Bronx Connections: 2020 Election Local Lens

Sewage treatment plants, major trucking routes, food distribution centers, and highways like the Cross Bronx Expressway, all clustered together in the South Bronx have created an area with such poor air quality, it has been nicknamed “Asthma Alley,” by locals.

According to a 2018 City health department report, pollution levels in the South Bronx neighborhoods of Mott Haven and Melrose are some of the highest in the State and country, exacerbating asthma rates that send sick kids to Bronx hospitals, nearly three times more often than in the rest of New York City.

Ahead of Election Day 2020, Bronx environmentalists and activists are highlighting the importance of taking a holistic and proactive approach to environmental policy.

According to Anita Gita of Sunrise Movement, the presence of these pollutant-creating factors in the South Bronx in particular, in predominantly non-white, low-income communities, is no accident; it’s environmental racism.

Sunrise is a national, grassroots, youth movement which aims to stop climate change and create millions of good jobs in the process. It has 4,138 followers in New York City.

For Gita, Black and Brown communities in the Bronx are faced with a burden of pollution and waste. “To me, it sounds like a theoretical term,” she said, referring to the burden of pollution in the borough. “But you can see it, and you can feel it. Kids in the Bronx have the highest rates of asthma, I think, in the country. So, people who are not doing anything wrong are being tasked with the burden of dealing with asthma and respiratory diseases.”

In fact, there are a number of risk factors which have contributed to the high asthma rates seen in the Bronx according to a September 2019 report from Montefiore Health System. These include obesity, housing quality (including the presence of mold and rodent droppings), smoking (including passive smoking), and air quality.

Gita, along with Sunrise members Fiona Crisp and Michael Villanova, officially founded a Bronx chapter of the organization three months ago at the end of July. It has 276 followers. Gita and Crisp are seniors at Fordham University and Hunter College respectively, while Villanova is pursuing a masters at CUNY. Villanova is from the Bronx, and he said the need for more climate change activism is obvious.

“If sea levels rise around six feet, the South Bronx and areas around City Island which tend to be lower-income people, and also tend to be Black and Latinx people, they’re the ones who will have to move,” he said. “They’re the one[s] who are going to be impacted by this.”

  The first major initiative of Sunrise Bronx was to help reinstate a Bronx Solid Waste Advisory Board (SWAB) to inform the manner in which the borough deals with waste. According to Crisp and Villanova, 30 percent of the city’s waste is processed in the Bronx, but the borough has not had an advisory board in over a decade.

In fact, in July 2018, according to the National Resources Defense Council, New York City Council enacted legislation limiting the amount of trash that could be sent to overburdened neighborhoods that were home to a majority of privately-owned, environmentally troublesome, waste transfer stations.

There were, at that time, 38 such stations, 26 of which were located in three neighborhoods – north Brooklyn, the South Bronx and southeast Queens. 

By contrast, just one borough over, in Manhattan, Sunrise Bronx said there exists a robust example of a SWAB which has programs aimed at achieving zero waste. Sunrise Bronx hopes they can help Bronx climate activists create a similar zero-waste strategy, in conjunction with the borough president’s office. Long term, the group also wants to have an impact on policy, and on elections.

“We’re looking at using our voice as young people,” said Villanova. “I don’t know if you’ve seen the electoral victories that have happened with Sunrise-backed candidates, but we want to replicate that in the Bronx.” He added, “Jamaal Bowman got elected here with the help of the [Sunrise] city-wide hub, but we want to replicate his victory with down-ballot races, especially with City Council races next year and legislative elections in 2022.”

According to a Pew Research poll, conducted between July 27 and Aug. 3, 2020, 42 percent of registered voters said climate change was a “very important” issue to them when it comes to voting.

The same poll found that while there were substantial differences between Trump and Biden supporters on the importance of most issues, the widest gaps were on climate change (57 percentage points), and racial and ethnic inequality (52 points).

“Climate change is far from this nation’s most pressing national security issue,” reads the GOP platform. “This is the triumph of extremism over common sense, and Congress must stop it.”

On a recent visit to California, to survey the damage caused by the most recent wildfires, President Donald Trump echoed this sentiment. “It’ll start getting cooler; you just watch,” he said, in response to the assertion that the wildfires were caused by a rapidly warming climate.

Indeed, the GOP party has other priorities when it comes to the environment. The party favors lifting environmental regulations to allow businesses which profit from America’s natural resources to grow.

On the other side of this issue is former Vice President Joe Biden. The Democratic nominee for president appeared to agree with Villanova and the Sunrise Movement’s view that communities like those in the Bronx are often the hardest hit. ‘The unrelenting impact of climate change affects every single solitary one of us,” said Biden during a recent campaign speech. “But all too often, the brunt falls disproportionately on communities of color, exacerbating the need for environmental justice.”

Meanwhile, an extract from the Sunrise Movement’s website reads, “We’re building an army of young people to make climate change an urgent priority across America, end the corrupting influence of fossil fuel executives on our politics, and elect leaders who stand up for the health and wellbeing of all people.”

Of course, the Green Party also weighed in on the topic of climate justice ahead of the first presidential debate. Green Party presidential candidate, Howie Hawkins, 67, is a retired Teamster construction and warehouse worker who has been active in movements for civil rights, peace, unions, and the environment since the 1960s. According to his campaign, he was the first U.S. politician to campaign for a Green New Deal in 2010, in the first of three consecutive runs for New York governor.

New York enacted several policies that only Hawkins had campaigned for after he received 5 percent of the vote in 2014, including a ban on fracking, a $15 minimum wage, and paid family leave. Hawkins’ vice-presidential running mate is Angela Walker, 46, a truck driver in Florence, South Carolina who is a veteran union and racial justice activist.

Back in the Bronx, Sunrise is not the only group pushing for climate justice locally. Elizabeth Quaranta is from Bedford Park, and is the executive director of Friends of Mosholu Parkland (FOMP). Her group focuses on maintaining green spaces, especially along Mosholu Parkway and more recently, on educating residents about sustainability.

Quaranta said when she initiates a conversation about climate change, she starts with the park space in the Bronx and how it is maintained, and then she moves on to tangible events like Storm Isaias, which ripped through the area in early August. FOMP were actively involved in the recent storm clean up.

Many of these conversations start in the “Edible Garden,” the group maintains, located beside the Keeper’s House in Norwood. The edible garden model is one where community residents can come in and volunteer in planning, seeding, planting, watering, weeding, and helping to make compost. They can also help harvest and prep for the next season.

School gardens are another venue for such conversations. Quaranta said they should be made mandatory throughout the borough. “I think it’s definitely a must for the children to know where our food comes from,” she said. “The other thing is – it also provides an opportunity for adults to go back to the basics. As we teach children about food, and climate change and sustainability, the adults – most likely the parents – get on board with the same initiative.”

Congressman José E. Serrano, who has represented the 15th congressional district, which includes the South Bronx, for the last 30 years, has been hailed as a progressive leader when it comes to his voting record on climate change. Indeed, he commissioned the original study which high-lighted the link between the high asthma rates in the South Bronx and the area’s high pollution levels.

  As a result, he introduced legislation that provided tax credits to businesses that use clean-fuel vehicles in areas with high pollution. He also supported the South Bronx Greenway project – a belt of parks and paths that cut through industrial areas to connect several neighborhoods to their immediate waterfront.

  One of his landmark achievements was the restoration of the highly contaminated Bronx River, the City’s only true freshwater river, which was known for illegal dumping, but was transformed into a healthy eco-system capable of sustaining migrating herring and the first beaver in New York City in over 200 years.

More recently, a new New York City Council bill introduced in June 2020 requires certain vehicles to be equipped with chute closure devices. Introduction No. 1354-A, sponsored by Council Member Robert F. Holden requires all concrete mixer trucks driving through the city of New York to be equipped with chute closure devices during the transport of liquid concrete by June 30, 2021.

The cement industry is one of the main producers of carbon dioxide, a potent greenhouse gas. Concrete causes damage to the most fertile layer of the earth, the topsoil. Concrete is used to create hard surfaces which contribute to surface runoff that may cause soil erosion, water pollution and flooding.

“Cement trucks have too often spilled materials all over the roadway when making a sharp turn or driving up a hill, and the debris can create extremely dangerous situations,” said Holden at the time. “I am tremendously proud to see this legislation pass and improve the safety of our streets for all commuters. I’d like to thank all of my colleagues who signed on or voted in favor of this bill as it will make a significant difference in all of our neighborhoods across the five boroughs.”

As Serrano prepares for his retirement, organizations like Sunrise Bronx and FOMP will no doubt expect his presumptive successor, City Councilman Ritchie Torres, along with all elected officials to build on this work for the betterment of the Bronx.

Given that a recent Harvard University study found that someone living in an area of high-particulate pollution is 8 percent more likely to die from COVID-19 than others living in areas with less pollution, it’s clear that a smart, holistic policy approach is needed.

During her regular park clean up outings, Quaranta also notices the amount of non-biodegradable waste there is scattered around – everything from plastic cups to plastic bags, and straws to Styrofoam containers. She said there must be another way to encourage manufacturers to stop making non-environmentally friendly items. “I think, on a national level, we really need to think about the products we make.”

Síle Moloney contributed additional reporting to this story.