Check out Karen Argenti, BCEQ Board Member’s comments.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/bronx/2010/11/23/2010-11-23_bronxites_tell_the_news_what_they_want_from_their_hometown_paper.html

http://bit.ly/aJ07am

Story from the NY Daily News on the link above and below:

Yankee Stadium parking stalls out after developer shows signs that it may default on bonds

Juan Gonzalez - News

Friday, September 10th 2010, 4:00 AM

The developer of the Yankee stadium parking system is on the verge of defaulting on $237 million in tax-exempt bonds issued by the city's Industrial Development Agency.

So many fans are shunning the network of 9,000 stadium parking spaces that revenue for the first half of 2010 was only $4.8 million - half of what was projected - according to a stunning financial disclosure by Bronx Parking Development.

The firm, which is independent of the Yankees and has existed for only three years, warned bondholders in an Aug. 18 letter that it currently has "insufficient funds" from operations to pay a $6.8 million interest bill due Oct. 1, and another $6.8 million due next April. And despite an additional $100 million in city and state grants it received on top of IDA bonds, Bronx Parking has failed for three years to pay its annual rent tab of $3.2 million to the city. It also has yet to pay any property taxes for the 21 acres of publicly owned land it is leasing to operate the parking system.

So why have these garages been such a fiasco? After all, the Yankees won a championship their first year in the new stadium and the team is currently exceeding its own revenue projections.

According to Bronx Parking, the garages have suffered from several unforseen problems:

More than 800 fans are heading on game days to the Gateway Shopping Mall five blocks from the stadium, where they pay only $10 to park instead of the stiff $23 self-parking fee ($35 for valet service) at the stadium garages.


A new Metro North station has lured many fans (about 5,000 per game) to ride the train.


The Yankees prepaid for only 190 parking spaces this year for their season ticket holders instead of the 900 spaces they prepaid last year.


The firm's announcement sparked an immediate drop in the trading value of its bonds. It also sent city officials scurrying to come up with a solution to what could be the biggest default of an IDA bond that anyone can remember.

"If these garages are only at 60% of capacity after a World Series victory, you know it can only get worse from here," said one city official with direct knowledge of the project's finances. "There's just too much unused parking around the stadium."

The Bloomberg administration selected Bronx Parking in 2007 to build and run the garages after the Yankees demanded a minimum of 9,000 spaces to stay in the Bronx. The firm is subsidiary of a Hudson County nonprofit, Community Initiatives Development Corp. The parent firm defaulted on two previous bonds for projects in Syracuse and Monroe County. The firm's chief executive, William Loewenstein, did not return calls for comment. A spokesperson for the Yankees declined to talk about the garage problems.

The only way Bronx Parking will be able to meet its next two interest payments, the firm said in its letters to bondholders, is by drawing $4.5 million from a bond reserve fund. That would push the fund below its legally required level and trigger a time clock on a possible default.

One thing Yankee fans can be sure of: parking rates at the stadium will rise sharply next year.

Even with that increase, Bronx Parking does not expect to generate enough money to replenish the reserve fund, and that would mean "an event of default," its letter to bondholders said.

"The bonds are not a general obligation of the city or the IDA in any way, shape or form," said David Lombino, a spokesman for city's Economic Development Corp., and would not "necessarily affect IDA-issued bonds going forward."

Experts familiar with the stadium project are not so optimistic.

"If these bonds default, it will spook investors against any other IDA," said one lawyer involved in negotiations on the original deal.
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/bronx/2010/09/10/2010-09-10_stadium_parking_stalls_out_developer_may_default_on_bonds.html#ixzz0z9We8D43

For more information about the events listed please contact the organization hosting the event.

Harlem River Festival
Sunday September 12th, 10-4 Swindler Cove Park (Dyckman street and 10th Ave.)
An all day event packed with fishing, seining for crustaceans, boating, music, barbeque picnic, and photo opportunities at the Peter J Sharp Boathouse, water slides, painting and decorating fish shaped cookies are just some of the fun and education activities designed to bring people to the water. Great for all ages! All activities are FREE! Brought to you by New York Restoration Project in partnership with NYC Department of Parks and Recreation, for more information contact Shannon Donohue at 212-333-2552 or at sdonohue@nyrp.org.

Harlem River Ecology Center Fall MigrationUrban Wildlife Appreciation- Birds of Prey Series (southern end of Roberto Clemente State Park, Beneath River Park Towers, Bld 10, in the Morris Hts section of the Bronx, 10453):

- Sat Sept 25th, 1pm-3pm- In Keeping Company with The Red Tailed Hawk.
- Sat October 9th, 1pm-3pm- The Owls, Who are They? What Do They Eat
- Sat November 6th- 1pm-3pm- In Keeping Company with the Crow and Raven Live Encounter and Education about the urban birds of prey of the Bronx urban wetlands and urban watershed
For more info call 347-224-5828, or email harlemriver.udec@gmail.com A project of The Urban Divers Estuary Conservancy- www.urbandivers.org

East River Crew-Free community rowing- 96th street and east river- Tuesdays at 5pm September 14th until October. For more information go to www.eastrivercrew.org or call (917) 622-7513.

Randall’s Island Wetlands Stewardship Program (Icahn Stadium, 20 Randall’s Island)
-Please join us on a tour of the Randall’s Island salt marsh and freshwater wetlands. This 8 acre complex, restored in 2008, offers visitors a chance to view the local flora and fauna found in these unique ecosystems.
-Opportunities for volunteer weeding, planting, clean-up are also available.
For more information or to register a group please contact Victoria Ruzicka. Natural Areas Manager at (212) 860-1899 ext. 309 or at Victoria.ruzicka@parks.nyc.gov.

Halloween at University Woods: Enter woods at Cedar or Sedgwick at 181st street.
Join the Friends of The Woods for haunted tours of University woods every Sunday in October or for It’s My Park! Day Halloween events on October 31st. For more information contact Friends of the Woods at thewoods@inbox.com, or at (718) 228-9309.

The follow up letter is below. State_OPRHP_02162010_sitevisit ff up 05102010

Join other local leaders to make a Blueprint for Green Jobs in the Bronx!

You have been selected as a candidate to attend the Bronx Green Jobs Summit, a project of the Bronx Green Jobs Roundtable.

Register for the Summit here: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/X6ZC89Z

The event will be hosted by

Bronx Community College Center for Sustainability on April 7th, 2010 from 9am – 5pm in the Lower Colston Hall.

You can get directions here: http://www.bcc.cuny.edu/directions/directions.htm

If you would like to recommend others to participate in the summit, you can
invite them directly or email us with their contact information and we will
reach out to them.

This summit is a result of a grassroots initiative within the borough to ensure
“green” development is good development—benefiting Bronx workers and addressing the longstanding environmental injustices with which our Borough has been burdened. It is designed to bring together leaders across the Bronx to build a shared analysis and blueprint for green workforce development in the Bronx. Our focus topics are: Small Business & Industry development; Local Food Justice; Air & Water; Remediation; Housing; Energy and Job Training.

As a roundtable, our goal is to ensure that Bronx Green Jobs resources– from training programs to Environmental Justice experts– know about each other and understand how existing resources can be used to benefit the community. Then together we can identify where gaps exist, and work to ensure that all this new interest and money in “green” flows to where it is truly needed to empower Bronx community members. Active participants in the roundtable include The Point, Sustainable South Bronx, Bronx Community College Center for Sustainability, the Osborne Association, Goodwill Industries, Mothers on the Move, the Northwest Bronx Community & Clergy Coalition, Green Workers Cooperative, Local 10, the Mary Mitchell Center, Youth Ministries for Peace & Justice, Urban Agenda, the Consortium for Workers’ Education and Congressman Serrano’s office.

A panel of experts convened by the mayor and City Council issued more than 100 recommendations Monday on how to make New York City’s building codes more environmentally sound by imposing energy-saving requirements on construction and renovation work.

The measures, presented to Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and the Council’s speaker, Christine C. Quinn, include rules for insulating glass skyscrapers and a plan that would place temperature controls in individual apartments, eliminating the winter ritual of opening windows to vent excess heat.

Many of the proposals would need to be approved by the City Council.

“A lot of these are incremental gains, but together they amount to a big gain,” said the panel’s chairman, Russell Unger, the executive director of the New York chapter of the United States Green Building Council, which certifies green design and construction. “By changing code, everybody can have lower utility bills.”

The recommendations are the city’s latest attempt to reduce the greenhouse gases produced by its buildings, which are estimated to be the source of about 75 percent of the city’s emissions over all. In December, the City Council passed legislation requiring owners of New York’s largest buildings to pay for energy audits, upgrade lighting and take other steps to reduce energy consumption.

But as with previous green proposals for buildings, many of the improvements suggested on Monday could substantially increase the costs of renovation or construction.

The panel of experts, including representatives of the building industry and from environmental groups, said at a briefing that the city must find ways to secure financing and offer other incentives to help developers and managers make the changes.

“In general, the industry supports the overall goal,” said Charlotte Matthews, vice president for sustainability at the Related Companies, a major New York developer that has a representative on the task force.

She noted that some measures would be less palatable than others, and that in difficult economic times “any change is a little unnerving.”

But she said a stiffer code regulating buildings’ energy use was essential in meeting the city’s long-term environmental demands and “ensuring that all New Yorkers have a healthy home, school and workplace.”

The panel’s wish list includes requiring all commercial and residential buildings that are four stories or taller to meet the nation’s latest energy standards. Other proposals call for such buildings to be more airtight and to have minimal insulation.

One proposal would impose higher efficiency standards for heating systems and ban inefficient boilers in the city’s largest buildings. Another would phase in individual apartment temperature controls over a 10-year period.

Ms. Quinn said about half of the measures would not involve significant expenditures. The real estate industry’s participation in the process should help address concerns about costs, she added.

“It’s kind of a new way of looking at how we do business with a green perspective,” she said.

In a statement, Mayor Bloomberg said the recommendations by the panel, which was convened 18 months ago, were critical to meeting the city’s goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions 30 percent by 2030.

Stormwater Management for Federal Facilities under
Section 438 of the Energy Independence and Security Act
http://www.epa.gov/owow/nps/lid/section438/

You HAVE to download this fact sheet:
http://www.epa.gov/owow/NPS/lid/section438/pdf/final_sec438_factsht.pdf

“We have 30 miles of rooftop in New York City and maybe 3,000 miles of walls,” said Paul Mankiewicz, the executive director of the Gaia Institute in New York. “It’s basically about maximizing the productivity per square foot.”

Our Dead Planet

Aasif Mandvi interviews our BCEQ VP Dr. Paul Mankiewcz

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/wed-september-23-2009/our-dead-planet

By Matt Johanson

When the Yankees opened their new stadium and pinstriped stars like Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera ran onto the field for the first time, the cheers of delirious New York fans echoed for miles. But to environmentalists and residents in surrounding neighborhoods, a Bronx cheer seems a more appropriate response to the new Yankee Stadium project, which they say isn’t nearly green enough, grass notwithstanding.

A baseball’s throw from the storied old yard that housed the Bronx Bombers from 1923-2008, the new Yankee Stadium opened to fanfare this spring. While the park accommodates fewer spectators (52,325, including standing room), it boasts more concessionaires, restrooms and nearly double the retail space of the old haunts. There are also more luxury suites: 56 instead of 19, plus 410 “party suites.”

The high-rolling Yankees have long led the major leagues in financial clout, and New York’s new $1.3 billion home looks like a license to print money. Front-row seats sell for $2,500 each and some fans are committing to season ticket plans for as long as 10 years.

TO CONTINUE READING CLICK HERE:

http://www.emagazine.com/view/?4666&printview