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Full-Text Articles in Law
The Tragedy Of Urban Roads: Saving Cities From Choking, Calling On Citizens To Combat Climate Change, Christian Iaione
The Tragedy Of Urban Roads: Saving Cities From Choking, Calling On Citizens To Combat Climate Change, Christian Iaione
Fordham Urban Law Journal
This Article argues that the best response to the tragedy of road congestion has to rely on market-based regulatory techniques and public policies aimed at controlling the demand-side of transportation congestion. Among market-based regulatory techniques, economists seem to favor price-based instruments over quantity-based instruments. This Article argues instead that quantity instruments, such as tradable permits of road usage and real estate development, can better internalize all the externalities that road congestion produces. This Article also advances the idea that quantity instruments are more successful tools in addressing urban congestion for four reasons: (1) they respond better to equity concerns; (2) …
What Local Climate Change Plans Can Teach Us About City Power, Katherine A. Trisolini
What Local Climate Change Plans Can Teach Us About City Power, Katherine A. Trisolini
Fordham Urban Law Journal
Discussions of city power have long focused on cities’ power relative to higher levels of government and to each other. The diffuse causes of climate change offer an opportunity to revisit the question of city power by focusing more closely on the intended object of influence. Although these two perspectives on power will at times overlap, they are not identical. If we consider greenhouse gas emissions as the target, cities can employ their relatively minor powers to substantial effect and many of them appear to be trying to do so. But consideration of cities’ climate change policies alters the usual …
A Tale Of Two Greenways: A Comparative Study Of Greenway Projects, Gabrielle Markeson
A Tale Of Two Greenways: A Comparative Study Of Greenway Projects, Gabrielle Markeson
Fordham Urban Law Journal
This Comment discusses the recent trend in urban planning which places an emphasis on creating smart growth communities, which encourage mixed land use, alternative modes of transportation, and incorporating green space in development to combat urban sprawl. Smart growth communities often offer greenways, which encompass a broad range of green space including open space along rivers and streams, natural or landscaped courses for pedestrian or bicycle passage, open space connectors for parks, and linear parks designated as parkways, among others. The Comment discusses the environmental, economic, and health benefits of greenways. While greenways have become desirable, many communities aren't successful …
The Search For A National Land Use Policy: For The Cities' Sake, Shelby D. Green
The Search For A National Land Use Policy: For The Cities' Sake, Shelby D. Green
Fordham Urban Law Journal
This article offers a survey of federal legislation and statements of policy that have shaped and directed land use and related phenomena, including the location of population, economic growth, and the character of urban development, and concludes by advocating the need for more comprehensive federal legislation on land use. Part I provides a historical development of land use policies and laws. Part II describes patterns of urban and suburban growth and their consequences, such as the decline of the viability of cities and the loss of agricultural land. Part III discusses the government's spending on infrastructure and the results of …
The Search For A National Land Use Policy: For The Cities' Sake, Shelby D. Green
The Search For A National Land Use Policy: For The Cities' Sake, Shelby D. Green
Fordham Urban Law Journal
This article offers a survey of federal legislation and statements of policy that have shaped and directed land use and related phenomena, including the location of population, economic growth, and the character of urban development, and concludes by advocating the need for more comprehensive federal legislation on land use. Part I provides a historical development of land use policies and laws. Part II describes patterns of urban and suburban growth and their consequences, such as the decline of the viability of cities and the loss of agricultural land. Part III discusses the government's spending on infrastructure and the results of …
Municipal Solid Waste Flow Control In The Post-Carbone World, Eric S. Peterson, David N. Abramowitz
Municipal Solid Waste Flow Control In The Post-Carbone World, Eric S. Peterson, David N. Abramowitz
Fordham Urban Law Journal
Garbage will always ultimately be the government's problem. Evolving environmental standards and state and federal policies will continue to require reasoned responses from local governments and municipal solid waste flow control is a vital cog in many jurisdictions' solid waste management solutions. Without flow control of some form, governments' ability to plan and provide for the most environmentally sound and economically acceptable solutions will wane, leaving the public vulnerable to the vagaries of a private market that does not have a duty to protect the public health and safety. The Carbone decision has blunted one of the local governments chief …
Conscripting Private Resources To Meet Urban Needs: The Statutory And Constitutional Validity Of Affordable Housing Impact Fees In New York, James Berger
Fordham Urban Law Journal
In the closing decade of the 20th century, American cities face difficult financial predicaments. Urban tax bases have atrophied, and the confidence rating of municipal bonds has been downgraded. At the same time, city expenditures have increased as century-old infrastructure begins to crumble and urban demographics demand an ever increasing array of public services. To meet these challenges, New York City would do well to adopt impact fee and linkage arrangements, which would require developers to contribute to State coffers in proportion to the expected environmental, social, and economic impact of their development projects. To pass constitutional muster, however, any …
The Ocean Dumping Deadline: Easing The Mandate Millstone, Julian H. Spirer
The Ocean Dumping Deadline: Easing The Mandate Millstone, Julian H. Spirer
Fordham Urban Law Journal
This Article examines the development the "mandate millstone," the inflexible federal rules and regulations directed at state and local governments in the environmental arena. It surveys how the mandate millstone has burdened or threatened to burden the ocean dumping of sewage sludge by New York City. The Article reviews the method by which the city has traditionally disposed of its sewage sludge in the ocean waters surrounding the city, and how the city's disposal practices would have been altered radically had the city been forced to implement a plan, pursuant to United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulations, to end …
Environental Impact Statements: Instruments For Environmental Protection Or Endless Litigation?, Fran Hoffinger
Environental Impact Statements: Instruments For Environmental Protection Or Endless Litigation?, Fran Hoffinger
Fordham Urban Law Journal
Congress enacted the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) on January 1, 1970. NEPA's purpose is to "declare a national policy which will encourage productive and enjoyable harmony between man and his environment." In an effort to achieve this national policy, NEPA requires federal agencies proposing certain major federal actions that affect the environment to include an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) in their proposal or recommendations. The EIS must include both an assessment of the beneficial and adverse environmental impacts of the proposed actions and an analysis of the impacts in light of other circumstances. This Comment discusses the historical background …
Environmental Law: A Reevaluation Of Federal Pre-Emption And The Commerce Clause, Mark J. Alonso
Environmental Law: A Reevaluation Of Federal Pre-Emption And The Commerce Clause, Mark J. Alonso
Fordham Urban Law Journal
This Comment addresses how the concern of state and local governments to regain control over environmental regulation has resulted in a marked increase in conflicts with the commerce and supremacy clauses of the Constitution. Various tests have been used by the courts to determine violations of these Constitutional provisions where environmental objectives are sought through local laws. In the field of environmental litigation, traditional tests are constantly challenged to meet the changing moral climate of the nation. This Comment weighs the desire of local legislatures for more responsive environmental regulation against the federal goal of uniform regulation and unrestrained interstate …
Urban Environmental Law: Emergent Citizens' Rights For The Aesthetic, The Spiritual, And The Spacious, Nicholas A. Robinson
Urban Environmental Law: Emergent Citizens' Rights For The Aesthetic, The Spiritual, And The Spacious, Nicholas A. Robinson
Fordham Urban Law Journal
The issues in environmental law have been largely directed toward the natural environment, however, very recently and with growing force, new law has been channeled into the service of our nation's urban centers. Traditionally, urban environmental law included only broad schemes to redress urban ills, such as zoning laws, public housing programs, and urban renewal. In the past few years, there has been an increase in the development of personally held and asserted citizens rights to a quality urban environment. While articles on the urban environment often deal with statutory and administrative action, this article presents a different perspective, that …
State Preparation Of Environmental Impact Statements For Federally Aided Highway Programs, Thomas Mcdonough, Jr.
State Preparation Of Environmental Impact Statements For Federally Aided Highway Programs, Thomas Mcdonough, Jr.
Fordham Urban Law Journal
The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), passed by Congress in 1969, has been called "the broadest and perhaps most important of the recent statutes [which attempt] . . . to control . . . the destructive engine of material progress." Despite such plaudits, NEPA has been the target of much critical legal commentary and the source of much litigation in the federal courts. Considerable controversy has centered on what is considered the core of NEPA: the required filing of an environmental impact statement (EIS) by agencies undertaking "major Federal actions significantly affecting the quality of the human environment . . …
Environmental Law-Statutory Interpretation-Factors To Be Considered In Making A Threshold Determination That An Environmental Impact Statement Is Necessary Under The Na- Tional Environmental Policy Act Of 1969
Fordham Urban Law Journal
The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) was passed by Congress in 1969 declaring a policy which will promote efforts to protect the environment, to stimulate the health and welfare of man, and to enrich the understanding of the natural resources important to the nation. Under NEPA, all federal agencies must develop decision making procedures that include an evaluation of factors the agency will consider in deciding whether a proposed agency action will significantly affect the "human environment."' Federal agencies, unable to discern the meaning of "human environment," have had difficulty in deciding what factors to consider in making the threshold …
Taming The Technological Tygerthe Regulation Of The Environmental Effects Of Nuclear Power Plants -A Survey Of Some Controversial Issues--Part One, Joyce P. Davis
Fordham Urban Law Journal
This article reviews the significance placed on environmental factors in nuclear plant licensing during -the 1960s, first considering the effect of recent legislation and the status of current controversies, and then briefly discussing proposals for legislation and developments that can be expected in the near future.
Taming The Technological Tygerthe Regulation Of The Environmental Effects Of Nuclear Power Plants -A Survey Of Some Controversial Issues--Part Two, Joyce P. Davis
Fordham Urban Law Journal
This article reviews the significance placed on environmental factors in nuclear plant licensing during -the 1960s, first considering the effect of recent legislation and the status of current controversies, and then briefly discussing proposals for legislation and developments that can be expected in the near future.