Sustainable South Bronx (SSBx) is a non-profit environmental justice organization in New York City's South Bronx neighborhood, founded and led by Majora Carter.[1] The organization spearheaded the creation of Hunt's Point Riverside Park, the first piece of the projected South Bronx Greenway; it is also involved in "green roof" projects, and has a program called Bronx Environmental Stewardship Program (B.E.S.T.) a skills training program focused on what Majora Carter calls "green-collar jobs", such as ecological restoration, hazardous waste cleanup, and landscaping: the program has a 90% placement ratio. They are also proposing a Bronx Recycling Center as an alternative use for a piece of land where the city government currently wants to construct a prison, and are engaged in developing "a collection of businesses in which the waste and byproducts of one business are the raw materials for another one."[1] Sustainable South Bronx Sustainable South Bronx(SSB) is a community-led environmental justice advocacy organization working to improve the environment. Working with others, it contributed to a turnaround in the neighborhood, which saw rapid population increases in the 1990's. SSBx President and CEO, Majora Carter, a 2005 MacArthur Fellow, has been instrumental in bringing government, corporate, and foundation money into the area to build two new waterfront parks along the Bronx River at Lafayette Avenue, and along the East River at the end of Tiffany Street, providing the first formalized waterfront access in 60 years to a newly-resurgent community. In addition, SSBx runs the Bronx Environmental Stewardship Training (BEST) program, which takes qualifying students through 12 weeks of intensive training covering everything from tree pruning to OSHA brownfield remediation to estuary maintenance to job/life skills. This program is gives local residents a personal and financial stake in the management of their local environment. In Dec 2006, Mitsubishi International Corp contributed $150,000 to expand this successful endeavor. Above their offices in the historic American Banknote Building is the SSBx Cool and Greenroof Demonstration Project - the first such roof in the City of New York. Greenroofs mitigate Urban Heat Island Effect, retain storm water runoff from overwhelming the city sewerage system and dumping into the rivers, and provide local jobs for installation and maintenance. In 2007, SSBx launched the for-profit SmartRoofs, LLC green roof installation business. Majora Carter has been the driving force behind the South Bronx Greenway plan. Starting with a $1.25M federal transportation grant she wrote to design the project with acclaimed landscape architects Matthews-Nielsen, over $20M has been secured for first phase projects to go up in early 2008.
Notes
- ^ a b Cynthia E. Rockwell, "Breaking the Grip of Poverty", Wesleyan (Wesleyan University alumni magazine), Issue IV 2006, 33–37.
