Building and financing sustainable New York City infrastructure
In a previous article, I outlined Short-term environmental agenda For our new mayor. Here, I describe the city’s long-term agenda for environmental sustainability. Energy, water, solid waste, sewage, flood control, and transportation systems are the core parts of the physical infrastructure that must be built or rebuilt as we move towards sustainable urban development in New York. Compared with European cities, we are young, but compared with many American cities, we are old. New York City’s energy grid was first built more than a century ago. Our water supply and subway systems are also largely relics of the early 20th century. Rebuilding the old system is more expensive than building a new system. The cost of reconstruction and modernization of our sustainable infrastructure is the core issue this city must face.
In the past, we managed to find a way to fund our subway system, energy system, water supply and sewage system. It is not clear whether we are willing to postpone immediate gratification to invest in the future. The widening gap between the rich and the poor shows that those who are able to invest would rather not invest in their communities, but instead pay out of their own pockets. Another option for investing in a sustainable city of the future is to ensure that the city is relegated to a second-tier status in the emerging global economy.
The energy system will need to be converted to renewable energy. It must also become more decentralized through community microgrids and distributed energy generation. Due to aging and extreme weather, the reliability of our centralized energy system will decrease, and we need to establish redundancy and decouple from the system when the system fails. Although most people in New York City live in apartments, most of the land in New York City is under single-family homes. Before we get the technology to integrate solar arrays into apartment building windows, we need single-family houses and two or three-family houses outside of Manhattan to install rooftop solar cells and energy storage batteries. Parking lots, hypermarkets and other large structures should be covered by solar panels. Municipal and state governments should encourage solar installations by reducing property taxes and interest-free loans. The combination of solar and wind energy can help us reduce our dependence on fossil fuels. The construction of offshore windmills must also be much faster than what we have seen so far. We will need additional technology to do the rest, but let’s start with what we have.
Federal incentives for electric vehicles should be able to quickly replace internal combustion engines, and utilities (and energy discounts) should encourage people with private homes and driveways to keep their cars plugged in when not in use, so that their stored battery power can be used as a source in Energy during peak demand periods. Microgrid can be used to manage our energy supply through artificial intelligence and computer operation control. The long-term cost of this infrastructure will be paid by consumers and should be lower than the current cost. The short-term cost of accelerated transformation must be subsidized by the government.
New York City’s water supply is in good condition, but we should be prepared for the possibility of drought caused by the climate. We also need to develop a way to regulate the water supply from the tap. DEP monitors the water in its pipelines, but not ours. This needs to change. Plans should be made for the rapid construction of desalination or grey water plants, just in case our reservoirs dry up. These costs can be paid through the existing water bills. If desalination plants or grey water recovery plants are needed, new sources of income are needed.
Our solid waste system is in a terrible condition. All of our waste is transported out of the city, and waste transportation and dumping fees at dump sites have steadily increased. No public official has won a public office because of the trash crisis, but this is still a problem that must be resolved. The best way to start is to deal with food waste first. Then we can also focus on the plastic. The promising food waste recycling system that New York had before the COVID and is now recovering at an extremely fast speed should be accelerated and mandatory for all households and businesses to use. The city should invest in the construction of anaerobic digesters to convert waste into agricultural fertilizers and natural gas for short-term energy use. Next, we should cooperate with other cities to develop the ability to collect and reuse plastics. At some point, we will have the technology to sort waste in centralized facilities, but until then, we should focus on food and plastic waste because they have valuable by-products that can be easily recycled. To do this, we must generate or attract funds to build these new facilities and the political will to select locations. The sales of fertilizers and natural gas will generate some revenue, but not enough to build and maintain these facilities. This will require subsidies from taxpayers.
Sewage and flood control are closely linked. Usually our sewage system mixes domestic sewage with rainwater, and then returns to our rivers and bays after treatment. However, when there is a lot of rain in a short period of time, our sewage will be dumped directly into the same rivers and bays. Since we cannot afford the transformation of the sewage system, we need to build a system to increase the storage capacity of green and gray rainwater. In some places, underground storage tanks must be constructed. Where feasible, sidewalks should be replaced with plants. A more interesting way to solve this problem is to use our long-buried waterways to alleviate floods.In a wonderful New York Times In an article in early December, Winnie Hu and James Thomas wrote a project about “discovering” Tibbetts Brook in the Bronx. According to these reporters:
“……Last paragraph [of Tibbetts Brook] It was transferred to a drainage pipe in the Bronx around 1912 and sent to the sewer pipe below to make way for the development of the swamps where it once flowed… Environmentalists and local activists have been working for decades. Try to make this long-buried river surface again. Now, the ever-changing climate necessitates the goals they are striving to achieve.The city plans to excavate this creek-a feat of engineering called “lighting”-costing more than $130 million because it has deteriorated by burying it in the sewer system Flood problem in cities As the warming planet experiences more frequent and more intense storms. Although invisible, this creek pumps approximately 2.2 billion gallons of fresh water each year into the same underground pipes that carry household sewage and stormwater runoff to the sewage treatment plant. It takes up valuable capacity in the outdated sewer system and causes the overflow of confluent sewers into nearby waterways.“
In order to control floods and confluent sewer overflows, we need to fund many projects such as Tibbettsbrook, the East River Park project, and shoreline reconstruction. Part of the funding for these projects is already in place, but billions of dollars are still needed.
The next important infrastructure is transportation. COVID-19 has halved the use of public transportation and increased the use of cars and bicycles. Public transportation requires upgraded signals, more frequent and more comfortable trains. When people are ready to ride again, they need to see an improved public transportation system. The sharing of bicycles and protected bicycle lanes should continue to be encouraged. However, traffic laws must be enforced on bicycles that violate traffic rules, run red lights, and intimidate pedestrians.
In the next few decades, we will need billions of dollars to achieve environmental sustainability. All these projects cost money. New Yorkers are already one of the most taxpayers in the United States, partly because taxation in most areas of the United States is insufficient. New York is known for being unfriendly to the wealthy and businesses. Whenever a billionaire moves to Florida or Texas, New York Post Report it and claim that New York is hostile to the rich. However, businesses are still coming here, and it seems that some people are occupying or at least buying apartments in the newly built luxury apartment buildings all over town. Our water supply system is paid for by our water fee. Public transportation is subsidized by bridge tolls, and additional congestion fee subsidies are required. New Yorkers have always supported environmental bonds, and most of our debt repayments are used to repay these bonds. Nevertheless, some of the funding we need must come from Washington.According to the Auditor General of New York State Thomas DiNapoli:
“New York paid $26.6 billion in taxes to the federal government in the 2018 Federal Fiscal Year (FFY) than it received in federal expenditures, ranking last among the states…” For one dollar, it will receive 90 cents back to federal spending, while the national average is $1.21,” DiNapoli said.
New York City needs a long-term environmental sustainability capital plan. It must include private investments that can be profitable, as well as public subsidies and funds that prove insufficient for revenue streams from users or customers. But we also need a sustainable czar to manage short-term measures and formulate and implement long-term strategies to plan, finance, build and operate sustainable urban infrastructure. The city’s environmental sustainability work involves multiple agencies and requires an experienced and influential senior official to control and coordinate. This will be the effort of a generation, requiring persistence, dedication and extraordinary leadership.
