Transit Center Green Fashion Show Today.

Written By: Talk of the Sound News

1848
Pictured Above is some of the 1848 working fixtures that have 20 more years of usable life. They will end up in a landfill all for the ability to say we are green. Not very green to me.

On October 4th the Mayor and Chuck Strome will guide local press through the Transit Center as they would like you to believe they are the Greenest since the Green Giant was yelling his “HO-HO-HO’s.” They would like us all to pay little attention to fact and reality. They want us to put on our Green Sunglasses and Drink the Green Coolaid and just concentrate on the Greenest Mayor to ever set foot on our planet. The Mayors Communication director sent out a Press release touting a 60% reduction of energy from 1.9 Million Killowatt current use to a soon 1.1 Million Killowatt new proposed energy use.
This is all about retrofitting perfectly good Lighting to the tune of 1.5 Million borrowed dollars so the Mayor can be Greenest in the land.
I only attended the City University of New York and I am not a Harvard Grad but the simple math shows the energy savings at approximated 40% not the 60% the Press will be conveyed at the Mayors Green Lighting Fashion show. Okay let us forget that the Mayor missed remedial math up in Cambridge that day and move on to why this Green Greatness may not appear as green to those of us footing the bill for all this Green in our Tax Payments.
Firstly in the Case of the existing garage fixtures they all have an expected lifecycle of approximately 30 years. These fixtures were already employed and installed for less than 10 years. My non Ivy education has them usable on average for about 20 more years. I also know from my work experience that they all are efficient as they contain electronic ballasts and a highly efficient Metal Halide light source. 1848 perfectly efficient perfectly working of them have been pulled from the ceiling for the sake of the Mayors Green reputation. 1848 of these fixtures now head to local landfill in order for Noam Bramson to hang the future of his stagnant political Career on Green. The Mayor will tout to the local press to listen to a story of Green. They won’t tell you what the costs was for purchasing the original fixtures that are supposed to last 30 years and dumping them in the ground 20 years prematurely. They won’t tell you that the green return on investment is so far off in a distance that nobody spending their own dollars would ever entertain this kind of project. It is irresponsible for the City of New Rochelle to do so when you bother to weigh all the facts.
I refer you to my original posting “Has New Rochelle Done Its Homework” http://www.newrochelletalk.com/content/has-new-rochelle-done-its-homework-15-mm-led-lighting-system-planned-new-roc-and-transit-cen

where I explain that the City never really created a competitive bid because they single source these fixtures from one manufacture. Without competition I believe the City has over paid on this contract almost 400,000 dollars. But again pay no attention to the facts the Green Giant has spoken and you can be sure the Mayors propaganda machine The Journal News will be walking the Transit Center all aglow basking in the light.
Fact the project was not competitively bid and thus the City has overpaid severly.
Fact the City is already in a dire financial state and then they borrow 1.2 million dollars for 20 years to further the Mayors reputation of Green. Where will Bramson be in 20 years?
Fact the existing fixtures had 20 more years of usable life to go and they will be sent to the landfills at both a financial cost and a environmental cost.
None of this is good for our City because in 20 years when these fixtures may need replacing the fixture to replace them will have dropped way down in price due to the fact that LED technology will be the norm and will be employed regularly.
The Tax payers have once again gotten hurt by our Mayors desire to further his lackluster political position. The problem may not be he is not green enough it may be he is desperate to spend our green on anything to allow him to climb up from the mess he single handedly created.

4 thoughts on “Transit Center Green Fashion Show Today.”

  1. Green New Rochelle

    New lighting = another new debt,the city must be more conservative during these bad times.

    What about a sign outside this building promoting public parking to bring revenues, since the parking on the top floor is a secret to the public.

  2. The Green Mayor
    Ken, What makes the citizens of New Rochelle think the Transit Center will still be standing in 20 years? Will the city be able to fund repairs, etc. for this parking garage.

    Our mayor is truly green. Look at the committees and boards in this city, the mayor keeps recycling the same people over and over again. That is why he gets what he wants.

    1. One would hope the transit
      One would hope the transit center is still there next century.
      Nita Lowey funded it inclusive of the lighting that should have served us for 30 years. The point of my Blog on this is that what was there was not broken.
      The Mayor made it broken to serve his needs now we will all have to foot the bill along with much more being fabricated for the same reasons. There was nothing wrong with the 1848 fixtures they would have served us till about 2030.

      1. As Kirmit the Frog said, “It’s not easy being green”
        If you talk to the same people all the time you get the same answers,

        Doing the same things the same way gets you the same results. The City of New Rochelle as you say is already in a dire financial state and then they borrow 1.2 million dollars for 20 years to further the Mayors reputation of Green. If there were a true green initiative, why didn’t they look into solar panel for the top of the garage to power the original lights? I bet that would have been more cost effective and be a better investment. We have a solar company here in New Rochelle. I am sure they would have been pleased to talk to the city and come up with some cost saving and green ideas. Stop the borrowing and bonding we the taxpayers can‘t afford it any more.

        A true Vision with creative ideas and a grasp of reality is what is needed on The City Council and Staff members in The City of New Rochelle, along with some plan old common sense.

        “Common sense for the Common Good”

Comments are closed.