“What do we want? Climate justice! When do we want it? Now!” 

This was the cry of the hundreds of young protesters led by the local chapter of Fridays for Future who marched from City Hall Park to Battery Park.

Protesters push bikes at climate change protest  in Lower Manhattan.  September 24, 2021. Photo by Nikol Mudrová

They held signs  that read, “Protect our home,” or “If you breathe air, you should care!!” 

The New York City Friday for Future movement summed all the various banners  and chants into  four specific demands. They want clean energy, no funding for projects polluting the environment, t environmental justice education in public schools and environmental protection for 30 percent of the country’s  land and sea. 

“We need to completely cut our carbon emissions and fracked gas,” Brooklyn Darling, a SUNY New Palz University student said. 

Brooklyn Darling, 19, a SUNY New Palz College student, voicing her disagreement with climate inaction in front of the City Hall, where the strike started. September 24, 2021. Photo by Nikol Mudrová

She also believes it is crucial to follow the  United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, Paris Agreement, and sign the Green New Deal.

“Those in power should listen to youth. We are the ones who are inheriting this earth after they leave,” Yasmin Bhan, one of the strike’s organizers said.  

That is why organizers led the crowd with the slogan: “Uproot the system.” The same message also led more than 1,400 Friday’s climate strikes around the world. 

“Especially in Congress, there are a lot of people getting paid by the fossil industry,” protestor, Gerome Foster II said. At 18 he is the youngest member of the White House Environmental Justice Advisory and the executive director of youth voting advocacy group OneMilionOfUS. “We need to vote out the people who are continuing to perpetuate the system and are putting us at risk.” 

Climate change protestor Gerome Foster II, 18, has been very active in the fight to save the environment.  September 24, 2021. Photo by Nikol Mudrová

Foster was inspired by Greta Thunberg, a Swedish climate activist who launched the Fridays for Future movement and a close friend. 

This global strike happened just a few weeks before November’s UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow and during New York Climate Week. 

As a response to Climate Week, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced several new climate policies including a 15-Year $191 million plan for reaching the goal of 100 percent clean energy by 2040 and carbon neutrality by 2050. 

But this is not ambitious enough for the protestors  since youth climate activists rallied for clean energy by 2030 and not 2040.

Youth activists sitting in Battery Park and listening to speakers at New York City’s Global Climate Strike. September 24, 2021. Photo by Nikol Mudrová

And a lack of ambition and will is what Foster noticed on Biden’s Environmental Advisory Council.

“The hardest is reaching the scale of the plans,” he said.“Often, we’re fighting over how we scale up and what we can do, for instance, 10  percent increase over the next 10  years and we say: ‘No, based on the science, we need to make an 80 or 90 percent decrease.’ And they’re like, ‘Well, we can’t do that,’” he said.

According to Foster, the political climate is simply not changing fast enough. 

“They don’t understand the urgency or the scale of it,” he said. 

And that is why the organizers voiced from the stage of Battery Park the need for tackling climate change globally.

“No matter your race, gender, identity, sexual orientation, religion or social economic status, this is a fight for all,”he said.

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On the other side of the city in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, Elan Bolender, 22, is packing meals and loading trucks to deliver them to households nearby.

Peters and Bolender are two of the 250 young volunteers from Me’ver Movement. Their mission is to help out those who are the most vulnerable during the coronavirus crisis in New York City. 

“We’re not doctors,” Peters, a junior at Washington University in St. Louis, said. “But as students, what we’re trying to do is provide as much support to the people who need it as we can, for those who can’t leave the house.”

He decided to skip a spring break trip with the virus raging in his Manhattan home.

At first, Peters stayed inside playing video games all day. “Then I asked myself, I am young and healthy, so why not do something more valuable?” he said. 

Peters is part of a team of  ten young NYC residents who formed a Coronavirus Task Force and searched for other volunteers. 

Volunteers help shop for groceries, package meals and then deliver them to New Yorkers in need. The food is paid for by the folks who need it.

The Me’ver Movement is growing rapidly. Peters said that they are now planning to open new chapters in Los Angeles and Dallas to help people who need support during the pandemic.

Bolender started volunteering at Me’ver earlier this month. As a former member of the Israeli Defense Forces, he said that helping others is in his blood. 

“I knew that whether it’s within our army service or in school or anywhere, I just want to be able to lend the help we can to anyone that needs it,” Bolender said. “But it doesn’t necessarily have to be this specific volunteer group. Right now, there are so many negative things going on, so let’s take a step back and help one another to spread positivity.”

The World Health Organization said that older people and people with pre-existing medical conditions (such as asthma, diabetes, heart disease) appear to be more vulnerable to becoming severely ill with the virus. Over 1.4 million New Yorkers are currently aged 60 and older. 

Me’ver has gotten a lot of personal messages from those who received their help. Bolender said one of the most memorable experiences for him was his conversation with an elderly lady he delivered meals to.

“She told us she was a volunteer when she was young. And now she is older, it’s like a full circle,” Bolender said. “She said she saw herself through what we do, and she is really grateful for everything we’ve done.”

Me’ver is not the only volunteer organization that Bolender participates in. He also helps out at Hillel At Baruch to pack groceries for those who can not leave their homes.

“If not me, then who else? That’s a question I’ve asked myself for many years growing up,” Bolender said. “If no one is going to go out there and do these things, then I have to be that person.”

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Before yesterday’s climate march in New York City, protesters waited in line outside of St. Paul’s Chapel of Trinity Church in Lower Manhattan to prepare for the strike. It was an interfaith gathering of parents, teenagers and children.

 They were handed buttons that said, “Your on Holy Ground. Act like it”.  They were given supplies to create posters and a light breakfast before hitting the streets.

Azalea Danes, 16, a climate activist, member of Trinity Church choir, and co-organizer of the strike, brought the attention of the climate crisis to the church leaders. She asked them if they would try and mobilize the Trinity community and others for this cause.  And they did.

After being introduced to the excited crowd in the church, Danez thanked everyone for taking action. 

“I am so hopeful and overjoyed with the prospect of all of you coming here and mobilizing for justice and for the justice of our planet,” said Danez.  “I am positive that the mobilization of youth and adults that will be coming together today, will be able to inspire every single person in New York City and all of you become true climate justice activists. If your here today you already are a leader because you are standing up in your community to be a force of change.”

Students decided to skip class to make a clear statement about climate change. They  felt the responsibility of fighting for the world that would be passed onto future generations

Roselani Beguero, 17, a senior and president of student government at Murray Hill High School  in Manhattan, was waiting at Foley Square when she heard that the church was providing breakfast and posters and decided to join in.

“Our world is dying and nobody is doing anything about it,” Beguero said as she worked on her poster. “If we all stand as one then we can possibly make some kind of change. If they don’t change the laws then they can’t change the world.”  

Beguero does not see the actions she believes should be taken. She wants a world where her children and great grandchildren can live. 

“A lot of people ask me what I want to do in the future,” Beguero said. “But if there’s no future in this world then there’s no future for me.”

As the crowd began to finish their posters. A priest walked to the front of the church and provided directions and safety measures before the group stepped out in the street. Children were asked to bow their heads for a moment of silence. 

Afterwords, a group of volunteers walked to the front holding a poster. The crowd was asked to repeat each verse after them. 

 “We’re gonna strike because our waters are rising. We’re gonna strike because our people are dying. We’re gonna strike for like and everything we love. We’re gonna strike for you. Will you strike for us?”

Sk Doyle, 24, works for Trinity  Church’s  Justice and Reconciliation department and was managing the poster station. The young people  were able to pick from a variety of colors to paint their signs. 

“I’ve been really hopefully being here and seeing all these young people doing the work,” said Doyle. 

The group left together for the rally at nearby Foley Square. When crossing the street on Broadway and Barclay, the priest and two volunteers grabbed each others hands creating a human chain to stop traffic and allow everyone to cross together. 

After the rally at Foley Square, the group joined the estimated 60,000 marchers, who chanted and carried signs that pleaded to save the environment.

“Climate change is a real thing it’s affecting us all in our daily lives,” said Elena Mendoza, 17, a senior and Green Team President at Forest Hills High School in Queens. “Even if some people might not see it. They need to look closer and realize that we don’t have much time.“

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Today the streets of Manhattan were flooded with thousands of young people marching together in the fight against climate change. 

They shouted “Hey, hey, ho, ho climate change has got to go,” and “Save the Planet.” Teenagers climbed up street posts to display signs calling for environmental policy reform.  Bystanders watched from storefronts as demonstrators in seemingly organized chaos migrated from Foley Square to Battery Park. 

The march was a result of a movement orchestrated by 16-year-old activist Greta Thunberg, a prominent figure in the fight against climate change, to give her peers a chance to have their voices heard. It comes just days before the U.N. 2019 Climate Summit taking place in New York. 

 “I just think we need more awareness for people who don’t believe it or are unwilling to make a change,” said Anna Beckmann, a 16-year-old student at Columbia Secondary School in Harlem. “A lot of people say it is not going to make any change, but I think it is an important act of solidarity for our generation.”

Protestors gleamed with pride, holding up handmade signs, cheering and chanting as they made their way South on Broadway. Police lined the streets, forced to intervene only when a brave few climbed scaffolding for a better vantage point to view the sea of climate activists. 

 With the majority of the crowd in their teens, the calls to action that echoed through the streets were more so pleas to an older generation in hopes of creating a better future.

 “We want more eco-friendly and less consumption,” said 18-year-old Liz Sullivan.

 As marchers met at the end of Broadway which turned in the mouth of Battery Park, “Redemption Song” by Bob Marley played over the P.A. system. 

Activists of all ages flooded Battery Park in Manhattan to hear Greta Thunberg speak. Here, a young girl stands with her family just outside the entrance to the where protesters assembled. Photo by Thomas Hengge

“The climate summit is in two days, so we want to create enough of a spark to where we’re seen,” said Chole Giulini, 16, who traveled from Sandford, Connecticut to attend the march. “Our planet is dying. It is as simple as that. The results of the climate summit will determine what we do after this.”

 On the lawn of Battery Park, the marchers came to a halt, and people gathered in front of a stage where Thunberg was set to speak. It was there the volume of people that showed up could be grasped. Hundreds, if not thousands, already filled the park as more poured in. People danced to the music blaring from the stage speakers, took pictures and found real estate to display the signs they made.

Climate change activists gathered by the thousands today at Foley Square and marched to Battery Park to raise awareness on climate change. The March comes just days before the U.N. Climate Change Summit. Photo by Thomas Hengge

 Some seized the opportunity to get a little more creative in an environmentally conscious way with how they chose to raise awareness.

 “I am having people write what was on their signs or something that they want to share because I didn’t want to bring a paper sign, I didn’t want to waste,” said Erin McElhone, who was covered in black marker. “So, I am letting people write on my own body.”

 Whatever form of activism was chosen today, the collective voice of climate activists was heard not only in New York but around the world as well. Thunberg’s speech was broadcast across the nation as well as in other countries. It is a moment younger generations hope perpetuates the change they believe is needed for a sustainable future.

“Even if the politicians don’t make a change for us right now, someday we will all care about this,” said Beckmann.

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In Lower Manhattan, at 8:46 a.m. this morning, the St. Paul’s Church Bell of Hope tolled in honor of the victims of the 9/11 attacks. Standing across the street just outside of the World Trade Center Site, wrapped in and American flag, was Edward Olaié.

For many Americans, 9/11 is a day in history to be forever remembered. On the early morning of September 11, 2001, four passenger airplanes were hijacked: one was crashed into the Pentagon in Washington D.C., one into Pennsylvania and the other two into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York. Around 3,000 people were killed, over 6,000 injured and in the following years major changes were made to airport policies and American defense.

But only three-years-old during the attacks, Olaié, 19, has no actual memory of the tragic day in American history.

The Kew Gardens, Queens resident is among a group of Americans with no direct memory of this day or a pre 9/11 America. There is nothing for them to compare it to or memories of that day for them to share. With the average age of a high school freshman being between 13- 15, no one in the ninth grade and below would have been born for the events of 9/11. Those a few years older would have little to no memory of the day.
Yet the day still resonates with them, despite not being able to remember or having been born for it, as a day for paying their respects to those whose lives were lost.

“It hit all of New York and America, so I come down here to pay respect to people who lost their families and to New York,” Olaié, said standing in the cloudy, cool morning air.

Olaié was taught about the event in school and felt inspired by what he learned.

“In all of the grades they taught us about it,” he said. “In 8th grade, my science teacher said that he was down here helping out and ever since then I was like I’ll come down here as much as I can.”

As the clouds began to disappear and the sun shone through, North New Jersey resident Brayden Ortiz, arrived with his father to also pay his respects for the lives lost.

“My dad knew a lot of the people who died there and he worked with them,” said the 12-year-old of his father who works for Port Authority. “So we came down to look at the memorial.”

An American flag and order of flowers hung on a fence outside of the World Trade Center Site. Photo by Brelaun Douglas.

Having not been born yet, Ortiz gets his knowledge of the events from what he is taught in school.

“We learned that planes crashed into the towers and many people saved other people’s lives,” he said standing outside of the World Trade Center Site closed off to the public until 3 p.m. to allow a memorial ceremony for victim’s families. “They basically risked their lives to save the innocent. There were people who didn’t really know anyone and they saved a lot of people’s lives and they died for other people.”

Mason Gray, 14, also uses what he learns at school to form his perception of the day.

“We were taught about the times of all the events that happened, the collapse, the planes and everything,” said the Wilkes Barre, Pa. resident. “How many people died and how we remember it.”

Born two months later in December, Gray sees the events of 9/11 as a testament to America’s strength and resilience.

“It basically means that nothing can bring America down, that tower right there says that,” he said pointing to the Freedom Tower. “We’ll always stand back up.”

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He started up the first-ever Ferg Fair, an event that took place at the Harlem Polo Grounds Community Center on Sunday, August 9. The fair focused on healthy living and positivity, with free health checks, activities and performances for 300 young people. The Harlem-bred rapper partnered with The Children’s Village and People of Peace (POP) to give back to his community and pick up where his grandmother left off.

“She used to do a health fair in my father’s name because he died of a kidney failure,” said A$AP Ferg. “I figured, I have a little fan base now, so that’ll be cool for me to use my star power for something positive.”

His “little” fan base is actually a pretty big one, with more than 435,000 followers on Twitter.

A$AP Ferg hopes to encourage the youth of Harlem to reach for their dreams.

“I just want them to be inspired. Inspired to know, inspired to be curious, be curious about themselves and what’s going on in their bodies as far as health,” he said. “I was always curious as a young child, wanting to know what was happening in New York City besides Harlem. I think that curiosity led me to where I am right now.”

A$AP Ferg signing autographs at the Ferg Fair. Photo by Christina Dun.

The event ended with a performance by Ferg and a Q&A session with the audience. He sat on the edge of the stage, surrounded by excited fans. The intimate setting and genuine answers proved he’s like the big brother they’ve been looking for.

“I’m here if they need that guy who came from the same place they came from. I’m cut from the same cloth, I’ve probably gone through the same battles. I made it out, so you can make it out too,” he said. “As long as you got that goal in your head of where you want to go on top of that mountain, you’ll find a way to get up there. I can’t tell you how you’re going to get up there, but you’ll find a way and I’ll meet you up there.”

With events like the Ferg Fair, he’s setting a great example for teens and spreading a positive message about the importance of leading a healthy lifestyle.

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Angy Rivera and came to the United States from Armenia, Columbia with her mother when she was three years old. Growing up in Queens, her life was controlled by a secret. Rivera, now 22, is undocumented.
“You grow up with this fear, this insecurity, don’t trust anybody,” she said. “What kind of lifestyle is that where you’re trying to function like a normal human being but right off the bat you don’t trust anybody.”
Rivera found many questions, and few answers.

“I had my best friends from middle school who I didn’t know if I could tell,” she said. “And my partners, if I had a bf, should I tell him? You have this big secret that you keep and you isolate yourself.” She was told she could not go to the airport, the DMV, or even the hospital. Public settings would require identification, or unwanted questions.

“I felt like I was suffocating in it, and that’s what motivated me—seeing that fear,” she said.

In October 2010, Rivera created Ask Angy, the first and only advice column for undocumented youth.

“When you’re undocumented you just want to find answers anonymously online,” Rivera said. “I wanted a place where people could ask questions and feel safe, but still be anonymous if they choose to be and just have that resource out there.”

Angy Rivera tells her story.

AngyRiveraRadioPiece

A screenshot of Ask Angy’s first video, “Dating While Undocumented.”

The post Advice columnist for the undocumented appeared first on Pavement Pieces.

Kelron McJunkin, 20, stands in front of a mural at Covenant House New York. The homeless youth shelter has been his home since August of 2012. Covenant House has 108 beds, and there are more than 21,000 homeless youth living in homeless shelters across the city. Photo by Breana Jones

Standing on a corner in Hell’s Kitchen smoking a cigarette, Kelron McJunkin looked more like a college kid than a homeless kid. Wearing leather Dr. Martins, a polo shirt and crisp jeans, he waited on a callback for a part-time position at Duane Reade. He’s worked a number of temporary jobs over the past six months while living at Covenant House. As one of the few homeless youth shelters in Manhattan, it requires residents to actively pursue employment.

“They help you out, they do your resume, but basically you gotta do it for yourself,” he said, “It’s like the saying, ‘you can’t help somebody who doesn’t want to help themselves.’”

McJunkin, is a part of a record high population of homeless youth in New York City. These youth continue to function in society, hiding the issue of their homelessness to the outside world. But more than 21,000 children slept in shelters in January 2013, an uptick of 22% from the same time last year.

Covenant House of New York at 41st Street and 10th Avenue is a decades old shelter that serves homeless youth in New York City. Alice Steigerwald, Deputy Director of Crisis, said the issue of young homelessness is often overlooked because it isn’t visible.

“The homeless youth of today do not seem like the homeless youth of 20 years ago, or 15 years ago, or 10 years ago,” said Steigerwald, “You can see our kids any day of the week and you would not know they are homeless.”

Steigerwalds on who these youths are and why they wind up in the streets.
Audio Clip 1

McJunkin first arrived at the doors of Covenant House in the summer of 2012, after years of turmoil.
When he was 14, his father died of lung cancer. He never truly knew his mother, who was an HIV positive drug addict, and became a ward of the state. At 16, he began living with his sister, but after learning of the death of his mother, he stopped minding his sister and was kicked out. From there, McJunkin moved to Philadelphia to live with an aunt who kicked him out once his father’s social security benefits checks stopped. McJunkin said he spent about three weeks on the street.

“It was hard, but it wasn’t that bad because I know other kids that are really homeless, said McJunkin, “They really slept in the streets all night and had no place to go, no friend’s house, no parents, no family. So I feel they lived worse than I did.”

McJunkin would walk around for hours to avoid sleeping on the street. During the day, he would visit with friends to eat and take showers. Eventually, McJunkin and a friend began stealing cars and selling the parts, which allowed the two to afford an apartment together.

McJunkin on his life on the streets.
Audio Clip 2

Last year, he decided he didn’t want to live as a criminal anymore, and moved back to New York. When he found himself at the doors of Covenant House, Steigerwald and her team were able to house him in one of their 108 beds. She said stories like McJunkin’s are all too familiar.

“The typical kid, they don’t sleep at night, they come and they sleep at our drop in center during the day,” said Steigerwald. “Even if they’re not living here, we give them two meals a day.”

While Covenant House had space for McJunkin, thousands of other homeless youth are turned away each night throughout the city. Giselle Routhier, a policy analyst for Coalition for the Homeless, said there are only about 250 beds for unaccompanied homeless youth like McJunkin in the city. These youth face a unique set of issues.

“That population is highly vulnerable,” said Routhier. “They don’t feel safe within the regular shelter system, so often times [they] will cycle in and out of the youth shelter system whenever they are able to get a bed.”
Covenant House can hold up to 160 residents, but had to downsize due to “financial contingencies”. From 2010 to 2011, Covenant House received about $60,000 less in federal, state, and city funding. At the same time, homelessness continues to rise, 55,000 New Yorkers slept in shelters last month—the highest number since the Great Depression.

Routhier said the rise can be tied to the end of permanent housing assistance for homeless families which lead to a revolving door trend in shelters.

“We now have over 60 percent of families that are entering shelters have been homeless before,” said Routhier. “Prior to 2005, that number was 25 percent. There’s a huge increase of families experiencing repeat episodes of homelessness.”

At Covenant House, residents can stay for one to two months. Steigerwald said it usually takes three to four stays for homeless youth to leave the system.

Steigerwald explains Covenant House’s Outreach Program.
Audio Clip 3

McJunkin hopes to begin renting an apartment when his current stay at Covenant House ends. After receiving his GED, he plans to attend business school.

“I want to own a business. Something I can call my own, so I would be able to pass it down to my family, so they won’t have to worry about, how to get money or how to survive,” he said.
For McJunkin and the youth like him, record homelessness in New York City is not merely a statistic but a harsh reality.

“Unfortunately, they’re teenagers that have adult problems,” said Steigerwald. “They’re just like us and are fighting for everything they have. They’re fighting for a place to sleep tonight.”

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