Economy
Does the OneNYC Sustainability Plan Really Address Equity?
New York City’s environmental justice leaders offer ideas to strengthen Mayor Bill de Blasio’s equity goals.
When Mayor Bill de Blasio introduced his OneNYC plan to preserve the city’s future on Earth Day last year, he delivered the news from the South Bronx community of Hunts Point. Standing with him was Kellie Terry, the then-executive director of The Point, a Hunts Point-based grassroots organization focused on economic development and environmental justice. Given that the South Bronx is one of the poorest areas in the nation, de Blasio’s venue choice appeared to signal that OneNYC would focus on the city’s historically most neglected neighborhoods.
Addressing Terry, de Blasio said, “You are fighting to make a neighborhood that often got less than its fair share a better neighborhood.”