Check out Mayor Nutter's plan at http://www.greenworksphila.org/

As the saying goes, mechanical engineers build weapons and civil engineers build targets.  The WTC had been a real estate white elephant since the get-go, and there is just no compelling need for a replacement nowadays.  Turn it into green space, and make NYC a bit more livable.  Central Park is always held up as just the greatest thing since sliced bread.  So another park should be just as significant and valued by New Yorkers.

If Mayor Bloomberg could pull this off, I would credit him and NYC with REALLY being serious about green living and wouldn't care much about the 127 other items on his laundry list. 

Jersey City and most of urban New Jersey around NYC have terrific litter/trash removal problems.

How can a mayor be ethically be called "Green" when he and city/state officials do not enforce/violate state laws and allow trash to pile up on public streets for years? Some of the worst such rubbish conditions anywhere in the United States, but recognized as Positive?

Litter breeds vermin/dieseases and kills over 1,100 Americans annually in vehicle-related accidents (NHTSA stats) 

Go to Google and see my Powerpoint, "East Coast States with Bad, UGLY City/Urban Litter;"   "American State Litter Scorecard."

If you want evidence look no futher than the new Yankee Stadium project, which Mayor Bloomberg championed. That project involved erasing over 20 acres of public parkland from one of the poorest communities in the nation, and replacing it with a stadium and parking. The neighborhood, which has sky-high asthma rates, lost over 300 mature trees, which can not realistically be replaced in the immediate area.  The neighborhood will get new replacement parks, but years later - and most of those parks will have artificial turf made from recycled tire waste, not real grass and trees like the community had before. At a community meeting I asked how Yankee Stadium would comply with PlaNYC 2030 to one of Mayor Bloomberg's staffers.  All I got was a "deer-in-the-headlights" look.  Of course it's not consistent with PlaNYC 2030.  But then again, what is PlaNYC 2030 anyway?  It's whatever Mayor Bloomberg says it is.  He can be "green" one day, and then violate those ideas the next day. That's the great thing when you are a billionaire media company owner who becomes an elected official.  You can use your strength with media manipulation to manipulate public perception.

The truth is, Mayor Bloomberg has been a fanatic when it comes to replacing naturally vegetated areas with artificial turf, particularly in poor neighborhoods that are not deemed worthy of adequate parks maintenance budgets. He has championed privatization of park space in favor of wealthy residents who can pay for the space instead of keeping them open to all. He has incrased parking requirements throughout the city, necessitating more space for asphalt and less for open space. True, he supported congestion pricing, but think about it - everyone knew that idea was D.O.A. in our famously unprogressive State Legislature, including him. Maybe, just maybe, he just pushed it to beef up the illusion that he cares about the environment at a time he was thinking about a Presidential run?  Maybe, maybe not.  He's not going to fess up about it.

The bottom line with Mayor Bloomberg is that if you live in a wealthy part of town, being wealthy himself, he'll really go the extra mile for you.  But if you live in those outer areas of the city, watch out - you might lose all of your green space to a developer. How is that progressive? How is that protecting the environment?  How is that environmental justice?  It's not - and you people at Grist have been duped. Check your facts next time!