Go green for health, says Maya
Mayoral hopeful Maya Wiley wants to double the city’s green and open spaces under a climate plan that would expand its efforts to reduce asthma rates and promote more clean energy use.
The new agenda, which Wiley (photo) expects to announce Thursday, aims to create more community gardens, parks and permanent open streets, as well as additional bike and bus lanes.
It would create a citywide Asthma Action Plan to expand efforts at public hospitals to lower pediatric asthma throughout the city and would step up enforcement of rules requiring landlords to keep apartments free of pests and mold. “Rising sea levels and environmental injustices pose extreme danger to our city. We also know that the fight for climate justice is intertwined with the struggles for economic and racial justice,” Wiley said.
“As mayor, I plan to address the challenges we face with the scope they each need, and my vision to fight against climate change is no different.”
Under her “Community First” climate action plan, Wiley would launch a citywide “Green Future Force” tasked with hiring unemployed youth and putting them to work on expanding the city’s composting program and improving city parks and public spaces. The group and its work would double the size of the city’s Service Corps, which receives much of its funding through the federal AmeriCorps program and now employs about 60.
Wiley also intends to form a new Office of Public Space Management to identify more streets that can be converted to pedestrian- and bicycle-only spaces. The new agency would partner with the city Transportation Department to create a “street hierarchy,” which would allow residents to become more involved with how some streets are used in their neighborhoods.
Wiley, a former MSNBC commentator who served as Mayor de Blasio’s legal counsel, wants to pump $3 billion into the city’s climate change resiliency efforts, including what she’s dubbed “Renewable Rikers,” a plan to convert the jail complex into a place where the city can develop solar and wind power generation. The funding would lead to more than 28,000 new jobs, she predicts.