Majora Carter: Building Sustainable Cities

From architecture.MNP:
Where my Beantown Ninjas? Any of you in the Boston area should know that the BSA’s [Boston Society of Architects] lecture series is kicking of ‘the ocho’ with a bang, with the first talk of 2008 to be given by Majora Carter. Now, for those of you not in the know, Majora Carter is an activist fighting for ‘environmental justice’ in all ’suffering minority neighborhoods’, and the MacArthur-winning [read: genius-grant] founder of Sustainable South Bronx. She will be speaking on Wednesday, January 16th [at the Boston Public Library, Copley] on grassroots environmental activism in American cities – and the challenges + benefits that come with the task of making our cities ’sustainable’. Here’s some background info on Majora + her work:
Born, raised, and continuing to live & work in the South Bronx, Majora Carter travels the world in pursuit of resources to improve the quality of life in her environmentally challenged community. She founded Sustainable South Bronx in 2001 after writing a $1.25M Federal Transportation grant to design the South Bronx Greenway with 11 miles of bike and pedestrian paths connecting neighborhoods to the rivers and to each other – securing over $20M to begin construction in 2008.
She has created riverfront parks and green roofs, dramatically increased the number of trees in the South Bronx, worked to remove an underused expressway in favor of positive economic development, and successfully implemented the Bronx Environmental Stewardship Training program—seeding her community with a skilled green-collar workforce that has both a personal & economic stake in their urban environment.
Her vision, drive, and tenacity earned her a MacArthur “Genius” Grant, a place on NY Governor Spitzer’s Energy and Environment Transition Team, the Clinton Global Initiative’s Poverty Alleviation Panel, NYU’s Martin Luther King, Jr. Award for Humanitarian Service, and the National Audubon Society’s Rachel Carson Award.
She started 2007 as one of Newsweek’s “25 To Watch”, was named one of “50 most influential women in NYC” by the NY Post that summer, and ended the year as one of Essence Magazine’s “25 most Influential African Americans”.
In 2008, her consulting service will help cities unlock their own green-collar economic potential by using their assets in ways that benefit environmental, economic, and poverty alleviation concerns [via Sustainable South Bronx].
And here’s Majora at TED:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2883494385256707942She’s right – Green, my ninjas, is the new black.
Related posts:
- PopSci’s Top 50 Greenest US Cities
- Green Jobs Now: Events in Your Hood
- Sustainable St. Patty’s T’s
- [sustainable] Music to my ears…
- teen treehuggers
Posted: January 15th, 2008
at 8:22pm by jessie
Categories: current events,green,green living,sustainable architecture
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