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BRONX TIMES REPORTER, MARCH 25-31, 2022 BXR
opinion-editorial
The Bronx is suffocating. We need $15 billion to fix it.
BY KENNY BURGOS
In 2019, New York passed the most
transformative climate legislation in
the country, the Climate Leadership and
Community Protection Act (CLCPA).
The CLCPA’s funding is currently being
debated by the state Legislature. Despite
having $12 billion in unallocated funds
for this year’s budget, Gov. Hochul’s proposed
Executive Budget includes less
than $1.5 billion in new funding to address
our climate crisis — far from what
New Yorkers need and deserve. That’s
why I’m demanding $15 billion for the
climate and environmental emergency
in this year’s 2022 budget, along with
NY Renews, a coalition of more than 320
community-based, labor, environmental
justice, faith and climate groups. It’s
often stated that this is the most consequential
moment of our lives. However,
in modern times, we have never faced
such an extraordinary opportunity to address
this crisis as right now.
What would a $15 billion climate investment
mean for the Bronx?
Recently, the UN Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) published
its most recent report, confirming
what Bronx residents have known for decades:
Racism, economic inequality and
the legacies of colonialism are the leading
factors contributing to significant
health issues and poverty in my home
borough.
As we well know, the asthma hospitalization
rate for children in the Bronx
is 70% higher than the rest of NYC and
700% higher than the rest of the state.
Residents of the West Bronx are exposed
to a vehicular fine particulate matter
that is 270% higher than the state average,
and seven of NYC’s hazardous waste
sites are located in the Bronx. Leadership
and corporations in the past felt
that Bronxites were undeserving of sufficient
air quality and decided they would
subject them to the most congested and
polluted traffic corridor in the U.S. With
adequate funding, the CLCPA would support
initiatives aimed at eliminating industrial
emissions that harm our health
and drive climate change.
With $15 billion in the 2022 budget for
climate justice, we could also improve
our borough’s public transit system.
About 60% of Bronx residents commute
to work using public transit and face the
consequences of service cuts, overcrowding
and inaccessible stations. Half of our
public transit commutes average more
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The asthma hospitalization rate for children in the Bronx is 70% higher than the rest of NYC and
700% higher than the rest of the state, largely due to adjacent roadways carrying hundreds of
trucks daily. Photo | Alex Mitchell
than an hour, and those requiring intra
Bronx and outer-borough travel frequently
rely on expensive and inefficient
options due to decades of negligence by
both the public and private sectors. By
funding the CLCPA in 2022, New York
could expand public transit and issue
vouchers for low- and moderate-income
commuters. It could also support the
MTA’s capital plan for accessibility retrofits,
and allow for bulk purchases of
electric buses, electric paratransit and
social service vehicles.
Furthermore, more than 55% of Bronx
households are rent-burdened. Last year,
half of all Bronx buildings earned a D
grade in their water and energy efficiency.
Tenants of “affordable” housing
units in the Bronx are all too familiar
with temperature extremes, with units
being either too cold or too hot. Con Ed
bills have recently made headlines for
their astronomical jumps, and lower-income
households are paying the biggest
price. Across the U.S., lower-income families
regularly spend up to four times as
much on utilities as wealthier ones, often
due to energy inefficiency. By funding the
CLCPA, the state would be able to weatherize
homes, retrofit public housing, bulk
purchase rooftop solar panels and batteries,
and provide up to $10,000 in grants for
energy efficiency and decarbonization
for more than 25,000 households.
In one of the richest cities in the
world, nearly 30% of Bronx residents live
in poverty. The median family income is
$38,085 annually. According to the Association
of Neighborhood and Housing
Development, nearly 58% of Bronx jobs
are held by people who live outside of
the Bronx, with most paying more than
$40,000 a year. If New York state funds
the CLCPA in 2022, it could jump-start
our transition to a clean energy economy
by creating jobs and apprenticeships for
Bronxites and New Yorkers in green projects
such as expanding offshore wind,
waterfront resiliency, improving grid
stability and upgrading public housing
energy. But, we can’t make any of these
transformative projects a reality without
allocating at least $15 billion toward
combating our climate crisis in this upcoming
budget.
It cannot be overstated that the everworsening
climate crisis is the singular,
existential catastrophe of our time. A
cruel verdict imposed upon younger generations
by those vested to protect us—
one that is dire for our state, but a death
sentence for the children and families of
the Bronx. There is nothing more vital to
our lives than the land we till, the water
we drink, or the air we breathe; but that’s
what is at risk. Everyday, we as leaders do
nothing about it is another failure for the
future of our communities. We can’t afford
to leave our work halfway-done. We can’t
afford to pass the buck on to the next generation.
We passed the CLCPA—now we
must fund it so that families in the Bronx
and communities throughout the state of
New York can finally get the climate action
they deserve. Now we must decide: do
we allow the decisions of the past to lead
us down the polluted road of congestion
or do we finally seize the opportunity in
front of us—the choice is ours.
Kenny Burgos is a member of the New
York State Assembly representing the 85th
District.
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