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City on the Edge: Climate Change and New York City

Welcome to City Limits' City on the Edge newsletter, where we feature reporting and as resources for readers about climate, health and the environment in New York City.

Here are the latest stories from City Limits:

Mayor Adams Promised 20,000 Trees a Year. But Budget Cuts Threaten Progress
A staff of just 302 people tend to a crop of over 865,000 trees across the city. Adams’ preliminary budget aims to slash $46 million from the Parks Department, which environmentalists fear signals a step back in the mayor’s promise to keep New York City’s canopy alive and growing.

An Overlooked Climate Solution? Greener Playgrounds
Across the country, cities are transforming asphalt schoolyards into spongy, shady community centers. The new playground at PS 184M Shuang Wen School in Manhattan’s Chinatown, for example, has a porous turf field that can capture an estimated 1.3 million gallons of stormwater runoff. This article originally appeared in Nexus Media News and Next City.

Opinion: Reducing the City’s Waste Output is Good for New York State
“Addressing New York City’s organic waste output isn’t just about keeping our streets rodent free. It’s about communities across the country where our waste ends up in polluting incinerators and towering landfills, including the largest in the state: Seneca Meadows.”

All across the Bronx there are toxic chemicals in the ground, hazardous enough to the people who live and work nearby that the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) has ordered them cleaned up.Yet years—and in some cases decades—after the dangers were identified, the toxic substances are still here, unremediated.

During the Fall 2022 semester, Lehman College journalism students conducted an investigation on the prevalence these sites in The Bronx. Using public information, research into federal lobbying records and interviews with experts and residents, the student journalists set out to understand how this contamination happened and why progress towards remediation was so slow.

Meet Our New Climate Reporter: Mariana Simões

Mariana Simões joined City Limits this month covering climate and the environment. She is a Brazilian investigative journalist covering climate, politics and urban issues in Brazil and the United States. Her work has appeared in global outlets like The New York Times, The Economist, Vice, Aljazeera, USA Today and others. She coordinated award-winning multimedia projects for Brazilian investigative news agency, Agencia Publica, and ran Brazil’s first cultural center for journalism. Simoes is a Columbia University J-school alum.

Send story tips and other suggestions for the climate beat by emailing [email protected]

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