May Forum: Backyard Potential

New York City has it’s fair share of green spaces, in fact, it’s ranked second among US cities. However, as noted in a paper co-authored by one of our speakers, “At least 9000 acres of New York City’s land were converted from vacant land to impermeable buildings, roads, and parking lots” over the last 25 years. This becomes especially problematic when it comes to managing storm water in the face of increased precipitation associated with climate change. GreenHomeNYC’s May forum event will examine this issue, and it’s component pieces: green and grey infrastructure, combined sewer overflows, the Mayor’s new water plan, and the potential storm water mitigation that can occur in urban open spaces. We have an excellent set of speakers and you won’t want to miss it! Date: May 20, 2015 Time: 6:30-8:00pm Place: Enterprise Community Partners, 1 Whitehall St., 11th floor, Manhattan, NY 10004 Register here! Our speakers will include: Shino Tanikawa, Executive Director, New York City Soil and Water Conservation District Shino Tanikawa is Executive Director of the New York City Soil and Water Conservation District. She has worked for the district for over 15 years, developing and implementing programs in stewardship, environmental education, stormwater management and urban soil survey. She has a Master of Science degree in Marine Environmental Sciences from the Marine Sciences Research Center at Stony Brook University. Shino is a founding member of the Bronx River Alliance, an organization dedicated to revitalizing the Bronx River as a resource for the communities along the river; past President of the Metro Forest Council, a regional organization dedicated to preserving urban forests; a board member of the Lower Hudson Long Island Resource Conservation & Development Council, a not-for-profit with the mission to facilitate economic growth that is environmentally sound. She is also a member of the Steering Committees of the Lower Hudson Coalition of Conservation Districts as well as the Stormwater Infrastructure Matters Coalition. She serves as the alternate to the NY Co-Chair of the Citizens Advisory Committee of the NY/NJ Harbor & Estuary Program. Jaime Stein, Head of Program, M.S. Sustainable Environmental Systems, Pratt Institute Jaime Stein is an Academic, Sustainability Consultant and Urban Researcher with more than 15 years experience in advocating for sustainable communities through community engagement, sustainability planning and policy analysis. Currently, Ms. Stein directs the Sustainable Environmental Systems program at Pratt Institute, a master of science in sustainability studies with a curriculum at the nexus of environmental design, science and policy. Her academic research focuses on systems thinking integrated with community self-determination, green infrastructure and community based resilience. She is Co-Director of Pratt Institute’s Recovery, Adaptation Mitigation & Planning (RAMP) initiative, is a founding member of the Stormwater Infrastructure Matters (S.W.I.M.) Coalition as well as the Collective for Community, Culture & the Environment. In addition to her role at Pratt, Jaime serves on the NYC Department of Environmental Protection’s Water Infrastructure Steering Committee and is the Mayoral Appointee for the Atlantic Yards Community Development Corporation. Evan Mason, Consultant, Enterprise Community Partners Evan is currently a business development consultant at Enterprise Community Partners, Green Technical Services, promoting low cost/no cost measures to enhance building performance in affordable housing. As founder of Sustainable Yards, Evan Mason has advocated for the preservation of residential open space in NYC. Evan focuses her efforts on a on 3-tiered platform, blending education, research and policy aimed at protecting the 53,000 acres of residential open space that remains in NYC today. Working with Assemblywoman Linda Rosenthal and Community Board 7, she successfully advanced bill in the State Senate and Assembly that would provide a tax abatement that would defray the cost of removing concrete if replaced by permeable surfaces and vegetation.  Evan has spoken at several conferences on preservation and urban greening projects, including the Northeast Sustainable Energy Association, Million Trees NYC Parks Conference, Council on NY Cooperatives and Condominiums and Green Home NYC. Her work has also been featured in Newsweek, WNYC’s The Brian Lehrer show, The West Side Spirit, DNAinfo and Gotham Gazette. Evan is a board member of Scenic Hudson, NY League of Conservation Voters and GreenHomeNYC and a member of SWIM; she has a Masters in Urban Planning from Hunter College and a Masters in Social Service from Bryn Mawr College.