‘The time to act is now’
Sunset Parkers call for green waterfront during Climate Week march
Residents of Sunset Park took to the streets during
Climate Week to demand action to curb carbon emissions.
Photos by Paul Frangipane
COURIER LIFE, OCTOBER 1-7, 2021 29
BY BEN BRACHFELD
Sunset Parkers marched on
Thursday during Climate Week
to call for a transformation of
the nabe’s waterfront into an
environmentally sustainable
hub of energy production and
manufacturing.
Led by UPROSE, a local climate
advocacy group, around
50 attendees marched through
Sunset Park en route to a rally
at Bush Terminal Park, chanting
slogans like “What do we
want? Climate justice! When do
we want it? Now!”
After successfully killing
the proposed rezoning of Industry
City, advocates believe that
the waterfront can be a vanguard
space for a new green
economy in the city.
Many have pointed to the already
in-the-works Sunset Park
Solar project, a communityowned
solar energy garden operated
by UPROSE, which will
provide clean energy to local
members when completed.
During rezoning talks, the
group presented an alternative
waterfront plan dubbed
the Green Resilient Industrial
District (GRID), which would
maintain industrial zoning to
create jobs in green energy production
and retrofi tting.
UPROSE executive director
Elizabeth Yeampierre said
that these efforts should be implemented
and scaled up massively.
“The time to act is now,”
Yeampierre said. “Climate legislation
must turn away from
propping up outdated and unproven
techno-fi xes and instead
center and be accountable
to those who have been hit fi rst
and worst for decades. These
are the largely BIPOC communities
who continue to face the
brunt of the storms, quite literally,
and whose innovative solutions
are rarely resourced and
brought to scale. Comprehensive
and bold initiatives such as
community-controlled renewables
like we have here in Sunset
Park must be scaled up. It’s
time to follow the frontlines —
we have the solutions.”
Elected offi cials — including
Public Advocate Jumaane
Williams, State Sen. Zellnor
Myrie, and Assemblymember
Marcela Mitaynes — attended
the rally, citing the recent devastation
in the city from Hurricane
Ida as demonstrating the
need for bold action.
“Climate justice, racial justice
and economic justice are
inextricably intertwined,” Williams
said.
The city and state have announced
several green initiatives
during Climate Week
— a September tradition for
the past decade — such as new
transmission lines bringing
green energy from upstate and
Canada to the city, but activists
fear that the pace of response is
not enough.
Last month, the United Nations
issued a devastating report
detailing how much irreversible
damage has already
been done to the planet, and
how little time there is left to
mitigate catastrophic climate
change for decades to come.
Those problems were most
readily on display earlier this
month when the remnants of
Hurricane Ida fl ooded the borough,
causing at least 45 deaths
in the New York metropolitan
region, and submerging subway
lines and other low-lying
areas.
“We have seen tragic reminders
of our failure to confront
the climate crisis with
the resources or innovation required,
and we need to act now
to help prevent future loss and
create future gain,” the public
advocate said.