NYC's environmental inequalities

Apr 05, 2024

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By Jason Beeferman

With help from Irie Sentner

New from New York

Happening now:

NYC studies environmental inequalities.
The Boilermaker bill races to passage.
More trouble for Eric Adams.
A new NY Heat act campaign.
And may you have an earthquake-free weekend!

DAYS THE BUDGET IS LATE: 5

Power lines are seen in view of the New York City skyline.

Black and brown communities are suffering greater environmental inequities across virtually every category, a new New York City analysis found. | Matt Rourke/AP

NYC CLIMATE: It’s been seven years in the making, and New York City just released the largest study into environmental inequities by any city, ever.

The takeaways? They won’t be a shock to those who have been paying attention.

The analysis found that Black and Brown communities are suffering greater environmental inequities across virtually every category.

“There aren't a tremendous number of surprises,” Paul Lozito, the deputy executive director of the Mayor’s Office of Climate and Environmental Justice, who led the report, told Playbook.

But the real breakthrough is that these neighborhoods now have access to an immense amount of data they can utilize as they push for climate investments.

The report identifies key “environmental justice areas” across the city and analyzes everything from transit access to flood risks to exposure to hazardous waste. The “EJ” areas disproportionately suffer the negative effects of pollution due to systemic inequities and see an unequal enforcement of environmental laws and regulations, the city found.

By mapping out the EJ areas, the city and the communities have the data to back up calls for more climate investments from the state and federal governments.

“We're defining these environmental justice issues and communities for the first time, and that's going to allow us to leverage and access those funds from the state and federal government,” Elijah Hutchinson, the agency’s executive director, told Playbook

It’s an important advancement because the city is in need of some major upgrades, Hutchinson said.

“Climate change is going to be one of the most transformative factors for New York City,” he said. “I liken it to the introduction of the subway for New York City or the introduction of the Erie Canal for New York State.”

The study was ordered in 2017 after the City Council passed two bills on the subject, but the work didn’t begin in earnest until 2019, when former Mayor Bill de Blasio appointed an environmental justice adviser to oversee the project. Three years later, Mayor Eric Adams created the Office of Climate and Environmental Justice, now led by Hutchinson, who reports to Deputy Mayor for Operations Meera Joshi.

The report is being released in tandem with a map that includes more than 100 data layers related to environmental justice. It displays everything from tree canopy coverage to trash bin density to every water fountain in every city park.

“It's really a new map of New York City that allows us to understand these kinds of hazards in a new way,” Hutchinson said. “Climate change is affecting every neighborhood. This is not just a coastal conversation.” — Jason Beeferman

From the Capitol

Runners line up at the start line on Culver Avenue shortly before the start during the Boilermaker Road Race 15K, Sunday, July 10, 2016, in Utica N.Y.

State Sen. Joe Griffo is sponsoring a bill that would let brewers make annual offerings of free drinks within 202 feet and 10 inches of Utica’s beer storage building to help with its major road race, the Boilermaker. | (Mark DiOrio/Observer-Dispatch via AP)

BOILERMAKER BANNED: State lawmakers accidentally banned the afterparty for Utica’s Boilermaker, the most popular annual road race in upstate New York. But they’re confident they’ll fix the issue before this year’s race in July.

A bill approved last year allows stores to sell beer in the previously banned window of 3 a.m. though 5 a.m. on Sundays. The law that it repealed contained a decades-old subsection that exempted a couple of blocks near the Saranac brewery from the statute that prohibits free beer offerings.

State Sen. Joe Griffo, a Republican who represents the brewery, said he convinced the Democrats who sponsored the bill “to not send it to the governor” before the July 2023 race once the inadvertent deletion was discovered. Hochul wound up signing the bill in October.

Griffo is now sponsoring a bill that would let brewers make annual offerings of free drinks within 202 feet and 10 inches of Utica’s beer storage building.

“The Boilermaker is an extraordinary event. It brings so many people into the community and we get to showcase all of the good things Utica and Oneida County have to offer,” he said. — Bill Mahoney

FROM CITY HALL

New York City Mayor Eric Adams arrives in Washington, DC, where he will testify before the U.S. House Oversight and Reform Committee on gun Violence on Wednesday, June 8, 2022.

Federal authorities are investigating several of Mayor Eric Adams' trips to Turkey where he was reportedly upgraded to Turkish Airlines’ top passenger category. | Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office

PROBE IN PERKS: Federal authorities are investigating whether Adams received free flight upgrades from Turkish Airlines in the latest revelations of an ongoing corruption probe focused on the mayor’s 2021 campaign.

The new details, first reported by The New York Times, suggest the FBI and the Southern District of New York are looking at Adams himself in addition to several others in his orbit whose homes were raided by federal agents in November.

No one has been charged in the inquiry, but federal authorities are eyeing several trips to Turkey that Adams took both as mayor and previously in his previous role as Brooklyn borough president where he was upgraded to Turkish Airlines’ top passenger category, according to the Times and a POLITICO follow-up.

“As borough president, the mayor consistently disclosed his official travel to Turkey, did not receive any improper upgrades and did nothing inappropriate in exchange for an upgrade,” Adams’ attorney Brendan McGuire said in a statement. “Speculation is not evidence. We look forward to a just and timely conclusion to this investigation.” — Joe Anuta

On the Beats

Comptroller Tom DiNapoli.

Comptroller Tom DiNapoli found that 64 percent of New York City's capital projects were delayed, half were excessively delayed and over 50 percent surpassed their initial budgets. | AP Photo/Richard Drew

CAPITAL PROJECTS: Many of New York City’s capital projects are over budget and behind schedule, according to a new report from Comptroller Tom DiNapoli.

The report looked at 5,128 projects. Of them, 64 percent were delayed; half were excessively delayed; and over 50 percent surpassed their initial budgets totaling $54.5 billion more than anticipated. Seventy-three percent were delayed because of budget restraints.

“Given limited resources and an escalating cost environment, the city should monitor its capital spending in a more uniform and comprehensive manner so it can review funding expectations, prioritize where additional work is needed, and maximize the return on every capital dollar it spends,” DiNapoli said in a statement.

Courts, waterway bridges, water supply and highways were the most common projects to be behind schedule, the report found.

The fixes? DiNapoli believes that simply better monitoring and reporting on projects would result in improved project delivery. — Shawn Ness

HOT ENOUGH: The New York League of Conservation Voters and the Building Decarbonizaiton Coalition has launched a billboard campaign to press lawmakers to include the NY HEAT Act in a final budget agreement.

The billboards will be displayed along I-787 in Albany as the state budget talks extend well past the April 1 deadline.

The measure is meant to align utility regulations with the state’s climate goals, but there has not been enough support to get the bill approved in the state Assembly.

“Now is the right time to pass NY HEAT and bring affordable utility bills to New Yorkers as we make the necessary transition away from fossil fuels,” the group’s said in a joint statement. “We urge the Assembly to join their counterparts in the Senate and executive branch and bring NY HEAT across the finish line.” — Nick Reisman

PLEA ON BEHALF OF HOSTAGES: The family members of Americans killed or captured by Hamas stood alongside Hudson Valley GOP Rep. Mike Lawler and Democratic Rep. Dan Goldman of Manhattan today to demand that any cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war include the return of their loved ones, POLITICO reports.

Their fight to keep the attention on the hostages in Gaza takes on new urgency as President Joe Biden pressures Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the humanitarian toll of the six-month conflict.

“All of this could end very quickly if Hamas would surrender and release the hostages,” Lawler said at the news conference in the city hosted by the American Jewish Committee.

Some mourned the Palestinian deaths that have surpassed 30,000.

“The devastation in Gaza is so tremendous. The starvation, the destruction, the illness, the death,” said Gillian Kaye, stepmother of hostage Sagui Dekel-Chen. At the same time, she said, “134 innocent people are still hostages. They are still there. They have nothing to do with that.” — Emily Ngo

AROUND NEW YORK

— A 4.8 magnitude earthquake shook New York City and the surrounding area, but Adams advised New Yorkers to “go about their normal day.” (POLITICO)

— Suffolk County agreed to pay $20 million to the family of Kenny Lazo, who was fatally beaten by police after a traffic stop in 2008. (Newsday)

— Over 500 New Yorkers have been summoned to appear as jurors in Manhattan Criminal Court on April 15, where they’ll be considered to be jurors in former President Donald Trump’s “hush money” case. (CBS News)

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