At the Macaulay Community Voices, Jamie Stein from Sustainable South Bronx, and Adam Friedman from the Pratt Center spoke about improvements that can make New York City more sustainable. Jamie Stein introduced her presentation with a short clip titled “Breathe Easy” about the two children living in the South Bronx. In this clip, the children touched upon issues that affected their community, specifically the issue of increased asthma due to pollution from trucking. This clip brought up the issue of environmental injustice where a community like the
South Bronx faces increased burden because of race and class.

After the clip, Jamie Stein provided a short history on how the South Bronx became subject to environmental injustice. She linked the decline of the community to Robert Moses’ highways that caused urban sprawl. Because of the decreasing populations and redlining, the community became an undesirable place to live and without a voice, the community was targeted by industry. Areas like Hunts Point in the South Bronx inevitably started taking in 40% of the city’s sewage because of environmental injustice. Companies such as the NYOFCO set up plants that burned city sludge into fertilizer, which polluted the surrounding atmosphere with nitrogenous wastes and toxic chemicals. Residents who could not afford to leave the area were forced to live in the polluted community and could do little about it.

Jamie Stein expressed how unfair it was that this community had to take in such a large percentage of the city’s sewage. She spoke about the Sustainable South Bronx as an organization whose aim is to prevent such injustices. Started by Majora Carter, the organization has developed many projects to improve the community. Jamie Stein described how the organization succeeded in distributing sewage and waste more uniformly around New York City to relieve the burden in Hunts Point. In addition, she also mentioned other projects the organization has worked on, including the restoration of the Hunts Point waterfront and the establishment of different outreach programs. She mentioned training programs like BEST that reach out to low-income community members who need second chances. Such training programs train participants in sustainable development giving them many new opportunities to help their community.

After Jamie Stein concluded, Adam Friedman introduced his presentation with art from Chris Jordan. The pictures he displayed emphasized how much garbage an average human makes per day. Adam Friedman used these pictures to discuss ways to reduce pollution and excessive waste. He stressed that individuals have control as to how much garbage they produce by changing their behavior. The example he used was on gift-wrapping. By choosing not to wrap gifts, an individual can reduce the amount of waste he or she will produce and this will have cumulative impact on the environment.

In addition to waste reduction, Adam Friedman also discussed ways to improve the community. Mr. Friedman suggested for communities to engage in local renovation projects to increase sustainability by block. He emphasized that neighbors should join together to make changes to their block so that renovations would be cost efficient. Also, such retrofitting would decrease energy costs and increase public health affordability.

In addition to housing renovations, Adam Friedman discussed how social networks allow communities to work together to increase job availability. Mr. Friedman spoke about increasing job support by incubating small businesses within existing usable spaces. By using local church kitchens for example, small startup restaurants can gain the jumpstart they need as a business. Through this description of job development, Adam Friedman also started talking about planNYC. He criticized Mayor Bloomberg’s plan for 2030 in which he claimed that it did not make provisions for employment and land use.

At the end of Adam Friedman’s talk, he mentioned a few challenges to the sustainability movements. One issue he described was that people of higher class have more influence over law, which is a problem in getting things done. In addition, a second problem he described was how subsidy negatively impacts an individual’s decision making. These challenges must be overcome in order to make improved movements toward sustainability.

From this community voices event, an understanding of the challenges of sustainable development was gained. Through Jamie Stein’s talk, we learned about environmental injustice around the city and the efforts being made by the Sustainable South Bronx to alleviate the problems. In addition, from Adam Friedman’s talk, we learned about how important an individual’s behavior and networks are in developing sustainable habits in a community. These discussions were helpful for development of future plans for a sustainable New York City.

In the readings assigned this week, Edward Soja, Mike Davis, and Kenneth T. Jackson look at several different elements that have influenced urban development. Edward Soja looks at the Los Angeles area as defined by a 60-mile radius. He divides Los Angeles into its component parts and explains why Los Angeles is such a successful industrial nation. Davis however takes another look at Los Angeles by looking at the social struggle present in the community. He shows the horrors present in post-industrial Los Angeles defined by the inequalities of race, gender, and income. Jackson steps away from Los Angeles and describes how the advancements of the automobile affected the development of infrastructure.

When looking at Edward Soja’s systematic division of Los Angeles, his analysis shows that the city has many contradictory elements that do not hinder its success. Soja describes how the area is fragmented but maintains a strong center core. Though military bases, Indian reserves and wild Condor Refugees seem to divide the geography of the city, its success is still recognized by its strong centre. Soja shows that despite the fragmentation of its geography, the city still exhibits characteristics of urban theory such as radial development as seen in Downtown Los Angeles. By separating and reducing Los Angeles into its components, Soja shows how Los Angels maintains itself as an urban center.

Mike Davis looks at Los Angeles as well, but he looks into the racial and economic divide that alter the infrastructure of the city. Davis emphasizes how class struggle creates physical barriers that exacerbate the segregation in the community. Gated private developments and private guards establish boundaries between the people in Los Angeles that symbolically act as fortresses that separate the different races and classes. Wealthy elites are protected within these gated communities while violence and crime exist at the borders. Such communities alter the city structure and reduce public space in attempt to “reduce contact with the untouchables.” Such private developments isolate the elites and establish physical boundaries of race and class.

In Kenneth T. Jackson’s work, Jackson analyzes how the automobile changed the infrastructure of homes, businesses and roads. With the advancement of automobiles, cities had to take on physical changes to accommodate new vehicles. Roads were the first to change in which they became paved but highways also developed. Along with roads and highways, homes also started integrating the car into their design. The garage and paved driveways were two features that these new homes had. Not only did private homes change, but public facilities did as well. Schools and restaurants for example had to build new parking lots. Jackson described the many changes the automobile had on infrastructure but he also mentioned that it decreased the density in urban centers. Automobiles gave individuals mobility, and contributed to urban sprawl.

Hi Everyone, My name is Vincent Xue and I am a computer science major with a concentration in bioinformatics. My favorite thing to do on my spare time is to update myself on technology and program. I am currently volunteering in an evolutionary bioinformatics lab at Hunter, but outside of school I am writing an application for the android market. I am also on the school’s fencing team. In the future I plan to pursue research in computational biology through graduate school.

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