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Taking Office, de Blasio Vows to Fix Inequity

      

Bill de Blasio, right, with his wife and children, was sworn into office at City Hall on Wednesday by former President Bill Clinton.  Chang W. Lee/The New York Times

Bill de Blasio, whose fiery populism propelled his rise from obscure neighborhood official to the 109th mayor of New York, was sworn into office on Wednesday, pledging that his ambition for a more humane and equal metropolis would remain undimmed.

In his inaugural address, Mayor de Blasio described social inequality as a “quiet crisis” on a par with the other urban cataclysms of the city’s last half-century, from fiscal collapse to crime waves to terrorist attacks, and said income disparity was a struggle no less urgent to confront.

“We are called to put an end to economic and social inequalities that threaten to unravel the city we love,” he said to about 5,000 people at the ceremony, many beneath blankets on a numbingly cold day.

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It’s Time to Take Mesh Networks Seriously (And Not Just for the Reasons You Think)

      

Nets of Freedom creating mesh networks. Image: Strelka Institute / Flickr

wired.com - by Primavera De Filippi - January 2, 2014

The internet is weak, yet we keep ignoring this fact. So we see the same thing over and over again, whether it’s because of natural disasters like hurricanes Sandy and Katrina, wars like Syria and Bosnia, deliberate attempts by the government to shut down the internet (most recently in Egypt and Iran), or NSA surveillance.

After Typhoon Haiyan hit the Philippines, several towns were cut off from humanitarian relief because delivering that aid depends on having a reliable communication network. In a country where over 90 percent of the population has access to mobile phones, the implementation of an emergency “mesh” network could have saved lives.

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Geothermal Heat Pumps

Watch how geothermal heat pumps heat and cool buildings by concentrating the naturally existing heat contained within the earth -- a clean, reliable, and renewable source of energy.

energy.gov - June 24, 2012

Geothermal heat pumps (GHPs), sometimes referred to as GeoExchange, earth-coupled, ground-source, or water-source heat pumps, have been in use since the late 1940s. They use the constant temperature of the earth as the exchange medium instead of the outside air temperature. This allows the system to reach fairly high efficiencies (300% to 600%) on the coldest winter nights, compared to 175% to 250% for air-source heat pumps on cool days.

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How My Mobile Devices are Ready for the Next Storm: Fenix ReadySet

      

gigaom.com - by Kevin C. Tofel - November 7, 2012

After 4 days without power thanks to Hurricane Sandy, something arrived today that will help keep my mobile devices fully charged and connected to the web. I backed a Fenix ReadySet on Kickstarter, which is a large battery that charges with an included solar panel.

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http://www.fenixintl.com/

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NYC Housing: A Tale of Two Cities

Safe, Affordable Homes for All New Yorkers

 

 

Click here to download or view a PDF version of Safe, Affordable Homes for All New Yorkers.

 

We live a Tale of Two Cities. The wealthiest New Yorkers enjoy a life of luxury, while many working and retired families can barely pay the rent. At the very bottom, 50,000 New Yorkers sleep in shelters every night. But the challenge is much greater. Almost half of all New Yorkers spend more than 30 percent of their income on housing — and one-third of households spend at least half on housing.

In 10 years, New York City has lost nearly as many affordable apartments as it has built or preserved. Gentrification, unscrupulous landlords, and the real estate lobby’s hold on government have pulled tens of thousands of apartments out of rent stabilization, and more are lost every year.

The de Blasio Record on Affordable Housing

 

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Is NYC's Climate Plan Enough to Win the Race Against Rising Seas?

      

Areas that are expected to be in a 100-year flood zone in the 2020s and 2050s as sea levels rise from global warming, according to new projections by the NYPCC

The city's climate adaptation projects should be devised to handle conditions far worse than even the most severe sea level rise estimates, scientists say.

insideclimatenews.org - by Katherine Bagley and Maria Gallucci- June 20, 2013

Mayor Michael Bloomberg's plan to protect New York City from future superstorm Sandys and other climate-related threats is the most ambitious and scientifically accurate plan of its kind in the world. But as global warming intensifies and sea levels rise, even this strategy may not be enough to flood-proof the city for very long, experts say.

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Transitioning to a Green Energy Economy: How Municipalities Can Benefit

Date: 
Wednesday, November 20, 2013 - 09:00 to 13:30

Kaplan Hall, SUNY/Orange,One Washington Center,Newburgh Campus

Please pre-register at www.surveymonkey.com/s/TGEE. There is no charge for the event.

Ecodistricts SUMMIT -- Boston, MA -- Nov. 12-14

Date: 
Tuesday, November 12, 2013 - 09:00 to Thursday, November 14, 2013 - 15:00

Experience EcoDistricts Summit, the premier conference dedicated to promote sustainable neighborhood development.

Each year the EcoDistricts Summit convenes leading municipal policymakers, developers, business leaders, planners, and community leaders – people with decision-making power – to share best practices and shape the growing EcoDistricts marketplace. Take a look behind development and neighborhood revitalization - for this can’t-miss event for leaders who are shaping and building the cities and urban neighborhoods of the future.

Governor Cuomo Announces New Academic Partnership Focused on Storm Resilience and Emergency Preparedness

governor.ny.gov - Albany, NY (November 1, 2013)

Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today announced the launch of the New York State Resiliency Institute for Storms & Emergencies (NYS RISE), a new “applied think tank” led by New York University and Stony Brook University that will serve as a hub of research and education on emergency preparedness, as well as a clearinghouse of information regarding extreme weather and natural disasters.

The Resiliency Institute will bring together academic thought leaders as well as government officials, national experts and emergency response leaders, to conduct research and provide scientific information and intellectual resources that will lead to the development of comprehensive plans that policymakers and stakeholders can use to better protect communities.

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Stranded By Sandy: A Year After Hurricane, 22,000 Households Remain Displaced in New York Region

democracynow.org - October 29, 2013

One year after Superstorm Sandy, many of those impacted by the storm remain without a permanent home and dependent on diminishing relief funds. New York Magazine reports at least 22,000 households are still displaced. We are joined by two guests: Shawn Little, a healthcare worker who has been living in hotels with her family since Sandy devastated their neighborhood in the Rockaways section of Queens, and Judith Goldiner, attorney in charge of the Civil Law Reform Unit at the Legal Aid Society.

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