At a Climate Justice Fashion Show, the Kids Prove They're Gonna Be All Right

There’s not a ton of room for environmental optimism these days—optimism in general seems to have taken a leave of absence in the Trump age—but that wasn’t the case at the 6th annual Climate Justice Youth Summit (CJYS), hosted by UPROSE, a Latino community-based organization based in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. The summit billed itself as “the largest gathering of young people of color discussing the future of climate change in the country,” and around midday, hundreds of attendees aged six to 18 cheerfully packed tight into a light-filled chapel in Morningside Heights’ Union Theological Seminary for one of the day’s highlights: a fashion show.

Samuel Blackwood & Makayla Comas of UPROSE - The Importance of Environmental Activism

The Karen Hunter Show teaches the keys to entrepreneurial success in the industries of sports, politics, entertainment and so much more, directly from the celebrities and civilians who have personally created brands from the ground up. Hear the Karen Hunter Show on SiriusXM Urban View on-demand, channel 126

Jóvenes se preparan en Nueva York para enfrentar los retos del cambio Climático Loading

La capital del mundo recibirá a más de 700 estudiantes con motivo de la Cumbre de la Juventud de la Justicia Nacional Climática, un encuentro que busca preparar a los sectores más vulnerables frente a los efectos del cambio climático. Elizabeth Yeampierre, directora ejecutiva de Uprose, indicó que este fenómeno “está afectando a nuestras comunidades y va a tener un impacto desastroso en esta generación”, razón que motivó el encuentro.

BQX Back On Track After Union, Housing Rally

The controversial proposed Brooklyn-Queens Connector (BQX) streetcar project got back on track yesterday with the 42,000-member strong Transport Workers Union (TWU) Local 100 holding a rally at NYCHA’s Red Hook Houses in support of the transportation plan.

According to the plan, the BQX will start in Sunset Park and will run through Gowanus, Red Hook, Cobble Hill, Brooklyn Heights, Downtown Brooklyn, DUMBO, Vinegar Hill, The Navy Yard, Williamsburg, Greenpoint before heading to Long Island City and ending in Astoria. The 16-mile route along the East River waterfront corridor is planned to run 24-hours-a-day with five-minute intervals at peak hours with stops a half-mile apart.

AN OPEN LETTER TO TRANSIT WORKERS UNION (TWU) LOCAL 100

Dear Mr. Samuelsen,

UPROSE has had a long and positive history of working with Transit Workers Union Local 100 and supporting transit workers’ campaigns, including in our successful joint effort to restore B37 bus service. I am writing to express our deep disappointment that TWU has decided to endorse the city’s proposed Brooklyn-Queens Connector (BQX). The BQX has generated considerable debate and community resistance along the proposed corridor. In particular, it has sparked significant concern about the influence of the real estate lobby over public projects, governmental accountability, how infrastructure projects are financed, working-class displacement, and climate resiliency. With a price-tag of $2.5 billion and growing, the streetcar is being pushed by a consortium of elite waterfront real estate developers with stakes along the proposed corridor. The financing of this infrastructure depends primarily on inflating property values along the route, which has led City Hall staffers to quietly refer to the streetcar as the Gentrification Express. It is troubling to see a labor union like TWU throw its support behind a project that spells unnecessary struggle for working-class New Yorkers.

For decades UPROSE has led on issues of transportation planning, waterfront resiliency, and anti-displacement. Locally, we spearhead Protect Our Working Waterfront Alliance (POWWA), a broad coalition of residents, businesses, labor, housing advocates, faith leaders, and others committed to preserving the industrial character of Sunset Park and preventing displacement. TWU workers live along the proposed BQX corridor in working-class communities – from Astoria to Red Hook to Sunset Park. Because of its regressive financing model, the BQX would pose a direct threat of displacement to union members living along the route. Moreover, alternative mass surface transit options like expanded Bus Rapid Transit would be guaranteed to generate transportation employment without the threats of gentrification and displacement. Moreover, there is no guarantee of transfer between the BQX and MTA transit like subways and buses. What this does is instate a two-fare zone for riders along the corridor, entirely excluding NYCHA residents and other low-income and working-class commuters that require a transfer. Finally, because we truly believe that mass surface transit is at the heart of the economic development and our city’s climate needs, we should not be supporting waterfront transit projects that are so inflexible in extreme weather.

Now more than ever, with a federal administration trampling workers’ rights and environmental justice, it is imperative that labor unions and grassroots community organizations build bonds of solidarity. Our institutions need to form strategic partnerships to push back against unaccountable corporate interests that imperil economic, social, and environmental justice. Your members live in our community; the battles that we wage – over workers’ rights, affordable housing, and climate justice – depend on our forging policy alignment that put our people and our workers first.

With the above in mind, I strongly urge you to reconsider your endorsement of the BQX. We would be happy to meet at your convenience to discuss how we might build consensus around just transportation policy that serves our shared goals and agendas. Please do not hesitate to contact me at elizabeth@uprose.org or 718-492-9307.

Sincerely,

Elizabeth Yeampierre

Executive Director

Puerto Rican Day Parade Honoree: ‘A Bad Guy.’ ‘Why Not?’

Two weeks before the 60th annual Puerto Rican Day Parade in New York City, Andrés Otero was his own grand marshal of the Loisaida Festival, a neighborhood celebration on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Decked head to toe in the colors of the Puerto Rican flag on Sunday, he drove down the middle of Avenue C in a red scooter festooned with stickers of conga drums and roosters. Read More

Fighting Gentrification on Brooklyn’s Waterfront

Underneath the hum of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, crowds file past Third Avenue towards Sunset Park’s repurposed waterfront factories. No, they won’t be clocking in to the assembly line for an eight-hour day of union wages — they’ll be mixing with peers at a $75-a-head wine tasting then wandering Industry City’s open art studios, faces flushed with drink instead of sweat.

True Climate Justice Puts Communities of Color First

The day before the People’s Climate March in Washington, DC, Preyton Lambert—skinny, dreadlocked and sporting black-frame glasses—was getting hustled on a boulevard near the National Mall. Another boy restrained his arms, before throwing him to the ground. His cheek pressed against the pavement. Two girls recorded the encounter on their phones as a crowd looked on.

Sunset Parkers clash over Fourth Avenue bike lane

This is going to be an uphill battle.

A panel of Sunset Parkers clashed over the city’s plan to connect the nabe with Downtown via a bike lane along Fourth Avenue — with some calling it “rolling gentrifica­tion,” and others hailing it for giving transportation-starved Southern Brooklynites more options — leaving locals grinding gears over whether the path is right for the nabe.

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CityView: As They Rally Around Rezonings, Planners Often ‘Plansplain’

On May 2, City Limits published an opinion piece by long-term New York City planner Sandy Hornick about Mayor de Blasio’s housing plan titled “Misconceptions Drive Opposition to de Blasio’s Housing Plan.” The essay argued that protesters at recent zoning hearings fundamentally misunderstand not only the mayor’s plan, but the very idea of planning itself. Rezonings don’t cause gentrification, Hornick argued, and the best way to bring down rents it is to allow developers to keep building more.

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Must-See Tweets From the People's Climate March

Organizers estimate more than 150,000 people showed up, despite record-breaking heat in Washington, D.C.

The March to Save the Planet

Saturday’s Peoples Climate March brought together activists from indigenous resistance groups to Black Lives Matter to the Boy Scouts, all demanding: Act now.

MERKLEY, SANDERS, MARKEY, BOOKER INTRODUCE LANDMARK LEGISLATION TO TRANSITION UNITED STATES TO 100% CLEAN AND RENEWABLE ENERGY

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Oregon’s Senator Jeff Merkley and Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT), along with Senator Edward J. Markey (D-MA) and Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ), introduced landmark climate legislation that would transition the United States to 100% clean and renewable energy by no later than 2050.

100% Clean Energy Bill Launched by Senators to Phase Out Fossil Fuels by 2050

Ahead of the People's Climate March, Senators Jeff Merkley, Bernie Sanders and Ed Markey stood beside movement leaders to introduce legislation that will completely phase out fossil fuel use by 2050. The "100 by '50 Act" outlines a bold plan to support workers and to prioritize low-income communities while replacing oil, coal and gas with clean energy sources like wind and solar.