…one of the best ways to reduce pollution is to persuade more of our fellow citizens to leave some of their cars in their garages and get on the bus or the subway or the train to go to work. That is why I will also fight for New York to get its fair share of transportation funding, especially supporting mass transit funds…investments in mass transit lower vehicle air pollution, specifically nitrogen oxide emissions which contribute to increases in ozone pollution.

I would fight to preserve our vital open space and revitalize industrial wastelands because I believe sprawl is not only a threat to the environment but to our communities as well. I supported the Administration's development of the Better America Bonds proposal that would help communities work together with local environmentalists and business leaders to come up with solutions to community development challenges. Through full funding of the Land and Water Conservation Fund, I support grants to states for land acquisition to preserve the Adirondacks, Sterling Forest and other sensitive areas. I also believe that we should examine our transportation policies and other federal initiatives to ensure that we are not encouraging sprawl.

Growing up on Long Island, I have seen the loss of our farms and our open spaces to suburban sprawl. I saw the effect our new road systems had on our development pattern, and I saw the effect these new developments had on Long Island's historic towns and cities. As a county legislator, I opposed an attempt (by my own party) to divert sales tax revenue from the acquisition of open space in the Pine Barrens to county tax stabilization. As a Congressional representative, I was very active in guiding the Conservation and Reinvestment Act, CARA, through Congress and successfully worked with Republican leadership to ensure it reached the floor. …CARA is crucial since it devotes $900 million annually to the acquisition of open space. If elected to the Senate, I would support measures which allow states and local governments to carry out their own conservation priorities, whether through zero interest bonds or through other mechanisms.

We need to preserve the farms and open spaces adjacent to the ring of current development, and that are the most vulnerable to future development… 

I also strongly support the redevelopment of brownfields in order to promote "in-fill" development in many of our older cities and towns. For example, I co-sponsored H.R. 2262, which would help improve the economics of redeveloping older industrial sites. Brownfield development would continue to be a priority if I were elected to the Senate. I also have worked diligently and successfully to strengthen our public housing systems so that many of our urban areas will attract people rather than lose them.

There are a host of federal policies that are in dire need of reform, whose unintended consequences have led us to the sprawl conditions we see today. If elected to the Senate, I would continue to support the identification of federal policies which encourage sprawl and changes to these policies to encourage more rational development.

I also would support a greater portion of the Highway Trust Fund for alternative transportation choices. The mass transit systems we currently operate have helped get a large number of cars off the road while meeting the transportation needs of our people. Throughout the country, we have seen the ability of mass transit to increase population density, whereas we have seen that the effect of highway construction was to reduce this density. An adequate transportation system is critical to the economic success of a region and one that improves the living conditions of New Yorkers is the one we need to encourage. We also need to encourage construction of sidewalks and trails whenever highway construction is performed, to make communities less dependent on cars.