Thank You for Six Great Weeks in Bryant Park!

The sixth and final Broadway in Bryant Park event was held on Thursday, August 11. Now that we at Clean Air NY have had time to reflect, we think New Yorkers could not have spent their Thursday afternoons in a better way this summer! Each week, the crowds were huge and enthusiastic about their desire to do their part for cleaner air. We want to thank everyone who came to our tent to speak with us, especially the 1,000-plus New Yorkers who signed up to receive our updates when air pollution is expected to be high. If you were unable to sign up at the event, you can use our online signup form to have Air Quality Action Day updates sent to your inbox whenever air pollution is expected to be high.

Extra Credit for Cleaner Air

Whenever our Clean Air NY teams communicate with our network of individuals and employers, we often encounter people who are already helping to improve air quality and are looking for even more ways to take action. We encourage New Yorkers to look first at making changes to their transportation habits, such as carpooling, taking mass transit, teleworking and combining errands into one trip. However, if these changes aren’t workable for you at this time, or you already take alternate forms of transportation and want some “extra credit” to improve air quality further, here are more ideas that can really add up.

• Don’t mow your lawn on Air Quality Action Days. First, sign up to receive alerts from Clean Air NY when air pollution is going to be high. When these days occur, postpone mowing your lawn until after the Air Quality Action Day has passed.
• Don’t drive around looking for parking. If a parking lot is crowded, don’t drive around in circles looking for a close space. If you park your car at the first open spot and walk, you will cut down on extra driving and it probably won’t take you any longer to get inside. If you’re looking for street parking, check out our Community Partner Parking Auction to see how its app can help you find a spot without circling your block.
• Refuel after dark. When you are refueling your vehicle, we often encourage you to stop at the “click” to prevent gasoline fumes from leaving your tank and entering the air. This is because the fumes get baked by the sun and turn into pollution. Refueling after dark adds an extra layer of protection because any fumes that do escape have time to dissipate before the sun comes out again.

Build Sandcastles that Protect Our Air: Take Transit to the Beach!

Few activities are more associated with summer than a day at the beach. Clean Air NY encourages New Yorkers to carpool whenever possible, and now is the perfect time to gather your friends for a shared ride down to the shore. There are circumstances, however, when friends are coming from different parts of the region and can’t meet in a central location beforehand. Others may not have a car and would have to rent or borrow one to drive. We want to offer another solution: Take mass transit!

Numerous beaches conveniently are accessible using the New York metro area’s extensive mass transportation network. Here are just some of the options available to take transit to the shore:

The Water Taxi Beach on Governor’s Island

This brand-new beach is just minutes from downtown Manhattan. It also has free admission and free transportation. If you live in the five boroughs, now you don’t even have to head to Long Island or New Jersey to put your toes in the sand. For more details, visit the website, or you can check out the similar beach in Queens.

Directions: Take the free Governor’s Island Ferry from Slip 7 at the Battery Maritime Building at the corner of South and Whitehall streets.

Long Beach

Get to this Long Island beach using the Long Island Rail Road. You can get a special beach fare round-trip ticket for just $19; a beach pass is $10. Along with plenty of sun and sand, Long Beach has two miles of boardwalk for you to explore.

Directions: Take the LIRR to the Long Beach station. The beach is just a few blocks away.

Rockaway Beach

You can get to Rockaway Beach in Queens using the subway. It’s the largest urban beach in the United States; a $2.50 one-way subway fare will take you to the miles of shoreline and the boardwalk at Rockaway Beach.

Directions: Take the A train to Broad Channel and then transfer to the shuttle that will drop you off at any of a number of stops between 90th and 116th Beach streets.