Mayor’s office presents 2030 plans for city

About 75 local Community Board and Civic Association members gathered in the cafeteria of the Hall of Science in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park for a presentation by Jeff Kaye, Director of the Mayor’s Office of Operations, concerning the long-term future of the City.
Also in attendance were City Councilmember John Liu of Flushing, chair of the Council’s Transportation Committee; Derek Lee, Queens Commissioner for the Department of Buildings, and Laura McCarty from Queens Department of Transportation.
The visionary program, dubbed “PLANYC” is focused on the status of New York City by the year 2030, and the challenges to be faced if the City is to remain a vibrant center of commerce and culture and a fit place to live.
In opening remarks on Thursday evening, March 8, Queens Borough President Helen Marshall thanked those in attendance for their activism and reminded them that Queens, as the second most populous and most culturally diverse of the five boroughs had the greatest stake in the City’s future, and the widest reservoir of experience to draw from.
Kaye then narrated a sophisticated video presentation, which illustrated by graphs and diagrams the challenges and dangers ahead.
By 2030, the population of New York City is projected to be well over 9 million. Forty percent of our power plants will be over 60 years old, and millions of New Yorkers will live more than 10 minutes from a park.
The director reminded the audience that New York’s growth was the product of long-term planning. The grid plan for Manhattan was formulated to accommodate ten times the population, while the outskirts of the town were a mile to the south. The subways, when first constructed, went through farmland, and the water tunnels which have been our lifeline took a generation to hew from solid rock. The water tunnels cannot be inspected.
Kaye discussed the three-pronged goal of the initiative, designated “OpeNYC,” “MaintaiNYC” and “GreeNYC.” The first deals with housing and transportation, the second with infrastructure and the third with air, ground and water pollution.