Category Archives: Updates – Envr Justice

Project Update: May 12th-22nd

Updates - Envr Justice

The final project update will surround the events concluding the project on environmental justice, including the presentation at the Macaulay event, as well as the creation of our popular education product. An important aspect of the project that we worked on was the PowerPoint presentation for the Macaulay student conference. The most helpful resource when creating this presentation was actually our white paper, as it provided a clear outline on how we should present our project. As a result, the creation of the presentation was quite seamless.

Our experience at the Macaulay Seminar 4 student conference was a wonderful one. We were placed in the “urban environmentalism” category, also grouped in a panel with projects in the “future of labor” category. Presenting in front of peers was an interesting way to gain insight into both current events and issues that are important to New York City, but also into different aspects of presenting that made each group either successful or unsuccessful at getting their points across. One thing that I noticed was that each campus had its own personal take on Seminar 4. Although we were all concerned with different aspects of life in the city that are shaping the future of New York, different groups were concerned with different issues, which were typically linked with the concentrations of their respective campuses. For instance, many groups from Baruch were focused on topics like spreading awareness of the importance of having bank accounts. I found this aspect of the event quite interesting and I felt that each of us learned a lot from other groups.

Overall, I believe that our group’s presentation was clear, concise, and successful at presenting our main points. Perhaps the major advantage that our group had was the access to community contacts. While the other groups presented their projects well, they relied entirely on secondary data sources. Including information obtained from direct contact with organizations involved in our topic added not only something engaging to the audience, but also an element of credibility (in my opinion). In addition, our group was successful at pacing ourselves and presenting within the given time constraint. A major issue with many of the groups was that they were unable to conclude their presentations within the 10 minute slots that each group was designated. Their presentations were very thorough and detailed, perhaps to the point where there was an overload of information. Once again, utilizing our white paper helped us avoid this issue. By only including the major points of each part of our white paper onto the presentation, we were able to finish at 8 minutes.

Although our presentation did proceed smoothly, I feel as if there were some things that could be improved upon. We faced some minor technical difficulties because a few of the photos on our slides were overlapping with the text, which was probably the result of a glitch when the file was downloaded from Google Docs. In addition, perhaps we could have gone into greater detail since we did have almost two minutes remaining. However, finishing early was the safer option. This experience was definitely a great learning experience above all else and we all gained valuable presentation skills that will be put to use in the future.

In addition to the presentation, we also completed our popular education product. As a group, we decided that a video would be a great way to spread awareness of this issue because videos spread quite rapidly on the Internet and if we could present the issue in an engaging way, we may be able to actually achieve our goal. We decided that the target audience of the video would be the general public of New York City. Therefore, we had to frame the video in a way in which people would feel interested partially due to the fact that they would be affected in some way. Our plan was to combine various video clips of the South Bronx that we filmed on one of our visits, along with other forms of media like photos and voiceover audio.

One of the greatest difficulties faced was editing the video. Although our first draft of the video was decent, changes needed to be made in order to make it more engaging. This was when we realized that making a video would not be so simply as to simply compile video clips and audio. A great challenge was to not only get the audience engaged, but to also keep them engaged throughout the course of the five minute video. Using the helpful feedback from classmates and the professor, we made some changes to the video in order to make it more entertaining. Animated graphs were added to display statistics. Although creating these graphs was initially a challenge, they definitely add something interesting to the video. In addition, on-screen text was added to highlight important concepts, which were being discussed. Overall, we learned that there are so many things one must consider when trying to create a popular education piece to raise awareness of the issue. It is not simply bombarding an audience with statistics and research findings, but ensuring that they are engaged for the duration of the video.

Although the course and our project have come to an end, I believe that our work is not yet done. As a group, we are currently still striving to raise awareness of this issue because it has not yet been resolved. By contacting South Bronx Unite and Friends of Brook Park and sharing our white paper and our popular education product, we are still hoping that we will be able to make a difference in this community in some way. Working on this project has taught us about the importance of taking the time out to get involved in issues within our community because we are all affected by issues like environmental racism. Hopefully, the use of our popular education product will inform more people of this issue and have some kind of impact on the future of environmental justice in New York City.

Project Update April 20- May 11

Updates - Envr Justice

Overview of Key Project Ideas/Activities:

It was all hands on deck this spring break as we tied loose ends together to finally complete our white paper. We had the outline prepared and several of the sections completed from earlier class assignments, it was just a matter of making the content flow and assembling the final product. Each group member worked on a section and added or removed content as needed to make the white paper concise and flawless. Additionally, several of us re-read the paper and fixed any errors.

Updates on Current Progress:

We completed the biggest portion of our project; now onto the easy stuff. Our group split into two smaller groups to complete our next two assignments. Brianna, Ashley, and Amir are working on the popular education piece, which is a video composed of clips taken from the tours in the South Bronx. In the video, we hope to portray a repeated image that represents the South Bronx Unite movement, whether it’s the image of Mychal Johnson or the word “Boycott” followed by the FreshDirect logo. This repeated imagery, like in the ACT UP movement, influences people to associate the image with the movement and its ideas. Our target audience for the video is the South Bronx community, especially those who do not know about the issue entirely. Eventually, this knowledge will spread from just this community to other communities and eventually the borough and city. The script for the video is written with each member recording a voice-over. We will mostly focus on the issues, data, and policy recommendations. Overall the video will be approximately 3 minutes long.

Nick, Fanny, and I completed the PowerPoint presentation last night. The information is second nature to us at this point; in fact, we even have some of the data values memorized. This would be especially helpful during our model city council presentation on Saturday. The PowerPoint was completed very quickly, and we tried to keep the slides themselves concise and added pictures to persuade our argument on each slide. Today we checked the slides for grammatical errors and fixed minor details. On Saturday, we hope to show the video after our presentation to strengthen our argument visually, especially with clips of heavy smoke evading from nuclear plants located next to a little league baseball field.

Challenges Encountered/Remaining Tasks/Group Dynamics:

Thankfully, we did not face any difficulties during the completion of all of these projects. The biggest challenge for our PowerPoint was picking a theme we all agreed on. Otherwise, everything is running efficiently and on time. We finished the White Paper and PowerPoint relatively early, and the video is near completion. During each Macaulay class, the entire group focuses on getting work done, which leaves minor tasks to complete at home. We assign jobs during class so each member knows what to do ahead of time. I think our group dynamic is great and I am glad we can all rely on each other to get the job done.

Side note:

After looking at the “ACT UP” discussion and reflection section, I realized South Bronx Unite is very similar to ACT UP and TAG. In my response, I said, “From ACT UP and TAG, we learn the valuable lesson that community change can occur even when there is little hope or motivation for these individuals. We see the strong influence of community planning and how it can be successful with the right strategies, determination, and dedication.” Now I realize how truthful this statement is. South Bronx Unite has the historical and community knowledge it needs to fight back, all it takes is a matter of constant persuasion to the city officials and fighting back for their health and land.

Project Update April 14-20

Updates - Envr Justice

The week of the 14th to the 20th was a productive week where we began work on our final white paper. More importantly though we attended a community bike tour led by members of South Bronx Unite and Friends of Brook Park. The tour gave us an opportunity to gather important data as well as to see once again the damage that’s been done to the area by companies such as Fresh Direct and the importance of South Bronx Unite’s movement.

To start the day off, we were able to get a statement from leading member Mychal Johnson who has been our community contact for the project. He talked of the importance of people gathering for the environmental justice bike tour. He remarked that they were out there working to educate people on the excessive pollution of the South Bronx’s air and the need for green spaces and an accessible waterfront. The tour would take people past the heavily industrialized areas full of thousands of trucks, so they would be able to see for themselves the uneven distribution of these industrial centers.

Also before the tour began, we were able to get the words of Harry Bubbins, also of South Bronx Unite, and other key members in regard to the issue. These community statements and testimonials are key data for our white paper, especially since they are coming from people who are being directly affected by the issue.

The tour’s commencement was also a wealth of data despite us having seen much of the area before when giving a personal tour by Mr. Johnson. We were able to get a lot of pictures and footage of the area for use in our public engagement product. The images of huge facilities for garbage disposal, wastewater treatment, newspaper shipping, power production, and more will work with images of the consequences (streets lined with trucks burning fuel and broken, inaccessible docks) to prove a powerful point. That point is that this abuse of the South Bronx needs to stop.

An important finding for our group was that this abuse had been going on for a long time in the Bronx as well as in other low income neighborhoods. In “New York for Sale” by Tom Angotti, a recent reading, the author points out examples of unevenly distributed unwanted land uses in the South Bronx that directly mirror the current situation. Fresh Direct is being paid millions in subsidies to move from Long Island City to the South Bronx. New York’s and New Jersey’s governments were actually in a bidding war to see who would get the company and New York won. In a similar manner, in the 1990’s the Bronx Lebanon Medical Waste Incinerator was paid $15 million in order to be developed in the Bronx instead of in Rockland County. In both past and present cases, outdated environmental analyses were used to justify industrial development in an overly industrialized area with high asthma rates.

This was one of the more interesting findings as it gave an extra perspective to the sights that we saw on the environmental justice bike tour. The view from the tour gives a strong narrative and provides a starting point for one of our remaining tasks, the popular education piece. In our case it will be a video meant to speak to residents of New York to highlight the environmental injustices being perpetuated in low income neighborhoods. We already have a filmed statement from Mr. Johnson which will lend our video a sense of authenticity. What remains to be done is to edit together the footage and pictures that we have and to come up with a script that will effectively relay the information that we want to get out to our target audience.

The other last thing for us to do is to complete our white paper. This week we were able to begin outlining the paper and filling out the twelve different sections for it. We have a solid groundwork for getting it done with all of our data consolidated and roles given out. We really haven’t encountered too many challenges in our work. For instance, our interactions with South Bronx have been exceedingly smooth once the initial contact was made. Our community contact has been nothing but helpful and informative. The tours and general neighborhood sightseeing have really grounded us on the matter of Fresh Direct’s move. It’s completely different to read about an issue and to see the issue for yourself. We have just gathered so much data by using our community contact as a springboard. The only real challenge that we may have faced this week is figuring out how to organize our data under main reasons to support our overarching policy recommendation.

In broad, non-fleshed out terms our main recommendation is that the model city council should not allow Fresh Direct’s move to the Bronx. It took some consideration due to the large quantity of data that we weren’t entirely sure on how to use, but we eventually sorted all of our data such that reasons the company should not be allowed to move naturally arose. Fresh Direct shouldn’t be permitted to move because it will cause a further decrease in air quality, it will increase health concerns among residents, and et cetera.

Ultimately, categorizing all of our data was our biggest challenge this week and even that we tackled efficiently and came up with the needed solutions. Our group’s teamwork has been very strong with no one person bearing the majority of the work. Communication has been open and we fully rely on each other to get our work done. We are more than confident in producing strong final products, the white paper and the popular education piece.

That really concludes this week’s report. A lot was accomplished this week. Attending the South Bronx Unite bike tour brought on a wealth of information that we have begun to give order to in our white paper. In the next couple of weeks our work will be done and we will have a product that hopefully both holds up to the scrutiny of a model city council and is accessible to the general public.

 

Key Sources!

Updates - Envr Justice

Dear Future of Environmental Justice Group,

Please review the following sources and take them into account as you work on your white papers!

  1. Mironova, O. (2014). The Value of Land: How Community Land Trusts Maintain Housing Affordability. from Urban Omnibus.
  2. NYC’s Environment Program Will Focus on Income Inequality (April 21, 2015)
  3. Making Room for Housing and Jobs: A report by the Pratt Center for Community Development that examines how rezoning industrial areas to provide space for housing may undermine housing affordability if high-wage industrial jobs are replaced with low-wage jobs in retailing and neighborhood services. (May 4, 2015)
  4. The Hollowing out of NYC’s Industrial Zones (Feb. 16, 2016)
  5. When it Comes to Environmental Justice, Communities Know Best (Feb. 22, 2016)
  6. Look up neighborhood air quality
  7. Dear Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr: How many more of our children must die from asthma before you stop Fresh Direct?  (April 29, 2016)

 

Project Update March 24-30

Future of Environmental Justice and Sustainability, Updates - Envr Justice

On Saturday, April 26, Amir, Brianna, Nick, and I met up with our contact, Mychal Johnson, for a tour of the waterfront. We met at the intersection of Alexander Ave. and E 138th St., which Mychal described as the center of the neighborhood because the train station, the police precinct, and St. Jerome’s Church are located there. There was also a reporter from DNAinfo named Gwynne Hogan who recorded the tour for a podcast. Mychal talked about the high asthma rates and told us that they are considered an environmental justice community by the EPA because of the high asthma rates, poor air quality, and air pollutants.

Mychal told us a brief history of the South Bronx. The area has always been industrial. The land is cheap so businesses move in, such as Budweiser from Long Island City, Fresh Direct from Long Island City, FedEx from 34th St., Fulton Fish Market, and others. There are waste transfer stations in which 30% of NYC waste pass through. There was supposed to be an intermodal rail yard to reduce traffic but instead there is a garbage train route. Garbage trucks would bring garbage to the waste transfer station and the train would take the garbage to a landfill in Virginia. Most of the trucks are diesel trucks and PM2.5, a carcinogen found in diesel fuel, can directly enter the bloodstream and cause cancer, heart attacks, and asthma.

Mychal told us that they want green space; they want parks that other waterfront areas have. There are plans for luxury apartments to be built where rent can go up to $3000 for those apartments. They want green space for the community, not for the new people who will move in and can afford $3000 apartments. They don’t want to be another Dumbo where the carousel was built after people moved into the neighborhood. They have two options: do nothing and have nothing, or do something. There is only one green park, St. Mary’s Park, and a couple of asphalt playgrounds. The Bronx has a lot of green space in general, but the amount of green space per person in the South Bronx is low. Mychal also told us of a study where cognitive development in children is related to the air we breathe. He spoke of environmental racism. The air they breathe is different and there was a chemical smell. When there are ferry tours around the city, the guides have nothing to say when they reach the South Bronx.

In 1995 and 2007 the South Bronx was rezoned to increase residential space and allow lightweight industry. The area became mix used and the number of residents increased. Mychal showed us more of the waterfront. We saw the Fresh Direct site and saw a partially built building. He told us that the Fresh Direct site is on top of a Native American burial ground and is a flood zone. Other facilities along the waterfront are a FedEx distribution facility, two power plants, New York Post distribution center, New York Journal distribution center, and garbage truck parking lot. He told us that there was no community input and that the community did not find out about the Fresh Direct relocation until after the announcement. He told us that tax payers are paying Fresh Direct for the move: about $80 million from the city and $40 million from the state.

Mychal continued to show us the waterfront and we saw the destruction and mess caused from Hurricane Sandy. The floorboards of the pier are destroyed and haven’t been fixed. The waterfront is a flood zone but there are no ways for water mitigation at all. In 1980 there was an explosion at the Con Edison electricity plant and residents lost power. With the climate changing there will be more storms but there are no water mitigation plans or plans to fix the piers.

At the end of the tour Mychal took us to Brook Park where we saw a garden and a chicken coop.

From this tour we learned a lot. It was informative and Fresh Direct isn’t the only problem the South Bronx has. The land is eroding storm after storm and nothing is being done to prevent or fix damaged areas.

 

The group is still communicating through emails. We are continuing to research environmental policies and injustices. We will continue to work on the historical narrative and the white paper. We plan on making a survey to gather residential input on Fresh Direct. We are also thinking of how to make a video for the public engagement product.

As of now, the podcast is not yet up on DNAinfo.

Project Update for March 16 – 23

Future of Environmental Justice and Sustainability, Updates - Envr Justice

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 26th, to learn more about the neighborhood and about South Bronx Unite before we go on the tour on April 16th. 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 17th. 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 16th 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 16th 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.

Project Update- Start of Project to March 15th

Future of Environmental Justice and Sustainability, Updates - Envr Justice

The future of environmental justice and sustainability group decided to focus on the movement of Fresh Direct to the South Bronx, which was done without community input. We decided to emphasize on the adverse effects this has on the environment and health of the community as well as the issue of public versus private land.

On February 29th, our group contacted Roger Hernandez Jr. from the organization, Friends of Brook Park, to see if he could be our community contact and had any ideas on how to focus our topic. On March 2nd, Roger wrote to Harry Bubbins from South Bronx Unite, an organization that focuses on the Fresh Direct issue more directly, on our behalf. Harry suggested we focus on the plans Fresh Direct has to double their size and suggested the idea of having air-quality monitors to measure the impact they are making to the neighborhood. Fresh Direct planned on building a 500,000 square foot facility but the company seems to now be planning on creating an even bigger building. To get more information he suggested we write to Mychal Johnson or the South Bronx Unite organization directly.

In the meantime, the group created a project proposal on the effects Fresh Direct’s move has on the South Bronx community in hopes of working with someone from South Bronx Unite. This organization has expressed the community’s disapproval of the move through peaceful protest, environmental justice tours of the neighborhood, and lawsuits. We emailed the organization directly on March 6th and received no reply.

Professor Hillary Caldwell bridged the line of communication with Roger on March 10th since South Bronx Unite had not replied. He suggested focusing on the practical application of a solar electric panel charging station system or the area in East Harlem that is now being considered for low-income housing.

Determined to work on the topic of Fresh Direct, we emailed Mychal Johnson on March 15th to see if he would reply back and be a possible community contact as a representative of South Bronx Unite. Mychal responded that day suggesting we meet with him and go for a tour in the neighborhood to learn more about the issue. We decided to set this small, guided environmental justice tour on the next available date, April 16th. We also asked if it would be possible to meet with him earlier to discuss the project further.

There were a couple of interesting points made against Fresh Direct that made this topic more appealing to our group. Fresh Direct moved from Long Island City, in Queens, NY to the South Bronx, NY as the company began to expand. They were offered government subsidies to move to New Jersey, but New York City officials wanted to keep Fresh Direct in the City. They offered the company $128 million worth of a subsidy package and tax breaks, which then prompted Fresh Direct to agree to stay (Kochman, 2014).

In a YouTube video made by South Bronx Unite to raise awareness about the current issues, Mychal states, “My community breathes different air than the white community”. This racial injustice aligns with the themes studied in class thus far. Asthma rates are among the City’s highest in the South Bronx and over a hundred Fresh Direct trucks running in the neighborhood will only add to this problem. A study beginning in 2002 involving putting air quality sensor on the backpacks of children showed a large amount of air pollution, which even exceeded the EPA safe limit in some areas.

Another issue the community had with the Fresh Direct move, which was interesting, is that the 1,000 jobs Fresh Direct will bring may not help a community with 35% of residents living below the poverty line more than it will hurt the environment. The workers are exploited and those living in this area are typically not the people who are using Fresh Direct’s services.

The first challenge we faced was deciding what exactly our group wanted to focus on. We began as the future of community gardens group and had trouble focusing on an issue we all felt passionate about. With guidance, we changed our approach to the future of environmental justice and sustainability focusing on Fresh Direct’s impact on the South Bronx community. Finding a community contact who would reply to our emails and like to work with us was a challenge for some time as well. However, this problem is resolved now that we have created a relationship with Mychal Johnson.

The group has worked together efficiently to complete the tasks set out so far. We communicate with each other and the community contact through email. Our group’s remaining tasks include completing a historical narrative, meeting with the community contact to discuss the project further, going on an EJ tour in the South Bronx, attending a South Bronx Unite community meeting, writing the white paper, and creating a video, which acts as our public engagement product.