NYC: Smart Growth Ideas

New York City is a very big city, home to millions of people. NYC is also home to many minorities, but they are usually in slums or are not given any basic living standards. Smart growth can easily help with this issue. Environmental cleanup can help African Americans and other minorities deal with leaking underground storage tanks. The New Brownfield Act can also deal with cleanup of environmentally dangerous places, most of which are near slums or disadvantaged communities. Making laws to prevent white New Yorkers from moving from black communities will prevent sprawl in the city. These laws will make city life much easier for everyone.




This chart from National Equity Atlas shows how the minority group in NYC has grown over the years. It is at a point where the minorities outnumber the white Americans. This is all the more reason to try to help these groups to live better lives.

Environmental Justice Chapter Reflections #2

This selections of chapters got a lot of different reactions from me. The chapter on development of cities surprised me the most. I had always assumed development of cities was the same for all sections. Then again, if that were true, slums probably would not exist. As for the rest of the chapters, the info didn't really surprise me that much. Learning about the MPOs was fun and enlightening. All the info on renewable energy, and damage form Hurricane Katrina was still things I had some knowledge of. All of that only proves that cities need to be developed to deal with the issues of the time. They need to protect everyone from dangerous storms, combat using fossil fuels, and better city planing will make life better for everyone.

Environmental Justice Chapter Reflections #1

A common thread I found in all of the chapters was the mistreatment of minorities. Whether they were latino or black, it was the same story; they were either living in terrible industrial areas, had poor food options, or suffered from general race issues. Admittedly I knew about this stuff for a while, and it will only get better if we work together. The people and the government need to step up and do something about this. I'm sure plenty of people want to live in a world where everyone is treated fairly.

NYC Master Plan: Transportation

In New York City, one of the main issues the city plans to tackle is transportation. NYC is a huge city with millions of people so improvements must be made to make it better. Among the many initiatives the city has, they plan to improve existing transit services, expand the city's bike network and transit network, improve roads, highways and bridges, make transportation safer for people of disabilities, etc. As NYC is a huge city, transportation and traffic is a huge problem. If these improvements are made, perhaps things will get better for the people living there.







#One NYC: The Plan for a Strong and Just City, 2015. http://www1.nyc.gov/html/onenyc/visions/growth/goal-6-growth.html#initiatives

NYC Environmental Justice Alliance

In NYC, there is a nonprofit organization called NYC Environmental Justice Alliance. Their job is to work with other organizations in NYC to improve environmental conditions and attack environmental  burdens. These goals are to help minorities in equal living conditions. A number of projects that try to   do in NYC is the Waterfront Justice Program, Solid Waste Management Plan, developing brownfield areas, and making the city more environmental friendly with various promotion (Climate March) and brining green jobs to the city. All of these things are very important to NYC. Since the city is one of the largest of the world, there are a lot of minorities in the city. Giving equality to those people will follow the city to move forward and be a better place.

Environmental Justice: What is it?

Environmental justice is giving people fair rights of living. These people in need of help are minorities that often get the short end of the stick when it comes to the standard of living. They deal with issues such as poverty, poor air quality, segregation, living in poor neighborhood, no access to a vehicle, and many more. For these reasons, countless people are trying to give minorities the rights they deserved since day one.

Reacting to An Inconvenient Truth

In all honesty, this film doesn't really surprise me. The information was nothing new; I had previously learned about everything discussed in the film from previous classes and experiences. However, the film did hammer the point of climate change and the need to do something to fix the situation. As a future environment scientist, I plan to convince others to change the world and protect the environment. This is certainly something we need to address and tackle in order to preserve the way of life. Things are changing way too quickly; we need do something about climate change now to make the world a better place.

Sources:

David, L., Bender, L., & Burns, S. Z. (Producers), & Guggenheim, D. (Director). (2006). An Inconvenient Truth [Motion Picture]. United States: Paramount Classics.