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Narration:
For the more than sixty-five thousand Staten Islanders who ride the ferry to Manhattan every day, their trip hasn't changed much. (bring up sound of commuters in terminal) But after 13 years of construction, they finally have a new terminal. The new design was unveiled in February. The terminal's designer, architect Frederic Schwartz led a tour to show it off and he says it is now as beautiful as Grand Central Station.
AX: Frederic Schwartz:
One of our theses or our ideas about this terminal was why shouldn't Staten Islanders have as wonderful a place to move back and forth as people from Westchester and Connecticut.
Narration:
The ferry terminal is now a light and airy high performance building. But it isn't just beautiful, it's saving the city money. Designers estimate it will save taxpayers more than A-hundred-thousand-dollars a year on electricity. They're called high-performance because they use energy-efficient technologies, like solar panels, for heating and cooling. Dean Zeeas is an urban planner who coordinates high-performance, green buildings. He says these buildings will help the city prevent energy crunches like the one that caused 2003's blackout.
AX: Dean Zeeas:
The peak demand reduction, which is the real thing that really overtaxes our grid here, is reduced by 56 percent-- that's what we really want to do is control our peak demand during the day in new york city because that is when things get really tight.
Narration:
Green building design can also help equalize energy costs at the neighborhood level. Zeeas says low income residents pay more for their energy because their buildings are often less well-built.
AX: Dean Zeeas:
Low and moderate income people live in shoddier buildings with leakier walls with poor or no insulation and a bad what's called building shell that leaks.
Narration:
Jeff Pearlman is an activist in the Lower East Side who promotes energy efficiency and money savings at the community level. He recently started a project that will go block by block in the area, helping landlords do things like replace old boilers and light fixtures.
AX: Jeff Pearlman:
The landlord will save some money from their energy cost and one of the things we can do to make it more amenable to them is provide them with low interest rate loans so instead of paying 1000 this year to save 200 dollars a year, their annual payments on the loan are going to be lower than the amount of energy they would've been buying. In the end they're gonna be paying less per year. the idea is that this is a catalyst this is the first block not the last block.
Narration:
Zeeas says everyone, not just building owners, can go green. He says, doing a few easy things like buying "energy star" appliances and changing their lightbulbs to fluorescent can also save renters lots of money.
AX: Dean Zeeas:
That right off the shelf will save you 75 percent on your light bill--they produce 90 percent light to 10 percent heat while an incandescent bulb produces 90 percent heat and 10 percent light.
Narration:
Just three years ago, there were no high performance buildings in New York city. Today, there are more than 3000. Organizers of the high-performance building tour hope this trend continues. Jess Mador, Columbia Radio News.