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Our first episode takes listeners to Crown Heights, a rapidly gentrifying neighborhood in central Brooklyn, where two high rise residential towers threaten to block the sunlight upon which the Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s greenhouses rely. Rents are rising fast in Crown Heights, and affordable housing is increasingly hard to find, but will community members welcome more housing even if it comes at the expense of a thriving botanic garden?

Additional Reading:

• Supply Skepticism: Housing Supply and Affordability (Vicki Been, Ingrid Gould Ellen, Katherine O’Regan)
• City NIMBYs (Vicki Been)

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Our final episode focuses on Inwood, one of the last affordable neighborhoods in Manhattan. The Inwood rezoning has faced community scrutiny and legal challenge since it was proposed in 2018, and its future remains uncertain. When a city with a scarcity of housing can’t build more, what happens? How can communities ensure their neighborhoods will stay affordable if wealthier households will move in regardless of whether or not there is new development?

Additional Reading:

• Does gentrification displace poor children and their families? (Kacie Dragan, Ingrid Gould Ellen, Sherry Glied)
• Do New Housing Units in Your Backyard Raise Your Rents? (Xiaodi Li)
• The Effect of New Market-Rate Housing Construction on the Low-Income Housing Market (Evan Mast, Upjohn Institute)

Homepage photo courtesy of AMNY

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Now, the community must juggle two disasters: the flood vulnerability that Superstorm Sandy revealed eight years ago and remains unchecked and the mounting concern for open park space that the COVID-19 pandemic has made urgent.

During Wednesday’s City Council executive budget hearing, Commissioner Lorraine Grillo, of the city’s Department of Design and Construction, said there will be a “shovel in the ground” in the fall, but that there may be some changes to the order of the phases and the numbers of areas that go under construction at a given time. The current timeline calls for completion by 2025. “We do not want to disturb social distancing in any way,” Grillo said.

“We worked very, very hard to make sure large portions will remain open during the project,” Grillo said in response to a question posed by Councilmember Carlina Rivera, who pushed the comprehensive East Side Coastal Resiliency Project through City Hall. Grillo said the department will make changes as needed, “but our goal is to maintain that timeline.”

Better quality of life and appropriate park access has been a core issue in community resistance to the resiliency plan since last August. Pat Arnow, founder of East River Park Action, one of the community groups rallying against the ESCR plan, said that she had been hoping the pandemic would strong-arm the city to put a pause on construction. Community activists have focused their dissent on sparing local residents from risk, whether it be from flooding, air pollution, or disease. 

“The situation is so dire with coronavirus that it makes our arguments even more urgent,” she said in a phone interview.

Arnow already had expressed displeasure with the idea of phased closures back when they were announced haphazardly in October, a day before an important community hearing. (During that meeting, Councilmember Rivera called the city’s decision to provide phasing information a day before the hearing as “unfair.”) Arnow, when told about Grillo’s announcement last week, said she had a knee-jerk reaction: “My first thought was just like whatever it is, it’s probably going to be bad for us.”

As the plan stands, it includes no provisions for interim flood protection measures during the construction period that is expected to last at least five years. And no one wants another Superstorm Sandy.

In 2012, Sandy ravaged the area with a 12-foot storm surge, snuffing out electricity and heat for thousands of people. Hospitals, severed from sources of power, had to evacuate. The trains, suspended since the day before, were inundated from track to ceiling. Over the course of a few hours, Sandy brought New York City to a halt. Those who heeded early warnings and had the privilege of having a car, a second house, a family friend with an apartment on higher elevation were lucky. But the poor, the working class, the elderly, and the disabled — like those who live in public housing in affected areas —  could not flee. And just like that, Sandy killed 43 people across New York City’s five boroughs. A similar story is unraveling now with the wealthy who have fled to vacation homes as the coronavirus takes hundreds of lives a day in the city alone, forcing officials to reckon with failures in its bureaucracy and infrastructure.

Superstorm Sandy is what inspired the city to elevate East River Park and its surroundings from East 25th Street to Montgomery Street. The ESCR is a much-altered portion of Rebuild by Design’s “The Big U,” a protective system proposed for the lower tip of Manhattan to safeguard the waterfront from sea level rise. The ESCR, which is the first of several “resiliency” projects, initially would have closed East River Park completely for three years. The plan called for the city to uproot 2.4 miles of coastline during that period, rework electricity, gas and plumbing, and pack fill. After community dissent  erupted from East River Park Action and East River Alliance, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced last October that the project would be completed in two phases. 

This “phased” version of the ESCR announced in October still had the original goals: flood protections completed by 2023 and an elevation of the park by eight feet by 2025. In de Blasio’s press release at the time, he said the first phase of construction would take place from fall 2020 to spring 2023, during which the vast majority of the park areas from Delancey to Houston Streets would remain open, along with the amphitheater area in the south and the area to the north that runs from  from East 10th to East 12th Street. The second phase was to start shortly thereafter with an end goal of late 2025. Then, the press release said,  that the newly rebuilt portions of East River Park would open from Houston Street to approximately East 10th Street, as well as the vast majority of the park areas from Corlears Hook Bridge to Delancey Street. The Esplanade in the center of East River Park, is also scheduled for reconstruction, but on a separate schedule. 

“The community spoke and we listened,” de Blasio said at the time. “Nearly half of East River Park will remain open throughout construction – without compromising essential flood protections for 110,000 New Yorkers. We are building a more resilient city to meet the challenge of global warming head-on.”

Currently, it’s unclear exactly how phasing will change, if it will at all, said Jeremy Unger, the spokesperson for Councilmember Rivera. Regardless of potential phase changes, the prospect of closing a park, even partially, during a pandemic in a city where fresh air is hard to come by has presented new concerns for the community. In the past few weeks alone, access to open spaces while social distancing in New York City has become a hot-button issue. While Governor Andrew Cuomo acknowledged that going outside is a necessity for mental and physical health, the city does not consider parks an essential service — leaving room for confusion. Either the  parks are packed (or are perceived to be) or heavily policed. Not to mention, the parks that are the most cramped tend to be in poorer areas with less access to open spaces and more air pollution. 

That fact is not lost on Arnow of East River Park Action. “You need to keep this park open for residents,” she said, “and you don’t need dirty air with construction during a pandemic.” 

It’s true — researchers at Harvard University’s School of Public Health found that higher levels of particulate matter called PM 2.5 were associated with higher COVID-19 death rates, the New York Times reported. The authors suggest that long-term exposure to air pollution increases vulnerability to the coronavirus; the research is currently going through peer review. 

Air pollution has been a concern for both Arnow and and Green Map System director Wendy Brawer, who has advocated for 1,000 trees to be planted in Community Board 3’s area (those trees are now split with Community Board 6). In a phone interview, Brawer mentioned that the removal of mature trees, whether in East River Park or on public housing campuses, presents a concern for air quality, especially now.

“Air quality is not just a nice thing,” Brawer said. “It’s actually a justice issue. It’s really important to slow down that destructiveness, whether it’s in the park or around the park and the work around the park has to do with.”

Arnow said that during the past few months of social distancing, it’s been hard to get an answer about the construction timeline. Initially, construction was supposed to start in the spring with conversion of  Lower East Side Ecology Center’s compost area into a rec space that would have been available for community use during construction in the fall.

Ian Michaels, the spokesperson for the design department said the community resistance to the project caused the delay, not the pandemic.

“There’s been no delay because of COVID,” Michaels said. “A few months ago, the local community asked that we push back the work at the Ecology Center so the compost area could stay open through the summer, and the City agreed. That’s all. The main work is still scheduled to proceed as planned in the fall.”

There had been hope that because of the pandemic, construction would be meaningfully delayed while groups like East River Park Action and Loisaida United Neighborhood Gardens, known as LUNGS, push through with an alienation lawsuit that seeks to derail the project altogether or at least get more definitive interim flood protection while it is underway. Charles Krezell, president of LUNGS, voiced similar opinions and said in a phone interview that the lack of transparency or clarity about what’s going on is “such bad public policy.”

“It shows how much they don’t really care about the interests of the community,” Krezell said. “I don’t know what to think. We were hoping our lawsuit is going to put the kibosh on this thing anyway. So that’s that’s our hope right now. But right now, we need temporary storm protection immediately and there’s nothing like that in the offering. So whatever plan they come up with, we’re going to be unprotected for the next five, at least five years, of the community, and we’re having storms rolling in all summer.”

Izzie Ramirez is an NYU  undergraduate journalism student.

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NYC Abortion Rights, a grassroots coalition which defends reproductive rights, claims that ever month over 200 church members heckle patients entering a nearby Planned Parenthood, located at 26 Bleecker Street.

Holding signs that read: “Time’s Up Tommy!” and “Abortion is Healthcare!”, the activists stood on either side of the sidewalk, shouting chants like: “Pro-life? That’s a lie, you don’t care if women die!” as pedestrians and tour-goers entered the catacombs. 

“They stand outside and pray in unison. They make it as as inaccessible as possible to people,” said Megan Lessard of Crown Heights, Brooklyn, a NYC Abortion Rights demonstrater. “They pass this behavior off as prayer,  but we say, no way. You’re assembling a large group of people on the sidewalk outside of a health clinic. It’s an intimidation tactic. “

Megan Lessard, a protestor with NYC Abortion Rights, says that The Basilica of St. Patrick’s Old Cathedral, masks their harassment of patients outside of Planned Parenthood as peaceful. Lessard wants community members to be aware of this harassment, and that reproductive rights still need to be protected. Photo by: Maureen Mullarkey

According to its website, Old St. Pat’s says the assemblage takes place after their “Witness For Life Mass”, which is held on the first Saturday of each month. 

NYC Abortion Rights said id that Saturday’s protest was not in opposition to St. Patrick’s, but to Tommy’s Tours, a privately owned company which holds walking tours of the church’s catacombs.. Tommy’s Tours is the exclusive tour company for the catacombs.

“We want Tommy’s Tours to speak out against this, the church’s behavior,” said Lessard. “ If they don’t, ideally Tommy’s Tours would, sort of decouple from Old St. Pat’s  and do their business elsewhere. We also want to raise awareness of what the Church.”

As some demonstrators chanted, others handed out flyers to pedestrians with information about the Old St. Pat’s harassment of Planned Parenthood. The flyer also suggests ways of how to speak up about Tommy’s Tours, including requesting a refund for a tour, making a complaint, and calling the church. 

As NYC Abortion Rights members chanted to ongoers, several pedestrians shouted back in opposition. Maxim Katz Nelson, 33, who identifies as pro-life, yelled “Pro life! Protect the babies, protect the children, abortion is wrong!”

He said Planned Parenthood use aborted fetus organs for dubious purposes.

“These people, not all of them are aware of what’s really going on to the babies. They think they just take the baby away and they don’t use the baby,” said Katz Nelson,  who is not a church member. “What they’re standing up for is for monsters. Life is the most precious thing. It’s God’s gift.”

Planned Parenthood, a non-profit organization which provides reduced or free reproductive health care, has been under national scrutiny in the past year, with the Trump administration blocking its federal aid. In 2019, 12 states enforced stricter abortion bans, such as Georgia and Kentucy’s fetal heartbeat law, and Alabama’s total ban law.

While New York state has been one of nine states to pass protected or expanded abortion laws, pro-life believers like Lessard feel like they still need to fight for these rights.

“I think that left-leaning people in New York take comfort in the fact that New York is a progressive city. They often don’t notice or consider the ways that the right is mobilizing here,” said Lessard. “And this is one good example.  So it’s not just in the middle of America where reproductive rights are under attack. It’s happening next door.”

The Basilica of St. Patrick’s Old Cathedral , Tommy’s Tours and the 26 Bleecker Street Planned Parenthood declined to comment.

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Environmental activists are still pressuring lawmakers to embrace the Green New Deal, despite that it has already been voted down in the Senate.

While Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has said that he believes in climate change, he’s been dismissive of the Green New Deal. In place of the deal, he’s tried to push his Republican colleagues in the Senate to acknowledge the urgency of climate change and have open discussions about its effects, but activist Iliana Walsingham said this is not enough.

“Opening up conversation is good, but we should have done that 10 years ago,” said Walsingham, 21. “Now is the time to have actual action. We need to change.”

Walsingham is one of many asking for more action regarding climate change. On April 30, around 50 protestors from the Sunrise Movement, a group dedicated to making climate change a more visible and pressing issue, assembled on the sidewalk outside Schumer’s Midtown Manhattan office. For more than two hours, they gave emotional testimony, sang passionately, and repeatedly called for the senator to support the deal.

The group refused to leave the site, and eventually, law enforcement stepped in. Walsingham was one of seven activists arrested for blocking pedestrian traffic and refusing a lawful order to disperse. But for her and the others, the cause is what’s important.

“I think we need to hammer home that climate change and this climate catastrophe is going to affect everyone worldwide,” said Walsingham, before the start of the protest.

Sarah Lawrence College senior, Iliana Walsingham calls for Democratic leadership to address climate change in a serious way. Photo by Emma Bolton.

The Sunrise Movement, founded in April 2017, latched onto the Green New Deal resolution, brought forward by New York’s District 14 Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Massachusetts Senator Ed Markey. In addition to protests and rallies outside of lawmakers’ offices, they’ve also hosted town halls across the country explaining the Green New Deal to the public.

The Green New Deal proposes modernizing the country’s energy infrastructure by transferring it away from fossil fuels, while creating jobs and dealing with economic inequality in the process. The resolution calls for government public work investments on the scale of Franklin Roosevelt’s 1933 New Deal to decarbonize the country’s energy and transportation sectors.

Carolyn Kissane, New York University’s Director of the Energy and Environmental Policy Concentration, said that the Green New Deal has caught the public eye because it’s a bold policy resolution centered on mitigating the effects of climate change.

“It’s extraordinarily ambitious,” she said. “We haven’t had a climate-specific political agenda in quite a long time.”

Support for the Green New Deal exploded after it was officially proposed by Ocasio-Cortez and Markey in February 2019. For young people like Jessie Bluedorn, 24, there are two main reasons to support it.

“We need more than just nice words. We need a plan that holds us to a to actual timetables,” Bluedorn said. “The Green New Deal lays out a specific deadline by which we would need to be off fossil fuels. So any plan that has strict accountability is something I would very much be for versus just generic, ‘we’ll eventually get off of fossil fuels.’”

While it’s not the only way to help reduce the effects of climate change, lessening dependence on oil, coal and natural gas is important in curbing carbon emissions. The plan will also decarbonize transportation and make buildings in the United States more efficient. For Walsingham, the plan’s focus on significantly reducing dependency on fossil fuels is a huge draw.

“We need to get off of fossil fuels,” Walsingham said. “We need to stop producing single use plastics, we need to basically lessen consumption. But basically switching to an electric infrastructure grid is the most amazing part of it.”

Policy experts like Kissane note that the timeline is largely unrealistic — the plan calls for sweeping changes to be implemented within ten years —  but the resolution makes a statement about a way to approach creating a greener society.

“I think the idea of thinking about policy and ways to go about reducing carbon emissions– I’ll be honest with you, we’re not going to be carbon-free by 2050, we’re not going to be fossil-free by 2050, nowhere near it,” Kissane said. “But the idea of what are the things that we can do now? What can we do more on energy efficiency? What can we do about thinking about our energy systems in the United States?”

While the large scale transition away from fossil fuels and towards renewable energy is the top priority for the activists, the other factor is the social justice and economic equality aspects of the plan. It’s the other reason Bluedorn attended the protest.

“As we have seen globally with the Yellow Vest Movement in France, to effectively transition off fossil fuels, we really have to build in a just transition framework and acknowledge that some people are more impacted than others,” said Bluedorn. “So, there has to be a jobs guarantee and a serious plan for how we are going to transition our economy that is not going to leave certain people more impacted than others unfairly.”

As of now, the plan will remain a statement of ideals. In March, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) brought the plan to the floor, forcing Democrats to vote on it. Senator Schumer called it a sham vote, while moderate Democrats like Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Senator Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) said that the plan was too broad, non-specific, and unrealistic. The resolution failed in a 57-0 vote, with four Democrats crossing the aisle and the rest of Democrats voting “present.”

Chair of the Technology and Society Department at New York University’s Tandon School of Engineering, and historian, Jonathan Soffer, sees why aggressive climate change plans are harder for politicians to back.

“This is our generation having to make changes mostly for the benefit of future generations,” Soffer said. “And that’s a virtuous thing, but a lot of people aren’t willing to make those sacrifices if they don’t see immediate benefits. That’s always a harder sell politically.”

As the head of a large caucus in the House, Speaker Nancy Pelosi has been reluctant to get behind the resolution. She was the focus of Sunrise Movement protests in Washington D.C. last November, ahead of Ocasio-Cortez’s official swearing in. At one point, she referred to the plan as “the green dream, or whatever they call it.” Like Schumer, she has talked about climate change in the general sense, although last week she initiated a vote to block the Trump Administration from pulling out of the Paris Climate Accord.

Natalie Osborne receives instructions and a song sheet from the protests organizers. Photo by Emma Bolton.

Natalie Osborne, 21, sees the Green New Deal as one of the only ideas that politicians have put forward that addresses climate change. She attended the protest outside of Schumer’s office, and hopes to see the deal become reality.

“I think the Green New Deal is the big one for right now,” Osborne said. “And it addresses a lot of different issues. It addresses racial inequality and income inequality and how they tie in with climate change and climate disasters.”

Stu Waldman and Gloria Weiss attended the rally to support the young people pushing for a greener future for their grandchildren. Photo by Emma Bolton.

The Sunrise Movement is largely comprised of Millennials and Gen-Zers, but there were some notable exceptions, including Stu Waldman, 77, who clutched a picture of his young granddaughter as he stood among the younger activists.

“Matilda is five months old,” Waldman said. “When she’s my age, it will be near the year 2100, and if we don’t do something very quickly in the next ten years, the world — her world — will be unrecognizable.”

A study from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change shocked the world in October 2018, showing that the timeline to slow the warming of the atmosphere is much shorter than previously thought. According to the study, the world has less than 12 years to drastically curb carbon emissions — otherwise, the worst consequences of climate change will start showing.

Communities across the world are already feeling the effects of rising temperatures, including here in the United States, with more frequent severe weather events. Just this week, the United Nations released a preview of a new report showing that humans and climate change have pushed close to one million species of plants and animals to the edge of extinction.

In the face of dire predictions and a lack in federal leadership, cities like New York  are making their own climate change policies. New York City has created their own Green New Deal, which would use congestion pricing to lower carbon emissions, and retrofit existing buildings to be more energy-efficient. Entire states, including California, Vermont, and Massachusetts have created their own plans to stay in the Paris Climate Accords, even though the Trump Administration has pulled out.

Experts like Kissane believe these city and state-based policies are an indication of what the Democratic party may do in the next election year.

“I think the Democrats are aware that [climate change] is going to be a pivotal issue going into 2020,” she said.

Sunrise activists are looking to Democratic leadership to take on the issue of climate change and that extends to the presidential race. Last week, as his first major policy proposal, presidential hopeful Beto O’Rourke announced a plan to put $5 trillion dollars towards addressing climate change within his first 100 days as president.

I think some of the candidates are doing a great job addressing it,” Bluedorn said. “It’s still very early in the primaries, so I am not fully backing a candidate, but certainly I am using climate as a litmus test for any candidate.”

Senator Schumer and Representative Ocasio-Cortez were unavailable for comment.

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