Covid-19 and Environmental Justice: An Agenda for New York’s Next Mayor
An assistant professor of professional practice and the associate director of the Tishman Environment and Design Center at The New School, Dr. Baptista is a nationally recognized expert on local government policies and environmental justice.
Urban Matters: Covid-19 has been deadliest in the city’s low-income communities of color. How does environmental injustice play in? This year we’re electing a new mayor and virtually an entirely new City Council. How should they tackle those problems?
Ana Baptista: We know from the early research that there is a correlation between elevated levels of particulate matter air pollution and increased levels of Covid mortality, and that communities with the highest levels of PM are also environmental justice communities – Black, Brown, of Color, low-wealth communities. These communities also have a higher prevalence of respiratory illnesses related to pollution, such as asthma – underlying conditions that put residents at higher risk for more severe cases of Covid. Environmental conditions that burden communities also exacerbate the impacts of this disease, so it’s not surprising to see Covid’s impact on EJ communities in NYC.
Environmental justice communities have called on local and state officials to prioritize deployment of Covid relief aid and long-term investments to address underlying conditions that make these communities more susceptible to Covid. For example, a coalition of labor, community, EJ, and faith advocates released the New York City Climate and Community Stimulus Platform last April. It outlines a comprehensive stimulus plan for creating good jobs in sustainable, healthy sectors with investment prioritization of EJ communities. The new mayor will undoubtedly be pushed to advance a robust set of strategies that do double duty: protecting EJ communities and also strengthening their economic and environmental viability.
UM: The City and the MTA are committed to all-electric vehicle fleets by 2040. What’s the environmental justice connection, and what can the next mayor and Council do to accomplish those goals, even with budgets squeezed by the pandemic (and with the MTA under State control)?
Baptista: Electrification of MTA’s fleets is tied directly to environmental justice; it’s a classic case of maldistribution of benefits and burdens. While residents of EJ communities are relatively more transit-dependent, they suffer disproportionately from related exposure to air pollution. EJ communities are home to most of the MTA infrastructure where more air pollution concentrates, such as bus depots and yards.
A New York City Environmental Justice Alliance 2018 report found that 75 percent of the MTA bus depots are located in communities of color. Tackling these dangerous mobile sources of emissions is critical to protecting the most impacted communities. The ElectrifyNYcoalition supports MTA’s electrification commitments and has companioned legislation to encourage implementation, with particular attention to prioritizing a rollout of electric fleets in EJ communities.
Funding for these goals could draw on a diverse portfolio of sources including State and Federal grants. Sources include VW settlement funding, and Federal EPA and Department of Transportation programs. Funds will also likely have to come from State and Federal Covid recovery aid. And there’ll be offsetting savings from lower maintenance and fuel costs over time, and lower procurement prices for electric vehicles over the long term.
UM: Because of the pandemic, over the past year, car ownership in the city has climbed. Mass transit use is down. Should the next mayor try to reverse these trends, and how?
Baptista: Mass transit will always be an essential part of the city’s infrastructure, particularly for low-income residents that are transit dependent. Implementing the City’s Congestion Pricing program is a critical step towards reversing the current trends you mentioned. Congestion pricing can not only disincentivize the personal vehicle trend; it will also be a key mechanism for raising much-needed revenue and delivering reductions in pollution to EJ communities, many in close proximity to heavily trafficked and congested highways. Congestion pricing is supported by key EJ groups because of its potential to generate significant revenues to invest back into public transit, and also relieve some of the fiscal and health impacts of Covid-19 on EJ communities.
UM: Last spring the City was poised to go citywide with curbside collection of organic household waste. Then the pandemic torpedoed the budget and the whole program got eliminated. So every day, tons of organic waste – about a third of what New Yorkers throw away – gets landfilled or incinerated instead of composted. What’s the environmental justice connection? What should the next mayor do?
Baptista: All waste-related issues in NYC are EJ issues. From generation and transport to final disposal, waste impacts EJ communities disproportionately along the entire stream. The disproportionate siting of waste infrastructure like transfer stations in EJ communities goes back decades. A majority of the city’s waste is still processed in a few EJ communities like the South Bronx [as shown in the photo above].
And the export of waste outside the city goes to EJ communities in other parts of the country, and globally. For example, most of Manhattan’s residential waste is sent to my hometown, Newark, for incineration in an overburdened EJ community. One of the most critical tools in combatting this problem is adopting “zero waste” plans that turn away from burning and landfilling and call on residents to compost and reduce overall generation of waste. Organics collection is a keystone part of any successful zero waste plan since it’s such a large portion of the residential waste stream. In NYC, EJ activists have joined with environmental groups, small haulers and other allied groups to form the Save our Compost Coalition. This group is seeking to restore the City’s budget allocations for residential organics collection and composting programs.
The next mayor will need to reinstate a commitment to a universal organics collection program as well as funding for the necessary infrastructure to meet these goals. In cities that have successfully implemented zero waste programs, a mandatory organics program was set in place in a phased approach with funding coming from a variety of sources including garbage collection fees imposed on certain households and businesses. Funding will also likely need to be secured from state and federal resources. Importantly, cities like Philadelphia have prioritized recycling and organics programs as essential services even while budget cuts have been implemented due to Covid. Organics programs can play an important role in creating local jobs that are healthy and sustainable over time while also improving conditions related to waste infrastructures in EJ communities.
Next week, we talk further with Ana Baptista about creating a “renewable Rikers,” long hot summers, what might be in store from the Biden Administration, and more.