ASC's Intersections Newsletter — January 16, 2026
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Nora’s Note
Participation matters. This week, Arch Street Communications staffers were on hand at the New York League of Conservation Voters Emerging Leaders Program gathering to connect, learn, and build community with fellow environmentalists. Our own Lilly Johnsen and Roohi Singh served on the program Steering Committee, helping guide conversations among young professionals from across sectors. Also attending were Alyssa Rivera, Sophia Durone, and Polly Lasch, who joined meaningful discussions with emerging leaders representing organizations like NYSERDA, NYPA, consulting firms, financial institutions, the NYC Bird Alliance, and more. What stood out most was the energy and diversity of perspectives in the room. People came from government, nonprofit advocacy, sustainability, and finance, all eager to exchange ideas and deepen connections. Moments like these remind us that progress around climate, equity, and civic engagement is shaped by collaboration as much as expertise.
Transportation
New York City plans to extend dedicated bus lanes along Madison Avenue from East 42nd Street down to East 23rd Street, aiming to speed up trips for nearly 100,000 daily riders. The redesign will give buses their own space on one of Manhattan’s most congested corridors, where they are currently slowed by heavy traffic. While one general traffic lane and a part-time parking or travel lane will remain, transportation officials say the expanded bus lanes will significantly improve reliability and travel times. This increased reliability helps support the city’s congestion pricing goals by making it easier for people to get into Midtown without a car. The project is part of a broader push to improve surface transit and make public transportation a more accessible option for commuters. Read more to learn about the project’s plans. (Source: Gothamist)
Mass Transit: MDOT MTA’s new Hitachi railcars enter passenger service
AMNY: NYC will add new red light cameras at 450 intersections before end of year: DOT
Streetsblog: LA’s ‘transit ambassador’ program is working
Climate
The Yoeman Solar Project in Waukegan, Illinois, is giving a long‑troubled Superfund site a new purpose. After years of environmental damage and costly cleanup, the property is being converted into a 9.1-megawatt community solar farm that will power about 1,000 homes and the Waukegan school district, which owns the site. Low‑income households that enroll will see reduced energy bills. Brownfield sites like this are well‑suited for solar development: land is cheaper, electrical infrastructure already exists, and communities often welcome turning contaminated properties into productive assets. Learn more about how renewable energy can transform sites once viewed solely as liabilities, here. (Source: Grist)
Canary Media: 7 numbers that explain why the future of buildings is all-electric
Anthropocene Magazine: A new kind of green revolution could start with self-fertilizing crops
Inside Climate News: The environmental and cultural benefits of restoring the American Prairie
Economic Development
With NYC’s vacancy rate at a 50-year low, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is moving swiftly to address affordability, safety, and equity in housing. In his first week as New York City Mayor, Mamdani began reshaping the city’s housing agenda with a flurry of executive orders. He launched two task forces to identify city-owned land for housing and streamline permitting, reinstated health and safety standards in shelters, and created public “rental ripoff” hearings to expose abusive landlord practices. Mamdani also appointed longtime tenant advocates to key leadership roles and pledged intervention in the Pinnacle Realty bankruptcy case. Read more to learn about Mamdani’s housing action. (Source: Smart Cities Dive)
New York YIMBY: Rendering revealed for office-to-hotel conversion at 509 Madison Avenue in Midtown
Bronx Times: Hunts Point Market to receive $405M for an all-electric project
The City: Hochul moves to ban utility shutoffs in buildings where landlords don’t pay
Digital
A startup launched a new three-zone heat pump that lets a single outdoor unit efficiently power three indoor heads. Over the years, heat pumps have been widely recommended due to their high efficiency, all-in-one heating and cooling with lower operating costs, fewer emissions, and safer, low-maintenance performance. As energy insecurity impacts 10-15 million homes, heat pumps can close this disparity, helping everyday people stay well-tempered in extreme weather conditions. The startup, called Quilt, heavily relies on the use of real-world data from thousands of internet-connected, sensor-rich heat pumps already installed in homes. This approach enabled features like an over-the-air update that boosted system capacity by 20% and helped the company solve a challenge: maintaining efficiency and stability at low compressor speeds. Learn more about the groundbreaking technology, here. (Source: TechCrunch)
GovTech: Data center projects and the benefits they promise the public
Route Fifty: How Californians can use a new state website to block hundreds of data brokers
Axios: N.Y. Gov. Kathy Hochul to make data centers pay for own energy demand
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