two of the main reasons China is able to lay track so cheaply is because of their cheap labor costs and the government’s ability to easily procure land.

The readings point out that the key to improving the waste management, mass transit, and public spaces is innovation. Giving individuals and private companies that are leading in different areas the freedom and incentives to do what they’re good at benefits everyone in the city in the end. Beijing acquired EEW and it proved a success. It might be a good idea for NYC to acquire such companies or giving them an incentive to work on projects that would improve the city.   The chapter of Parks and Public Space describes several cases where environmentally harmful or just simply abandoned underutilized spaces were transformed into successful parks. Genius engineering as well as public and private organizations working together made these public spaces a success. However, as in the case of Gas Works Park, contamination issues could arise because of the functions that such places served before. I think that this could serve as a lesson to other such projects and perhaps before transforming postindustrial spaces for public use the pollutants should be completely removed.

One of the greatest takeaways from Cohen’s The Sustainable City is the notion of global sustainability efforts. Presenting different models from around the US and the world illustrates effective examples of preserving environmental aspects in urban settings. This also helps promote the idea that sustainability must be a global effort. While a lot of the carbon footprint cannot be reversed, there are ways in which we can prevent exacerbating the problem. Cohen presents many different ideas of sustainability appropriate for different types of settings. Looking towards other countries and cities encourages us to think about the different elements we can incorporate into New York in an effort to create a more sustainable society. The other models also demonstrate that sustainability efforts are helpful and successful and can truly create a difference in our environment going forward.