Cars in NYC bike lanes get stickered

The Daily Green reports on the controversial stickers (right) that some activists are putting on cars parked in bicycle lanes in New York City. Parking in bike lanes is against the law.

The anonymous group - who started putting the stickers on the offending vehicles last week - has already handed out "a couple hundred."

They claim it's a safety issue, yet the car owners could consider it vandalism even though they are breaking the law by parking in a bike lane.

As one commenter wrote: "some bicyclists will just pick their bike up and slam it into the car and continue on their way. This does a lot more damage than a sticker on the window or bumper."

Read the full story: A sticker situation - cars in the bike lane get a wake-up call

Photo from The Daily Green

Gorgeous gardens around the world

Concierge.com reports on 12 lush and gorgeous gardens worth visiting around the world.

Terra Nostra (picture left) Furnas, São Miguel, Azores, Portugal

others include:

Wörlitz Germany, near Dessau
Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden Cape Town, South Africa
New York Botanic Garden the Bronx, New York City
Saiho-ji Kyoto, Japan
Kennerton Green Mittagong, outside Sydney, Australia
Amber Palace Jaipur, Rajasthan, India

See the slide show: Green retreats

Photo from concierge.com

Ride subway, exit in "Asia"

The Washington Post reports on the New York City subway ride that will let you out in "Asia."

Brain Yarvin takes you on the plane-less journey to Flushing, Queens, only $2.25 and about a 45 minute subway ride from Midtown Manhattan.

Most out-of-towners will head toward Flushing for Citi Field or its neighbor, Arthur Ashe Stadium, and if they're not in the loop, they'll take in a baseball game or a tennis match and leave. The rest of us know better. Here's a neighborhood that really seems to be part of China, only with New York City street signs. When I step off the train at Main Street, get my first whiff of scallion pancakes, make my first sighting of a new menu or find some ingredient that exists nowhere else in the Eastern United States, I know that I've come to the right place.

Read the full story: Flushing, Queens: Taking the 7 train from Times Square to Asia

Sculpture around NYC

Frommer's website has info about free outdoor sculpture viewing in and around New York City.

Besides obvious scupltures such as the Statue of Liberty:

There are whimsical, lifelike ones such as Taxi! by J. Seward Johnson (Park Ave. at 47th St.) and Commuters by George Segal (Port Authority Bus Terminal, 42nd St. & 8th Ave.). Kids get a kick out of Alice in Wonderland by Jose de Creeft (Central Park, Conservatory Water, near E. 72nd St.), Cat by Fernando Brotero (Park Ave. at 79th St.), and, of course, the Lions by Edward Clark Potter (New York Public Library, Fifth Ave. at 42nd St.)

And for art outside Manhattan they suggest the Noguchi Museum & Garden (picture above).

Read the full story: Expose Yourself to Art: Outdoor Sculpture In & Around New York City

Photo by George Hirose

Second plastic-bag subway art installation

Back in April '08 we reported on New York street artist Joshua Allen Harris, who fashions used plastic bags into inflatable subway grate art. Harris' latest incarnations, that are larger than his earlier polar bears and giraffes, look like giant fantasy monsters.

Watch the report below from New York Magazine.

NYC High Line park; reusing old train tracks

The New York Times reports on one of the newest New York City parks, the High Line.

The park - made from old elevated train tracks - is the epitomization of reusing old to make new.

It's located in Manhattan's West Side near the Hudson River and winds up from the West Village through Chelsea.

Read the full story: For High Line visitors, park is a railway out of Manhattan

NYC cops taking a bite out of eco-crime

Reuters video reports on the eco-police of New York.

The job of officers Matthew Clemens and Eric Dowling is to patrol their beat of the Bronx in New York City and find people who are overstepping environmental laws.

Watch the full video below:

Celebrate Adirondacks at new museum

The Wall Street Journal reviews the new upstate New York Wild Center.

The museum celebrates the natural world of the Adirondacks.

But calling it just a museum would be rash since there are live animals and interactive exhibits.

"We're part aquarium, part natural history museum and part science center," says Stephanie Ratcliffe, executive director of the Wild Center.

The location is Tupper Lake, NY about six hours from New York City.

Read the full story: Where the wild things are

Airport to be carbon-negative?

Mycitytalk.com reports that New York's Stewart International airport, north of Manhattan, is striving to be "carbon-negative."

The region's other airports, JFK, Newark, and LaGuardia are prone to gridlock so the Port Authorities of New York and New Jersey who operate all four airports, are expanding Stewart as a way to ease plane traffic and claim the design will be beyond eco-friendly.

But in order for it to be carbon-negative it must overcome many obstacles including the fact that airplanes emit a lot of greenhouse gases.

[The Port Authority] has yet to announce a plan, but the possibilities are multi-faceted. It likely will incorporate the latest energy-efficient and environmentally sensitive design into all new airport buildings. On-site generation of power from solar or wind energy will help. Connecting the airport to Manhattan via mass transit already is under review.

Read the full story: Building the first carbon-negative airport

Greening of iconic New York building

Reuters reports that Manhattan's Empire State Building is turning green.

The "greening" project will cost $100 million to overhaul the iconic building, but once complete will save an estimated $4.4 million in energy use every year.

Read the full story: Empire State Building to go green

View former Secy of State Madeleine Albright's pins

USA Today reports on former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright's traveling brooch collection show.

Although this story is not environmental, Ms. Albright's pins communicated her mood and she brought change and diplomacy, equally important aspects of policy necessary for a peaceful world.

Albright "found that what she wore and how she presented herself had a lot of interpretive meaning to those she was with," said Holly Hotchner, [Museum of Arts & Design] director. "The pins became an added way that she communicated as secretary of state."

The 200 brooch collection will start of in New York City in September.

Read the full story: Madeleine Albright's brooch collection

77-year-old D.C.-er bikes Manhattan tip-to-tip

Maryland resident Albert Diaz, pictured above, thought what better way to celebrate his impending 78th birthday but to bike Manhattan from bottom to top.

Diaz wrote about his biking trip in The Washington Post.

He easily took the Vamoose bus line from Bethesda, Maryland (it takes bikes at no extra cost) and after being dropped off in Midtown Manhattan, headed down to his starting point at Battery Park.

His bike path of choice was the Greenway that stretches all the way up to the George Washington Bridge 11 miles north.

Read the full story: Manhattan on wheels

Whale calls heard for first time off NYC

U.S. News & World Report reports on the first recorded whale calls heard off of New York City's harbor area.

Scientists installed recording equipment 13 miles off of New York Harbor and Fire Island and were rewarded with the sounds of three different whale species; fin, humpback and North Atlantic right whales.

"'With data generated by acoustic monitoring, we can better understand New York's role in the life history of these endangered whales and make more informed conservation decisions,' said James Gilmore, chief of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation's Bureau of Marine Resources. 'This is especially important for the survival of right whales.'"

Whales (like the right whale pictured above) are vulnerable to being killed by shipping vessels. Being better able to monitor the migration patterns of whales will enable shipping lines to avoid colliding and killing the endangered mammals.

Read the full story: Whales heard near New York City

Bus deals D.C. to NYC

Now that gas is so expensive, more and more people are using public buses to get around.

There's always been Greyhound, but now between the busy Northeast corridor, the demand for cheaper and better rides give travelers more options to choose from.

The Washington Post has a review of six bus lines going to and from Washington D.C. to New York City.

Ecotravel News can vouch for the environmental-friendliness, cheapness, and convenience of the Chinatown buses as written in this previous post; as for safety, that's another issue.

Read the full story: D.C. to New York: The deals on the bus go round and round

Photo from Picassa website, click here to read the photographer's review of the Bolt Bus from D.C. to NYC.

Art created with plastic bags

Plastic bags are the scourge of the environment.

They are hard to avoid in every day life and even harder when traveling, ask Senator Barack Obama. (We endorsed Hillary remember?)

So whenever a clever way of reusing or recycling plastic bags comes along, we like it.

One doesn't usually think of art when thinking about plastic bags, but that is what one innovative art student did.

Joshua Allen Harris (left in picture) created art using plastic bags and air pushed out through the New York City subway grating.

Some of his creations include the Air Bear:


the Air Zoo:


and the Air Giraffe:


According to the Associated Press, these creations are usually installed in the Chelsea neighborhood near Mr. Harris' art school.

So now there's another thing to add to visitors' or curious environmentalists' lists of things-to-see-or-do in NYC.