Spotlight on East Coast Greenway Cleanup

Great news for JC bicyclists and pedestrians – the section of the East Coast Greenway connecting Jersey City and Newark is now clear of trash, weeds, and other debris thanks to the work of NJDOT! Local citizens and advocacy groups successfully brought attention to the neglected path along Truck Rt 1&9 a few weeks ago, even earning some air time on NJTV. As you can see, the path had become nearly impassable with overgrown weeds and garbage.

After some attention from NJDOT, it’s now smooth sailing on the approach to the Hackensack River Bridge. With beautiful fall weather just around the corner, it’s the perfect time to check out this newly spruced up path.

We at SJC think this path is a really great first step towards improving and greening the gateway to Jersey City. Imagine if the next iteration of this trail was capable of collecting stormwater runoff from the highway? A rain garden strip like the one pictured below would help filter pollutants and beautify the path, adding some much-needed green space to Jersey City!

In the meantime, go ahead and take a jog or bike ride across the Hackensack and Passaic Rivers along the East Coast Greenway. The path is accessible from the west side of Lincoln Park. Just take the loop until you reach the track field, where you’ll see a small bridge with a marked bike lane. You’ll cross over this and find your way onto some trails that will lead you to the entrance. It can get a little confusing, but don’t give up!

Now take a right and continue on as far as you’d like. Be aware that there are a few dicey crossings and sections if going all the way to Newark, but if you’re alert and prepared, you’ll make it just fine. For a map of this route and the rest of the ECG (which stretches all the way from Florida to Maine!), check out their website: http://www.greenway.org/

As a new project leader with SJC, I'm excited to start working with you to improve Jersey City. To learn more about what SJC is doing around Green Infrastructure in Jersey City, visit our Project page, and get involved by filling out our Volunteer Welcome Survey. After you fill out the survey, send a quick email to info@sustainablejc.org with Lyndsey-GI in the subject line.

Greener Buildings For Jersey City - What Will It Take ?

SJC is deepening it's focus on Greener Buildings this season, both residential and commercial buildings, in an effort to share actionable information and help JC stakeholders connect-the-dots to transform our built environment toward a more climate resilient city.  The opportunity to retrofit existing buildings and set new standards for new construction, will not only provide substantial ROI for owners and occupants, but avoid continued negative impacts to our environment. It can also be a fabulous way to ignite an economic boon for local green economy construction and building professionals, if Jersey City takes on a plan to retrofit our urban landscape with advanced technologies now available, being implemented all around us.  There are already substantial training and apprenticeship programs that have been underway by trade unions, who have recognized this market imperative for some time - why not put a stake in the ground here and now as we endeavor to make Jersey City one of the best mid-size cities in America ?

Quick Context -

• While global warming and greenhouse gas emissions are terms that are generally associated with industry and transportation, the BUILDINGS where we work, shop, eat, go to school and live, significantly compromise the integrity of our natural resources by the effects of daily heating, cooling, ventilation and water use, all of which require the burning of fossil fuels such as oil, natural gas and coal.  BUILDINGS account for 39 percent of all carbon dioxide emissions.
• BUILDINGS in the United States also account for 40 percent of total energy use, 12 percent of total water consumption and 68 percent of total electricity consumption.  Am fond of saying you can't manage what you don't measure, so in my view these are useful benchmarks.  Now what ?  While these metrics (which are growing in the wrong direction) and the behavior that drives them, cannot be reversed overnight, it seems to me that GREENER MORE ENERGY EFFICIENT BUILDINGS, is a no brainer - not to be disrespectful.  (some references to these stats - US EPA, US Energy Information Administration, NRDC, US Green Building Council)

In partnership with Councilwoman At Large Joyce Watterman, SJC supported a June Public Forum on Enhancing JC's Construction Division.  There will be a follow-up to this discussion scheduled for some time in September.  That meeting was very positive and the HEDC is working very hard to enhance the process of getting good building projects done, but we have to go further.  We must  begin to address the policies, ordinances and municipal recommendations that are all on record here; some are either not current or allow lowest end of standards range to persist, and some need implementation or amendments to close gaps - frankly, these guideposts are sometimes even at odds with one another.  We must institutionalize a Jersey City best practices framework for a sustainable and climate resilient built environment, and it must include changes to our building code.

I would say Jersey City is in the 'somewhat camp' - we have thought about this SOMEWHAT, but . . . THERE ARE NO INCENTIVES OR MANDATES IN PLACE WHICH WILL MAKE GREENER BUILDINGS IN JERSEY CITY A SIGNIFICANT REALITY ANYTIME SOON.  Fact is, this can change dramatically if folks worked together.

While those following our work know where we are headed on this - amped up education, new partnerships and working groups to help develop supportive policy proposals - this is a big conversation and would be great to know more of you who care about this topic.

Consider attending our next EAT, MEET, TALK! event on September 2nd, which is SJC's Monthly Meeting held at City Hall in Caucus Room #204.  Here's the link for more details -

http://sustainablejc.org/wordpress/ai1ec_event/sjc-monthly-meeting-eat-meet-talk/

Please consider digging in with us and joining this effort - it takes a great amount of collaboration and collective action to have something like this actually track successfully. Your engagement is very much appreciated, and everyone has something to offer that can help move this agenda forward.

What About Trees ?

Can't help but posting this as I read through what other cities are doing to manage stormwater surge impacts and some of the very costly proposed designs outlined in this article http://newjersey.news12.com/news/jersey-city-holds-meeting-to-lay-out-flood-prevention-proposals-1.8930223 While upgrades in our underground systems are needed and new ideas to redirect river surges may have merit, seems we can also include MORE GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE into our long-term sustainability planning efforts to make Jersey City more climate change resilient.

WHAT ABOUT TREES ? Seemed the approximately 90 trees on the Hackensack River's shoreline promenade of Society Hill's Walkway helped quite a bit during Sandy. In Camden, the newly planted 117 trees planted as a "shelterbelt' around the CCMUA Waste Water Treatment are part of integrated green infrastructure strategy that will help to helps to mitigate the flooding by absorbing stormwater.

Each tree will capture approximately 2,000 gallons of stormwater per year, diverting an additional 234,000 gallons of stormwater each year from the sewer system. AND in addition to absorbing stormwater, the deciduous and evergreen trees planted absorb odors from the treatment plant (other city odors), improve air quality, provide shade, beautify the landscape, and provide wildlife habitat. Seems the cost benefit is a little obvious and can help shave the costs of expensive grey infrastructure, river walls, etal, not requiring all these constructs. LET'S WORK WITH NATURE FOLKS !

New Project Fundraiser On SJC's ioby Platform - Go 'FROGS ARE GREEN' !

Sustainable JC has a wonderful crowd resourcing partnership with ioby.org, which we established for Jersey City community stakeholders as a vehicle to get neighborhood projects funded.  Some of these are turning into citywide initiatives and some have no borders, like the newest project Susan Newman, founder of FROGS ARE GREEN, just posted. Her Amphibian Education and Artistic Expression initiative is a fabulous portal which welcomes kids to learn about the environment in tactile and very fun ways.  In addition to learning about how cool and beautiful the vast array of these are, FROGS are a very important healthy eco-system indicator and unfortunately, they have become another canary in the coal mine and are at risk.

To donate to this project go here.

More about this project here -

Frogs, Amphibians and Their Threatened Environment: Discovery and ExpressionThrough Art, K-3.

Check out SJC's ioby Partnership page to learn more about this fundraising platform and to resource other tools that will help make your community project successful.

Crowd-sourced Rain Garden Installed

The long awaited post about the Rain Garden installation at St. Paul's is here! On May 31st, 2014, the NJ Tree Foundation arrived at St. Paul's Lutheran Church near the 5 Corners, to create a beautiful, natural stormwater infiltration system aka a rain garden. The 5 foot by 50 foot garden will collect rain runoff from the adjacent parking lot. It will capture about 700 gallons per storm or about 25,000 gallons a year. That is a lot of water they are keeping out of Jersey City's ancient, and regularly overflowing combined sewer system!

Here is the rain garden with the installation team and members of St. Paul's and SJC. During excavation and planting, NJ Tree Foundation educated community volunteers both orally and through hands-on experience on creating and planting the rain garden. It was a fun filled day with the DJ spinning tunes and shovels in the ground. See more pictures here.

St. Paul's Rain Garden - Compost + Plant List

SJC couldn't be happier about how this project turned out. This was the first time crowd-scourced funding on ioby.org was used to get our grass-roots efforts physically into the ground. The over-arching idea of using green infrastructure to reduce our flooding and CSO problem is really gaining traction both around the country and in Jersey City. In fact, SJC has partnered with P.S. 5 to turn some of their great rain capturing ideas into reality. Please help us reach our goal of raising $6,000 to install 80 feet of rain garden planters in front of the school and a 300 gallon rain barrel collecting water from the roof.

This is a great learning opportunity for the students and larger community. It opens the conversation up as to what individuals can do to help solve these water management problems.

PS#5’s work has also earned them the Bronze award with National Wildlife Federation’s Eco-Schools USA program which supports and recognizes schools efforts to integrate sustainability into the curriculum and school grounds. Also, PS#5 Eco-Cougars were named National Finalists in the Siemens' "We Can Change the World" challenge. They were one of three schools in New Jersey to be awarded this honor.

Additional resources on how you can partner with SJC and ioby to fund your project check out our ioby Partnership page.  Lots of information about rain gardens, green infrastructure and a whole lot more can be found on our Resources page.