as-coa.org

July 08, 2013

Registration: 5:30 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.
Presentation and Discussion: 6:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.

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Please join Americas Society/Council of the Americas for the launch of Stephen D. King’s latest book When the Money Runs Out, The End of Western Affluence.

About the book:

submitted by Michael Kraft

communities.firstresponder.gov

Lessons Learned: Social Media and Hurricane Sandy
(39 PAGE .pdf FILE)

(FOR ADDITIONAL DETAILS - CLICK ON THE HEADLINE, OR "READ MORE")

By MEGHAN BARR

— Jun. 24 2:20 PM EDT

NEW YORK (AP) — A silver lining frames the cloud of destruction left by Superstorm Sandy. In their hour of greatest need, families and communities — not the government — were the most helpful sources of assistance and support.

A poll conducted by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that after the storm in New York and New Jersey, friends, relatives and neighbors were cited the most often as the people who helped them make it through.

FULL ARTICLE HERE

The Institute for Public Knowledge at NYU is hosting Secretary of Housing and Urban Development and Chair of the Hurricane Sandy Rebuilding Task Force Shaun Donovan, who will make an announcement related to promoting innovation and resilient design in Sandy rebuilding. Following his remarks, Secretary Donovan will chair a panel focused on the vulnerabilities of the Sandy-affected region and opportunities to make communities more resilient through innovative design and regional planning. Judith Rodin, President of The Rockefeller Foundation, will discuss the role of philanthropies in generating and supporting innovative responses to Hurricane Sandy.

FULL INFORMATION HERE

LIVESTREAM LINK HERE

huffingtonpost.com - June 18, 2013

New York City officials released the final version of the updated hurricane evacuation zones map Tuesday. The new map incorporates 600,000 more city residents into evacuation zones.

The new zones are now listed from Zone 1 to Zone 6 and will replace Zones A, B, and C to "allow more flexibility in targeting areas to evacuate in advance of a predicted storm," according to a statement.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

(GO TO THE INTERACTIVE EVACUATION ZONES AND EVACUATION CENTERS MAP)

(NYC HURRICANE BROCHURE) - (3 page .PDF file)

(ALSO SEE ADDITIONAL INFORMATION HERE)

huffingtonpost.com - June 9, 2013 - Katie Zezima and Meghan Barr

MANTOLOKING, NJ - MAY 15: A beach front home damaged by Superstorm Sandy is tagged to be torn down and hauled off, May 15, 2013 in Manotoloking, New Jersey. Mantoloking officials say that at least 50 homes are scheduled to be demolished in the up coming weeks. (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

George Kasimos has almost finished repairing flood damage to his waterfront home, but his Superstorm Sandy nightmare is far from over. ...

That's because the federal government's newly released advisory flood maps have put his Toms River home in the most vulnerable area – the "velocity zone." If that sticks, he'd have to jack his house up 14 feet on stilts at a cost of $150,000 or face up to $30,000 a year in flood insurance premiums....

For many, it's an impossible choice. They can't afford to do either. And many unanswered questions have left residents paralyzed with indecision....

nytimes.com - June 16, 2013 - Mireya Navarro

Maxie Santiago prepared to empty his food scraps into a collection bin on the sixth floor of his 600-unit building in Manhattan.

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg ... is taking on a new cause: requiring New Yorkers to separate their food scraps for composting.

Dozens of smaller cities, including San Francisco and Seattle, have adopted rules that mandate recycling of food waste from homes, but sanitation officials in New York had long considered the city too dense and vertically structured for such a policy to succeed.

Recent pilot programs in the city, though, have shown an unexpectedly high level of participation, officials said. As a result, the Bloomberg administration is rolling out an ambitious plan to begin collecting food scraps across the city, according to Caswell F. Holloway IV, a deputy mayor.

The administration plans to announce shortly that it is hiring a composting plant to handle 100,000 tons of food scraps a year. That amount would represent about 10 percent of the city’s residential food waste.

submitted by Dennis McKeon

assembly.state.ny.us

A07168 Summary:

BILL NO A07168

SAME AS SAME AS S04787

SPONSOR Cymbrowitz

COSPNSR Brook-Krasny

MLTSPNSR

Places the area two hundred fifty feet south of the Riegelmann boardwalk under the jurisdiction of the New York city department of parks and recreation.

http://assembly.state.ny.us/leg/?default_fld=&bn=A07168&term=2013
&Summary=Y&Actions=Y&Votes=Y&Memo=Y&Text=Y

submitted by Jill Cornell

Sandy Regional Assembly - April 2013

A coalition of environmental groups made recommendations this week on how to more effectively allocate Sandy funding.

The Grassroots Recovery Agenda was unveiled by the Sandy Regional Assembly, a consortium of nearly 200 environmental groups from New York City and the surrounding area.

The agenda calls for the integration of regional building efforts with resiliency priorities, the strengthening of vulnerable communities and an expanded view of community-based climate change planning.

Sandy Regional Assembly - Recovery Agenda (16 page .PDF file)

Sandy Regional Assembly recommends Grassroots Recovery Agenda - News Video and Article - bronx.news12.com

submitted by Bill Sothern - May 29, 2013

A new ABC news program called the Lookout debuts tonight (at 10pm) and features a segment examining the sometimes dubious practices of mold inspectors and contractors as they conduct an inspection of a high-end suburban NJ home.  Myself and Prof. Richard Shaughnessy of U. of Tulsa provide the play by play and color commentary (no scripts, no rehearsals) while the hidden cameras capture the diverse conclusions of the good guys and bad guys as they present their findings and recommendations to the homeowner.

(CLICK HERE - ABC LIVE STREAM)

FEMA Building Science, the FEMA New Jersey Field Office, the New Jersey DCA, and Rutgers are pleased to announce multiple course offerings of “FEMA Best Practices for Flood and Wind Mitigation.” This course is offered to engineers, architects, contractors, builders, and local officials. There are still spaces open for these courses.

Schedule:

• Thursday, June 6, 2013, 8am – 5pm, Hasbrouck Heights, NJ
• Thursday, June 20, 2013, 8am – 5pm, Waretown, NJ
• Tuesday, June 25, 2013, 8am – 5pm, Freehold, NJ

Course Description:

publicknowledge.org - by Harold Feld - May 9, 2013

Verizon wants to replace copper landlines destroyed by Hurricane Sandy with a new fixed wireless service called Voice Link. But should victims of natural disaster be guinea pigs when fundamental basic services are at stake? Especially when it means losing access to broadband?

Ever since Hurricane Sandy destroyed huge pieces of its landline network last October, Verizon made it clear it did not want to rebuild its traditional copper network. Most folks assumed that meant replacing damaged copper with fiber. While some consumers have grumbled about being upgraded to a more expensive service, no one doubts fiber to the home represents a step up – especially on the broadband side. 

But what about those communities where Verizon does not want to spend the money upgrading to FIOS? Turns out, rather than an upgrade to fiber, these communities will play guinea pig for Verizon’s new, cheaper, more limited wireless alternative called “Voice Link.”

submitted by Peter B. Gudaitis

Please RSVP to ***@***.*** by 5PM  Thursday, 5/30

NYDIS and The FEMA VAL Group Invite You to Attend the

NYC VOLUNTEER GROUP HOUSING COORDINATION PROGRAM

Planning Meeting

Who Should Attend: LTRG Volunteer & Rebuild Committee Members, Rebuild Organizations,

Faith Communities or Denominations Coordinating Housing and Individual Congregations Hosting Volunteers

______________________________

Friday, May 31, 2013  -- 2:30-4:00PM

NYDIS Office - 4 West 43^rd Street, Room 415 (Between 5th & 6^th Avenues)

Please join us to discuss city-wide long-term housing coordination needs and resources, including:

·       Preview of National VOAD Volunteer Housing Portal

·         LTRO Updates on Housing & Volunteer Needs

·        Assessment Process for Current Housing Assets, Networks & Needs

·         Review Host Registration Documents, Host Site & Volunteer Manuals

earth-policy.org - by Janet Larsen
May 14, 2013

When New York City opened registration for its much anticipated public bike-sharing program on April 15, 2013, more than 5,000 people signed up within 30 hours. Eager for access to a fleet of thousands of bicycles, they became Citi Bike members weeks before bikes were expected to be available. Such pent-up demand for more cycling options is on display in cities across the United States—from Buffalo to Boulder, Omaha to Oklahoma City, and Long Beach in New York to Long Beach in California—where shared bicycle programs are taking root.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)