How many new roads have we built since 1990 and how much is it costing us?

Buffalo Rising: "Even as our population has declined over the past two decades, Erie and Niagara Counties have built 525 miles of new roads adding more than $26 million in road maintenance costs every year."

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Do you like #publictransit, #walkability in Albany,NY? Then re-elect Leah Golby

GOLBY CAMPAIGN ANNOUNCES KEY ENDORSEMENTS: "
Albany, NY (June 6, 2013) -- Leah Golby's campaign announced three key endorsements today in her re-election bid for Albany's 10th Ward Common Council seat. The announcement comes on the heels of Monday's passage of her Complete Streets ordinance, which has been lauded by state and national Complete Streets advocates. Leah Golby has been cited for her leadership on the Albany Common Council during her first term, and her dedication to progressive values in Albany."

The bill for Robert Moses's dream has come. Ready to pay? #agw

Bloomberg Outlines $20 Billion Storm Protection Plan - NYTimes.com: "The cost of fortifying critical infrastructure like the power grid, retrofitting older buildings to withstand powerful storms, and defending the coastline was estimated to be $20 billion, according to a 430-page report outlining the proposals."

How Robert Moses and others wrecked, and are wrecking #publictransit

Sweatshops on Wheels - Chris Hedges - Truthdig: "“These are the worst conditions for mass transit since the Depression,” Hanley said. “The MTA is raising fares while it is cutting services in New York, including routes they have been running for 100 years.”"

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Things that go away with #freetransit - fare-enforcement, what is the cost?

Courthouse News Service: "BROOKLYN (CN) - NYPD officers pepper-sprayed three little children, including 2-year- and 5-month old babies, because they thought the kids' mom jumped a subway fare, the family claims in court."

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Fracking risk to water is forever

THE SKY IS PINK by Josh Fox and the GASLAND Team from JFOX on Vimeo.

Will University at Buffalo destroy a neighborhood for more parking?

Petition | University at Buffalo: Listen to McCarley Gardens and Fruit Belt Residents | Change.org: "HUD’s mission is to create strong, sustainable, stable communities of quality affordable homes, which McCarley Gardens exemplifies. We ask that the University at Buffalo listen to the dignified residents of the McCarley Gardens and the Fruit Belt. Dissolve the current panel immediately and impanel a new decision-making group made up of those who live in the development and the surrounding neighborhoods. Residents are concerned about parking, litter, impact on the current sewer system, and other quality of life issues. The University at Buffalo is not privileged to make decisions about the Fruit Belt and Hospital Hill neighborhoods. The residents of McCarley Gardens and the Fruit Belt have the right to use their deserved voice regarding this neighborhood planning. "

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People are tired of cars. Got #transit?

Development soars along Metro Rail - City & Region - The Buffalo News: " It is also possible many Buffalonians may choose not to own cars, they say."

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Swipe Back! | No Fare Hikes - believes the New York City transit system should be for the benefit of everybody, not the enrichment of a few bankers at the expense of millions of working and unemployed New Yorkers. New York is one of the wealthiest cities in the history of the world; the MTA doesn't have to extract more money from the people who can't afford it.

Swipe Back! | No Fare Hikes - believes the New York City transit system should be for the benefit of everybody, not the enrichment of a few bankers at the expense of millions of working and unemployed New Yorkers. New York is one of the wealthiest cities in the history of the world; the MTA doesn't have to extract more money from the people who can't afford it.: "So instead of boycotting, we find ways to express our protest, like this: If you use your unlimited card to swipe someone else in, then you’re effectively helping them boycott the fare hike, sort of like boycotting it forward."

How climate change could threaten, transform LI

How climate change could threaten, transform LI: "Scientists say the Long Island of the future will have shorter, wetter winters and oppressively hot summers, with seas rising and storm surges so strong they will threaten beaches, salt water marshes and infrastructure."

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Retirees want #walkability, #publictransit

Sun City It’s Not — Upper West Side Retirement - NYTimes.com: "The most recent census estimates indicate that 22 percent of Upper West Siders, or 46,000 people, are 60 or older, compared with the citywide average of 17 percent. Attracted by convenient shopping, abundant mass transit and a wealth of cultural activities, many older residents hope to remain in their apartments the rest of their lives."

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Very clear video explaining where #transit fares go (hint: banks)

http://nofarehikes.net/

What Promised Land Doesn’t Mention – EcoWatch: Uniting the Voice of the Grassroots Environmental Movement

What Promised Land Doesn’t Mention – EcoWatch: Uniting the Voice of the Grassroots Environmental Movement: "But there are many more problems from fracking that Promised Land doesn’t mention, much less explain.

• Most importantly, fracking’s huge and growing contribution to our global heating crisis. Methane is 72-105 times as powerful a greenhouse gas as CO2 over the first 20 years after it’s released into the atmosphere. Studies over the past two years, including the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), show that there is much more methane leakage over the lifecycle of fracked, as well as conventionally-produced, natural gas, than the oil and gas industry admits.
• Constant heavy truck traffic transporting water, sand and fracking fluids that pollutes surrounding air, causes damage to roads, creates traffic congestion and noise and other negative impacts.
• The contamination of rivers close to fracking sites through either deliberate dumping of “flowback” toxic wastewater after a well is drilled or through migration of those fluids underground.
• The drawdown of massive amounts of sometimes-scarce—as in historically dry or dought-impacted areas—nearby river and lake water, many millions of gallons per well.
• Documented radiation levels in wastewater 100 or more times the U.S. EPA’s drinking water standard.
• Disruption of other economically- and socially-valued industries or practices, such as agriculture, tourism, hunting and fishing.
• Fragmentation of woods and forests via construction of well sites, pipelines, roads and other infrastructure.
• A decline in property values of homes and land adjacent to or near wells.
• Earthquakes—the U.S. Geological Survey has reported that deep underground injection of drilling wastewater is the probable cause of a six-fold increase in earthquakes in middle America in 2011 compared to 20th century levels."

Carolers explain why banks are to blame for fare hikes

Money-losing gas fracking heavily subsidized and harmful -- same as oil, big surprise

DEC selling out to fracking industry - Times Union: "Moreover, fracking depends on massive, wealth-eating subsidies from public resources that will lower net New York wealth. For example, damage to state roads alone has been estimated by the state to cost tens of millions of dollars annually. Then there are the adjacent landowners whose property and business values fracking will crash, the environmental degradation of water resource, the lack of any offsetting tax revenues, and the disruptive effects on local services and housing markets of a transient oil patch work force.

Fracking also promises potentially devastating impacts on three critical economic development opportunities for New York: agriculture, tourism and green energy."

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Still 10,000 without power in the Rockaways

Battle for the Rockaways | The Indypendent: "Yet, underneath this veneer of forced, revenue-generating normalcy, the eastern area of the peninsula, where Casco and other working-class, mostly people of color live, is decidedly not back to normal. According to Queens State Senator Joe Addabbo, there are still 10,000 homes without electricity and heat in the Rockaways, and — according to reports by numerous on-the-ground organizers — the majority of those houses are in the poorer neighborhoods of Far Rockaway."

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Tanker Carrying Bakken Oil to Canadian Refinery Runs Aground - Bloomberg

Tanker Carrying Bakken Oil to Canadian Refinery Runs Aground - Bloomberg: "The first oil tanker carrying Bakken crude to Irving Oil Corp.’s refinery in Canada from Albany, New York, ran aground in the Hudson River, delaying the first of what is expected to be many voyages on the route."

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MTA: All fares go up in 2013; unavoidable | The Poughkeepsie Journal | poughkeepsiejournal.com

MTA: All fares go up in 2013; unavoidable | The Poughkeepsie Journal | poughkeepsiejournal.com: "“We are not the fat, profligate, out-of-control agency that people make the MTA out to be. We’ve done everything we can to control costs,” board Chairman Joseph Lhota said. “I agree with everyone that our riders pay too much of the cost.”"

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Communities hit by Sandy “form like Voltron” and fight back « ear to earth

Communities hit by Sandy “form like Voltron” and fight back « ear to earth: "The stakes are high for people in the Rockaways. More than month and a half after Superstorm Sandy, winter is setting in and many of the ten thousand residents of this Queens neighborhood still lack heat or electricity. Many have no hot water. And there’s another festering crisis: mold. "

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In 2009, Victor Bernace ran for city council on a single issue: #freetransit

View more videos at: http://nbcnewyork.com.

Subways should be as safe as elevators

The Air-train at JFK Airport has sliding doors to protect passengers from the track area. Most subways around the world have such protection. Why not the U.S.?

Why no subway safety doors in the United States?

Thailand, Korea, France, China, Russia, Spain, Canada, are just a few of the countries where subway safety doors are found. In the U.S. a few airports have them, so we know how to do it. There is no excuse. 

Taipei, Taiwan. Passengers are screened from the tracks by a safety wall with doors-Wikipedia.

Fracking good for the climate? What a load of hot air - NY Daily News

Fracking good for the climate? What a load of hot air  - NY Daily News: "The fracking cheerleaders are misinformed. Drilling for natural gas has some disastrous environmental consequences. It will speed climate change, not help stave it off."

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#occupysandy video - we must get off fossil fuels

Relief Is Not Enough: Nov 14–20th Climate Solidarity Actions | OccupyWallSt.org

Occupy Sandy volunteers feed hungry FEMA workers

Relief Is Not Enough: Nov 14–20th Climate Solidarity Actions | OccupyWallSt.org: "In the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy, New Yorkers are showing the best of humanity, self-organizing to provide mutual aid in spite of the establishment's continued failure to turn the lights back on. Free kitchens were distributing hot meals within hours. Thousands of pounds of food, clothing, and other donations have been distributed across Red Hook, Staten Island, the Rockaways, and Coney Island. Cleanup of flood damage has begun, and volunteers continue to go door-to-door in the neglected buildings that still lack heat and electricity. Of course, this encouraging response does not minimize the true scope of tragedy this storm has left behind. We must continue to provide for each other and, as we do, show the world that another way of relating to one another is not only possible, but necessary in the face of economic and ecological catastrophe."

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#occupysandy is mutual aid, not charity

Occupy Sandy is a coordinated relief effort to help distribute resources & volunteers to help neighborhoods and people affected by Hurricane Sandy. We are a coalition of people & organizations who are dedicated to implementing aid and establishing hubs for neighborhood resource distribution. Members of this coalition are from Occupy Wall Street, 350.org, recovers.org, InterOccupy.net and many individual volunteers.
Click here to help

Occupy Sandy and the Latino Soul of Activism - ABC News

Occupy Sandy and the Latino Soul of Activism - ABC News: "In the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy, community-based volunteers led by Occupy Wall Street supporters have emerged to fill the void left by FEMA, and The American Red Cross. In less than a week, the Occupy Sandy grassroots movement has raised more than $264,000 in relief for New York's hardest hit neighborhoods, and established a network of volunteers and materials that is empowering people to rebuild their communities."

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