Cuny Institute For Sustainable Cities

This talk looks at the challenge of the Sustainable Megacity through Sao Paulo’s experience as a city of 20 million people, with expansion that ranges from formal urban development to the informal context of huge slums. This work signalizes parameters for a city that is reinventing itself through eco-urbanism after the "expanding and exhausting" model of the 21st Century when the city grew by 27,000% in population and 40,000% in urban territory. Carlos Leite is an Architect and Urbanist with a Master and PhD in Urban Design from the University of Sao Paulo and a Postdoc from California Polytechnic University where he was Visiting Professor. He is Professor at the School of Architecture and Planning, Mackenzie Presbyterian University, Sao Paulo. He is releasing his first book: Cidades Sustentaveis, Cidades Inteligentes in Brazil (Bookman). He is principal at Stuchi & Leite Projetos:www.stuchileite.com

This program is the first in a series designed to increase awareness and dialogue between residents and stakeholders of New York City and other communities in the Hudson Watershed. Recording of a panel discussion held at Roosevelt House, NYC on Wednesday, December 1st, 2010 - 1PM-5PM.

Session 4 Wed. April 28, 2010 Reviving the Estuary: Science, Politics, and Education Moderator: Dr. John Waldman, Queens College Speakers/Panelists Deborah A. Mans, Executive Director, NY/NJ Baykeeper Christopher J. Collins, Executive Director, Solar One Cortney Worrall, Director of Programs, Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance Murray Fisher, Urban Assembly New York Harbor School William Kornblum, Author, At Sea in the City: New York at the Water’s Edge In 1609, New York’s future waterfront was an arcadian shore of forests, wetlands, beaches, and sand bars, according to Eric Sanderson's book Mannahatta. That landscape is lost forever, but visions of a post-industrial, neo-natural waterfront are longstanding. In 1944, futurists Paul and Percival Goodman proposed that Manhattan "open out toward the water," lining its gritty waterfront with new parks. They were prescient: today the water’s edge of Manhattan is evolving from a "no-man's-land" into a "highly desirable zone of parks," in the words of wr

Session 3 Wed. April 7, 2010 Seizing Opportunities: Waterfront Works in Progress Moderator: Dr. Melissa Checker, Queens College, CUNY Speakers/Panelists Robert Pirani, Regional Plan Association and Governors Island Alliance––Governors Island Kate Van Tassel, NYCEDC and Miquela Craytor, Sustainable South Bronx––South Bronx Greenway Ambassador William J. vanden Heuvel, Four Freedoms Park Nancy Webster, Acting Executive-Director, Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy Joshua Laird, Asst. Commissioner, NYC Parks and Recreation Background In 1609, New York’s future waterfront was an arcadian shore of forests, wetlands, beaches, and sand bars, according to Eric Sanderson's book Mannahatta. That landscape is lost forever, but visions of a post-industrial, neo-natural waterfront are longstanding. In 1944, futurists Paul and Percival Goodman proposed that Manhattan "open out toward the water," lining its gritty waterfront with new parks. They were prescient: today the water’s edge of Manhattan is evolving fr

GreenHome NYC is pleased to announce their February 17 monthly forum, The Women of Green, at a location to be determined. In this 1.5 hour presentation, attendees will meet 12 women in the green field, established professionals who are trying and succeeding in changing the environmental movement. The presentation will be done in Pecha Kucha format, where each presenter is allowed 20 images, each shown for 20 seconds - giving 6 minutes 40 seconds of fame before the next presenter is up. This keeps presentations concise, the interest level up, and gives more people the chance to present. This is a forum for women (and maybe well-behaved men) to see the breadth of careers in the sustainable field that don’t involve what we like to call the green “bling” (ground source heat pumps, solar, wind, bamboo, green roofs, and the like). This will be held as the regular monthly forum meeting of GreenHomeNYC (www.greenhomenyc.org) an all- volunteer organization dedicated to helping people in the NYC region green thei

Session 2 Wed. March 17, 2010: Waterfront Parks: Old, New, Green, Blue Moderator: Dr. Rutherford H. Platt Speakers/Panelists Amy Gavaris, Executive Vice President for the New York Restoration Project Dr. Vicky Gholson, Friends of Riverbank State Park Peter Mullan, Planning Director, Friends of The High Line Greenway Connie Fishman, Executive Director, Hudson River Park Trust Jeanne DuPont, Rockaway Waterfront Alliance, Queens In 1609, New York’s future waterfront was an arcadian shore of forests, wetlands, beaches, and sand bars, according to Eric Sanderson's book Mannahatta. That landscape is lost forever, but visions of a post-industrial, neo-natural waterfront are longstanding. In 1944, futurists Paul and Percival Goodman proposed that Manhattan "open out toward the water,” lining its gritty waterfront with new parks. They were prescient: today the water’s edge of Manhattan is evolving from a "no-man's-land" into a "highly desirable zone of parks," in the words of writer Phillip Lopate.

Session 1: Wed. Feb. 24, 2010: "Opening Out Towards the Water"– The Big Picture Moderator: Dr. William Solecki, Director, CISC Speakers/Panelists Dr. Rutherford H. Platt, Senior Fellow, CISC Robert Yaro, President, Regional Plan Association Linda Cox, Executive Director, Bronx River Alliance Wilbur L. Woods, Director, Waterfront and Open Space Planning, New York City Department of City Planning Roland Lewis, CEO, Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance In 1609, New York’s future waterfront was an arcadian shore of forests, wetlands, beaches, and sand bars, according to Eric Sanderson's book Mannahatta. That landscape is lost forever, but visions of a post-industrial, neo-natural waterfront are longstanding. In 1944, futurists Paul and Percival Goodman proposed that Manhattan "open out toward the water,” lining its gritty waterfront with new parks. They were prescient: today the water’s edge of Manhattan is evolving from a "no-man's-land" into a "highly desirable zone of parks," in the words of writer Ph

Martin V. Melosi is Distinguished University Professor of History and Director of the Center for Public History at the University of Houston. He was born in San Jose, California, and received his PhD in History at the University of Texas in Austin. His primary fields of study are environmental history, urban history, and the history of energy. He is the author or editor of sixteen books and more than 80 articles and book chapters, including the award-winning The Sanitary City: Urban Infrastructure in America from Colonial Times to the Present (2000, 2008). In April/May, 2008, he was visiting professor at the Conservatoire National des Arts et Metiers in Paris. In 2000-01 he held the Fulbright Chair in American Studies at the University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark, and also has been a visiting faculty member at the University of Paris, University of Helsinki, Tampere Technological University, Peking University, and Shanghai University. In 2005 he was awarded the Ester Farfel Award at the University

Dr. William Solecki's research focuses on the urban environmental change and urban land use and suburbanization. Solecki is the Director of the CUNY Institute for Sustainable Cities and a professor in the Department of Geography at Hunter College, CUNY. He has served on several U.S. National Research Council committees including the Special Committee on Problems in the Environment (SCOPE). He currently is a member of the International Geographical Union (IGU) Megacity Study Group and the International Human Dimensions Programme (IHDP), Urbanization and Global Environmental Change Scientific Steering Committee. He currently serves (has served) as the co-leader of several climate impacts and land use studies both statewide and in the New York metropolitan region, including the New York City Panel on Climate Change, the Statewide Integrated Assessment for Effective Climate Change Adaptation Strategies (ClimAID) project, and the Metropolitan East Coast Assessment of Impacts of Potential Climate Variability and C

Dr. Cynthia Rosenzweig is a Senior Research Scientist at NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies where she heads the Climate Impacts Group. She has organized and led large-scale interdisciplinary regional, national, and international studies of climate change impacts and adaptation. She is a co-chair of the New York City Panel on Climate Change, a body of experts convened by the Mayor advising the city on adaptation for its critical infrastructure. She has co-led the Metropolitan East Coast Regional Assessment of the U.S. National Assessment of the Potential Consequences of Climate Variability and Change, sponsored by the U.S. Global Change Research Program. She is a Coordinating Lead Author of the IPCC Working Group II Fourth Assessment Report observed changes chapter, and served on the IPCC Task Group on Data and Scenarios for Impact and Climate Assessment. Dr. Rosenzweig's research involves the development of interdisciplinary methodologies to assess the potential impacts of and adaptations to global env

Owen Gutfreund is an Associate Professor of Urban Affairs and Planning at Hunter College. Previously, he was on the faculty at Columbia University, where he taught urban history, urban planning, and international affairs, and served for many years as Director of the joint Barnard-Columbia Urban Studies Program. A specialist in urban history, Owen has published Twentieth Century Sprawl: Highways and the Reshaping of the American Landscape (Oxford University Press, 2004), and was one of the authors of Robert Moses and the Modern City: The Transformation of New York (W.W. Norton, 2007). He is an Associate Editor of the forthcoming 2nd edition of the Encyclopedia of New York City, and is on the editorial board of the Journal of Urban History. He is currently working on Cities Take Flight: Airports, Aviation, and Modern American Urbanism, a book about the impact of airports and air travel on American cities. Before earning his doctorate, Professor Gutfreund was a Vice President at the investment banking firm

Eric A. Goldstein is a senior attorney and New York City Environment Director at the Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc. ("NRDC"), a national, non-profit environmental organization. At NRDC, he has worked for more than twenty-five years exclusively on urban environmental issues, including air pollution, solid waste, drinking water and environmental justice. He gained nationwide attention in the early 1980's for spearheading the public campaign to reduce levels of toxic lead in gasoline. Over the past two decades, he has been intimately involved with public policy efforts to protect the New York drinking water supply via pollution prevention and watershed protection. Mr. Goldstein is co-author of award winning New York Environment Book and has written numerous studies and articles on urban environmental issues. In addition to his work at NRDC, he co-teaches the Environmental Law Clinic at New York University School of Law.

Rutherford H. Platt is Professor of Geography Emeritus at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and also is Senior Fellow at the Institute for Sustainable Cities, City University of New York (CUNY). He directs the Ecological Cities Project, a program of research and outreach based in Northampton, Massachusetts (www.humanemetropolis.org). Dr. Platt holds a B.A. in political science from Yale and both a J.D. (law) and Ph.D. (geography) from the University of Chicago. He specializes in public policy concerning urban land and water resources. He is author/editor of many publications on cities, nature, and people, most recently: The Humane Metropolis: People and Nature in the 21st Century City and a companion DVD (University of Massachusetts Press and Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, 2006). In 2002, he was honored as a Lifetime National Associate of The National Academies and he is listed in Who’s Who in America.

Betsy McCully is the author of City at the Water’s Edge: A Natural History of New York (Rutgers University Press, 2007). Spanning a billion years, the book offers a “deep time” perspective on New York, casting the city as a human habitat in the Lower Hudson Bioregion—a place shaped by powerful natural forces over eons and a place more recently reshaped by human hands. Her new book (now under contract with Rutgers UP) treats the environmental history of New York since colonial times, with particular focus on how New Yorkers have not only reshaped the city’s topography to accommodate their city, but also tried to address pressing environmental problems even as they were creating them (under contract with Rutgers UP). McCully began researching both books twenty years ago, and has amassed a wealth of materials drawn from libraries, archives, interviews, and years of “walking the terrain” of New York. She has given numerous talks on New York’s fascinating and complex natural and environmental history. An Associate

Rohit T. Aggarwala is Director of the New York City Mayor’s Office of Long-term Planning and Sustainability. This office was charged with the creation of PlaNYC A Greener, Greater New York, a comprehensive sustainability plan consisting of 127 separate initiatives to green New York City. Dr. Aggarwala is now charged with implementing the plan and supporting other efforts related to the sustainability of New York City. Under his leadership the City has begun implementing over 90% of the 127 initiatives in PlaNYC, including regulations to make the City’s taxicabs and black car fleets clean, planting a million trees throughout the five boroughs and overseeing the investment of $80 million a year to reduce City government’s greenhouse gas emissions. A native of Manhattan, NY, Dr. Aggarwala holds BA, MBA, and PhD degrees from Columbia University, as well as a Master’s from Queens University in Ontario. Prior to joining the Bloomberg administration for the City, Aggarwala was a management consultant at McKinsey &

Robert Pirani is Regional Plan Association's Director of Environmental Programs and Executive Director of the Governors Island Alliance. His responsibilities include developing and directing programs in parks and open space advocacy, land use management, water quality protection, and recycling and waste prevention. The nation's oldest regional planning organization, Regional Plan Association has worked since 1929 to improve the quality of life in the 31-county, 13,000 square mile New York/New Jersey/Connecticut metropolitan area. On the basis of professional research, the Association recommends policy improvements, fosters cooperation among various government and private organizations, and involves the public in considering and shaping its own future. The Governors Island Alliance is a coalition of civic, environmental, and preservation organizations working to celebrate the Island’s rich history, create memorable parks and public spaces, and ensure appropriate reuse of the Island and its historic str

Saturday, September 5 Prof. Bill Solecki, Hunter College "Environmental Town Hall" Join Professor Bill Solecki, Director of the CUNY Institute for Sustainable Cities, in a moderated town hall for all New York City residents to discuss environmental issues that affect every borough and neighborhood of our great city.

Saturday, August 29 Jeremy Friedman, NYU Sustainability Task Force "Green NYU, Green City, Green World" Learn how NYU is greening their campus and office space and how the exciting changes made there can be made everywhere.

Saturday, August 15 Bilen Berhanu, Green Thumb NY "Gardening in the City? Of Course! Window Box and Container Gardening 101" Want to eat from your own garden, but think you don't have enough space? Learn the design elements for a good container or window box—the perfect solution when you're short on growing space—as well as soil mixtures that work well, and tips for planting and maintaining containers all year.

Saturday, August 1 Dan Miner, Chair of Sierra Club New York City "Easy Ways Everyone Can Green Their Workplace" Since we spend a majority of our time in our workplace, wouldn't it be nice if it was not only a little more earth friendly, but also healthier and more people friendly? Learn why workplace greening is critical—even the smallest steps count—and how to do it for yourself and your workplace.