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Charles Komanoff

Pricing for Sustainability

1:48 PM EDT on October 2, 2006

In his weekly radio address yesterday, Mayor Bloomberg discussed some steps his administration is taking toward a sustainable future, including the creation of an Office of Long-Term Planning and Sustainability, and a Sustainability Advisory Board, which held its first meeting last week.

Long-term sustainability is of course right up Streetsblog's alley. Correspondent Charles Komanoff donned his policy-wonk hat last week and came up with an Economist's Agenda for a Sustainable NYC. These recommendations draw heavily on the concept of creating financial incentives and disincentives to encourage people to make the right choices as they consume energy and natural resources. We're hearing through the grapevine that the advisory board is paying close attention.

Komanoff's recommendations:

    • Price Peak Power
    • Unbundle Electricity
    • Price the Roads
    • Price the Curbs
    • Abolish Privileged Parking
    • Universal Bottle and Bag Deposits
    • Tax Carbon, Not Commerce

Details are on the other side of this link.

Aaron Donovan@
Before he began blogging about land use and transportation, Aaron Donovan wrote The New York Times Neediest Cases Fund's annual fundraising appeal for three years and earned a master's degree in urban planning from Columbia. Since then, he has worked for nonprofit organizations devoted to New York City economic development. He lives and works in the Financial District, and sees New York's pre-automobile built form as an asset that makes New York unique in the United States, and as a strategic advantage that should be capitalized upon.

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