Welcome back to our weekly behind-the-scenes glimpse at what’s getting our team talking. Let us know what you think at [email protected].
Steam heat
For many New Yorkers, the colder months are synonymous with the wails and clanks of temperamental old radiators. Some of those radiators, as Bloomberg CityLab reports in a story shared by RTBC Executive Editor Will Doig this week, are connected by a vast subterranean network — the biggest steam system in the country.
Will says:
I love New York’s underground steam heat system — it’s relatively green, efficient, and responsible for the steam-blanketed streets seen in many a noir-ish NYC film. The system is more than a century old, but now it might soon see its first expansion in years as the city strives to meet its carbon-reduction goals.
Weathering change
Over the last month, Vox has published a great series called Changing With Our Climate, which explores Indigenous solutions to extreme weather. The final installment, which Editorial Director Rebecca Worby shared this week, poses a question: What happens when ancestral territories are returned to tribes?
Becca says:
As Joseph Lee points out in this story, Land Back announcements often get splashy coverage, but we don’t hear much about what happens afterward. Here, Lee explores what comes next — and how Land Back can be a climate solution.
What else we’re reading
🐚 New York City’s ‘Living Breakwaters’ Brace for Stormier Seas — shared by RTBC founder David Byrne from Bloomberg
🪶Indigenous-Led Environmental Planning Can Be a Blueprint for Urban Equity — shared by Contributing Editor Michaela Haas from Next City
🧤 Manhattan glove factory lends a hand to the homeless — shared by Will Doig from NY1
In other news…
Two RTBC stories got a shout-out this week in Yale Climate Connections: Michaela Haas’s “The Woman Who Brought Dirt to Harvard” and Peter Yeung’s “‘The Green Steel of the 21st Century’.”
