BY ROBBIE SEQUEIRA
New York City’s climate
resiliency has been severely
tested through major climatic
events such as Superstorm
Sandy in 2011 and September’s
Hurricane Ida. For climate
activists, NYC’s coastal
communities — including the
City Island and Country Club
sections of the Bronx — could
be further imperiled by rising
tides and fl ood events which
are expected to be more commonplace
and erratic by 2030,
according to climatologists.
Other areas in the Bronx
that are at risk of high fl ooding
include Hunts Point, Port Morris
and Throggs Neck, according
to Waterfront Alliance, an
NYC-based climate-focused
non-profi t organization, and
climate activists fear without
substantive climate policy and
funding that the Bronx’s communities
of colors will bear
the brunt of adverse climate
change.
“In the Bronx, we have
quite a few pockets in the area
that are the environmental
focus, and I’m looking here
at some of the numbers used
to score coastal fl ooding, and
there will be a couple more
violent storms as we approach
2050,” said Lara Croushere,
managing director with Urban
Ocean Lab, a climate
policy research and analysis
team. “The data, particularly
for New York City, have been
kind of zeroed in on higherrisk
communities in terms of
their location to the coast and
their infrastructure.”
Researchers with StatesAtRisk,
a climate change tracking
site, estimate that 431,000
New Yorkers are at risk of
coastal fl ooding, and that number
could increase by an additional
228,000 by 2050. However,
climate activists believe
that President Joe Biden’s $1
trillion infrastructure plan —
which was signed into law on
Monday and is the largest federal
investment in infrastructure
in a decade — can help
restore infrastructure resiliency
in New York City.
Activists also hope that the
president’s second piece of his
agenda, a $1.75 trillion climate
and social spending package
that Democrats intend to pass
through budget reconciliation
will have an even greater impact
on communities affected
by climate change.
In the Biden climate package,
an estimated 40% of the
funding in the federal government
could be allocated to
environmental justice communities,
which activists say
trickles back to the disadvantaged
climate-impacted NYC
communities who need it
most.
“But because of climate
change, not only are we getting
the storms working at
a higher speed, but also at a
higher velocity,” said Marquise
Stillwell, co-founder of
Urban Ocean Lab. “So if you
combine that with a lack of information,
lack of preparedness,
and the speed of the
storms, it’s just part of a larger
problem. So the funding aspect
A tow truck clears a car abandoned on the Major Deegan Expressway after the remnants of Tropical Storm Ida
brought drenching rain, fl ash fl oods and tornadoes to parts of the northern mid-Atlantic, in the Bronx borough
of New York City, U.S., Sept. 2, 2021. REUTERS/Caitlin Ochs Photo REUTERS/Caitlin Ochs
is crucial.”
BRONX TIMES REPORTER, N 22 OV. 19-25, 2021 BTR
Out of the bill’s trillion-dollar
price tag, about $300 billion
are reserved for environmentally
sustainable projects.
Cities and states that have already
innovated on their own
to try to protect against the
worst effects of climate change
will get a much-needed boost
with the resilience, water, grid
and transit appropriations, according
to the bill’s language.
Additionally, $11 billion
will go to the MTA for subways,
buses and rails, such as
the four Metro-North sites in
the Bronx.
The Bronx faces myriad of
challenges when it comes to
minimizing the environmental
effects of anthropocentric
climate change. In addition
to fl ooding concerns, extreme
heat is also becoming a threat
to Bronxites.
“There is a tremendous
amount of fl ooding that we receive
in the Bronx from Ida,
with record rainfall in a 24-
hour period, but we also need
to be thinking about extreme
heat, which is now becoming
increasingly the number
one threat to human health,”
Stillwell said. “And that is
something that we’re seeing
in New York City neighborhoods.
So resiliency and preparedness
need to be across a
variety of risk factors.”
The borough is both the
most racially diverse area
in New York City, but also is
home to the poorest congressional
district — the 16th
District which is home to
Fordham, East Tremont and
Morrisania — in the nation;
U.S. Rep. Jamaal Bowman
currently represents that district.
The Bronx is also home to
the South Bronx’s Asthma Alley,
where residents require
hospitalization for asthma
at fi ve times the national average
and at rates 21 times
higher than other New York
City neighborhoods.
During the Oct. 10 Bronx
Community Board 6 meeting,
U.S. Rep. Ritchie Torres,
a Democrat who represents
the Bronx’s 15th Congressional
District that includes portions
of the west and South
Bronx communities, said the
federal infrastructure bill
will do a tremendous amount
of good to improving quality
of life for those areas.
The success of Biden’s bill
and steady progress on his
climate agenda is a rare win
in a polarized political climate,
activists say. But once
funding is readily available,
seeking environmental justice
by helping disadvantaged
communities wrought by climate
change, remains the ultimate
goal.
“We need to build on this
momentum. The Bronx is a
place where we need to focus
and we do need to have it this
is all these neighborhoods
and making sure that when it
comes to equity and sustainability,”
Stillwell said. “We
want (funding) to get to to the
people. We want to make sure
that the people are the center
of the fi lm.”
On Nov. 4, Democratic Gov.
Kathy Hochul announced
that New York state offi cials
will undertake a multiyear
study to assess the effects of
climate change on communities,
the economy and ecosystems.
The report is expected to
be completed by 2023.
Activists, pols hope
Biden climate package
can help Bronx
Storms like Hurricane Ida fl ooded Bronx walkways, parkways and roads, sounding an alarm for needed climate
funding, activists say. Photo David Dee Delgado/Getty Images