This week's Bryant Park Picnic Performances presented by Bank of America features The Baylor Project, the second of five free Carnegie Hall Citywide concerts. The Baylor Project represents one of today’s great musical marriages—a genre-crossing exploration led by vocalist Jean Baylor and drummer Marcus Baylor. Their most recent album, 2021’s Generations, earned the couple their first NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Jazz Album (Vocal), as well as its fourth Grammy nomination for Best Jazz Vocal Album. Spanning jazz, blues, soul, gospel, and more, this project has sold out shows across the United States and taken the spotlight at large European festivals.

The US is planning to construct a $29.5 billion dollar rail infrastructure project in New York City. Currently, there is only one northeast corridor train link between Manhattan and New Jersey. Running at full capacity, the link transports 200 thousand commuters to and from New York City every day, serving as an essential lifeline for the metropolis. However, it is deteriorating very rapidly and frequently breaks down, causing commuter chaos. In the near future, when it inevitably will have to be shut down for repair, the closure would seriously harm the regional economy, causing billions of dollars of economic damage. To fix this problem, NYC is building the Gateway Program, which will include numerous rail infrastructure projects between Manhattan and New Jersey, including a new Hudson Tunnel and Portal Bridges. Planned to be finished by the 2030’s, the project will provide a list of benefits and boost the city’s economy.

Keeping the lights on in New York City is no easy task. New Yorkers demand billions of watts of electricity per day, much more than the city itself can produce. As New York moves towards a greener future, generating this vast amount of electricity will require rethinking how the city generates its energy.