Biggest Rooftop Farm on the Planet? Brooklyn Grange, Revisited on Ecocentric Blog | Food, Water and Energy Issues

by Dulce Fernandes and Chris Hunt | 11.19.2010 | 1 Comment | Food post on Ecocentric

I like when people undertake big bold projects that innovate and inspire. So naturally, when my friend and former colleague Gwen Schantz decided to build a one-acre farm on the roof of a seven-story office building in an industrial section of New York City, I was pretty excited. And when she and her partners began construction, I ventured out to Queens to spend a day rolling felt and shoveling growing media on what would become Brooklyn Grange, which is now believed to be the world’s largest rooftop farm (view the slideshow in our archives for an overview of the process).

Biggest Rooftop Farm on the Planet? Brooklyn Grange, Revisited on Ecocentric Blog | Food, Water and Energy Issues

The Brooklyn Paper: Love it, locavores! Bklyn campus to host urban farm

Talk about food for thought!

Kingsborough Community College will introduce an urban farming program this spring, making it the first New York City college to host a full-fledged farm worked entirely by students.
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“Urban farms are becoming very popular in Brooklyn and agriculture is an important part of our future,” said Dr. Stuart Schulman, the Kingsborough professor who is in charge of the project, called Build a Garden in Brooklyn. “We want to show students the whole farming process, from the planting, growing and harvesting.”


The Brooklyn Paper: Love it, locavores! Bklyn campus to host urban farm

New York City Seeks Engineering Campus on City Land - NYTimes.com

Worried that New York City is not spawning enough technology-based start-up companies with the potential to become big employers like Google, city officials are inviting universities around the world to create an engineering campus on city-owned land.



New York City Seeks Engineering Campus on City Land - NYTimes.com

Balancing Developers and Salamanders

Balancing Developers and Salamanders

speaks for itself

Photo of the Year Reminds COP16 That People Are Waiting for Climate Change Solutions : TreeHugger

Can "Healthy" Food Feed America?

Looks like a great event in terms of topics and speakers, check out David Orr in particular, he is a key early player in the university and sustainability stuff, architecture, bioregionalism, etc and rarely speaks  in NYC

Can "Healthy" Food Feed America? Corby Kummer, award-winning food writer and senior editor of The Atlantic Monthly is moderating a panel with Stephen McDonnell, CEO, Applegate Farms; David Orr, manager, Amawalk organic farm; and Nevin Cohen, urban food expert with The New School. This public, Journalism Dept.-sponsored event will be held at Baruch’s Newman Conference Center and offer healthy snacks at a reception that will begin at 5:30 p.m.

Tuesday Nov 30th; 5:30-7:30pm

Baruch College

151 E. 25th Street

Library Building

Newman Conference Center, 750

Upstate "genius" Farmer

MacArthur genius grant winner Will Allen will be in town for the National Black Farmers conference here at BC nov 17-19th, but below is an article about the first farmer ever to win the genius award, cheryl rogowski who runs a family farm in the hudson valley.  Interestingly, that farm, which is seemingly worlds away (i.e. across mountains and rivers and such from brooklyn) is only about 70 miles as the crow flies (straight shot, not driving) and thus well within what many would consider the NYC "foodshed."  Would be great to take a crew from BC to this spot and not only check out the farm and their farmstore but also the surrounding area which is beautiful forest and wilderness and adjacent nyc's watershed-reservoir system.  this is a really good article, praise BLACK DIRT!


On September 20, just after the Black Dirt Country—the strip of rich soil on the Orange County-New Jersey border—had been hit with heavy rains, Pine Island farmer Cheryl Rogowski was wondering what to do. Not only were many crops underwater and possibly not harvestable, but she was expecting a visit from Joan Gussow, director of Just Food, a nonprofit organization that supports sustainable farming and equitable produce distribution to impoverished families. "Everything was wet, and I didn't know what I was going to show her," Rogowski recalls. Then the phone rang, and W. Rogowski Farm changed forever.

 

Spiral Garden is a Lacy Mesh Vertical Farm for the City

Transforming (Suburban?) Brooklyn

(Ugly?) Urban Ecotopia

Farm School NYC opens in January

Just Food and Partners Announce Launch of Farm School NYC: The New York City School of Urban Agriculture at Living Concrete / Carrot City

Published October 1, 2010

Just Food and an alliance of local horticultural and food justice organizations are pleased to announce the official launch of Farm School NYC: The New York City School of Urban Agriculture. The school will offer a unique, community-based certificate program with enrollment beginning in January 2011. The mission of the school is to provide comprehensive professional training in urban agriculture, while spurring positive local action on issues of food access and social, economic and racial justice.

Community gardens and urban farms throughout the city will serve as outdoor classrooms, and their neighborhoods and gardeners as inspiration for a vibrant, fair local food system that nourishes bodies and minds. Training programs will be accessible to adults of all educational backgrounds and income levels. In particular, Farm School NYC targets New York City residents unable to access traditional agricultural education and for whom skills in urban food production can contribute to reduced hunger and diet-related diseases that disproportionately affect low-income city residents.

"For the first time, New Yorkers and city dwellers from all over will have access to agricultural training that directly relates to the unique setting of urban agriculture," says Karen Washington, a nationally-recognized urban farming pioneer from the Bronx, and a member of the school’s Executive Board. "We grow it so we know it, and we’ve shown that city farming can make a huge difference in the health and nutrition of low-income urban communities."

Farm School NYC will offer instruction in sustainable agriculture, entrepreneurship and food systems management. “Our goal for the school is to build and share knowledge within our communities and improve local access to healthy food throughout the city,” said Jacquie Berger, Executive Director of Just Food. “By bringing urban farming skills to a much broader population, Farm School NYC will magnify the impact of urban agriculture on community health in New York City and beyond.”

Farm School NYC has been two years in the making: it is the product of countless volunteer hours of collective visioning and strategic planning by a dedicated group of community gardeners, urban farmers, anti-hunger and food justice advocates. This school would not be possible if not for the decades of volunteer work by community gardeners who have pioneered the foundation for urban agriculture in NYC.

Learn More: Visit Farm School NYC’s website: www.justfood.org/farmschoolnyc

FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:

Molly Culver & Eric Thomann

Interim Co-Directors

Farm School NYC, Just Food

212-645-9880x224

farmschoolnyc@justfood.org

www.justfood.org/farmschoolnyc

Black Farmers Conference at BC next month

Black Farmers & Urban Gardeners Conference: Registration Now Open

This November, the first annual conference to forge food, farming and policy solutions for the Black Community will convene at Brooklyn College in New York City, convening farmers, gardeners, activists, students and community leaders from across the nation.

Black Farmers & Urban Gardeners Conference

November 19-21, 2010

Brooklyn College, Brooklyn, NY

Registration is now open.

Early Bird Rates (September 6th – October 5th)

ATTENTION: Farmers, gardeners, students, teachers, and seniors, before you buy your tickets, please email registration[at]blackfarmersconf.org or

call 212-629-8850 x19 to get your registration code.

The 2010 Black Farmers and Urban Gardeners Conference is presented by Black Urban Growers (BUGS), an alliance of predominately Black urban farmers and gardeners, food activists and allies united in rebuilding our community wealth and health by reconnecting to the land and our traditional roles as agriculturalists and environmental stewards.

In November of 2009, this alliance began organizing and hosting a series of community events with the purpose of starting a conversation around food: Where does it come from? Who is providing it? Why don’t we see more black farmers at the farmers markets? What is the relationship between our individual health and the health of our communities, and why does it matter?

Beginning with a fundraiser event in February of 2010, followed by a Community Forum in April, we’ve been inviting more and more people from our communities to engage in the conversation and together connect the dots between the health of our farmers and our collective health as a community. At the Black Farmers and Urban Gardeners Conference happening November 19-21, 2010, we will engage in a national and international dialogue and action planning to build a national network that includes producers, consumers, and everyone in between in creating sustainable solutions.

Intro essay on urban food production from GRIST

"Few things scream 'Hipster' like an apartment garden." Thus spake the New York City music magazine Death + Taxes, and it's easy to see why. In trendy neighborhoods from Williamsburg, Brooklyn, to San Francisco's Mission district, urban youth are nurturing vegetables in window sills, fire escapes, and roofs. Down on the street, they tend flourishing garden plots, often including chickens and bees. Even Grist has launched a comic strip (left) devoted to the exploits of urban-hipster homesteaders.

But growing food in the city isn't just the province of privileged youth -- in fact, the recent craze for urban agriculture started in decidedly unhip neighborhoods. Nor is it anything new. As I'll show in this rambling-garden-walk of an essay, urban agriculture likely dates to the birth of cities. And its revival might just be the key to sustainable cities of the future.

Going Green, Without Being Preachy About It

We should bring this guy to Brooklyn College--his restaurant is down the road in Ft Greene, fascinating case both from environmental standpoint and business ethics framework: annoys the neighbors, wage disputes, but the kids love him!

With a white Kangol cap tipped on his shaved head just so on a recent swampy morning, Sean Meenan led a group of girls, ages 11 to 14, around the cobalt blue, lime green and Sunkist orange outdoor patio of Habana Outpost, the ecologically conscious restaurant he owns in Fort Greene, Brooklyn.

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Ruby Washington/The New York Times

Owned by Sean Meenan, the Habana Outpost is among the leaders in New York’s growing collection of eco-restaurants.

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Ruby Washington/The New York Times

The environmentally conscious restaurant in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, is open from Earth Day until Halloween and boasts solar panels that funnel excess electricity to buildings nearby.

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Ruby Washington/The New York Times

Signs list the Outpost’s environmental bona fides.

He showed off the solar panels, a rainwater-collection system that feeds the toilets, a recycling and composting station, wheat-board wall paneling and corn-based plastic cups. There was even a blender powered by a bicycle.

He showed off the solar panels, a rainwater-collection system that feedsthe toilets, a recycling and composting station, wheat-board wall paneling and corn-based plastic cups. There was even a blender powered

by a bicycle.

Urban Universities Rennaissance Act

So the below is directly connected to a workshop we did at the US Social Forum in Detroit on the role of the university in promoting democratic and sustainable local economic development--the democracy collaborativ at the Univ of Maryland was involved with the below and with our panel (thru Steve Dubb).  Also note that Portland State was a college that various faculty from Brooklyn College visited last year to learn more about their community partnerships and place based learning efforts.  mm

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today Congressman David Wu announced the introduction of the Urban University Renaissance Act of the 21st Century, which will benefit universities across the country that are located in major urban centers, as well as their local communities.

“While we face many challenges in Oregon and around the nation, none is more urgent right now than the recovery of our economy and getting people back to work,” said Congressman Wu.  “Urban universities can serve as the heart of economic renewal by sharing their skills and resources with the communities that surround them.  My legislation will help urban universities, like Portland State University, as they lead communities, revitalize neighborhoods, and attract businesses and services to urban areas.”

In addition to educating students and preparing the next generation to become leaders in their chosen fields, urban universities work off campus to raise the quality of life for everyone in the local community.

"This bill acknowledges and encourages the core mission of urban universities, to build sustainable communities,” said Portland State University President Wim Wiewel.  “Congressman Wu understands that it is only by supporting partnerships with local businesses, nonprofits, and K-12 that universities like Portland State can achieve their mission."

Congressman Wu’s legislation recognizes the multi-faceted role that urban universities play and includes sections that focus on education, health care, innovation, and housing, among other provisions.  Highlights of the legislation include:

• Helping more teachers learn the specific skills needed to successfully teach in urban environments, ultimately helping our cities have more—and more qualified—educators.
• Encouraging urban universities to work alongside mayors, superintendents, and business leaders in their cities and regions to ensure that high school graduation requirements are better aligned with college and workforce expectations—making urban youth better prepared for college and a career. 
• Revitalizing the core of our urban universities by reestablishing a program in the Higher Education Act to support the varied beneficial work of urban schools.
• Supporting university research on environmental issues in low-income neighborhoods.
• Providing for public health research to reduce health disparities and improve care.
• Helping urban universities provide assistance to local nonprofits committed to community development and affordable housing, strengthening existing programs to make them more effective locally.
• Strengthening innovation policies to promote partnerships that create regional economic growth.
  

"We are always looking for opportunities to improve our communities by partnering with local organizations—local and regional government, community-based organizations, and business organizations,” said Sheila Martin, director of Portland State University’s Institute of Portland Metropolitan Studies.  “This federal commitment to support university partnerships will help us to align those efforts and move more quickly toward a healthier, more prosperous metropolitan region.”

By laying out a comprehensive vision for expanding, improving, and acting upon the needs of our urban centers, Congressman Wu’s legislation provides a roadmap for how urban universities can help strengthen our communities as we emerge from the current economic downturn, all while becoming stronger themselves.  

"Urban areas face many challenges and opportunities unique to cities,” said Nancy Zimpher, chair of the Coalition of Urban Serving Universities and chancellor of the State University of New York (SUNY).  “Urban universities are distinctly positioned with a broad range of skills and resources—intellectual, human, technological, and social—to engage in these issues.  This federal investment in urban universities will scale up innovative efforts around education, neighborhood revitalization, economic development, and health to provide a greater national impact on strengthening metropolitan prosperity."   

Congressman Wu will introduce the Urban University Renaissance Act in the U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday, June 22, 2010.  Full text of the bill will be available from the Library of Congress at thomas.gov shortly afterward.

pretty Green and truly Affordable!?

"when only 10 percent of New Yorkers making $35,000 or below have housing that qualifies as affordable — that is, equal to 30 percent or less of their income — it kind of puts the green roof tax credit (which we obviously care about a lot!) in bleak perspective"

There are a lot of very interesting green buildings in Manhattan and Brooklyn — and also in the Hamptons and Jersey and anywhere else that feels left out — and we don’t mean to make it seem like there aren’t. But if it seems like we’ve been covering the South Bronx a lot at gbNYC recently, that’s because… well, because we have, but also because exciting new green things keep popping up in the Boogie Down, from the South Bronx Greenway to the LEED Platinum-hopeful Haven Academy School to, today, the opening of The Brook, Common Ground’s new, LEED-certified affordable housing development at Brook Avenue and 148th Street. The Brook’s opening is good news for green building heads because The Brook, which was designed by Alexander Gorlin Architects, offers an impressive suite of green design elements, from a green roof to a high-efficiency boiler. But it’s especially heartening, for all New Yorkers, because true affordable housing has become increasingly difficult to find in New York City. The Brook is certainly affordable housing in its classic sense — as opposed to mandated-by-the-city-if-you-want-to-build-that-luxury-condo — with 120 of the 190 units in the building tabbed for formerly homeless families and the remaining 70 slated for low-income South Bronx singles. But as impressive as The Brook’s marriage of green building form and socially responsible function is — and it’s impressive — the building’s arrival on the scene at this moment in time is perhaps the biggest story, here.

As the price gap closes between building green and building brown, there’s increasingly no reason why a project like The Brook, which was funded (in part) by taxpayer dollars, shouldn’t be built green. But… okay, detour here, but I kind of got into it in the comments section of this Real Deal post on The Brook with a trollish why-are-my-tax-dollars-coddling-these-lucky-homeless-people goof. Which is stupid of me, obviously, because that is literally never worth it, but which was animated by something more than my natural animus towards hate-the-poor paleocon types. Because a structure like The Brook is built to last, there’s no reason in the world why it shouldn’t have every green building efficiency measure built into it that’s possible. That it doesn’t cost appreciably more to build green than not is good news for those of us who care about the future of green building in New York City and elsewhere, and makes the decision to build green that much easier. But if the poor are always to be with us, as someone who cared a lot about this sort of thing once said, then it makes sense to build low-income housing that will be with us for a long time as well. In short, it’s not an extravagance for Common Ground to spend taxpayer dollars on green low-income housing — it’s a totally justifiable and logical efficiency measure that, along with all the other cost benefits of Common Ground-style “supportive housing” over basic homeless shelters, will be paying dividends for decades to come. That is, dividends both for the families living at The Brook and for all New Yorkers with consciences, and both in terms of money saved and in terms of all the other, more important things inherent in any conversation about this sort of thing.

Putting the 'Public' in 'Public Intellectual'

this article is not about sustainability as such but gets into a crucial related issue: how might academics connect themselves to political issues in various communities.  great piece, too short tho, would love to hear more from her perspective.  BC, btw, has many community partnerships."

I entered graduate school in the mid-1990s, a period marked by the rise of the black public intellectual: Michael Eric Dyson, Henry Louis Gates Jr., Cornel West, and a host of other prominent scholars who became household names. Suddenly newspapers, popular magazines, and even television shows featured black intellectuals. The reaction was bifurcated. Some celebrated this development as an opportunity to elevate the discourse on social policy, especially on issues of race. But there were also complaints that this new crop of intellectuals talked too much and did too little. And some felt that by talking so much to the public, the black intellectuals risked diminishing their scholarly legitimacy.

At the time, the conversations among black students at elite graduate programs were framed around whether to become public intellectuals. But did we have the charisma or conversational skills to do this kind of work? Such a question was rarely raised. Instead we debated what kind of intellectual we wanted to be: one who sat in the ivory tower? Or one who talked to the people? There was a general skepticism that both roles could be successfully played simultaneously.

UDC Farmer's Market Re-Opens this Weekend

The University of the District of Columbia ’s Farmers’ Market is back for another year, offering fresh food and fresh ideas to help District residents improve their quality of life. All are invited to join the fun on Saturday, May 15, 2010 from 7:30 am to 1:30 pm, at UDC’s Van Ness campus, as the university’s Community Outreach and Extension Services (COES) kicks off the 2010 Farmers’ Market season with a grand re-opening celebration.

The celebration will feature a hearty selection of fresh food provided by local and regional farmers, as well as fresh ideas presented by UDC’s Cooperative Extension Service and local non-profits. Official greetings will be extended by representatives of the White House, the US Department of Agriculture, the D. C. Council and University officials.

A Jungle of Bamboo Is Growing Atop the Met

I love this: it would be great on the quad or atop of the library cafe maybe.  In general, we need some more innovative green type sculpture on campus that can fire up our imaginations about architecture, sustainability, art  etc. 

Universities Must Change Curriculum to Address Climate Change

Green jobs go far beyond the hands-on renewable energy and energy efficiency work that the Obama administration emphasizes with each new project and grant announcement.

Lack of Trained Workforce Still an Obstacle to Smart Grid Success

Ever since the phrase “smart grid” started showing up in news articles, analysts have been looking at what it would take for a smarter power grid to deliver on promises of energy savings, reduced emissions and lower bills.

Portland State's new energy initiative

portland state is a leader in sustainability and place based education, two faculty from Brooklyn College went to visit last year and we're largely impressed.  This initiative really ups the ante in terms of their role in promoting sustainability in the region.  because of the density of the NYC metro area it would play out differently, but still interesting to ponder, especially as Obama has put nukes back on the table. 

Portland General Electric, the region’s major urban utility, and Portland State University, the region’s major urban university, have formed a long-term strategic partnership to promote the economic, environmental, and social sustainability of the Portland metro area.

new Fed office connecting housing, transportation and sustainable development

The word "silos" is most often used to talk about grain or
coal, not the federal government. But in the case of transportation and housing
-- two sectors that accounted for more than 43 percent of the nation's carbon emissions in
2008 -- Washington's
siloed approach of divided, blindered policymaking could put wheat farmers to
shame.

The Obama administration is starting to break down those
barriers between agencies, asking the Department of Transportation (DOT), the
Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), and the Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) to take an all-hands-on-deck approach to smart growth.
Dubbed the Partnership for Sustainable Communities, the effort aims to provide
federal support for localities that want to offer more walkable neighborhoods
and cleaner commuting options than the car.

Urban Biofilter Project Plants Bamboo Forests to Clean up Brownfields

When i lived in Ft. greene our neighbor's back yard was OVEERRUN, and i mean OVERRUN with bamboo.  it was crazy. so i know this would work in bklyn. 

Bamboo forests are beautiful things — especially when they are cleaning urban air, soil, and water AND shielding communities from industry and heavily trafficked areas. Urban Biofilter creates bamboo forests on brownfields that are fed with wastewater. The harvested Bamboo then creates income in areas that are otherwise neglected through sustainable bamboo harvesting and timber production.

Public Art for Sustainability?

This is a review of a new book about the role of art production during the new deal; would be interesting to think about such a project for environmental sustainability; i think this is a neglected aspect in sustainability dicussions: the new for visual renderings and depictions of sustainable economic activities (gardening, green energy) but in ways that resonate with people culturally, including in terms of popculture, not just public-national culture. 

When Art Worked

A stunning new book shows how New Deal art helped remake democratic culture.

Posted by David Bollier

A portion of “Ranchers of the Panhandle,” by Frank Mechau, 1940, a mural in the Brownfield, Texas, post office.

At a time when our national (and global) predicaments are seen mostly as a matter for economists and policy wonks to solve, historian Roger Kennedy comes forward to remind us of the critical role of art. Art is not just an aesthetic pleasure or indulgence, he insists; it is a way in which people makes sense of their problems. It is a way of re-imagining the common good.

Article on New MA program in Urban Sustainabilty at CCNY

Sounds pretty good: kudos to CCNY! Given BC has no engineering or architecture program, ours would have a different composition, such as ...?

Teaching urban sustainability to tomorrow’s leaders

By Melanie D.G. Kaplan | Jan 19, 2010

Everywhere we turn, we hear and read about sustainability—whether it’s shopping, eating, building or wasting. Now, our colleges and universities are starting to train the next generation of sustainability experts.

This semester, the City College of New York is introducing a one-year graduate program called Sustainability in the Urban Environment. I recently talked to the program’s director, Latif Jiji, about the kinds of problems students will attempt to solve, the jobs they’ll be qualified for when they graduate and how he’s created his own personal sustainable roof (while beefing up his wine supply).

Arizona State's School of Sustainability

One of the most advanced sustainability programs in the US at a university of size is the School of Sustainability at Arizona State (ASU).  That's right, its not just a department but a whole school!  (BTW, University of District of Columbia also just put together a major related program, a College of urban Sustainability and Agriculture;  I met the dean of that college last week, more on that soon.)  The president of ASU is a key figure driving all this, and he is truly a visionary (a word i dont use lightly)  I saw him speak at the "green economy" conference in DC last week (more on that soon.)  But for now, more on ASU:

A Newly Renovated Green Home for Global Institute of Sustainability

In his remarks to a crowd of 400 at the building’s rededication, ASU President Michael Crow described the building as the nerve center for hundreds of students, faculty, and staff who are researching sustainable solutions for an urbanizing world. He also compared the formation of the Institute’s new School of Sustainability, the only school of its kind in the US, to the emergence of medical schools, focused on individual health, in the 18th century. “ASU is the only institution in the US that has stepped up to focus on our collective health and well-being of the planet.”

Bringing Democracy to New York

IN Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s State of the City speech on Wednesday, he spoke of the City Council as if it were an equal partner in government. Indeed, the mayor’s surprisingly close re-election, the unusual defeat of a handful of council members and some spirited races in the general election in a city where winning the Democratic primary is tantamount to victory, might lead one to expect the 51-member body to be imbued with new democratic vigor. However, the council members inaugurated this month have joined a body whose governance structure is hardly more democratic than a high school student council’s — where the principal calls the shots.

Ultimately, all City Council decisions are made by the speaker and the speaker’s staff. The speaker controls which members get to sit on which committees and who heads those committees, what legislation comes up for a vote, the hiring and firing of the 250-plus central staff and the money that members get to dole out to their districts.

School Adds Weeding to Reading and Writing

By KIM SEVERSON

Published: January 19, 2010

THOSE who believe trends start on the West Coast and are perfected on the East Coast might add to their argument a garden planned for an elementary school in Brooklyn.

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Natalie Behring for The New York Times

John Lyons, left, is helping to raise money for an Edible Schoolyard at P.S. 216 in Brooklyn. Celia Kaplinsky is the school’s principal.

This summer, supporters will tear up a quarter-acre of asphalt parking lot behind P.S. 216 in the Gravesend neighborhood and start building the first New York affiliate of the Edible Schoolyard program, developed by the restaurateur Alice Waters of Chez Panisse.

It’s a $1.6-million architect’s dream. A new building, powered by the sun, will hold a kitchen classroom with communal tables where children can share meals they make from food they grow in the garden.

Designers from the Work Architecture Company have incorporated a chicken coop, a composting system, an outdoor pizza oven and a cistern to collect rainwater. A movable greenhouse will be rolled out each fall.

Teachers will use the garden to give students — 460 children from prekindergarten to the fifth grade — lessons in subjects like art, math, history and science. Administrators hope the school will eventually become a center for the study of the environment and agriculture.

The P.S. 216 project will be not only the most expensive of the six Edible Schoolyards but also the only one to operate year round. The original, built 15 years ago at a middle school in Berkeley, Calif., cost about $75,000, Ms. Waters recalled.

Saving The Bed-Stuy Farm: Choose Better Nutrition, Not Demolition

Give Mother Nature a vacant city lot, and she’ll fill it with weeds and wildlife. Then human nature comes along and dumps clumps of consumer goods-gone-bad and construction debris on top of the pigweed and pigeons.

It takes visionaries like Reverend DeVanie Jackson and her husband, Reverend Robert Jackson, to convert a garbage-filled Brooklyn lot into a productive urban farm that provides 3,000 people a month with fresh, healthy food. The Reverends Jackson, who run an emergency food pantry in Bedford Stuyvesant, the Brooklyn Rescue Mission, became urban farmers out of sheer necessity back in 2004, challenging the ‘charity’ of serving poor people even poorer food.

City Universities Are Part of Bloomberg's Green Jobs Vision

NOT ONE CUNY IS MENTIONED!  mm

By Michael P. Ventura

Tuesday, January 12th 2010 at 4:10pm

• Scott Vincent

  

Winter is miserable in New York. The arctic blasts whoosh in off the water and cut through hats and scarves and coats as if they're not even there. Other than turning up your collar, leaning forward, and squinting, there's nothing you can do with the wind other than endure it.

For now, at least. At some point in the near future, it may be possible to harness that misery and use it for good. Imagine one day looking up like a tourist at countless vertical wind turbines along rooftops on Fifth Avenue spinning energy to help power the heat.

Cue AeroCity Windpower, a company looking to create and install self-starting vertical-axis wind turbines for city buildings. It was funded with a $1 million grant from the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) to develop turbines—looking less like a traditional windmill than the love child of a parking meter and an egg beater—that could be installed atop city buildings to harness the winter wind. AeroCity CEO Russell Tencer also hopes it could "provide a foundation for green jobs in New York City" that could keep the tax base warm.

Sustainable Cultures A Step Beyond Anthropology

Wowthe education life section of the NY Times today (sunday jan 3rd) is really really good on several fronts: status of the humanities, adjuncts, relevance of Masters programs and various pieces on "sustainability." 


By MIREYA NAVARRO

Published: December 29, 2009

MOST people see sustainability as pertaining to the physical environment, and the need to preserve it for coming generations. But in academe, sustainability can have as much to do with social science as science science.

Urban Environment Sustainability Comes of Age

By HENRY FOUNTAIN

WHEN Andrew Pattison was looking to pursue a graduate degree in sustainability, he drew on his post-college experience working as a conservation biologist in upstate New York. Butterflies were his thing, and he produced numerous recommendations about what should be done to protect them. “I found that quote-unquote important people who were decision makers would read the reports I filed and then not follow them,” Mr. Pattison says.

Those frustrations led him in a different direction. “I knew I wanted to study the way decisions were made on environmental policy,” he says. He also knew where many of the important decisions were made: in cities. With energy and climate policy, he says, “the problem is global, but all politics are local.”

Mr. Pattison, 32, is now a doctoral student in the sustainable urban infrastructure program at the University of Colorado, Denver. It’s one of a growing number of graduate programs in sustainability where the issues affecting cities are front and center.

“We’ve seen a growth in programs that are more focused, either on a particular geographic area or on a discipline,” says Paul Rowland, executive director of the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education. The organization’s Web site, aashe.org, lists nine universities offering doctoral or master’s degrees in urban sustainability studies, and many more programs include the urban environment as a central part of their studies.