With so many New Yorkers still struggling to find jobs, we're working hard to pull our City through these difficult economic times. One way is to keep finding new and innovative ways to improve the quality-of-life that attracts people to live here and businesses to expand here. Recently, we unveiled two gold star examples of what I'm talking about.
The first is a new life-saving medical procedure we're applying in cases of cardiac arrest - the sudden and potentially fatal loss of heart function. These are emergencies in which every second counts. And now New York City's paramedics are trained and equipped to start what's called "hypothermia therapy" while they're transporting patients to the hospital. It involves lowering a patient's body temperature in order to reduce possible brain cell damage and prevent lasting physical or neurological harm. It's a procedure that has already increased the survival rate of cardiac arrest patients in emergency rooms by 20 percent. Now that paramedics are able to start this treatment themselves, we expect it to save the lives, and improve the quality-of-life, of hundreds more New Yorkers every year.
We have also taken a big step toward unlocking thousands of acres of currently unusable land across the City, and making it economically productive again. These sites are called "brownfields" - areas contaminated often many years ago, by industrial debris or other pollutants. Cleaning up the City's brownfields is a major goal of the PlaNYC environmental agenda we unveiled on Earth Day in 2007.
Now we're making it possible for landowners to clean up brownfields under the nation's first City-run program of its kind. That's a win for neighborhoods long pock-marked by vacant, blighted eyesores that bring down property values and safety. It's also good news for our economy. For too long, the threat of future legal liability has often discouraged developers from cleaning up brownfields, even though they had no role in polluting these areas in the first place. But by acting responsibly and meeting City clean-up standards, they can now reduce their legal liability. That will give developers the confidence they need to make investments and go forward with projects that will create the housing, open spaces, and jobs that our growing city needs.
A key part of the City's new brownfields program is an agreement we signed last week with State Environmental Conservation Commissioner Pete Grannis. While State officials will continue to oversee clean-ups of the most heavily polluted brownfields in the five boroughs, the City will now supervise clean-ups of less contaminated sites under regulations that conform to the State's high standards. We've worked closely with the State to develop this brownfield clean-up program. That's just the kind of City-State cooperation that makes especially good sense in an era of reduced government resources, and it's going to help us keep New York's economic recovery on track.
The first is a new life-saving medical procedure we're applying in cases of cardiac arrest - the sudden and potentially fatal loss of heart function. These are emergencies in which every second counts. And now New York City's paramedics are trained and equipped to start what's called "hypothermia therapy" while they're transporting patients to the hospital. It involves lowering a patient's body temperature in order to reduce possible brain cell damage and prevent lasting physical or neurological harm. It's a procedure that has already increased the survival rate of cardiac arrest patients in emergency rooms by 20 percent. Now that paramedics are able to start this treatment themselves, we expect it to save the lives, and improve the quality-of-life, of hundreds more New Yorkers every year.
We have also taken a big step toward unlocking thousands of acres of currently unusable land across the City, and making it economically productive again. These sites are called "brownfields" - areas contaminated often many years ago, by industrial debris or other pollutants. Cleaning up the City's brownfields is a major goal of the PlaNYC environmental agenda we unveiled on Earth Day in 2007.
Now we're making it possible for landowners to clean up brownfields under the nation's first City-run program of its kind. That's a win for neighborhoods long pock-marked by vacant, blighted eyesores that bring down property values and safety. It's also good news for our economy. For too long, the threat of future legal liability has often discouraged developers from cleaning up brownfields, even though they had no role in polluting these areas in the first place. But by acting responsibly and meeting City clean-up standards, they can now reduce their legal liability. That will give developers the confidence they need to make investments and go forward with projects that will create the housing, open spaces, and jobs that our growing city needs.
A key part of the City's new brownfields program is an agreement we signed last week with State Environmental Conservation Commissioner Pete Grannis. While State officials will continue to oversee clean-ups of the most heavily polluted brownfields in the five boroughs, the City will now supervise clean-ups of less contaminated sites under regulations that conform to the State's high standards. We've worked closely with the State to develop this brownfield clean-up program. That's just the kind of City-State cooperation that makes especially good sense in an era of reduced government resources, and it's going to help us keep New York's economic recovery on track.
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