Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Council Speaker Christie Quinn announced on Tuesday that a study by the City Clerk’s office  and NYC & Company, the city’s tourism agency, estimated that same sex-marriages have contributed $259 million to the city’s economy since New York passed the Marriage Equality Act one year ago on July 24.

“Marriage equality has made our City more open, inclusive and free – and it has also helped to create jobs and support our economy,” Bloomberg said in the statement. “New York has always been a great place to get married and since the passage of the Marriage Equality Act, we’re welcoming more and more couples, their families and friends from around the country and the world.”

According to the survey, over 201,000 same-sex wedding guests visited from outside the city. They booked over 235,000 hotel rooms at an average rate of $275 a day, as well as paid for dining, celebrations, gifts and various other wedding-related purchases. Add this income to at least 8,200 gay-marriage licenses that were purchased in the last year (couples are not required to disclose their sexes) and $16 million in tax revenue from the marriages, and you start to get a sense of the same-sex wedding business’s size.

“Thirteen months ago our legislators did the right thing and voted to make same-sex marriage a reality, ensuring that New York State was among the leaders in equality,” said City Comptroller John Liu in a statement. “Today’s announcement is simply the icing on the wedding cake.”

In addition to New York, same-sex marriage is legal in Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont and the District of Columbia. Massachusetts led the charge in 2004, and found similar economic growth: gay marriage added an estimated $111 million to the state’s economy in five years.

Saturday, Nov. 12, K-12 grade students gathered at Battery Park City School, the city’s first “green” school, for the seventh annual Jane Goodall Roots and Shoots Northeast Youth Summit. Students traveled from all around New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Vermont and New Jersey, as did environmental and humanitarian leaders from across the region, to participate in the event. The group built reflective mobiles for skyscrapers to deter migrating birds from collisions, made dog and cat toys from reused materials for local animal shelters and created a peace-themed collage from recycled materials to be displayed at the school.

The Jane Goodall Roots and Shoots program was founded in 1991 by Dr. Jane Goodall and a group of Tanzanian students. The program focuses on making positive changes in communities, for animals and for the environment.

Chinatown
PIONEERING BIG BELLY TRASH COMPACTORS

Last Wednesday afternoon, on the corner of Canal and Mott streets, City Council Member Margaret Chin and members of Community Board 3 held a press conference to unveil Chinatown’s newest effort to go green. The Chinatown Partnership has teamed up with Big Belly Solar to install solar-powered Big Belly trash compactors in the neighborhood. The compactors have a unique green energy sensor that monitors how full the cans are and sends a message to the unit’s command center when the trash needs to be compacted. The sensors also monitor when the garbage must be collected, which cuts down on unnecessary collections that waste fuel and increase pollution.

Chin noted the financial gains the city stands to make from this installation. The compactors hold roughly five times more garbage than regular trash cans, so the city will pay less for trash collection. This program was implemented in Philadelphia, where collections were reduced from 17 to 5 in one week, with immediate savings of 70 percent, according to the Big Belly website.

Lower Manhattan
RIBBON-CUTTING CEREMONY AT MEDHATTAN

Doctors Leslie Miller and Alicia Salzer, co-founders of Medhattan Immediate Medical Care on Liberty Street, hosted the ribbon-cutting at their new facility Monday, Nov. 14. The Medhattan center is a state-of-the-art medical facility that provides the luxury of a high-class hotel chain to ease the all-too-painful hospital experience.

Patients can expect snacks, plush robes and a host of unanticipated amenities, including wellness services such as acupuncture and massage. As many New Yorkers know, luxury has its price. However, the goal of this facility is to provide luxury at a discount. According to the press release, “Medhattan promises luxury that patients can afford, with visits costing as little as $200.” As cold and flu season hits full swing, a hospital visit is often an unfortunate reality, but New Yorkers may be more willing to spend some time at the new Medhattan Immediate Medical Care Facility—in plush robes and slippers, of course.

Students Margaret Christman and Sara Healey make mobiles as part of the Jane Goodall Roots and Shoots program, which focuses on making positive changes in communities.
Photo courtesy of the Jane Goodall Roots and Shoots Program