FREE EVENT W/BUSES TO LAFAYETTE THURSDAY NIGHT: MAJORA CARTER OF SUSTAINABLE SOUTH BRONX TO SPEAK-- "GREEN THE GHETTO AND HOW MUCH IT WON'T COST US"

Majora Carter, Founder of Sustainable South Bronx

Posted by: Noel Jones

This Thursday, November 12th, at 7:30pm, Lafayette College is hosting an inspiring evening with Majora Carter of Sustainable South Bronx. This event is FREE and a bus will be available on the South Side at 6:50pm in the C-Town parking lot, at 7:00pm in the parking lot of Paxinosa Elementary, and at 7:10pm at the Easton Area Community Center following the Weed & Seed's meeting.

Here's the rest of the Majora Carter event info:

THE PRESIDENT’S McDONOGH LECTURE SERIES
Thursday, November 12, 7:30 p.m.
Oechsle Hall 224

“Green the Ghetto–
And How Much It Won’t Cost Us”

MAJORA CARTER
President & CEO of Majora Carter Group
a green-collar economic consulting firm advising cities, foundations,
universities, businesses, and communities around the world
Founder of Sustainable South Bronx

Free and open to the public.
For more information, contact Amina DeBurst, debursta@lafayette.edu
Campus Map: http://www.lafayette.edu/community/campusmap/

Sponsored by The Mellon Foundation Environmental Initiative,
the Office of the President, Office of Intercultural Development,
Department of Geology and Environmental Geosciences, Africana Studies Program,
and Landis Community Outreach Center.

On October 30th, I went up to Lafayette and got on the bus to the Bronx to take a trip to New York and get a walking tour of Majora Carter's organization, Sustainable South Bronx. On the bus were Lafayette Students, Amina DeBurst, Asst. Director of Intercultural Affairs, a professor of geology, I believe, who gave us spontaneous mini-lectures on rock formations along I-78, some residents from the community, and Mayor Panto, which was a pleasant surprise.

 Marta Rodriguez of Sustainable South Bronx, leading our walking tour

When we arrived, we were greeted by our guide, Marta Rodriguez, who took us on our "Toxic Tour" of Hunts Point, South Bronx. I am so glad that I went, because having heard and seen and smelled the levels of pollutions these residents were assaulted by on a daily basis, made a much more lasting impression than reading about it would have, but I will do my best to relay the challenges that face the community there. As they are a poor minority community, many large polluters have established bases in Hunts Point, knowing that most residents would not have the knowledge or the money to fight the legal battles required to block them from polluting their community.

Most striking, first of all, was the lack of green space as we exited SSB headquarters and began walking through the neighborhood. It is an extremely urban environment, concrete everywhere, with very few shade trees at all. When Marta explained that 16,000 semi trucks pull through the Hunts Point community on a daily basis we had to lean in to hear her shout above the roar of the several trucks crossing on the street behind her, coughing diesel fumes into the air. She went on to explain that Hunts Point has the highest asthma rate in the nation--one out of four children in Hunts Point is asthmatic. We all waved our hands in front of our faces, and continued following her down the littered sidewalk.

On the way, she explained that the neighborhood already has four jails--two juvenile detention centers and two adult jails--and the City plans to build a fifth jail in excess of $625 million. With a high recidivism rate, few job training programs, and a 27% unemployment rate, inmates re-enter the community without resources, which sets the stage for a perpetual cycle of incarceration. One of the things that SSB has created is a green jobs training program, so that former inmates can learn skills by which they can better the community and earn a living doing so, so that they have a real chance at turning their lives around. I couldn't help but think that a program like this would be terrific for the West Ward, since we seem to have an ever-expanding jail in the middle of our neighborhood, and a 70% recidivism rate.

Something each of us noticed as we walked along with Marta, was a terrible smell in the air. "The organic fertilizer plant," Marta explained, was made of human waste. "We live with this smell every day." She went on to explain that SSB was in a legal battle with the plant to get them to receive and process their sludge at certain times, rather than all day long, with consideration for the residents who live nearby. The fertilizer plant sat on the riverfront, as did the waste water facility that she led us to next. But here's where things brightened substantially--along the river, SSB and resident volunteers in the community have created an 11-mile "greenway" along the riverfront, a series of small parks, connected by tree-lined bike trails in a strip along the water that used to be absolutely barren. Now residents

finally have a beautiful space to breathe, walk, jog, take their families, and play that had never been there for them before. This is due to the creation of Sustainable South Bronx, the eco-justice organization started by Hunts Point resident Majora Carter, and the vigilance of dedicated workers like Marta, who has also lived in the neighborhood all her life.

I was intrigued by the fact that they had managed to somehow inspire political will among residents of a disenfranchised community, to the point that residents finally had enough power that they could successfully oppose major polluters in their neighborhood and reclaim land for green space. Naturally, I wanted to know her secret, as I have been trying to solve the mystery of political will in the West Ward. "How did you get them to come out to the City Council meetings, Marta?" I asked her later, when the group stopped at a cafe for lunch. "How did you get them to believe that they could do it, and inspire them to get involved?" 

Marta nodded. "Well first of all, the time you have the meeting is very important. It has to be at a time that works for the residents. Then it's good to have food for them at a meeting, because a lot times the best time is in the evenings and that's when families have dinner. And day care is really important for getting the parents involved." I thought about how many neighborhood meetings I've been to in the last two years, canton meetings, Weed & Seed meetings, town halls--most had food, but none had offered day care. I made a mental note for future meetings. She thought for a moment and then added, "It also helps sometimes to have a door prize or raffle, something they can win if they come."

But most of all, Marta emphasized,"you have to ask them for their ideas. It has to be from the bottom-up." Then she added, "You have to go into these meetings with residents knowing that they might disagree with you on some things, and that they might even have better ideas that you do."

This is something that I have been noticing is a key ingredient in one floundering attempt to gather resident support after another in Easton, whether by the City, or by nonprofits organizations. Over and over again, planners, rather than asking residents for their ideas in the beginning and building a plan from there, instead come up with their own ideas about what would be good for residents, and then hold a "public meeting" where they announce what the plans are, and ask the residents to get on board and support the project. This is basically a philosophy of elitism--often from well-meaning people--the belief that residents couldn't possibly have better ideas about what would revitalize their community over a planner with credentials. And yet so many of these grants demand a grass-roots process in their definition; demand that plans be drawn around public input. Without resident buy-in these structures quickly fail, and then begins the game of trying to show that a failing structure is succeeding when it's not, to keep the grant money coming in each year. This does a great disservice to the community these programs are supposed to serve.

I do hope that residents and public officials alike will make time to attend this free event with Majora Carter this Thursday, in hopes that everyone will really hear her, and come to realize that bottom-up is the only way our neighborhood will be successfully revitalized. I am also really happy that we have a eco-justice leader of color leading this lecture on eco-justice, as too often in Easton, revitalization efforts are led by well-meaning white people who are out of touch with the diversity of Easton's residents, especially in the West Ward.

Amina DeBurst, right, with Lafayette students

To get an idea of what Majora Carter is about, watch this video:

Video of Majora Carter Presenting to Al Gore and TED

I hope to see as many of you as possible at the bus stop at Paxinosa at 7pm or at The Easton Area Community Center after the Weed & Seed meeting on Thursday night--please put it on your calendars!


See you there,

Noel Jones
Neighbors of Easton

For more information, contact Amina DeBurst, debursta@lafayette.edu
Campus Map: http://www.lafayette.edu/community/campusmap/