When people ask me what I do for a living, my short answer is, "I'm working to save the world, starting in the South Bronx."
Yes, the South Bronx is a poor Latino and Black community in New York City. At first glance, we don't have much in common with families living in Appalachian coal country, or wealthy women in the suburbs. But when you realize that all of us have suffered from environmental toxins invading our lives, whether it was the deliberate act of regulators allowing toxic facilities in a poor communities because it was the path of least resistance, or that our energy needs must be met at any cost, or that cancer clusters that crop up, you begin to see just how small the world is.
My work in the South Bronx is about transforming its physical landscape to improve our environmental, economic and social quality of life and serve as a symbol of transformation for all people. Because if you can do it there, it can happen anywhere.
People around the world are victims of intentionally bad environmental planning and policies, sometimes people just didn't know any better. But now we do, and I am a part of a community that changes things. And by community, I don't mean people in a geographic area or an online group. I mean that community is an activity, the responsibility that you use to make the world safer and happier for all. You should join us.
Follow Majora Carter on Twitter: www.twitter.com/majoracarter
http://www.beliefnet.com/story/225/story_22557_1.html
Please let those of us outside of NYC know what we can do to turn the heat up on the city and state governments to help you Green the Ghetto.
Peace
Actually they are using a lot of the park land for a new car park - more pollution for an already badly polluted area. All the local politicians (brown and black included) were in on the scam. It was an ugly piece of disenfranchisement straight out of a Steinbeck novel.
I used to run in that park. The Mexicans and Africans used to play football there. The Dominicans used to play baseball. A lot of the remaining local whites (who didn't hightail it) used to jog. It was the most beautiful part of a local community that hasn't fared well in the last few decades.
And for what - so a bunch of moneyed white people from New Jersey, Upstate New York and Manhattan don't have to use the subway train on their way to baseball games that only they can afford. Meanwhile their parks are safe, and their kids don't have to breath chunks of smog.
Excuse this rant, but as a black person, a liberal and a former South Bronx resident, this issue is close to my heart. You want to see the ugly side to America? Check out this story.
http://saveourparks.blogspot.com/
So how did I figure out what to do. Well a lot of stuff is just economic sense and some is a whistle and a prayer and some is giving back.
I don't feel guilty about wasting useless energy on stuff I don't need or even want. My life is easier without it and I have money to give to charity. I just talked a contractor into redoing a home belonging to a very poor person. He will do it and take the credit and someone will be living in a brighter, more comfortable home. Most people have something to do for the community. They just haven't thought of doing it.
I so much agree with you. Community is, will be an essential ingredient in the climate change solution mix, along with policy, technology, business, and spirituality - See Arianna's post today on spirituality -.
And you are also right to start where you are. A successful pilot can go a long way towards starting the process of change. By showing that it can be done, has been done.
Infrastructure is key in setting up the stage correctly. Not just in the public space, but also in each family's home. Most of the solutions to the environmental problems lie in having the correct infrastructure to begin with. Then positive daily actions can happen without requiring too much thinking, time, and effort.
Linked to infrastructure is also the power of visual cues that serve as reinforcers of desired behaviors.
Last, rebuilding a lost sense of community, block by block, through concrete actions, will not only serve the environment, but also grow the connective tissue between neighbors, that will provide the needed support for needed personal lifestyle changes.
marguerite manteau-rao
http://lamarguerite.wordpress.com
'It's All About Green Psychology'