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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
PR- 198-07
June 15, 2007

JOSE RIVERA & MEMBERS OF BRONX AND UPPER MANHATTAN ASSEMBLY DELEGATION JOIN BOROUGH PRESIDENT CARRION & COUNCIL MEMBERS TO ENDORSE PLANYC

The List of State and City Elected Officials Endorsing 127 Initiatives to Create A Greener Greater New York Continues to Grow

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg joined Assembly Member Jose Rivera, Members of the Bronx and Upper Manhattan Assembly Delegations, Borough President Adolfo Carrion and Council Members today as they endorsed PlaNYC and joined a growing list of elected officials, labor, business, civic, health advocacy and environmental organizations supporting the 127 Initiatives that Mayor Bloomberg laid out on Earth Day.  In addition to Assembly Member Rivera and Borough President Carrion, the Mayor was joined at the Bronx County Courthouse – a 1930’s structure recently retrofitted with a “green” roof – by Assembly Members Michael Benedetto, Adriano Espaillat, Carl Heastie, Adam Clayton Powell Jr., Naomi Rivera, Peter Rivera, Council Members Annabel Palma and James Vacca and representatives of the more than 140 groups that have endorsed the Mayor’s plan.

“PlaNYC will benefit people in the Bronx and throughout our City and the entire region.  Working with our Department of Citywide Administrative Services, the Borough President has already installed a green roof here at the courthouse, which is an example of the type of conservation measures that our plan envisions,” said Mayor Bloomberg.  “The Borough President and the Assembly Members and all of the officials here today, are doing what’s right for the people that they represent by endorsing this plan and working to get it enacted and I’m proud to stand here with them today and have their support.”

“PlaNYC is good for my constituents and all New Yorkers and I’m proud to stand with my fellow Bronx Assembly Members and the Mayor today to support it,” said Assembly member Jose Rivera.  “It’s important that we enact PlaNYC so that people in the neighborhoods that my colleagues and I represent will start to realize the public health and transportation benefits of the plan.”  
 
“After taking time to carefully analyze the Mayor’s PlaNYC proposal, I am proud to announce my support for the congestion pricing plan,” said Bronx Borough President Carrion.  “From reducing traffic and asthma-inducing pollution and improving public transportation options throughout the five boroughs, the mayor’s plan will put New York City on a path to an even greener and greater future.”

Last December, Mayor Bloomberg challenged New Yorkers to generate ideas for achieving ten key goals for the City’s sustainable future.  New Yorkers in all five boroughs responded, and the result was PlaNYC, 127 initiatives focusing on the five key dimensions of the City’s environment – land, air, water, energy and transportation.   PlaNYC proposals run from the relatively easy to achieve, like the already-underway replacement of thousands of traditional incandescent light bulbs in City buildings with compact fluorescent lights, to proposals that have never before been tried by a major American city, like planting mollusks in polluted waterways to naturally clean them.  Together, these initiatives will help meet the challenges faced by New York City as its population continues to grow, with an expected 1 million more people arriving between now and 2030, while at the same time reducing the City's greenhouse gas emissions by 30%.

Included in PlaNYC is a proposed pilot program to charge drivers a fee to enter the central business district in Manhattan.  Revenue generated from the fee would be earmarked for much-needed transit improvements.  More than $30 billion in regional transportation infrastructure improvements would be made possible through congestion pricing revenue. 

In addition to the 140 environmental, health, civic, business and labor organizations that are supporting PlaNYC, Assembly Members Jose Rivera, Michael Benedetto, Adriano Espaillat, Carl Heastie, Adam Clayton Powell Jr., Naomi Rivera, Peter Rivera, Borough President Adolfo Carrion, and Council Member Annabel Palma join a growing list of City and State and Federal elected officials expressing support.  That list includes: Governor Eliot Spitzer; Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno; Senate Minority Leader Malcolm Smith; Congressman Joseph Crowley; Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum; Manhattan Borough President Scott M. Stringer; Senators Liz Krueger, Bill Perkins, Eric T. Schneiderman, and Jose Serrano Jr.; Assembly Members Karim Camara, Richard N. Gottfried, Brian Kavanagh, and Linda Rosenthal;  City Council Members Gale A. Brewer; Simcha Felder; Daniel R. Garodnick; James Sanders Jr.; Larry B. Seabrook; Melissa Mark Viverito; and David Yassky; and Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi.







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