Mayor Bloomberg Sustainability Speech Tomorrow

At an event hosted by the League of Conservation Voters, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg will deliver a major speech outlining sustainability challenges and goals for the City of New York through the year 2030. This will be followed by a panel discussion moderated by NBC News Special Correspondent Tom Brokaw.

When

Tuesday, December 12th, 2006, 11:00 am

Where

The Queens Museum of Art in Flushing Meadows, Corona Park, Queens

The speech is the next step forward for the Long-Term Sustainability initiative that Mayor Bloomberg announced during a visit with Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in California on September 21.

As reported by Streetsblog, the Sustainability office is headed by Rohit Aggarwala and, we can only hope, has been significantly influenced by the work of Dr. Rachel Weinberger, an Assistant Professor of City and Regional Planning at the University of Pennsylvania who specializes in land use and transportation planning.

And, yes, this is the big sustainability speech that Streetsblog incorrectly reported was happening last month. Hey, if the headline is labeled “Rumor Mill” take it with a grain of salt. Still, the editorial commentary from that story still applies to tomorrow’s big speech:

There are high hopes that tomorrow’s public unveiling, whatever it may show, begins to lay the groundwork for a serious traffic reduction program in New York City, perhaps in the form of London-style congestion charging. With this year’s elections out of the way there is no longer any worry that the inevitably difficult public discussion of congestion charging might force a gubernatorial candidate into a corner. Governor Elect Spitzer’s vow to raise subway fares only as a last resort almost guarantees an MTA fiscal crisis in the coming months. Might a fiscal crisis also serve as the impetus for a congestion charging push? Among political insiders there is a feeling that the only possible way to sell congestion charging to New York is in response to a serious crisis. In other words, the Doctor needs to make it clear that the patient is sick and needs to make dificult, but ultimately fulfilling, lifestyle changes.

And it’s important to note that the Mayor can do a ton to enhance New York City’s long-term sustainability without London-style congestion charging.