New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio is the latest big-city leader to expand the definition of sustainability, melding new objectives for environmental impact with social equity and urban climate resilience.
The city’s previous mayor, Michael Bloomberg, put PLANYC in place seven years ago. The breadth and depth of the policy proposals since have become a model for cities in the U.S. and around the world.
Now, de Blasio is making the plan more comprehensive by turning it into a sustainable development plan focusing equally on the environment and income inequality. The new name is OneNYC — short for “One New York: The Plan for a Strong and Just City.”
“We know that if we only have environmental sustainability and end up with a gilded city only for the most wealthy, it will no longer be New York. And equally, if we have a city filled with economic opportunity and inclusion but it isn’t environmentally viable and sustainable, it won’t work. So we’ve got to bring these two pieces together,” de Blasio said as he announced OneNYC.