Dear Editor:
Congratulations to you and your team on being re-elected and as Senator Cunningham asserted in her endorsement for you, “your job is to get Jersey City to the finish line!” While good work is never done, you’ve gotten us off to a good start and Sustainable Jersey City (SJC) thanks you for all that you have done thus far, and you certainly have our support. Now, coming from our perspective, you need to position Jersey City for the future through a sustainability and resiliency planning lens – economically, socially and environmentally.
This may be your biggest challenge as it requires leveraging those intersecting initiatives where the City is able to get the biggest bang for its buck, given the very real budgeting decisions that are ahead of you and our City Council. The Sustainable Jersey framework provides a viable roadmap across many Actions Jersey City can take beyond what we have achieved thus far. In that spirit, thank you for signing on to the Climate Mayors initiative which constitutes Jersey City’s commitment to the Paris Climate Accord, which targets 2020 and 2025 milestone goals. We need to recalibrate the 2050 goals you announced publicly in 2015 in order for JC to lower our carbon footprint and substantially reduce the City’s emissions by 2030. Greener Energy Efficient Developments, More Electric Vehicles & Charging Stations and Greener Reduced Waste Businesses in Jersey City would really move the needle! Unfortunately, the 2015 Nerd Wallet Survey misled you and others, as Jersey City is NOT one of the ‘10 Greenest City’s in America’.
We are counting on you to come up with a visionary plan, with credible and achievable targets for this urgent timeline commitment. Again thank you for you and your team’s dedicated service to the City of Jersey City and SJC looks forward to working with you these next years to achieve these important objectives.
Sincerely,
Debra A. Italiano
Founder & Chair Sustainable Jersey City
