New York City has many admirable goals to improve itself over the next two decades as part of the PlaNYC program. Designed to increase the “liveability” of the city in the categories of land, water, transportation, energy, and air, these goals fit well into the framework of sustainability. They seem to follow and seem to match up well with a conclusion I came to in previous essays – that the city must take advantage of the opportunities presented to it, and renew itself to be better and more efficient.
The city plans to take greater advantage of its resources, as any city might. But rather than develop for industry, the improvements outlined for PlaNYC seem focused on allowing millions of New Yorkers to enjoy the full benefits of the city they live in. Unusable brownfields are to be cleaned and restored – many of them into parks for the city’s residents. Waterways are to be opened, not for commercial fishing, but for recreation. And greenhouse gas emissions are to be lowered by 30%, a goal which, if achieved, would be extremely impressive.
Many of the goals outlined in the plan are simply logical, such as improving the city’s electrical grid and transportation system or building additional housing. But the primary beneficiaries of the improvements will be those who live there, as residents and workers rather than owners or businesses. Creating a city that people want to live in is improvement from the ground up – business and innovation will follow. If New York can become the nicest city in America to live in, by the standards of the general population, it will surely secure itself as the city model city of the future.
Many successes have already been logged in the record book for PlaNYC. Municipal infrastructure and train lines that can function underground are being decked over by housing and business, facilities that can take better advantage of clean air and natural light. In this way the city continues to make more of itself advantageous to more New Yorkers. New train lines focus on decreasing congestion and designing more efficient routes. The city is functional now, and excellent in many respects – but if PlaNYC accomplishes its goals, the city will be on track to become an excellent city for everyone.
I was particularly intrigued to learn of Staten Island’s “Bluebelt” program. This is a prime example of green engineering – engineering waterways and ecosystems to process our water and protect our land. The juxtaposition between the natural-looking drainage system and the vacuum truck was unique, but possibly indicative of trends to come. The system is a mutualistic partnership between humans and nature, as opposed to a parasitic or even commensal one. This matches up perfectly with the lyric from the song we listened to in class: “if you’re after getting the honey, don’t go killing all the bees.”
In reading about science and technology, I often hear about scientists delving into natural processes as a framework for technology. But sometimes we can simply redirect existing systems to suit our needs. Of course, we have learned lessons in what happens when we use introduce formerly remote species into new environments. But our tools have become more subtle since we intentionally relocated invasive species to remove pests or do other tasks for us. Genetic engineering lets us introduce specific traits into a species. GM crops are now common, but I don’t believe we have ever used such organisms for much of a role in green engineering or sustainable development. I expect it won’t be long before our knowledge is complete enough, or our need is dire enough, for us to give it a try.
