From The Mayor's Desk ...
Building A Greener, Greater New York

April 22 marked the 38th anniversary of Earth Day, and the one year anniversary of PlaNYC, our plan to make New York the first truly sustainable city of the 21st century. When we kicked-off that effort last April, we committed our city to some very ambitious and important goals. They included reducing the greenhouse gases that we produce by 30 percent by the year 2030, ensuring our City's water quality, and also giving New Yorkers more recreational and green space. Over the past 12 months we've begun making real progress towards these goals - launching more than 90 percent of the plan's proposals. That includes raising fuel efficiency standards for our yellow cabs and black cars, committing 10 percent of the City's annual energy bill to energy-saving projects, and converting 69 schoolyards into playgrounds that are open to the entire community.

PlaNYC provided us with a road-map for where we want to go - along with 127 different initiatives for getting there. But perhaps even more importantly, it began a conversation with New Yorkers. Today, people in communities across the five boroughs are thinking about what they can do to create a greener future. I saw that for myself on Tuesday when I visited a number of sites around the Harlem community. I met seniors who are trading in their plastic shopping bags for reusable totes, kids who are learning about the benefits of recycling, and lots of families who are making the switch to energy-efficient light bulbs.

No Earth Day celebration is complete without a tree planting, and I was happy to join some civic-minded volunteers who were doing that at the Jefferson Houses in East Harlem. One of the most exciting elements of PlaNYC is "Million Trees NYC" - our initiative to plant one million new trees over the next 10 years. On Tuesday, that effort received a big boost when David Rock-efeller, one of our City's most generous citizens, made a $5 million contribution to the program, which will cover the costs of about 18,000 new trees. That's nearly three-quarters the number of trees in all of Central Park!

Our parks and streets aren't the only things going green - our buildings are too. Right now, builders are putting the finishing touches on the largest green affordable housing development in Har-lem. I took a tour of the site last week and was very impressed. The building was constructed with recycled materials, and it has a "green roof" covered with plants that absorb rainwater and keep the building cool on hot days. What's more, 25% of the building's power will come from renewable sources such as solar and wind. Because of these green touches, the building's residents will see much smaller energy bills.

On the heels of all the Earth Day festivities, we also received some good news that will allow us to better protect our city's water supply. The Fed-eral Environmental Protection Agency announced that New York will receive $12 million to develop and evaluate a system to monitor our drinking water for contaminants. This new effort, call-ed the Water Security Initiative, will build upon existing programs run by the Department of Environmental Pro-tection, and give us an added layer of defense against threats to our drinking water and the infrastructure that delivers it.

Last year, we kicked off our PlaNYC agenda with an old proverb that says: "We were not given this world by our parents, but lent it by our children." Those words have been the driving force behind our efforts over the past 365 days. I believe that by continuing to work together with private businesses, philanthropists, and communities across the five boroughs, we really can create a New York that we will be proud to return to our children.