Q&A
Exploring the potential of rooftop urban agriculture in NYC
0:59:49
·
137 sec
Council Member Bottcher inquires about the potential for urban agriculture on NYC rooftops, highlighting the underutilized space. Qiana Mickie, Executive Director of MOUA, responds by discussing the feasibility and approach to rooftop agriculture.
- MOUA is developing a pilot program to address rooftop agriculture feasibility
- Key considerations include weight-bearing capacity, community engagement, and funding
- The office aims to create citywide initiatives while working with council members on district-specific approaches
Erik D. Bottcher
0:59:49
But if you stand on a rooftop and look around, you see miles of open space in the form of rooftops.
0:59:59
Yes.
0:59:59
And to me, when I look at the rooftops of our district, it's see it's such an underutilized asset.
1:00:08
What can be done what more can be done to get folks to use building owners to use their rooftops for urban agriculture?
Qiana Mickie
1:00:23
Thank you.
1:00:24
It's a great question.
1:00:25
We had this a similar question.
1:00:27
The Office of Urban Agriculture Fields in order to facilitate or encourage, more activity on green rooftops, in particular, agriculture production, and solar, other climate needs, climate resilient needs, it needs to have a feasibility there needs to be an approach that feels feasible no matter the scale and size of the roof.
1:00:50
There are some basic guidelines that they're need to they're gonna need to consider in terms of capacity of growing, capacity of weight bearing.
1:00:57
These are some of the elements that we identified and have, incorporated in our urban agriculture pilot program.
1:01:05
So we're taking a 2 pronged approach to that program.
1:01:08
It's one of looking from a city perspective, but also looking, with community based, institutions on how they can how we can learn with them on what is needed.
1:01:18
But, yes, there's definitely, funding, of course.
1:01:22
But first and foremost is making sure that these rooftops are feasible for any additional weight bearing, use and activity, and then some of those practical matters as well as how to identify community engagement and access.
1:01:37
So we think there's a pathway forward.
1:01:39
That's why we're so excited about starting this pilot.
1:01:42
So we continue to, look forward to gathering more information and sharing.
1:01:48
And, again, I think this is part of our approach on thinking about how to approach issues at a citywide level, but building initiatives and approaches that we can work, targeted with city council members as well.
1:02:01
You nobody knows your districts better than yourselves other than the community members.
