[Note: Most of this is notes of what Majora was saying. My comments are peppered throughout. Probably indistinguishably.] Lots of people. Seems to be a good mix of Ann Arbor environmental-type community members, School of Natural Resource/Environment students, and people who have moving from event to event as part of the Symposium.

MacArthur fellow Majora Carter speaking at Dana Hall, the UM School of Natural Resources, 15th of January, 5pm 2006. Jointly sponsored by School of Natural Resources, Center for African American Studies and School of Social Work.

You guys are the future going forward, and you should take that very very seriously. poor people of color are, where all those waste facilities are that actually affect peoples lives. Exposure to burning oil, fossil fuels in cars, trucks and power plants. Dovetails odiously with prison construction. And based on number of children that are reading by grade 3? We’re told this is a great economy. And we’re told that all these young men of color are unemployable. The greening of our communities movement. Integrate the natural and urban systems in ways that augment systems for human purposes. Clean water, clean air, access to green open space and a safe place to be. Deficits in these areas are draining the profit out of our larger community. JK Galbraith said corporations exist to control markets, and often to replace them. They are large enough to form futures for themselves. Civil rights and economics are an integral part of our future. “Core city.”

South bronx core city: lowest ratio of parks to people. 0.5 acres per 1000 people. Minimum recommended: 2.5 acres per 1000. In the 1940s, mostly white working class. She blends the personal and the political/urban/sociological. From a photograph of her parents in the 1940s to photographs or white flight and a smiling, jovial Robert Moses with the tag “Robert Moses = Highway Addict.” As things deteriorated, banks would draw red lines around where they were not going to give loans. “I guess that’s where I come in.” And now we see a photograph of Majora as a baby. Many fires in her neighborhood, because landlords figured burning buildings down and collecting insurance money was easier than finding a buyer. Her father’s investment was made worthless. The history of institutional racism.

Prospects for kids: affected by their environment physically, spiritually, emotionally. [ed. One of the young children who asked questions at the end remembered that phrase, and repeated it word for word.] We are the canaries in the coal mines. E.J. communities are point sources for the kinds of problems we are trying to address with climate change struggles.

Hunts Point Park became the seed crystal for the South Bronx Greenway movement. A Community envisioned network of parks and paths that connect them to neighborhoods. Secured 20 million dollars. These physical improvements 1) inform public policy around placement of waste facilities which if done properly do not have to compromise the quality of life of nearby communities 2) provide owner operated small businesses that perpetuated entrepreneurism. This will pay back 10-fold. Training programs to help local participants learn skills for green collar jobs, creating both a personal and financial stake, helping them to attain well paying jobs.

Green and cool roofs. Cool roofs are highly reflective roofs. Green roofs absorb water which would otherwise go into sewage treatment plants nearby. Anything to decrease the volume of water going into those plants! Green roof installation program can become new business models for people in the community to go out into other (richer) communities and get paid.

How do they work in the context of being a grassroots org? hugoneu won NYC’s 20-year recycling contract. They’re the corporate partner for SSB. hugoneu has begun the recycling industrial park. rail and barge systems to move materials out, reducing diesel emissions. include the greenway as a part of it. all of this helps to deal with waste in the community without incurring the health damages. A new way to handle recyclable waste.

A recycling industrial park is not your typical neighborhood beautification project. But to a community that handles more than a 1/3 of the city’s trash, high unemployment (the park would bring 300-500 jobs), skyrocketing asthma rates. That vision is under imminent threat by the city’s plan to build a huge jail on that land.

she gives a beat here. Then: “What are they trying to say here?”

An environmental justice community like the south bronx is exposed to polycyclic aeresolized hydrocarbons. in CA, they plan how many jail cells they’re going to build by how many kids are reading by the 3rd grade. putting moral questions aside, the city says it’s a good indicator. As a society, we are BUILDING that market for prisons. The return on investment really isn’t bad. You don’t have to advertise, adn if the conditions are just right (just wrong) you’re going to have a repeat customer. It’s a government regulated, inefficient, ineffective, MARKET. A market. We could be creating markets for people and services that heal our community. People, educated and happy, with supportive and supported families.

Sewage sludge pelletizing plant has been less cooperative. Asthma rates spiked when they opened the plant. Purchased a small piece of stock in the corp to change what was going on. Introduce a stakeholder report (?), passing a resolution to get a report about breaking down the molecules in the output. Immediately, the CEO and corporate counsul tried to get them to back off, and yet 30% of shareholders said, “You need to listen to this.” 30% backed up Majora.

Maybe our shareholders like the corporate social responsibility image? People are starting to understand that just because I don’t see it, it’s still important. Corporations can be really willing to play the game, but you have to know which game they’re playing. Poor communities have a vested interest in seeing business do well.

Blight does not distinguish between the gems and the slag beneath the surface. You need a bunch of people dealing with a lot of spoons. Communities can benefit in step with the larger economy when we’re forging this kind of future. We need to collectively invest in a cycle that generates new ideas, less conflict, sustainable outcomes for everyone, from local community to country. We do that by applying the most care to the most damaged resources. WE will most enjoy this when we can forget that we had to talk about race and class, life and death in the same breath.

Because Dr. King was not the only one up on that mountaintop. I was there. And so were you.

Questions:
Gentrification: Understand that it’s an ownership society. And if you don’t own, you don’t have any rights. Working on land agreements, for example when SSB gets the highway torn down, secure some land use rights. And working with progressive developers (they are out there) who will stay involved with the buildings, the communities. In general, create opportunities for poor people to be less poor.

Nobody stands up here alone. Martin Luther King was not alone either. My mother, bless her soul, who was out there with a counter, counting how many diesel trucks pass through. Working with folk in NOLA. SSB and partners working to teach people how to stay healthy and clean.

The University of Chicago study came out on urban forests, and crime went down the more trees in the area. I said, “A tree is not just a tree!”

People were so demoralized. “This is hunt’s point. Where else are they going to build it?” They believed they deserved it, in some sense. Or at least put up with it. But when they got the MOTHERS to recognize that the REASON they were bringing their children to the emergency room to open up their airways was BECAUSE of these plants… that changed things.

Recycling center would use recyclable materials to CREATE 300-500 manufacturing jobs. Parks department will help to create small entrepreneurial opportunities. There are no bike repair shops in south bronx. No juice bars, etc.

After the presentation, I asked Majora about the role of technology in the work she does. Her response was fairly straightforward: make it allow folks to create something. The internet is great, but it’s basically (in her words) myspace. It’s a business card, and in general it doesn’t allow people to create new things that can help them raise up out of poverty. This seems to me a great litmus test for whether a technology will be useful in community work. Spimes to the rescue, I guess. But spimes aren’t the only new tech that could potential allow creation. I’m curious to see where Malcolm’s urban markup language ideas take me this semester. There may be spaces for the creation of objects outside of the physical. The creation of services, perhaps, to use a Hawken/Lovery idea? At any rate, I have been thrilled to attend this talk tonight. Majora was kind and gracious, and the question session included questions from a few children in the front row who were attending with their mother. The kids asked insightful, phenomenal questions and in general were much more composed, focused and brilliant than any of the adults in the room. The Martin Luther King Symposium continues over the next few weeks at the University of Michigan, so please come out and participate.