Key Activities, Progress Made, Interesting Findings:

As noted in the previous update, the end of February and the beginning of March consisted mainly of selecting a topic and getting in touch with our community contact, South Bronx Unite. This past week, however, we have started to do more detailed research on the Fresh Direct situation in the South Bronx. One important activity for this week was the group beginning its draft of the historical narrative, which includes information on the history of the South Bronx, the history of environmental justice, and background information about Fresh Direct. This will be essential to our future project activities because it is impossible to try and shape the future of a neighborhood without knowing about that neighborhood’s past. We found that the South Bronx community developed during the Great Migration of the early 1900s. At the start of WWI, African Americans were in high demand since factory owners saw them as cheap labor. The laborers lived in run-down areas due to the institutionalized racism taking place at the time. Thus, we discovered that the South Bronx has a history of industry and exploitation, and that certainly connects with the current situation.

Besides discussing the history and policies that shaped the neighborhood, the narrative also includes information about Fresh Direct itself. We thought it would be important to research the company and determine what prompted their move to the South Bronx rather than to New Jersey, how they are justifying their move, and whether or not that justification is reasonable. We found that Fresh Direct was offered around $128 million in subsidies and tax breaks to move to the Bronx, although the company claims that most of the money came in the form of tax breaks. The company simply outgrew its headquarters in Long Island City and therefore had to move. To justify the move to the unhappy South Bronx residents, however, Fresh Direct claims that they will bring over 1,000 jobs to the neighborhood. This is indeed possible, but it is doubtful that the jobs will pay well. One of our key findings was that Fresh Direct pays its workers very low hourly wages. They negotiated a contract with their workers to raise the average wage from $10.50 an hour to $12.25 an hour over the course of two years. It is difficult to support a family on that kind of income, so although Fresh Direct may bring jobs to the South Bronx, they may not necessarily be viable for its citizens.

Besides working on the historical narrative, our group has also made progress with the community contact, Mychal Johnson. We have been corresponding with him and we decided to meet up this Saturday, the 26^th, to learn more about the neighborhood and about South Bronx Unite before we go on the tour on April 16^th. This will be our first meeting with the community contact, so it will be the first time we are exposed to community knowledge. Since we are meeting him in the South Bronx, this will be a great opportunity for us to get a feel for the neighborhood dynamic and obtain some experiential knowledge as well. Up until this point, we have been relying on academic sources (articles, readings from class, etc.) and it is imperative that we actually experience the neighborhood rather than just read about it.

One thing we will be sure to discuss with Mychal is the court appearance that took place on March 17^th. The issue at hand was whether or not public land could be used for purely private benefit. That is a key factor in this case because Fresh Direct is moving to state-owned land. After reading a short article about the court date, we learned that Harlem River Ventures is the developer subleasing the land to Fresh Direct. Harlem River Ventures has apparently been subleasing land to “environmentally degrading uses” for years, and they have therefore contributed to the health crisis in the South Bronx. The community has asthma rates eight times the national average, and Bronx County as a whole was ranked the least healthy among New York’s 62 counties. Poor air quality is one of the reasons for this, and Fresh Direct’s move will exacerbate the situation. (Some of this information came from the article “FreshDirect South Bronx Move Back in Court: A Deal Riddled With Controversy for More than Four Years”).

Challenges Encountered, Tasks Remaining, Group Process and Dynamics:

 We have not faced any especially difficult challenges this week since we mostly drafted the historical narrative and did research. So far, there does not seem to be any shortage of information about the South Bronx or environmental justice. The information about Fresh Direct was also relatively easy to find since the issue is well known and controversial. In fact, the only challenge we have faced so far was getting in touch with the community contact, but that problem has been resolved. It is good to anticipate possible challenges, however, so that they can be more easily dealt with when they do arise. One such challenge that might come up is how to go about creating our public engagement product, a video. We have not discussed this at length yet. Right now, the concept of the video seems a bit vague, which makes our visit to the South Bronx even important. Seeing the community will most likely give us some ideas about what the video should be. This is another thing that we should discuss with Mychal.

Our remaining tasks include: completing and posting the historical narrative, starting the white paper, coming up with an idea for our video, meeting with Mychal, and going on the April 16^th tour. Right now, the most important task is to complete the historical narrative. Since that will also be included in the white paper, it is a good start to our second remaining task as well. Since the video will be based on the needs of South Bronx Unite, that task can wait until after the April 16^th tour. At that point, we will have a good understanding of what kind of video can best help the organization and the community.

The group members have been working well together, and we have managed to divide up the tasks so that everyone has approximately the same amount of work. We communicate with each other and the community contact via email. This has been working for us so far. We have a Google doc that we use to work on the project so that each group member can read over the entire thing and make changes or suggestions when necessary. Overall, the group has been working as a cohesive unit.