South Bronx Unite - Sat, Jan 18, 1-3 pm, SBX Confronts Asthma Epidemic Head On

  

SBX Confronts Asthma Epidemic Head On Sat, Jan 18, 1-3 pm BronxArtSpace - 305 East 140th Street (at Alexander Avenue)

Join South Bronx Unite and Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health and Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory for the release of the findings on FreshDirect's impact on levels of black carbon, fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and noise in our community. Then help us: CONSTRUCT mobile air quality monitors as citizen scientists (with Columbia);  BUILD the case for community education and action for/towards environmental mitigation; and  UTILIZE grassroots healing efforts for health and well-being   *LUNCH, TRANSLATION, AND CHILDCARE PROVIDED*

RSVP THE RESULTS ARE IN: FOR 2 1/2 YEARS, WE HAVE SCIENTIFICALLY STUDIED AND RECORDED THE IMPACT ON AIR QUALITY OF FRESHDIRECT’S SUBSIDIZED MOVE TO THE SOUTH BRONX.  For the first time ever in the Mott Haven-Port Morris neighborhood, air quality, traffic counting and noise monitoring has occurred in one combined study. Since May 2017, South Bronx Unite has been collaborating with Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health and Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory* to measure black carbon, fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and noise before and after the opening of the $150 million city- and state-subsidized relocation of FreshDirect and its diesel trucking operation to Mott Haven. We now have the results! Join us to discuss the summary of our findings and the launching of a new citizen scientist pilot project to build and operate mobile air quality monitoring devices. BECOME A CITIZEN SCIENTIST, BUILD A MOBILE DEVICE AND DOCUMENT AIR QUALITY IN MOTT HAVEN. Join us in the next phase of documenting our air quality crisis to demand active and aggressive mitigation efforts in the South Bronx. We are continuing our collaboration with Columbia researcher to organize - for the first time ever -  an effort that enables our local community to build and operate mobile air quality monitors. Five community members will be the first to participate and record in real time air quality standards that they live and breathe every day.  HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS OF DOLLARS SUBSIDIZE ENVIRONMENTAL DEGRADATION IN MOTT HAVEN-PORT MORRIS - NOT $1 GOES TOWARDS IMPROVING OUR AIR QUALITY! HELP US USE DATA TO ADVOCATE FOR GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE AND OTHER CREATIVE MITIGATION MEASURES! There are more than 3,000 linear miles of noise barriers built along US highways to divert noise. Not one inch is in Mott Haven-Port Morris. And cities all over the world are building green infrastructure - green walls, green roofs, vegetation barriers and street trees -  as one important part of improving air quality. Not one of these efforts have taken place in Mott Haven. Join us to brainstorm these and other outside-the-box solutions to the environmental crisis that exists in the South Bronx.  LEARN OTHER TECHNIQUES FOR HEALTH AND HEALING THROUGH ACUPUNCTURE AND ACUPRESSURE Learn about efforts to build a SAPP Healing in Community/Sanando en Comunidad in the South Bronx (see background here.) Also learn about and receive magnetic bead acupressure from Jo Ann Lenney - the very simple but profound technique of using a magnetic bead on each ear to help with trauma recovery and healing, the quieting of stress and anxiety (which trigger asthma attacks,) and relieving migraines and helping with wellness.  * Full academic collaborators included: Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA; Area of Cardiometabolic and Renal Risk, Institute for Biomedical Research INCLIVA, Valencia, Spain; Department of Statistics and Operational Research, University of Valencia, Valencia, Spain; Department of Sociomedical Sciences, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA; Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University, New York, NY, USA. ASTHMA ALLEY - Why we fight! ASTHMA ALLEY

South Bronx Unite - Sat, Nov 17, 4-6 pm: "Asthma Alley" Film Screening and Panel Discussion

ASTHMA ALLEY Special Film Screening  PANEL DISCUSSION What Are We Doing To Stop The Health Crisis & Where Do We Go From Here?   Sat, Nov 17, 4-6 pm BronxArtsSpace 305 East 140th Street, Bronx

RSVP

Asthma Alley

In ASTHMA ALLEY, Cynthia Ruales finds hope in music when climate change, air pollution and worsening pollen seasons intertwine in ways that make it hard for her to breathe. Cynthia lives with her mother in an area of the South Bronx known as "asthma alley" where the rate of this chronic disease is 8 to 12 times higher than the national average. While Cynthia fears the drug and gang violence that define her neighborhood, she worries even more about the daily assault on her body caused by the highways, truck thoroughfares, and open-air industrial facilities that surround her. Although she discovers that she can increase her lung capacity by playing the saxophone and clarinet, she continues to suffer life-threatening asthma attacks. Her story sheds light on the complex relationship between fossil fuel combustion, climate change, more potent pollen seasons, and increased emergency room visits. Cynthia performs in a much-anticipated concert organized by community activists to raise awareness about record-high asthma rates in the South Bronx. The immediate distribution of this film is essential to amplify the voices of the environmental justice advocates who are behind the event featured in the film's finale, and to respond to the fact that environmental harms are distributed along familiar lines of race and poverty.

SEPARATE BUT RELATED...

Two years ago, the city allocated funding to complete waterfront access and a pier on East 132nd Street for the Mott Haven-Port Morris community, but the city will now not release the funds! Tell them enough is enough - release the funds! More information HERE.

South Bronx Unite - Sat, July 15, 10:30 am - Enviro Justice Waterfront Bike Tour

Waterfront Alliance City of Water Day South Bronx Environmental Justice Waterfront Bike Tour

Saturday, July 15, 10:30 am Meet at Brook Park (Brook Avenue and 141st Street) RSVP

Join South Bronx Unite as we partner with Friends of Brook Park and TIMES UP! to host a South Bronx environmental justice waterfront bike tour - part of the annual Waterfront Alliance City of Water Day. Bikers will learn about the community's ongoing fight against the disproportionate siting of waste transfer stations and fossil fuel power plants, and will learn about the people's environmental impact study, a dynamic effort being undertaken in partnership with Columbia University to monitor air quality and traffic pre- and post-arrival of FreshDirect, a company given $150 million to relocate its diesel trucking business to the South Bronx waterfront (relying on a 21 year old environmental impact statement to assess the effect of 1,000 more diesel truck trips through a community where one in five children have asthma.) We will also bike to the 132nd Street Pier, the Port Morris Gantries and the Lincoln Avenue waterfront to discuss the community-developed and -driven Mott Haven-Port Morris Waterfront Plan, a blueprint for a public waterfront now recognized as a priority project on the State Open Space Plan, and we will discuss the unprecedented real estate speculation threatening displacement and what the community is doing to confront it.  The group will then travel up the west side of the peninsula to Pier 5 where the city is currently trying to reneg on its promise to provide public green space and waterfront access in favor of additional residential highrise buildings. The bike tour will end at Mill Pond Park, where we will join together with the Bronx Council for Environmental Quality, Harlem River Working Group and the Bronx Children's Museum to host a waterfront family day with music, food, rock-climbing, children's games, face painting, water testing and other environmental demonstrations.   Join us! - RSVP