Thursday, November 12, 2009
7:30 pm
Oeschle Hall, Room 224
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.
http://www.lafayette.edu/news.php/view/14190
“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.
Captivated Lafayette audience at Ms. Carter's talk. The room was filled to capacity with listeners in doorways and on the floor!
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 (see image left). Part of a larger strategy to move under-performing communities into a healthy and productive economic conditions….
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In 2001, Majora Carter founded the pioneering and highly successful non-profit environmental justice solutions corp: Sustainable South Bronx (SSBx)….
Majora Carter Group, LLC helps clients connect the value of government, business & industry and community. We want to use our integrity and abilities to bring disparate parties together and help break the impasse between sustainability goals and entrenched inter-stakeholder distrust….
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.”
http://www.majoracartergroup.com/our-story
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/majora_carter_s_tale_of_urban_renewal.html
In an emotionally charged talk, MacArthur-winning activist Majora Carter details her fight for environmental justice in the South Bronx — and shows how minority neighborhoods suffer most from flawed urban policy.
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