Deputy Mayor Dan Doctoroff gives the keynote address.“The League will be the most significant reason PlaNYC will sustain the momentum we’ve initiated, and why, I believe, it will be fully implemented over the next two decades.”

So says Dan Doctoroff, New York City’s Deputy Mayor for Economic Development and Rebuilding, who gave the keynote speech at last month’s NYLCV gala, Celebrating a Greener Skyline. More than 200 supporters, elected officials, friends and government colleagues turned out to hear him speak at the event, which was held at Christie’s at Rockefeller Center. The event marked the kickoff of the League’s New York City Chapter, and honored the late Harvey Schultz, along with David and Jed Walentas, of Two Trees Management.

The Big Apple is making great strides in transforming itself into the Green Apple, according to Doctoroff, who announced on the morning of NYLCV’s event that he would step down from his post. PlaNYC – of which Doctoroff was a key architect – has ushered in a new era of sustainability action at the local level, and emerged as a model for cities and towns across the state. During the month of December alone, the City Council approved vast reductions in the city’s greenhouse gas emissions, city agencies wrote the standards for microturbines to be installed in residential and commercial buildings, and officials broke ground on an extension to the No. 7 subway line in Manhattan. Progress has been made on more than 80 percent of PlaNYC’s 127 sustainability goals in less than a year of implementation.

The Bloomberg administration’s commitment to sustainability is not expected to slacken for its remaining 24 months … but what happens after that? Will the next mayor and City Council take PlaNYC to the next level or relegate it to the political dustbin?

Again, Doctoroff says it best: “We need the League of hold officials accountable and to be the plan’s fiercest advocate the entire time. That’s why the launch of the League’s New York City Chapter, and its goal to identify and mobilize 100,000 local eco-voters is so important.”

From left, NYC Chapter Chair Ken Fisher, honorees David and Jed Walentas, and NYLCV Chairman Charles Warren.Who better to lead that effort than Ken Fisher , chairman of NYLCV’s New York City Chapter? Fisher, a former City Council member representing Brooklyn who is now a partner at WolfBlock, says the time has come for the environmental movement to flex its muscles in local elections. He’s setting his sights on developing a green grassroots operation by 2009, when virtually every New York City elected office will be vacant because of term limits.

“Now is the time to build a coalition of eco-voters who put sustainability at the top of their issues list and demand that their elected officials do the same. If politicians do right by the environment, let's give them our support. If not, let's recycle them into another line of work,” Fisher says. “When it comes to global warming, every minute is a chance for elected officials to act. If they don't, we should – at the voting booth, because the climate change clock is ticking for all of us."

Newsletter Issue

• Ecopolitics Monthly --- January 2008