Green the Ghetto- and How Much it Won’t Cost Us

“In the late 1990’s Majora Carter took a bold step into the world of urban planning – working to shift a Giuliani administration plan for additional waste handling in the South Bronx and converting policy towards positive green development. She wrote a successful $1.25M Federal Transportation planning grant to design the South Bronx Greenway – an 11 mile network of bike and pedestrian paths connects neighbohoods to the river front and each other with low impact storm water management capacity, local entrepreneurship opportunities, and active living features that improve public health and reduce traffic congestion. She spearheaded the first South Bronx waterfront park in over 60 years. In 2001, Majora Carter founded the pioneering and highly successful non-profit environmental justice solutions corp: Sustainable South Bronx.

Energy consumption, public health, storm-water management, prison recidivism, school performance, social services, stagnant property values, climate change adaptation, and income & health disparities can all be tied to environmental remediation on a municipal or regional scale. The community of interests that make up a village, a city, a region, are all connected by the people and dollars circulating through them. The Majora Carter Group opens the doors to solutions that benefit several concerns with the same dollars.”

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.

Lecture: 7:30 pm, Thursday November 12, 2009 in Room 224 Oechsle Hall