Majora Carter's presentation was inspiring. Her ability to mobilize the community of South Bronx to create a greener urban environment where there had been no green previously is monumental. Through much hard work, dubbed "sweat equity', she was able to channel community labor and federal/state funds into the clean-up of the illegal dump and restoration of the riverfront along the Bronx River.
Ultimately Majora is driven to create social equity. People living in urban poverty are mired in so many feedback loops that it is near impossible for them to find their way out. They end up shouldering the burden of environmental deficits as cities hoist pollution and sewage onto their communities. The pollution has proven affects on the mental abilities of the youth who are already struggling with below average schools. In addition these urban communities are concrete wastelands, which is also proven to affect the mental health of the occupants. Unemployment in South Bronx was 25%, and many people made money from sales of illicit substances.
Perhaps the largest component of the success of Majora's work is the creation of training programs and green jobs for the residents of South Bronx. She is well aware of the environmental and economic benefits in sustainable management, such as rain water management through installation of green roofs. However it is her emphasis on the social benefits of bringing green jobs to disenfranchised individuals and ending prison recidivism that was truly compelling.
Oddly, this was the part of the presentation that the business-school- fraternity boys had the most disagreement with. It was clear from the start that such students had been baited to attend with the promise of extra credit and they had no respect for the work of such an inspired genius. It offered a certain degree of perspective. From the group of eight boys sitting in front of me one got up to ask the first question of the discussion session. His first question centered on the possible displacement of poor individuals, thus increasing homelessness, through these green neighborhood improvements. Majora assured him this wasn't occurring and that people were better off through increased employment. His final question asked 'is it the tax-payers responsibility to help create jobs?' Somehow he overlooked everything she said about the cost savings for keeping people out of prison and utilizing more efficient sustainable practices. This taught me more than anything that bottom-dollar- minded people only use poor people to further their own gains when convenient, but they will not support agendas that truly benefit our poor even when those benefits are transferred to the whole society.
I watched the boy's reactions to Majora's answers to other questions. I had to ask myself "how did these young boys come to believe that they know so much more about how the world works when they obviously live in a minority of white privilege and wealth?" Where does this severe, close minded, resistance to sustainability come from?
Jill, wonderful comments on Majora's fabulous lecture. I feel like these guys failed to realize that NYC would have been forced to build grey infrastructure for stormwater management. Would they expect private companies to do it? And the city government would have not hired the poor and unemployed from the Bronx to do that. Instead, Majora and her team did something else, something better, more just, and sustainable. I'm sad that their parents or teachers have instilled in them that government spending is always bad...even though there are some things that only government has the authority to do.
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