Submitted by George N. Spitz, May 14, 2007 22:19

All of Mayor Bloomberg's ambitious plans to protect the environment of New York City are offset through continued insufficient oversight by his administration over the proposed 2nd Ave subway. The Mayor may have been lulled into sleep by virtually unanimous support for the 2nd Ave subway project by Manhattan's Eastside political culture partiularly Community Planning Board 8, the Lexington Democratic Club, Lenox Hill Democratic Club, Eastside Democratic Club and the Metropolitan Republican Club. These organizations smothered any discussion of harmful effects created by the seven-year first phase 2nd Ave subway construction process including not only a potentially dangerous air quality impact for all of New York City but also environmentally desirable 21st-century transportation alternatives particularly light rail. Needless to say Democratic and Republican organizations generally act together like Tammany Hall in other arenas, collaborating to frustrate political opposition at the Board of Elections and in the Judicial Selection Process.

Mayor Bloomberg's Environmental Protection Agency, his Department of Health and appointees on the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) apparently overlooked air quality hazards buried deep in the MTA Final Environmental Impact Submission (FEIS). Consider the following scary paragraph:

"Because of the large scale and extended duration of the construction required for the Second Avenue Subway, the construction could potentially increase regional concentrations of ozone precursors-NOx and VOCs-as well as fine particulate matter (PM2.5), all of which are pollutants of concern on a regional basis. The regional effects of the project's construction were assessed in two ways: 1) the total amount of these pollutants throughout the region that would result from transportation of spoils was calculated; and 2) the concentrations of PM2.5 that would result from the project's trucking and construction site activities were computed on a regional basis. The concentrations of ozone precursors (NOx and VOCs) that would result from construction were not predicted on a regional basis, since these pollutants are of concern because of their role in the formation of ozone, but that process is very complex and there is no reliable way to predict a project's effects on ozone.

Mayor Bloomberg should consider protecting his reputation as an environmentalist by withdrawing environmental and construction permits for the 2nd Ave subway project until the MTA is able to guarantee that there will be no increased regional concentration of ozone precursors-NOx and VOCs-as well as fine particulate matter (PM2.5) during the seven-year projected first phase of construction.. Even the MTA, if not Manhattan East Side Democrats, Republicans and Community Boards, recognizes that these are "pollutants of concern." The Mayor can further rescue his desired and heretofore deserved environmental record as an environmentalist by opening up discussion on non-polluting alternatives to a subway on 2nd Ave, particularly light rail. For the cost of the eventual 6 miles of 2^nd Ave subway, 60 miles of desirable non polluting light rail could be built in New York City and there are serious unmet transportation needs in Eastern Queens, South Brooklyn, Northeast Bronx and Staten Island. Advanced cities around the world such as Barcelona (installing 200 miles of light rail), Lisbon, Munich, Tampere, Vancouver, Toronto, Jerusalem, and Denver in the US etc. are traveling the light rail instead of subway route. Light rail is late 20th century and early 21st century technology to meet transportation needs, while subways are more and more recognized as early to mid 20th century solutions.

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