New York City has always had drawing power. Her reputation beckons the best, brightest and most brave to test their mettle against the grain of her sidewalks, streets and spirit. New Yorkers, old and new are fiercely loyal to her ways, and she never dissapoints, even when she doesn’t give you what you want.
We mind our business here, unless your business somehow gets in the way of our business. We ride trains together, eat en masse, run at all hours of the day and night and spend with the best of them at every price point. We have learned to see and not see. It is a testament to our sensibilities that the very things we do to survive can just as easily become the new wave efficiencies that drive the rest of the modern world.
New Yorkers ride the subway, hail cabs, grab ferries, and bike the five boroughs. From Brooklyn to Staten Island, we do it all together not because we love each other but because its faster. Our virtues lie in the greater good because it makes it easier for the individual and occasionally for its own sake. Alas, it is becoming increasingly clear that efficiency, economy, and environment are kin, even if they don’t always get along. These days the subway brand has re-envisioned the way we have always been, they have repackaged the 100+ year old people mover as a green revolution. Can you blame them?
The super subway rider is not alone. Our Mayor has rolled out a plan for a Greener, Greater New York. The NYC cabbie is grabbing for the green gusto too! And it’s no surprise with gas in the city at well over $4.00 a gallon, the men and women who drive the mean streets are pushing for greener cabs to make it more cost effective.
The powers that be have thrown down the gauntlet on fuel economy, putting taxi cabs at the vanguard of the new revolution. Starting last fall new cabs must get at least 25 m.p.g. on city pavement. By October 2012, every cab in the city will have to get at least 30 m.p.g. In response, cab owners have used their considerable purchasing power to buy hybrids in unexpected numbers. (See a very cool blog for details…)
http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/ksinding/one_step_closer_to_all_green_y.html
What does it all mean? That sense and sensibility are again pushing the working woman/man into the next, new thing. It means that the Big Apple is getting greener, right? As an “urban environmentalist” from New York by way of Vermont it seems that my world view is finally coming into a broader focus. My only prayer is that this new revolution has greater staying power than fall fashion.
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