How the city is taking action on green infrastructure and stormwater projects to protect neighborhoods from the rising risk of catastrophic flooding.

Linda Poon describes New York City’s efforts to plan for a more resilient future in the face of recurring floods. “[Hurricane Ida in 2021] and the ones before it, including a cloudburst downpour during Tropical Storm Elsa in July, have forced New York to take a hard look at becoming a ‘spongier’ city — one that combines nature-based green infrastructure like street-side rain gardens with gray infrastructure like storm drains to divert or absorb water and prevent catastrophic flooding.”
“A recent Arup report comparing the ‘sponginess’ of seven global cities ranked New York in the middle of the pack, after Auckland and Nairobi, and tied with Mumbai and Singapore. The researchers combined satellite imagery showing land use in the 58 square miles of each city’s main urban center with data from a global soil permeability analysis, and applied machine learning to determine their ability to manage sudden soakings.” According to the report, “Some 39% of the city is considered green spaces, leaving a bit less than two-thirds of the urban environment covered in impermeable surfaces.”
The article describes the challenges faced by the city in flood-proofing many of its neighborhoods and the limited potential for overhauling the city’s massive system of stormwater infrastructure. “In the more immediate term, the city is moving ahead with green infrastructure projects that can mitigate the most destructive kinds of flooding and help the city live with water from intense downpours.” Poon writes, “New York’s green infrastructure program was first laid out in 2010, and the city has since poured $1 billion into it. It’s become one of the nation’s largest, with more than 11,000 projects across all five boroughs that are either completed or under construction.”
FULL STORY: How New York City Plans to Soak Up the Rain

Montreal Mall to Become 6,000 Housing Units
Place Versailles will be transformed into a mixed-use complex over the next 25 years.

Planetizen Federal Action Tracker
A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.

California High-Speed Rail's Plan to Right Itself
The railroad's new CEO thinks he can get the project back on track. The stars will need to align this summer.

DOJ Seeks to End USDOT Affirmative Action Program
The Disadvantaged Business Enterprise Program encouraged contracting with minority- and women-owned businesses in the transportation sector, where these groups are vastly underrepresented.

A Missouri Tenant Union’s Fight Against Millennia Housing
In Springfield, Missouri, senior and disabled tenants at one Millennia affordable housing building say they’ve gone about a year without a working elevator, but their organizing has gotten the city to threaten receivership if it's not fixed soon.

Time Running Out for Illinois Transit Bill
Chicago-area transit agencies face a daunting budget gap if lawmakers fail to agree on a funding bill by the end of the current legislative session.
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