Hundreds streamed into St. Mary’s Park for the fourth annual South Bronx Earth Fest on April 16 for music, dancing and educational events, but one thing was clear: the environment was center stage.

Green-themed games abounded, such as a Butterfly Project table, where kids crawled around while learning about butterfly habitats, and Materials for the Arts, in which children created masks from recycled materials, with the help of the city’s Department of Cultural Affairs.

Members of the group GrowNYC provided recycling demonstrations and helped kids make solar ovens out of tin foil and pizza boxes. Although rainy conditions didn’t allow 12-year-olds Wasan Bonilla and Gavin Thomas from Mott Haven to make s’mores, , they were among dozens of kids busy crafting ovens.
“I think it’s great, because it’s helping people go green and help the Earth. It’s very helpful to show people how to help the Earth,” said Bonilla.

Contestants were required to get stamped by one of the many volunteers working the tables, in order to win a prize. In turn, the volunteers helped educate them about the environment.

“It’s not just a one-shot deal,” said John H. Johnson III of GrowNYC, which helped organize this year’s festival. “We want to make sure that people walk away with something other than a prize and free food, but some information and knowledge on how to make the planet a much better place.”

On the other side of the pavilion, volunteers staffed prize tables with books, frisbees and organic snacks, while two Green Carts loaded with mangos, apples and other produce added a nutritional component.

Mott Haven resident Donnie Jones Wilson came to spend the day doing something positive with his family. “I like the fact that it’s a positive thing, and I can bring my children out here and not have to worry about any negativity going on,” he said. “It’s just a good day. Even though it’s cloudy, it’s a great day.”

He said Global Man was his favorite part of the day, and he wasn’t alone. The green-masked avenger mingled with the crowd and pointed out litter. That needed to be thrown out. And he brought green-masked young acolytes along, to help him recruit newer members.

“I think the young people that support, educate, walk around and clean-up and recycle,” said Jean Pierre LaCour who played Global Man, “it shows a lot of faith that young people really believe what we’re doing.”
His message — that everyone can be a superhero for the environment — seemed especially plausible, as volunteers at every table recommended different ways for festival attendees to green the environment.

Adam Liebowitz, director of community development for Hunts Point’s The POINT CDC, told the crowd about some of that organization’s current initiatives, including teaching urban agriculture, helping plan construction and implementation of the South Bronx Greenway project along the East River, and launching a community garden in Hunts Point that will offer low-cost, locally-grown vegetables for low-income residents.

Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz, Jr. praised the volunteers, saying, “It really shows that we can care about Mother Earth,” he said,” pointing out projects such as the vertical farming project at Discovery High School, where students grow food.

Rain forced some tables to pack up early, but a committed crowd sought shelter under a tent while watching environmentally-themed performances like a hip-hop performance by Wildlife/ATM.

Despite the damp chill and dark skies, activists for the environment were undaunted. Marta Rodriguez, who administers a green jobs training program at Sustainable South Bronx in Hunts Point, got through the afternoon just fine. “It’s just Mother Nature telling us she’s giving back, so we have to give back to her,” said Rodriguez.

The Mott Haven Farmers Market at Padre Plaza Success Garden, Saint Ann’s Avenue and E. 139th Street, will bring organic produce from farmers in New York and New Jersey to shoppers every Wednesday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. through Nov. 3. Sponsored by Sustainable South Bronx and managed by Padre Plaza Community Garden, the market plays host to Wassaic Community Farm, Trinity Farms and Nolasco Farms and also sells baked goods prepared by Stylish Cakes and Javin Curtin. The Mott Haven Farmers Market accepts EBT Cards and WIC Vouchers. Shoppers can also take advantage of the city Health Department’s Health Bucks program and receive one health buck (worth $2) for every $5 spent.

Free modern dance classes for teens will be offered at the Betances Community Center, East 146th Street and St. Ann’s Avenue, from July 15 – August 19. The classes, for boys and girls 13-17 years old, will meet on Thursdays from 6:30-7:45 p.m. Call 212-204-6518 to register and for information.

Children gather around a newly-planted cherry tree.Photo courtesy of Friends of Brook Park

Hip-hop and Afro-Latin dance are on the agenda of St. Mary’s Park, with performances on June 25 and 26 at 7 p.m. and a family day celebration at noon on June 27.

A Mott Haven company, Bronx County Recycling, LLC “dumped dangerous construction debris” in an illegal landfill upstate, charged Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, who announced a criminal indictment against the company and its owner Salvatore Cascino.

A dog run is under construction in St. Mary’s Park, at the corner of St. Mary’s Street and Cypress Avenue, thanks to the efforts of the South Bronx Dog Owner’s Group.

As Sustainable South Bronx prepares to open the farmers market at Padre Plaza Success Garden, the organization’s Greenway Stewards have worked with trainees enrolled in the Bronx Justice Corps program to replace the gazebo roof, as part of a 10-week partnership with the Justice Corps.

Global Man, the South Bronx environmental super hero, rallies the crowd at the beginning of the Get Green Earth Day festival in St. Mary's Park on April 24Photo by Nicholas Loomis

The Bronx throws a party for Earth Day’s 40th birthday

Legendary emcee Grandmaster Caz has been packing parties in the South Bronx since 1974, but none quite like the one at St. Mary’s Park in Mott Haven for this year’s Earth Day on April 24. .

Soundslide by Nick Loomis

By noon on the beautiful spring day, the crowd was already dancing to the Staple Singers’ “I’ll take you there”–courtesy of DJ Jazzy Jay on the wheels of steel.
 
“Aw yeah, that’s what we’re gonna do,” boomed Caz’s amplified voice. “We’re gonna take you to a greener planet!”
 
One of the founding fathers of hip-hop, Caz said he was honored to be the emcee for the third annual GetGreen South Bronx Earth Fest in celebration of the 40th anniversary of Earth Day.
 
On the first Earth Day in 1970, few would have imagined that the South Bronx would not only celebrate environmentalism, but, in many ways be taking a leading role in the green revolution.

Among the organizations represented at the Earth Fest, were Melrose-based Nos Quedamos, which has led the way for Melrose Commons to become the first neighborhood in New York State to be honored by the U.S. Green Building Council for its environmentally-sensitive business practices.

The federal Environmental Protection Agency has just honored another participant, the Hunts Point-based Sustainable South Bronx, which pioneered the creation of the South Bronx Greenway. When it is completed, it will be a recreational trail dotted with new parks extending from the Bronx River to the Port Morris waterfront and a bridge to Randall’s Island.

More than 40 other local organizations and businesses set up tables at the event. To encourage children to visit and learn, each child who came by got a stamp that could be cashed for prizes like reusable water bottles, pens and plants for community gardens.

Four live birds attracted crowds throughout the day to the Urban Divers Estuary Conservancy table. The birds, all found near the city’s waterways, drew flocks off children.

“The idea here is to try to inspire kids to think about nature a little bit,” said Ludger Balan, the conservancy’s executive environmental program director. “There’s nature in our urban environment, and we’re teaching them a way to appreciate it, learn about it, and hopefully inspire them to become some of the future stewards of this environment.”

“We think that children are at the prime age to absorb this information and teach their parents,” said Andrea Schaffer principal of CityMatters LLC and the event’s chief organizer. “But you have to start young so that it becomes ingrained, second nature to recycle and reuse materials instead of consuming and throwing out.”

Jehlani Bowers, 6, of Mott Haven got the message. She attended GetGreen for the second year in a row with her mother, Nedra Bowers. Jehlani bounced from activity to activity with a painted face, accumulating enough stamps for a plant for their community garden.

“It’s actually helping her out in school because they’re going through, with Earth Day, how we recycle and how we save and how we reuse. So she’s making that connection with being here today,” her mother said.

Participants in a SoBRO after-school program climbed on stage to compete in a “Music Gets Me Green” contest, performing a song they wrote accompanied by a music video. “I like music and I found the opportunity,” said Lenny Nivar, 14, who is in the 10th grade at Green Dot New York Charter School. Along with Ricardo Korsah, 16, Nivar, who came to the United States from the Dominican Republic when he was 9, performed a rap song with some verses in English and others in Spanish.

SoBRO provided the prizes, as well—four cardboard trophies in the shape of trees. It took 30 students in its Education for Life program two weeks to make the trees, said Evalina Ruiz, a 22-year old who is working toward her GED at the community organization. “You have to cut, you have to paste, you have to just really be dedicated to it,” she said.

As the Bronx Borough President’s Office and the city’s Office of Recycling Outreach and Education teamed up to hold a recycling drive to collect old cell phones, computers, printers, TVs, used clothing and sneakers, the music continue on stage.

One group in the music competition ended its performance with a variation of a chant as old as hip-hop itself, and almost as old as Earth Day.

“When I say ‘get,’ ya’ll say ‘Green.’”

“Get.”

“Green.”

“Get.”

“Green.”

Alex Green IV contributed reporting to this story.

The Consortium for Worker Education will use the money to establish a Center for Environmental Workforce Training to teach both job skills and offer general education.

The organization will partner with several non-profit organizations, including Mott Haven-based SoBro and Greenworker Cooperatives to train residents to build or retrofit energy-efficient buildings.

Most of the participants will “learn how to work with their hands—being able to fix things,” said Rebecca Lurie, director of development at the consortium.

Jobs will include window installation and building repair, installing insulation and repairing or installing boilers, she said Some participants in the program will also learn to conduct energy audits and market energy upgrades to building owners,

Lurie said the consortium hoped to launch the program, which will last for two years, within a month.

Sustainable South Bronx and The Point CDCthe Osborne Association, the Association for Energy Affordability, the Bronx Overall Economic Development Corp. and Bronx Community College’s Project Hire will also serve as partners in the program, which was hailed by Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. as “a big step toward becoming the ‘greenest’ borough in New York City.”

All told, the program, which is funded by the U.S. Department of Labor, aims to provide training and education services for 425 participants, while placing 297 of those who receive a degree or certificate in jobs.

The photograph shows the Randall’s Island Connector under construction at the Amtrak viaduct in Port Morris. A rendering, below, shows what the site will look like when work is completed.

But a controversial proposal could keep playing fields off-limits

By Lindsay Lazarski
lindsay.lazarski@motthavenherald.com

Elected officials and the Parks Department describe Randall’s Island as an invaluable resource, and boast that its waterfront pathways provide scenic views and “increased access” to recreation “for the neighboring communities of East Harlem and the South Bronx.”

But the island, only a stone’s throw from the Bronx, has been reachable only from Manhattan or by driving over the Triborough Bridge–until now.

In two years the South Bronx Connector; a 1.5 mile pathway for pedestrians and bicyclists, will open under the historic Amtrak trestle on Randall’s Island making newly- renovated fields, a new tennis center and Icahn Stadium easier for South Bronx residents to reach.

But a controversial decision to restrict use of the fields to private schools on school-day afternoons will keep the facilities off-limits then, despite the new route from Port Morris to the island.

And boaters have complained that the footbridge and Con Edison utility cables underneath the bridge will make navigation at high tide difficult.

Nevertheless construction of the connector nearly a decade after its conception wins applause from local advocates.

“The South Bronx Connector is long overdue,” said Arline Parks, chair of the Land Use Committee of Community Board 1. “For the first time, we are seeing the kind of development that reshapes our area of the Bronx and gives us an opportunity to have a better hold on the community.”

The connector is part of the South Bronx Greenway project, a network of green streets and waterfront trails and parks in Hunts Point and Port Morris, which has gotten a boost from $22 million in federal stimulus funds and is scheduled to be completed in the fall of 2012.

Phase 1 of the connector, a footbridge over the Bronx Kill, located just south of 132^nd street in Port Morris, is nearly done.

Construction of the bridge is expected to be completed by the end of the summer, but the pathway will not be open to pedestrians and bikers until the full project is completed in the fall of 2011, said Janel Patterson a spokeswoman for the New York City Economic Development Corporation.

Con Ed will incorporate new electrical equipment on the underside of the connector to upgrade power for Icahn Stadium, the Fire Department training center, and a water treatment plant on the island, said Con Ed spokesman Chris Olert.

“Con Ed hijacked the bridge project,” charges Harry Bubbins, director of Friends of Brook Park, which is threatening a lawsuit over the obstacle to boaters.

The cables on the South Bronx Connector are not the only source of controversy.

The Randall’s Island Sports Foundation, a public-private partnership, and the parks department are building new sports fields and renovating existing ones. They will almost double the number of fields on the island, to 66.

But local residents may be barred from using those fields some of the time.

To pay for the maintenance and upkeep of the new fields, the parks department has proposed a concession agreement with 20 independent private schools in Manhattan.

In exchange for $2.2 million, the private schools would receive guaranteed permits for half the fields from 3-6 p.m. during the spring and fall.

Public schools and community-based organization would receive 40 percent of the permits and the remaining 10 percent would be left for other applicants.

The proposal is a second effort to fund the ball fields project through concessions to the private schools.

In 2008, State Supreme Court Justice Shirley Kornreich ruled the plan had not followed the proper public review process and overturned the agreement.

Council Member Melissa Mark-Viverito, whose district includes part of Mott Haven and Randall’s Island, said the new proposal has made some progress, but added she still has philosophical concerns over the privatization of public parkland.

“It is an issue of access and equity in my eyes,” said Mark-Viverito at a public hearing. “We believe in public-private partnerships, and that is important in this city, but we have to ensure that those public-private partnerships don’t create inequities within our communities.”

Hear Geoffrey Croft's take on the process and environmental impact of the plan

 Geoffrey Croft, the president of New York City Park Advocates, said he did not see much of a difference between the initial proposal and the latest one.  

“The whole definition and purpose of public parkland is that they’re supposed to be public, and not be able to be bought by any group, rich or poor,” said Croft.  “Everyone is into making deals and concessions, but that is not what the purpose of a public park is. They are supposed to be open to everybody.”

But Lou Schlanger, athletic director at the South Bronx Campus high schools and director of the Randall’s Island Kids Summer Camp, defended the arrangement.

“Everybody is not satisfied and wished they had more time, but nobody would have anything without the foundations initiatives.  The island still would have been a sand box with broken glass and everything.”

“Whatever the deal is,” he added, “It is a win for everybody.”

The swamp is a fetid, four-block long stew of garbage and stagnant water

Mosquitoes swarming from a garbage-filled, four-block long stretch of stagnant water plague residents of nearby apartments all summer

By Lindsay Lazarski
lindsay.lazarski@motthavenherald.com

Gloria Hidalgo likes living in her quiet building on 142^nd Street. The rent is reasonable; her neighbors are hard-working people, her sister and two nieces live three floors below her and Hostos Community College, where she is studying to become an accountant, is just blocks away.

But a rotten smell, just five stories below her windows may force Hidalgo to move.

The foul odor rises from a river of murky sludge–three feet deep and littered with plastic bags, broken beer bottles, planks of decaying wood, and abandoned basketballs–oozes along four blocks from Southern Boulevard and 142^nd Street to the fields of St. Mary’s Park.

Residents have dubbed the filthy concoction of standing water and garbage the Bronx Swamp.

“It smells horrendous,” said Walter Nash, a community leader who organized a protest on March 27 to demand that the swamp be drained and cleaned of all garbage.

“There is all manner of bugs, rats, and dead animals down there, but the main thing we’re scared of are the mosquitoes. If there is West Nile virus we are going to be the first ones to get it. The bugs are feasting off of the dead animals down there,” Nash said.

“We need help,” pleaded Hidalgo as she pointed out a rat that scurried from a trash can outside of her building to the standing swamp. “I want to live in this area, but if it is like this, I plan to move somewhere else.”

Nash said it’s been seven years since the swamp was drained last and that the city needs to take responsibility for keeping the area clean.

“Had this been down on Park Avenue, Fifth Avenue, or close to the mayor’s office this would have been gone day one,” he said.

The property is owned by a real estate company called Metropolitan 47 LLC, according to the city Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, which sprayed insecticide because of the danger of mosquitoes last year. The firm has been issued several violations for standing water, but has failed to appear at any hearings, according to a health department spokeswoman, Celina De Leon.

Any time there is standing water there is the potential for it to become a breeding ground for insects and harmful bacteria, explained Jamie Stein, an environmental analyst from Sustainable South Bronx.

As for the mosquitoes, Stein said they are always a nuisance and can become a more serious problem. Mosquitoes that feast on dead birds can transmit West Nile Virus, a disease that has killed two dozen New Yorkers over the last 10 years, and cost the city millions in a controversial program of spraying insecticide from the air.

Amando Mendez, a father of three who has lived for 10 years in one of the many residential buildings that overlook the swamp, said the mosquitoes become unbearable in the summertime. He cannot enter the elevator and hallways of his building, or open the windows of his apartment without inviting a swarm of mosquitoes, accompanied by the rancid smell of the swamp.

Blisters and rashes from mosquito bites cover his daughters’ legs bellies and backs come summer, said Mendez.

Lots of young children live in her building, too, said Hidalgo. Her two nieces also get rashes and welts from mosquito bites, and often vomit and become sick with fevers, she said.

Walter Nash calls attention to the swamp and demands that it be cleaned and drained

Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum has called for immediate action to drain and clean the swamp.

In New York City, no one should have to live near something as filthy, and potentially dangerous, as this swamp,” said Gotbaum.

“In the past 10 years, 28 Bronx residents have tested positive for neuro-invasive disease due to West Nile Virus. This summer will bring swarms of mosquitoes–but we have received no assurances that this area will be safe and free of disease,” she said in a written statement.

Edwin Saltares, whose office is just feet away from the swamp said the area can be cleaned hundreds of times, but the problem will persist and become progressively worse with every rainfall as long as there is no permanent drainage system.

Stein agreed, “The real approach would be to remove the water and regrade the surface so as to not have a problem anymore.”

As for residents who will be plagued by mosquitoes until then, Mendez said he will continue to spray himself with mosquito repellent whether he’s inside his apartment or outside his building and will consider moving his family somewhere else.

The route of the South Bronx Greenway and connections to it.

The greenway will follow the waterfront in Hunts Point and Port Morris, connecting to the soon-to-be-built Randall’s Island bridge, Barretto Point Park with its floating swimming pool, a planned park near the Fulton Fish Market and Hunts Point Riverside Park. Devised by local community groups, the greenway plan was embraced by the city in 2006, when Bloomberg formally unveiled the master plan.

The plan’s proponents see the greenway not only as a way to reclaim the waterfront and make their communities more attractive, but as a way to improve the health of residents in neighborhoods where diabetes and heart disease are epidemics.

They hope the Greenway will encourage residents to walk and bicycle for exercise. “One reason people struggle with obesity in the South Bronx is the lack of opportunity to exercise safely outdoors,” argues Sustainable South Bronx, which spearheaded the planning for the trail. People in Mott Haven and Hunts Point don’t feel safe outside, said Miquela Craytor, the executive director of Sustainable South Bronx. “We want to create a safe way to be active.”

Majora Carter, Craytor’s predecessor as head of Sustainable South Bronx, played a leading role in conceiving the Greenway and pressing the city to build it. Carter obtained a $1.25 million federal transportation grant and enlisted The Point Community Development Corporation and the city’s Economic Development Corporation to join in the study that produced the trail’s design.

“In 1997, The Point came to my office requesting my support for the creation of a ‘green necklace’ around the Hunts Point and Port Morris neighborhoods, Rep. Jose Serrano recalled when the master plan was unveiled. “At the time, the concept of a ‘South Bronx Greenway’ seemed outlandish to many,” he continued, as he noted his own contribution to funding the plan.

Building the Greenway will be one of six projects citywide that will benefit from the federal stimulus program. The feds will provide a $22 million infusion of funds, nearly half the nearly $49 million needed to complete the project. “The federal stimulus dollars mean that we can move projects that would have been on the chopping block and get shovels in the ground quickly,” said the mayor.

Majora Carter speaking at last year's Earth Day celebration in Mott Haven

Plans had called for the academy to be located in the South Bronx

By Prakirti Nangia
news@motthavenherald.com

The city Department of Education has rejected a proposal to create a high school based on the ideas of the founder of Sustainable South Bronx and devoted to training students for jobs that can improve the environment.

The Majora Carter Achievement Academy was the brainchild of its namesake, the former executive director of the environmental justice organization. More than two years in the making, the proposal was developed by Stephen Ritz, an award-winning teacher and coordinator of student affairs at the Millennium Art Academy in the East Bronx.

It had won letters of support from Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrion, Jr., Baruch College, Mothers on the Move, the Bronx River Alliance and even former President Bill Clinton, among others, but in December, the education department dropped it from the list of 100 applicants whose ideas for new schools it was considering.

Plans called for the academy to be located in the South Bronx and be open to all New York City students. Ritz said sites in and near Hunts Point were among those under consideration.

Curriculum choices for students included classes in installing green roofs, restoring wetlands and identifying plants, as well as classes emphasizing hazardous waste cleanup, auto shop safety and engine performance. Students would graduate with training certificates in the specialty of their choice.

The South Bronx would serve as a real-life classroom, according to the proposal. Majora Carter Academy students would be paired with community organizations to provide both work experience and engagement with urban and environmental issues.

The students were to have access to Sustainable South Bronx’s FabLab, the facility housed next door to Hunts Point Riverside Park designed by the Massachusetts Institute of Techonology to enable users to translate digital designs into physical reality.

They were also to be able to take part in Pratt Institute’s Design Incubator for Sustainable Innovation, a program that provides support and guidance to designers, artists and architects.

Ritz said Fortune 100 and 500 publishing and technology companies had pledged to provide internships and jobs for graduates.

Melody Meyer, a spokeswoman for the Department of Education, said the Majora Carter Achievement Academy “will not open in September because it failed to meet our criteria,” which included “the academic merits of the proposal, and the ability of the people in the proposing team to lead a school that will successfully educate students.”

“The entire MCAA team is sad that, at this time, this great city is not interested in our ability to turn people previously thought of as ‘problems’ into heroes of green infrastructure,” Carter said in a statement.

Ritz said he was “appalled” at the city’s decision.

The education department invited about three-quarters of applicants to interviews about their proposals. The Majora Carter Achievement Academy was one of the few that was not, said Ritz.

He speculated that budget concerns, lack of space, or simply a “threatening” grassroots movement may have informed the city’s decision.

“The fact that we named it after Majora, while important to us, probably was a problem for DOE. We were told off the record that a different more palatable name would have gotten us in the door!” he said in an email.

“Sadly DOE and city politics have always had more to do with what happens than the best interests of children.”

Carter and Sustainable South Bronx have frequently clashed with the city over its decisions to build unwelcome facilities in poor neighborhoods. The organization was born from a battle to keep a waste transfer station out of Hunts Point; more recently Sustainable South Bronx has been outspoken in its opposition to building a jail.

But the city and the organization have also cooperated on such projects as the South Bronx Greenway, an idea first advanced by Carter.

Ritz said his team abandoned a similar proposal in its early stages two years ago because the Department of Education wanted the school to be built in Brooklyn. He and Carter insisted on the Bronx.

Damian Griffin, the education director at the Bronx River Alliance, said students in the South Bronx feel the “schools aren’t there for them. They are just some place to keep them.”

In its recommendation letter to Schools Chancellor Joel Klein, the Bronx River Alliance supported the Majora Carter Achievement Academy because it felt there was a great need for “providing academic venues for those who do not fit into the traditional academic confines of the present.”

Kellie Terry-Sepulveda, executive managing director of The Point CDC, praised the grassroots nature of the school, saying, “Oftentimes we have millions of schools coming into our neighborhood and they’re not from our neighborhood. I’m all for community-based solutions.”
The proposal was in fact “an outgrowth of many years of community organizing,” said Ritz.

The idea for the school emerged from a belief that “privilege or zip code should not entitle you to a better education or limit your access,” Ritz said. It was all about “finding a sustainable opportunity indigenous to the community.”

Team MCAA is not yet giving up, said Ritz. It plans to reapply to the department next year and meanwhile is considering proposals from other South-Bronx based high schools that have invited the Academy to start a program on their campuses.

“I firmly believe that not now does not mean not ever,” said Ritz.