City Housing Projects Issue Calls for Environmental Help
On a recent Saturday Ashley Paniagua was a brick path between the towering Manhattan ville Houses writhed in Harlem, and went to a small garden plants months earlier she had helped. But the gates were locked for gardens - government employee who opened them in the morning had yet to do so.
"It's a lot of politics," Ms. Paniagua, 26, said. "You have to go through so many people, just to get something simple done."
Five years ago, the New York City Housing Authority, the city agency that provides subsidized apartments to more than 400,000 low-income New Yorkers to "go green." Establishing a website dedicated to environmental sustainability, urged residents to create green choice in their development and planned new recycling programs.
But many residents say that the agency failed to follow up. The agency says they are not supporting residents' efforts and has in some cases stood in the way.
"For small things like paper kites press, most of whom come from us," Ms. Paniagua said. "They insist on greener, but I can not look back. We do most of the work on our own."
In 2009, Ms. PANIAGUA secluded gardens plants on the lawn at the Manhattanville Houses when she said that she had no idea that the process of getting permits and financing would be almost three years. She and others who work with her ended up turning to a nonprofit group, Citizens Committee for New York City, for $ 3,000, they needed gardening supplies.
Ms. Paniagua is not just to complain about the state of sustainability in public housing. Other residents of Harlem and the Bronx says the agency has their efforts to improve recycling courage.
Margarita Lopez, a New York City Housing Authority Commissioner, leading agency environmental initiatives, said the collection rate was low because in most projects, it was easier to throw recyclables in the waste.
Agency "into each floor where people bring their waste through the shaft, and they can not be separated from the recycled materials," Ms. Lopez said. "We have no choice but to encourage people to recycle to bring to the first floor of the building., We have no choice but to tell people that this is something you must do for the quality of life and themselves."
But according to residents of a number of developments that could do more to promote recycling.
The housing authority, he said, "violates the cornerstone requirements on recycling law."
"You can not reuse that work without destroying the place," he added. "Residents should know how and where to recycle."
Agency officials say they are just as much as they can do in light of the challenges they face in an increasingly outdated and dilapidated house and a difficult economic situation. The agency has about $ 25 billion just to maintain the buildings in the next 15 years, which is not weatherizing houses and planting gardens or green roofs or add recycling areas for each floor to take.
Nova Strachan, who lives in Union Avenue Consolidation houses in the Bronx, said that if the agency launched its website on environmental sustainability, the 178,000 energy-efficient light bulbs installed throughout the city. Ms. Strachan said she hoped the Agency began backlog of repairs and durability to tackle at the same time. Now, she said, her enthusiasm has waned.
"The whole green thing feels like a buzzword," she said. "It feels as if it is dwindling."
On a recent Saturday Ashley Paniagua was a brick path between the towering Manhattan ville Houses writhed in Harlem, and went to a small garden plants months earlier she had helped. But the gates were locked for gardens - government employee who opened them in the morning had yet to do so.
"It's a lot of politics," Ms. Paniagua, 26, said. "You have to go through so many people, just to get something simple done."
Five years ago, the New York City Housing Authority, the city agency that provides subsidized apartments to more than 400,000 low-income New Yorkers to "go green." Establishing a website dedicated to environmental sustainability, urged residents to create green choice in their development and planned new recycling programs.
But many residents say that the agency failed to follow up. The agency says they are not supporting residents' efforts and has in some cases stood in the way.
"For small things like paper kites press, most of whom come from us," Ms. Paniagua said. "They insist on greener, but I can not look back. We do most of the work on our own."
In 2009, Ms. PANIAGUA secluded gardens plants on the lawn at the Manhattanville Houses when she said that she had no idea that the process of getting permits and financing would be almost three years. She and others who work with her ended up turning to a nonprofit group, Citizens Committee for New York City, for $ 3,000, they needed gardening supplies.
Ms. Paniagua is not just to complain about the state of sustainability in public housing. Other residents of Harlem and the Bronx says the agency has their efforts to improve recycling courage.
Margarita Lopez, a New York City Housing Authority Commissioner, leading agency environmental initiatives, said the collection rate was low because in most projects, it was easier to throw recyclables in the waste.
Agency "into each floor where people bring their waste through the shaft, and they can not be separated from the recycled materials," Ms. Lopez said. "We have no choice but to encourage people to recycle to bring to the first floor of the building., We have no choice but to tell people that this is something you must do for the quality of life and themselves."
But according to residents of a number of developments that could do more to promote recycling.
The housing authority, he said, "violates the cornerstone requirements on recycling law."
"You can not reuse that work without destroying the place," he added. "Residents should know how and where to recycle."
Agency officials say they are just as much as they can do in light of the challenges they face in an increasingly outdated and dilapidated house and a difficult economic situation. The agency has about $ 25 billion just to maintain the buildings in the next 15 years, which is not weatherizing houses and planting gardens or green roofs or add recycling areas for each floor to take.
Nova Strachan, who lives in Union Avenue Consolidation houses in the Bronx, said that if the agency launched its website on environmental sustainability, the 178,000 energy-efficient light bulbs installed throughout the city. Ms. Strachan said she hoped the Agency began backlog of repairs and durability to tackle at the same time. Now, she said, her enthusiasm has waned.
"The whole green thing feels like a buzzword," she said. "It feels as if it is dwindling."
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