Good morning. Today is Tuesday. We’ll recap the candidates and issues in today’s primaries. But first, we’ll look at why New York City building owners are rushing to find ways to reduce emissions from their properties.
In 2019, the City Council issued a package of bills aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change, including one that became Local Law 97 and set limits on emissions from large buildings. Building owners are scrambling to find ways to pay for upgrades to comply. I asked our writer Jane Margolies to explain.
There is a range of deadlines. You wrote that nearly all 50,000 buildings subject to this law will meet the first building by 2024. What about the second deadline, in 2030? How then will it be difficult for building owners to comply with the applicable standards? What work will they have to do?
It will be much harder to meet the standards in 2030. For 2024, most buildings are reasonably efficient – buildings that are well insulated, have LED lighting, have heating is regulated and not stale, noisy, single-pane windows – will be up to standards. It’s a pretty low hanging fruit.
For 2030, it may be possible not only to regulate heating systems that run on oil or gas, but to replace them with systems that run on electricity. These can be expensive projects. New buildings can be designed according to the requirements of Local Code 97, but retrofitting can be difficult in older buildings.
how is the punishment?
It all depends on your emissions. The law has a specific equation for calculating fines based on how much a building exceeds its limits. The owner of the Bank of America building, once the greenest building around, is expected to pay $2.4 million a year by 2024.
What about apartment buildings? Aren’t they supposed to follow the same laws?
Yes, and they will indeed have the hardest time complying. The majority of buildings that appear unlikely to meet the 2024 deadline are apartment buildings. Some of these are old windowed ones. Many people still have old oil burners. Two garden apartment complexes in Queens that are facing the prospect of replacing all of their furnaces have brought a lawsuit against the city over Local Law 97.
You write that the real estate companies that run large office buildings are doing very well. What about parent companies and pop companies that own smaller commercial buildings? Are they aware of what they have to do to comply – or what the fine will be?
Some of these owners have small staff and always have full hands to run their buildings and comply with other city regulations like facade inspections. Some are just standing on the water, especially during the past few years of the pandemic when some tenants have lost or have tenants unable to pay their rent in full.
Debbie Fechter, a partner in a family-owned real estate business with four Manhattan buildings covered by Local Law 97, told me they had trouble attracting attention. the advice of the engineering companies that the owner hires to test the energy. building for help with compliance. The major real estate companies have dedicated sustainability staff whose job it is to put all of this at the forefront.
Some real estate executives say it’s unfair to hold them accountable for the carbon emissions from power plants that generate the electricity they’ll consume when they stop using fossil fuels in the future. boiler room. How does the city determine what a building owner is responsible for?
It’s based on how much electricity a building is using – information that owners report to the city. The thinking is that as the grid becomes greener over time, with the addition of things like hydroelectricity, the amount of power plant emissions in buildings will go down, and so will the fines.
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PARKING OUTSIDE
Valid until September 5 (Labor Day).
After campaigns that have often turned hostile, today the final few names in the November vote will be chosen – candidates for Congress and the state Senate. There will also be two special elections. Here is a summary of the candidates and issues.
One redraw by court order the state congressional lines that unite the East and West sides of Manhattan into a single districtthrow two members of the Democratic Party into the same county: Representative Carolyn Maloney from the East and Representative Jerrold Nadler from the West.
Nadler campaigned as a progressive and was the last Jewish congressman from New York. Maloney criticized him for playing identity politics even as she argued that voters should re-elect a woman because abortion rights are being withdrawn nationally. The third Democrat in the race, Suraj Patel, 38 – Nadler and Maloney are in their 70s. Patel built its campaign with the idea that it’s time for the younger generation to follow.
Could another Maloney – the congressman chosen by House Democrats to protect their narrow majority – lose his own primaries? That congressman, Representative Sean Patrick Maloney, is facing a challenge from State Senator Alessandra Biaggi in the new 17th district. Maloney describes himself as a “realist, fundamentalist” who is chairman of the Democratic Congressional Advocacy Committee.
But he angered progressives by moving districts, overwhelming Representative Mondaire Jones, who moved to Brooklyn to run for the new 10th district there. Biaggi has Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on her side, while Democrats trail behind Maloney.
Jones, upon moving to Brooklyn, jumped into a crowded field that included Elizabeth Holtzman, who in the 1970s was the youngest woman ever elected to Congress. Bill de Blasio, the former mayor, was briefly a candidate but dropped out after a lukewarm reception.
The race is considered a contest between Daniel Goldman, who served as a prosecutor in the Trump impeachment and brought more than 4 million dollars own money in the campaign; Jones; and two rising stars, Yuh-Line Niou, a state congresswoman, and Carlina Rivera, a Manhattan councilwoman.
The Republican race in the redrawn 23rd district in western New York pitted Carl Paladino, a Buffalo developer and former Republican candidate for governor, against Nick Langworthy, the president. State Republican Party. Paladino is famous for his explosive and sometimes racist remarks (including about Hitler). Langworthy, who has been an ally of Paladino, said Paladino could jeopardize a seat Republicans easily won.
METROPOLITAN . Diary
Music bar
Dear Diary:
Carlo and I were the only patrons in the Greenwich Village music bar. It was early evening, the sun had not yet set.
We sat across from each other, nestled between two protective glass panels. At last I felt a joy, a stillness. I want the moment in the empty music bar, with Carlo, to last.
As night fell, a tall musician tuned his guitar and started playing blues. He played generously, as Carlo asked for BB King, Muddy Waters, Ray Charles, even Marvin Gaye.
The guitarist also played some of his own original compositions. I had two glasses of rum and Cokes. Carlo drank a diet soft drink. We shared a cup of fries.
The window was open, it was cold and rainy outside, so we put on our coats. Carlo tapped his fingers to the beat of the music, and I moved quietly to the rhythm in my chair.
I recall that Carlo and I went to the same bar to listen to Latin jazz in the easier times. The place was packed that night. Intriguingly, I watched Carlo dance in his chair with unbridled glee, his eyes closed, his lips curled with joy.
Smiling suddenly, he opened his eyes to see if I was watching him. I did. I can no longer dance to “Oye Como Va” without remembering that moment.
– Tiffany Osedra Miller
