Bronx River

Youth Ministries Convent Conversion

Page last updated April 13, 2009

Youth Ministries for Peace and Justice was founded in 1994, after drug dealers' attempt to burn down a local parish inspired neighborhood youth to organize themselves in protest. As the first neighborhood youth center in the Soundview/Bruckner and Bronx River neighborhoods of the South Bronx, which suffer disproportionately from poverty, pollution, and violence, YMPJ works to rebuild these communities by preparing young people to become prophetic voices for peace and justice.

Greening the South Bronx

Project last updated April 16, 2009

Grassroots organizations in the South Bronx have made environmental justice a central part of their agenda for community revitalization. The Pratt Center has been there with them from the beginning, providing mapping, architecture and urban planning resources that have allowed neighborhood organizations to build a greener, healthier environment in neighborhoods that have carried more than their fair share of the city's polluting facilities. Sewage treatment plants, waste transfer stations, truck highways, wholesale markets, power plants, gas and oil depots—the South Bronx hosts essential infrastructure that allows the New York City region to function but that also leaves the surrounding neighborhoods with New York City's highest asthma rates and a diminished quality of life.

Sheridan Expressway

Project last updated April 16, 2009

The Pratt Center is working, as part of the Southern Bronx River Watershed Alliance, on a collaborative vision for demolishing the underutilized Sheridan Expressway and replacing it with affordable housing, green open space, and other amenities. New York Times architecture critic Nicolai Ouroussoff has called the Sheridan plan one of the best models in the nation for reclaiming America's cities.

Removing the Sheridan would allow over 1,200 units of new housing, plus 500,000 square feet of commercial, community, and light industrial space to be developed on its footprint. The plan routes truck traffic along a new overpass and reconnects local streets to the waterfront, including the new Concrete Plant Park on a former industrial site.