brownfields

Page 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.