Earth Day 1970 in New York City
In the winter of 1969-1970, a group of students met at Columbia University to hear Denis Hayes talk about his plans for Earth Day. Among the group were Fred Kent, Pete Grannis, and Kristin and William Hubbard. This New York group agreed to head up the New York City part of the national movement. Fred Kent took the lead in renting an office and recruiting volunteers. "The big break came when Mayor Lindsay agreed to shut down Fifth Avenue for the event. A giant cheer went up in the office on that day," according to Kristin Hubbard (now Kristin Alexandre). 'From that time on we used Mayor Lindsay's offices and even his staff. I was Speaker Coordinator but had tremendous help from Lindsay staffer Judith Crichton."
In addition to shutting down Fifth Avenue, Mayor Lindsay made Central Park available for Earth Day. The crowd was estimated as more than one million—by far the largest in the nation. Since New York was also the home of NBC, CBS, ABC, the New York Times, Time, and Newsweek, it provided the best possible anchor for national coverage from their reporters all over the country.
Read more about this topic: Earth Day
Famous quotes containing the words york city, earth, day, york and/or city:
“The energy, the brutality, the scale, the contrast, the tension, the rapid change—and the permanent congestion—are what the New Yorker misses when he leaves the city.”
—In New York City, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)
“You are more than the Earth, though you are such a dot!
You can love and think, and the Earth cannot!””
—William Brighty Rands (”Matthew Browne”)
“It is said that a carpenter building a summer hotel here ... declared that one very clear day he picked out a ship coming into Portland Harbor and could distinctly see that its cargo was West Indian rum. A county historian avers that it was probably an optical delusion, the result of looking so often through a glass in common use in those days.”
—For the State of New Hampshire, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)
“I know of no one so patient and determined to have the good of you. It is almost friendship, such plain and human dealing.... He has naturalized and humanized New York for me.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“In soliciting donations from his flock, a preacher may promise eternal life in a celestial city whose streets are paved with gold, and that’s none of the law’s business. But if he promises an annual free stay in a luxury hotel on Earth, he’d better have the rooms available.”
—Unknown. Charlotte Observer (October 6, 1989)