I had the good fortune to sit next to Majora Carter at a lunch once, and experience for myself the young woman’s “drive and tenacity” as an “urban revitalization strategist,” while she told me about projects to take back green space in the Bronx and look for ways to make it more family friendly with trees and parks. After graduating from college, Carter came back to the Bronx, bought a home near where she grew up and founded Sustainable South Bronx.
At the time when we spoke, SSBx was taking on the diesel trucks that idled all day as they loaded/unloaded goods at warehouses near a public school. Since then, they have added all kinds of green projects to their list, such as green-collar job training, making garbage export less noxious to Bronx residens living near a transfer station, planning a greenway on the Bronx waterfront and removal of the Sheriday expressway.
As a Bronx resident, I follow Carter’s progress with interest, and was happy to hear of her award as a MacArthur Fellow. I’m not surprised, since so many green projects for the Bronx involve her organization.
One new project is Green Roofs, which literally grow grass in soil on building tops as an alternative way to keep buildings cool, keep electric usage down and collect rain water that otherwise runs off into overwhelmed sewers. Here’s a picture from the SSBx site(yes , another image on the page shows Carter in heels talking to a green roofer. Who says nature police have to dress badly?):
(You can also watch an entire roof installation if you’re that curious.)
Now another looker is joining the green campaign in the Bronx. Owen Wilson, by way of a contribution to Ed Norton and the oil giant BP’s project The Solar Neighbours Program, has helped fund a green building in the Bronx.
Jacob’s House, named after a local community activist Astin Jacobo, is an eight-story building on Webster Avenue featuring a 3,900 square foot green roof. It also has solar panels (Wilson bought some for his own home to make the contribution), that will run its elevators.
The building owner, Enterprise Community Partners, in cooperation with the low-income housing advocacy group Fordham Bedford Housing Corporation, promises 7 units for homeless seeking housing, six classrooms for early childhood programs and community space.
Jacob’s place isn’t the first green housing in the Bronx. Houses on Sunflower Way in the Melrose section of the Bronx, opened in October 2002. It was the city’s first green project in the High Performance Building Program, an HPD initiative to get buildings to be “at least 30 percent more energy efficient” than building codes demand. Although the homes didn’t have green roofs, the did feature programmable thermostats, 100 percent recycled-content carpeting, high performance windows and fluorescent lighting.
Perhaps we just didn’t hear about that project since the ribbon wasn’t cut by a foxy celebrity.
