New York City's Greenest Roofs

More photos and info on green roofs in NYC.  mm

High-Tech Hydroponic Farm Transforms Abandoned Bowling Alley

• By Dave Mosher
• 
• October 27, 2011  |
  

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NEW YORK CITY — On top of an old bowling alley in industrial northern Brooklyn sits an expansive translucent greenhouse. Inside, a bounty of produce thrives under the supervision of a computer-controlled network of sensors, motors and plumbing.

The 15,000-square-foot hydroponic greenhouse facility, called Gotham Greens, is reputedly the first commercial-scale urban operation of its kind in the United States. Thousands of lettuce and basil seedlings were plopped into a soil-less farming system in May. Since then, three local entrepreneurs say their operation is on track to deliver 100 tons of produce by the one-year mark.

NYC Council FOOD WORKS report

This report details all the dimensions of the NYC food system (processing, waste, jobs, carbon footprint) and recommendations to improve it, especially in terms of local economy.  mm


FoodWorks: A Vision to Improve NYC's Food System. On Monday, November 22, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn released FoodWorks, a comprehensive report outlining policy recommendations for New York City's food system. UDL Assistant Director Michael Conard, who sits on the City Council's Food Policy Advisory Board, and UDL Project Manager Kubi Ackerman, were significantly involved in shaping th report which reflects many of the UDL initiatives around food systems and urbanization. Included is the Urban Design Lab's mapping of the New York City regional foodshed.  The UDL is encouraged by the public interest generated with the release of this report and will continue to develop research and policy recommendations in this expanding field.

Report on Agriculture in Hudson Valley

From the Columbia Urban Design Lab, on NYC regional agriculture

Glynwood Center new report: The State of Agriculture in the Hudson Valley Region
The UDL mapped and analyzed land-use and agricultural parcel distribution in the Hudson Valley Region for a report released recently by the Glynwood Center, a longtime partner of the Urban Design Lab.  This work is part of the UDL focus on agriculture and food systems in the New York City Region and their relationship to urbanization, environmental protection and restoration. Read the report The State of Agriculture in the Hudson Valley Region

The One Percent Actually Benefits from Tax Increases on the Wealthy

By Jay Walljasper

Here is some straight talk about the need for increasing taxes on the wealthy from the great-grandson of Oscar Meyer (yes, that Oscar Meyer), who admits he was born into the one percent.

On the Commons Fellow Chuck Collins—Senior Scholar at the Institute for Policy Studies and director of the IPS program on Inequality and the Common Good—offers compelling reasons, spiced with humor and common sense, on why it’s good for 100 percent of us to raise taxes for the most fortunate Americans. He vividly describes how wealthy entrepreneurs and investors benefit from a host of public services paid for by tax dollars, in other words the commons.

See the video of his talk at the TEDx conference at Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts.