WNYC and the nonprofit Street Lab regularly team up to highlight stories from neighborhoods across New York City. We recently set up shop on St. Nicholas Avenue in Harlem, and though we didn’t set out to talk about climate and the environment, it was on people's minds. As Climate Week continues at the UN General Assembly, here's some of what we heard.
The following transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.
Aisha Kiani: I'm 23 years old. I was originally born in Pakistan, but I grew up in the Bronx and now I'm in Harlem.
My first few experiences were learning experiences in terms of finding my footing. I biked a lot of the routes by Pelham Bay, Van Cortlandt, Bronx Park East. So it was really just seeing the beauty of the Bronx, to be honest. We have so much nature.
In the future I hope to continue to take guidance from the people and mentors that are doing studies to help forward climate justice related causes.
Everyone can be a victim of climate injustice. You won't know it until your house is flooding. You won't know it until you feel the heat on your skin and it's unbearable. This is something imminent, and this is something that is affected by global powers and where money is going. My plan is to slowly and continuously bridge these gaps.
That means you can go to community gardens and volunteer here in your neighborhood. You will know the soil, you will know what you can grow, and you will also know how it's being harmed.
Now we know bees have plastic in their guts. These things are going to affect us and our future generations. And so we do need to take initiative to get more involved for our protection, but also for the earth because we are earth's beings.
Gregory Baggett: I am the president of the A. Philip Randolph Square Neighborhood Alliance.
We're activating green space in Central Harlem in order to improve quality of life for the residents of this district.
In creating a greenway–a park out of a lifeless transportation corridor–the project actually served our environmental justice needs.
Harlem is suffering from heat island effect. The area doesn't have enough trees and shade to protect people from the negative effects of sunlight and heat. If we're actually able to put trees along this 15-block stretch, we would actually help increase the tree canopy for the community.
The benefit is obvious. It's an improved quality of life. Whether it's transportation, infrastructure, sidewalks, streets, parks, it's bringing the community that has largely retreated from the public realm.
Khadija DeLoaché: I'm a long term resident of Harlem. I've lived for over 35 years in the same building, and I'm sitting here today in A. Philip Randolph Park, enjoying the Harlem Breeze.
I feel like this park has been underused for at least the number of years that I've been here. So I'm a very big advocate for the revitalization of this park.
This is a community where the kids… We have Halloween for the children in the building, and that could be extended out here to this park.
And we have a lot of seniors in my building. We plan to be there forever, and we should be able to have a place where we can come out for all people in the community.
