Developers back out of Industry City project amid opposition from stakeholders

Elizabeth Yeampierre of Uprose.org also expressed gratitude to those who helped win this battle.  Uprose is an intergenerational, multi-racial, nationally-recognized, women of color led, grassroots organization that promotes sustainability and resiliency through community organizing, education, leadership development and cultural/artistic expression in Brooklyn, NY.

Industry City - took 7 years of our life, no funding , but the ovaries to say Hell No - we wont let a developer get in the way of our climate future

Industry City Rezoning Plan Scrapped After Opposition

Progressives argued the plan for retail and hotels in the working-class neighborhood is outdated, particularly with the coronavirus pandemic, and that similar economic development promises made by other mega projects like Atlantic Yards and Hudson Yards were never realized. The community group UPROSE opposed the project. It said jobs related to climate change should be created there.

"The future of offices and retail and high-end luxury hotels shouldn't exist in an industrial sector," Elizabeth Yeampierre, the executive director of UPROSE, said in August. “That should be happening in other parts of the city. And our industrial sector really should be building for that climate future."

"The future of offices and retail and high-end luxury hotels shouldn't exist in an industrial sector," Elizabeth Yeampierre, the executive director of UPROSE, said in August. “That should be happening in other parts of the city. And our industrial sector really should be building for that climate future."

Brooklyn Power 50

All politics is local – Elizabeth Yeampierre is helping New Yorkers realize that climate change is, too. The Climate Justice Alliance co-chair has long drawn attention to the links between systemic racism, inequality, and environmental degradation. She opposes the Industry City rezoning plan, questioning developer commitments to hire locally and the wisdom of building in a flood zone, preferring the city instead create jobs to curb climate change at the site.

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Elizabeth Yeampierre: ‘We have to build intergenerational power’

Puerto Rican attorney and environmental justice leader. Executive director of Uprose, Brooklyn’s oldest Latino community-based organization

“What [big organizations in the climate movement] should be doing is supporting frontline leadership because we’re the ones that are being impacted by climate change. Not the other way around. They extract our narratives. They extract our resources. They extract our young people. That extraction is capitalist and it’s colonizing. Changing their culture of practice so that it’s in alignment with the work that we’re all doing would mean a fundamental change.”

How the global climate crisis is motivating Latinos to demand action

The town hall, hosted by Climate Power 2020, Latino Rebels, and Fuse, featured Julio Ricardo Varela, founder of Latino Rebels, and Cristela Alonzo, a comedian, actress, and producer, as moderators and Jamie Margolin, co-founder of Zero Hour, Elizabeth Yeampierre, Executive Director of UPROSE, and Teresa Leger Fernandez, the Democratic Nominee for New Mexico's Third Congressional District, as panelists.

“Today people felt ash coming down, they thought it was actually snow,” said Yeampierre, beginning with the fires blazing in California.

She’s based in New York.

“We know that not only is California burning, we had Hurricane Andrew that impacted Houston and Fort Arthur, Hurricane Maria, superstorm Sandy in New York. Two weeks ago I was on an Amtrak train and a tornado touched down and took out the engine from the train,” Yeampierre continued.

“We’re living in a place where the current extreme weather events are happening, and they're impacting the front lines, the people least responsible for creating climate change are the ones that are most impacted,” said Yeampierre. “So we are in a state of crisis and it is a climate justice concern for our frontline communities, and it’s serious. It’s happening as we speak.”

Industry City and the future of member deference

Elizabeth Yeampierre, the executive director of the Brooklyn community group Uprose that has been fighting the rezoning, agreed. She found the input of members from outside the district and borough on the Industry City project incredibly troubling. “I think it’s stunning that elected officials from other communities undermined the leadership of a council member doing exactly what his community has been asking for,” Yeampierre said. “It isn’t as if Menchaca (made) this decision easily.” She added, though, that member deference was only preferable when the member actually listened to what the community wanted. While some parts of Sunset Park have supported the rezoning, the local community board partially rejected the application. “You’ve got the council member standing with the community, and people saying, ‘Hey, you know what, no, we know what’s better for your community than your community knows,’” Yeampierre said, questioning whether this would have happened if Sunset Park were not a community of color.

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Over the past few years, UPROSE, a long-standing local Puerto Rican community organization, has been mapping out an alternative plan for the Sunset Park waterfront that it calls the Green Resilient Industrial District (GRID). In mapping out a future for the waterfront that emphasizes green manufacturing rather than retail, the GRID plan potentially will produce thousands of good-paying jobs.

PROTESTERS RALLY OUTSIDE COUNCIL SPEAKER’S HOME AHEAD OF INDUSTRY CITY HEARING

Rather than focusing just on the private rezoning plans, local stakeholders have pushed the city to propose their own public rezoning plans for the Sunset Park waterfront, such as Uprose’s The Grid, which would turn Industry City into a space for green industrial manufacturing that would create sources of renewable energy.

I Pledge…With Environmental and Climate Justice for All (Part 3)

The Climate Equity Act is being well-received by groups like WE ACT that endeavor to represent and advocate on behalf of frontline communities. Elizabeth Yeampierre, Co-Chair, Climate Justice Alliance Steering Committee and Executive Director of UPROSE, has said of the legislation:

“Centering, our communities, our leaders, including our young people, is a requisite and primary step for climate justice. The Climate Equity Act, if properly implemented, could be a key tool for ensuring that our communities are always at the table, and multiple government agencies work in synergy to ensure intersectional and inclusive solutions.”

Sunset Park is Afraid of Industry City’s Expansion, The Rest of Us Should Be Too

Currently, many Sunset Park residents rely on the neighborhood’s manufacturing sector for good-paying jobs. As part of the proposed expansion, sections of the neighborhood would be rezoned to allow for commercial use, meaning manufacturing jobs would most likely be replaced by big-box stores, hotels, and tech-driven workplaces. Uprose’s vision, by contrast, emphasizes neighborhood sustainability through solar and wind installations, creating jobs for current Sunset Park residents while also making the community more resilient to climate change-related events.

Climate Justice Faces Industry Rezoning: Sunset Park‘s Battle for

Sunset Park faces the same forces of gentrification too many New Yorkers know with the addition of a huge working waterfront at our harbor. Industry City, a developer’s dream for destination retail, has already demonstrated it is not a destination for the local population. Add to this the inevitable water rising from climate change, the potential for a green and resilient infrastructure is huge. Industry City’s proposed rezoning is being challenged by activists in the neighborhood, proposing instead a Green Resilient Industrial District. UPROSE, one of the oldest, Latinex led environmental justice organizations, has been on the frontline of this struggle. Come hear Elizabeth Yeampierre, Executive Director of UPROSE, discuss the principles of Climate Justice and how this battle for a working waterfront resembles the global fight for community care and resilience planning over the extraction of profits for the few.

Cracking ConEd’s Grip On Our Energy Supply and Replacing it With Public Power

The solutions to build energy resiliency are available now. They include the large-scale deployment of rooftop solar, which could jointly generate enough energy to meet half the city’s demand for electricity at peak periods. Solar power, combined with storage batteries, is far less vulnerable to disruption than today’s grid, which relies on distribution of power from centralized fossil-fueled power plants to buildings throughout the city. Community solar projects like Sunset Park Solar in Brooklyn make these benefits available to low-income communities of color — in the process slashing residents’ exorbitant utility bills and providing employment for members of economically-marginalized communities.

The Climate and Economic Plan for New York City’s Future That We Need Now

The proposal has had buy-in from all aspects of the policy field, from unions like IBEW Local 3 and IUPAT District Council 9 to environmental organizations such as the Sierra Club and New York Renews, and community groups like Make the Road New York and UPROSE. We’ve also included the voices of future generations of New Yorkers by working with TREEage, a youth climate justice organization that has been involved with the youth climate movement and Climate Strike NYC

Proposal To Upgrade Peaker Plant In Astoria's "Asthma Alley" More Of A "Half Measure," Says State Senator

The peaker plant is one of 16 located in New York City that fit into the New York Power Authority’s market, distributing their energy to the city’s power grid that's accessible to Con Edison and National Grid. Peaker rates in the city are considered the most expensive in the country, where costs are passed along to utility customers, according to a May 2020 report by the PEAK, a consortium of activists fighting the project. They include The Point, UPROSE, New York Lawyers for the Public Interest, Clean Energy Group, and the New York City Environmental Justice Alliance.

City Planning Commission Greenlights Industry City Rezoning

the plan and set aside below-market industrial space managed by a nonprofit, after facing pressure from Menchaca and neighborhood groups like UPROSE.

Amazon 2.0: Heated Debate Erupts in Brooklyn Over Plans to Rezone Industry City

Progressives say the plan for retail and hotels in the working class neighborhood is outdated, particularly with the coronavirus pandemic, and that similar economic development promises made by other mega projects like Atlantic Yards and Hudson Yards were never realized. The community group UPROSE opposes the project. It says jobs related to climate change should be created there.

"The future of offices and retail and high end luxury hotels shouldn't exist in an industrial sector," said Elizabeth Yeampierre, the Executive Director of UPROSE. “That should be happening in other parts of the city. And our industrial sector really should be building for that climate future."

New York's Heat-Vulnerable Neighborhoods Need to Go Green to Cool Off

If the NYC Environmental Justice Alliance's agenda were implemented, electricity grid limitations in places like Brownsville would be addressed through projects like Sunset Park Solar, the city's first community-owned solar cooperative, that provide well-paying clean energy jobs and electricity savings for local residents.

Opinion: Industry City Tycoons are Exploiting Pandemic to Advance Rezoning

Despite the classist discrimination that the development lobby and their politicians’ parade, it has never been more important to listen to the voices of local residents and the leaders they’ve elected to decide the fate of this unique community. United Mexicans of America will always stand firm with the people of the Sunset Park community, and we look forward to working alongside well-established organizations like Uprose, Mixteca, and the Sunset Park Popular Assembly to stand against the current proposed plan. United Mexicans of America (UMA) is a local Sunset Park action organization that seeks to catalyze a renaissance within the Mexican community by using Mexican nationalism as the common denominator. Our focus revolves around revolutionary self-reflection, looking at ourselves through multiple frames and being constructively critical about personal history, as well as ancestral history. We believe in critical civic engagement, which includes analyzing the historical roots of contemporary struggles, envisioning remedies and solutions, then manifesting the aforementioned into action in order to change our micro and macro-community.

Brian Garita is the co-founder of United Mexicans of America (UMA), based in Sunset Park

Climate Justice Working Group holds first meeting under 2019 state Climate Act

Elizabeth C. Yeampierre, executive director of the Brooklynn-based community organization UPROSE, suggested the CJWG use the Jemez Principles for Democratic Organizing or a similar platform to ensure voices from environmental justice communities are heard at the fore, with “an equitable distribution of engagement” from CJWG members representing environmental justice communities.

Councilmember Opposes Massive Sunset Park Rezoning In His District—And Finds Himself Outnumbered

Neighborhood activists have rallied around alternative plans for the waterfront, including a proposal from UPROSE, a longtime community organization. The UPROSE plan calls for a return to full-scale manufacturing while building wind turbines and solar panels as part of a national Green New Deal.