Aaron Donovan

The onrushing climate crisis is overturning decades of conventional wisdom on energy. Our problem isn't that oil and other fuels are too expensive: it's that they're not expensive enough.

Manhattan Community Board 3's Transportation Committee is holding a public meeting on the new bike lanes on Grand Street in the Lower East Side. The Community Board's pdf-formatted agenda lists this as an "informational presentation by the Department of Transportation on Grand Street Bicycle Facility Design."

A memorial ride for Eric Ng, 22-year-old bicyclist, teacher, and friend who was killed on Dec. 1 by a drunk driver as he rode his bike on the Hudson River Greenway. Meet at Washington Square at 1 p.m. We will ride together to the site of Eric's death at 1:30 SHARP. Non-bikers can go directly to the West Side Greenway, near Clarkson St. By train: take the 1 to Houston St.

After a career as a public school teacher and administrator, Jack Caldwell started work with Black Rock Forest to oversee their facilities and organize their use by visitors. He will discuss his experience with green building techniques in their Science and Education Center and the Forest Lodge, discussing the costs, benefits, maintenance and qualities of their building design and site selection; their use of photovoltaic arrays, geothermal heating and cooling, and composting bathrooms.

It is hard to tell exactly where the sidewalk meets the street above, where cars dominate the streetscape and wreck the pedestrian experience. Maybe that's what's to be expected in Los Angeles, where the photo was taken.

Additional Carnage From Last Week

The Downtown Brooklyn Waterfront Local Development Corporation (DBWLDC) is holding a second public meeting to discuss the Brooklyn Bridge Park transportation and access study. It will be another opportunity for the public to give feedback and share ideas on transit options to-and-from the park.

File this under the Duh category:

Access to the East River has long been a greater challenge than in other parts of the city because of the presence of waterfront highways, the preponderance of privately owned land, and in some cases heavy industry along its banks. On the Hudson River, the concept of a contiguous greenway has been in development for well over a decade from New York City all the way to Albany. However, on the East River, Greenways are only started to be realized in Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan and the Bronx. Some are farther along than others. The goal of this program is to examine some of these "missing links" in each borough, discuss what is happening now to open up this big blue space to the more than 2 million New Yorkers living along its banks, and build consensus towards what needs to happen to ensure that waterfront access is created in all communities, and stewarded for future generations.

A panel of design and engineering experts along with public and private sector officials will discuss the implications of security on contemporary urban streetscapes.