Mike lays out
an environmental vision
for Hudson's future
Michael O'Hara's answers to Sierra Club Questionaire
He received the organizations endorsement in his race for Mayor of Hudson.
1. Environmental Organizations - I am a member of all of these environmental organizations, with different degrees of activity on my part.
1. Sustainable Hudson Valley
2. ZERI USA
3. Sierra Club (life member)
4. Friends of Hudson
5. American Farmland Trust
6. Capital Region Energy Forum
7. Center for a New American Dream
8. Clearwater
9. Earth Policy Institute
10. Environmental Business Association of NY State
11. Environmental Defense Fund
12. Hudson Watershed Alliance
13. League of Conservation Voters
14. National Association of Rail Passengers
15. Regional Farm and Food Project
16. Schumacher Society
17. Post Carbon Institute
18. World Watch
19. Chatham Real Food
My most active involvement is with Sustainable Hudson Valley. I am the co-chair of the Cool Communities committee which recently organized a conference of 80 municipal officials to work on regional solutions to and adaptations to climate change, held at the DEC Norrie Point Environmental Center. Other organizations supporting and participating in the conference included NYDOS (Division of Coastal Resources), The Nature Conservancy, NYSERDA, and Scenic Hudson. I can point to accomplishments relating to amount of people involved, groups engaged in the process and notice gained by our efforts by state officials.
I was trained and certified as an environmental systems designer in the ZERI (Zero Emissions Research and Initiatives) school of Santa Fe, NM in 2001. The work of the designer involves optimizing industrial and/or agricultural processes so as to minimize waste and maximize profitability while enhancing the environment and creating jobs. Since 2001 I have been offering consulting services to manufacturers, focusing mostly on the electronics industry. I have been working on an extension of the ZERI curriculum with several of my colleagues so as to open a branch of the ZERI training on the East Coast, possibly in NY State.
I worked extensively with Friends of Hudson (Hudson, NY) during their fight against the St. Lawrence cement factory proposed for our region. I continue to collaborate with them in relation to the development of Hudson's waterfront. The work I did for them was part of a much larger group, but it is work I feel most proud about.
2. Open Space Plan
Hudson is a city of 7,200 people in a land area of only 2.2 square miles. The core of the city was laid out in 1783 and remains mostly intact today, with a streetscape of brick and wood townhouses built up against the sidewalks in front and touching the adjacent structures left and right. There is very little in the way of "open space" to preserve which hasn't already been designated parkland or wetland. That being said, there is an LWRP being prepared by committee here, which aims to re-do our zoning and land use regulations for the Hudson waterfront. The area in question has been used industrially since earlist times and is now a mix of recreational, industrial and protected wetlands. I support land use regulations (not limited to zoning) which will preserve our historic architecture and promote appropriate in-fill development.
3. Regional Planning
The first step in promoting regional planning in Columbia County will be to get a majority of Democrats elected to the Board of Supervisors this year – something I think will happen given the electoral shifts and retirement of several Republicans. I have gotten agreements with several of the Democratic supervisors to push for the development of a Comprehensive Economic Development Plan for the county. In my role as Commissioner, Public Works for the city of Hudson, I worked with the NY DOT to push the county officials to convene a meeting recently as the first step in writing a county-wide transportation plan. I have gotten the agreement from our adjoining town of Greenport to work with Hudson in extending our current city bus system into their territory and will be discussing with them the possibility of combining certain of our government administration functions. I have also discussed with the town of Catskill the idea of extending a bus route across the Hudson river to join the two communities. These transportation related ideas will pave the way for broader planning initiatives.
4. Organic Farms
While Hudson itself has no "farms" in the general sense, we have a community garden operating on city property in a low-income neighborhood. We also support a weekly farmers' market, which includes only locally farmed product (some of which is organic and some is not). I will be promoting the extension of the farmers' market to a larger size with additional vendors and better outreach to the community. I will be seeking to create a business incubator center with a commercial kitchen to as to support the development of small-scale food related businesses which can add value to our agricultural output and create jobs.
5. Sustainable Energy
I support the shift to sustainable energy for NY State. I also support the use of alternative energy by the governments, although municipalities must be supported in this effort by the state government as the budgets of the smaller entities cannot support additional fees on their own. Certainly tax incentives are needed for private homes and business to adopt these technologies at this time, before the true costs of fossil fuel are acknowledged and before the economies of scale become effective for the alternatives. I intend to incorporate strict environmental standards into the city building code, including materials and energy efficiency. We will expand the allowable list of building materials to those which not as well known but which are environmentally superior and will train the building inspectors appropriately.
6. Residential and Business Development
The avenues for residential and business development in Hudson are in place – we will be doing "in-fill" and adaptive re-use of existing structures. We will be encouraging the "traditional downtown" usage pattern with existing and new structures, in which retail and offices are co-located in the same buildings with residential. There are building owners who are resisting the mixed use idea (leaving their upstairs apartments vacant) but we're looking for ways to encourage this mix so as to maximize the availability of housing units. Recent gentrification has pushed up rents and has created a housing crisis. I will be creating a housing task force to study the situation and come to consensus about how much housing we need and where it should be supported. We are currently working on a new zoning law and will be having dialogues about where a business of a certain type might be encouraged or discouraged.
The city of Hudson is very dense and is therefore an ideal environment for bicycles in many ways. We have alleys between many of our streets which can function as bikeways but which need to be brought up to a higher standard of maintenance to allow for smooth cycling. We will be placing bike racks in several points around the city and will be encouraging bicycle use in any way we can.
7. Pesticide Neighbor Notification Law, etc.
I support the PNNL and support the banning of carcinogenic pesticides. We will be a model of responsible land use. I have spoken to local landscapers for recommendations on how we can shift from grass to other plants for areas of our public land not used as playing fields or parks so as to minimize mowing and chemical use. We don't use herbicide on right of ways.
8. Wetlands
We have considerable wetlands of our own, (which are known to the NY State authorities) and are developing plans for their protection and recovery. Scenic Hudson is conducting a study of the ecology of both our northern and southern wetlands and we will take advantage of the results to guide our planning efforts. We are looking for funding to do a comprehensive hydrology study in connection with our Combined Sewer Overflow problem. The CSO creates a periodic negative effect on our wetlands and the city is under a Consent Order from the DEC to address the problem. I plan to reduce the total stormwater effect by encouraging "raingardens" and rainbarrels for implementation with city staff assistance for many of the buildings in the city and these measures (along with others) should solve the problem.
9. Liveablity
My program for Hudson involves the creation of a strategic plan for sustainability. This plan will be a follow-on the (Sierra Club sponsored) Cool Cities initiative, which our mayor signed last year. I was part of the committee that created our plan for reducing our greenhouse gas contribution but which included many different elements which will have other beneficial environmental effects. As previously mentioned, I will expand our public transportation system and make it more user friendly. The city passed a law last year committing the equipment and staff of the DPW to assist in planting sidewalk trees. We're just now starting on a tree inventory, which will help guide future urban forest development and will help with acquiring funding for trees. I will be guiding the choice of new technologies for our (soon to be replaced) waste water treatment plant along the lines of anaerobic digestion and local power generation from methane. I will be working with the county and regional business organizations to encourage the development of companies which will take advantage of the energy crisis, providing services and products specifically targeted to reduce energy costs and providing local jobs for our citizens. More local work means less commuting to far away places and keeps more of the money generated in the local community, providing tax revenues we can use to do what cities do – in an environmentally sustainable way.
