Arif Ullah

New York City, New York

Arif Ullah (he/him) is Executive Director of South Bronx Unite. He is a social and environmental justice advocate, grassroots urban planner, and community activist with experience in designing and managing community development programs, establishing diverse alliances, and co-creating campaign strategies around local, state, and national issues. Arif believes in the power of frontline communities and he is committed to building systems that support their health, creativity, wisdom, and leadership.

This interview was conducted by Ayana Harscoet on August 20, 2024. Press play to listen, or find the full audio transcript below the audio player.

Ayana: Hi, and welcome to River Network’s Meet Your Network: hearing from our network members in their own voices. River Network envisions a powerful and inclusive movement that ensures abundant clean water for all people and nature to thrive. We believe joy and hope for our planet flows through our rivers.

My name is Ayana Harscoet, and I’m the Communications Associate at River Network. I use they/them pronouns, and I live and work in Brooklyn, NY on unceded Lenape land. You can learn more about the lands you live and work on at native-land.ca.

Last month, I hopped on a train up to the Bronx, where I sat down with Arif Ullah, the Executive Director of South Bronx Unite. South Bronx Unite is featured in our latest Equitable Development Toolkit, which focuses on Community-Centered Solutions for Green Gentrification and Displacement. Arif and I had this conversation just minutes from the waterfront that the organization is working to transform through their Mott Haven-Port Morris Waterfront Plan, which you’ll hear more about in this episode. So without further ado, here’s Arif. 

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Ayana: Hi Arif, thank you so much for joining me today. Would you like to briefly introduce yourself and South Bronx Unite to start? 

Arif: Sure. My name is Arif Ullah. I’m the Executive Director of South Bronx Unite, an an environmental, health, and social justice organization focused on the southernmost tip of the South Bronx, specifically Mott Haven/Port Morris. And, in the South Bronx, health and environmental justice are very linked due to an immense and disproportionate pollution burden.

This burden comes in the form power plants – we have a total of four; waste transfer stations  – we have one facility that processes the household waste of the entire Bronx, as well as parks waste and private waste; recycling facilities; private waste carting facilities; and last mile warehouses like Fresh Direct, FedEx, and UPS, among others. And on top of all of that, we’ve got the Bruckner Expressway, the Cross Bronx Expressway and the Major Deegan Highway, in addition to five northern Manhattan-Bronx bridges.

This landscape of heavy pollution has resulted in poor air quality and a range of illnesses. We know about asthma, which is very connected with exposure to air pollution. But we also know through studies that have been done in the last several years that exposure to air pollution also corresponds with, if not causes cognitive impairment, diabetes, obesity, heart disease, dementia and even forms of cancer. So for this community it’s not just about having cleaner air; it’s about living, it’s about being able to have a higher quality of life.

The other complicating and compounding factor is at the same time that we have this immense pollution burden, we also have a real dearth of green spaces. There’s only one real greenspace for 60 thousand plus people in this community. And what I mean by real greenspaces – if you look on a map, you will see a lot of small lots colored in green on Google maps. But in reality, these are concrete asphalt playgrounds which on very hot summer days end up being heat traps.

An active railroad runs along the Harlem River waterfront in Mott Haven. In the distance, the Third Avenue Bridge connects Manhattan to the Bronx.

Making matters worse is that we are an urban heat island, which means that, on very hot days,  it’s hotter here and in other heat islands than in other parts of the city. And as we experience the onset of climate change, that is a very important issue to raise because extreme heat is linked every year with at least 350 deaths across New York City, and that number is sure to grow.

Another way of looking at it is that this summer, which has seen record temperatures across the country and world, will be the coolest summer in years to come. So it’s just getting hotter. And the people who are most impacted by extreme heat, of course, are low income folks. In  New York Citythat unfortunately corresponds usually to Black, brown, and immigrant communities, which is the demographic makeup of the South Bronx. 

Other realities that are prevalent in the South Bronx, like many other frontline communities, include high unemployment, lower high school graduation rates than the city average, fewer resources available to community members, limited afterschool programs for youth, and a high concentration of public housing developments – we have five public housing developments in Mott Haven alone. South Bronx Unite works to address the environment-related injustices and challenges I just described. We do this through community organizing, advocacy, research and data collection, and coalition work.

Ayana: Thank you so much for situating us in the land, and the waters, and the people, and the communities here. Every neighborhood in New York has such a rich history and specific context, so I really appreciate having that to bring us into this conversation. Can you tell us a bit more about how South Bronx Unite entered the picture? What’s the story of this organization and what do y’all do here?

Arif: Yeah, absolutely. And one of the things I will add to what I just shared is that as much as there has been this history of discriminatory public policies – including redlining, which we’re still suffering from the impacts of, including urban renewal policies that led to an entire decade of landlords burning down residential buildings to collect insurance, including high levels of drug addiction, and many other challenges – there’s also been this brilliant response to the injustices.

The South Bronx has a rich history of resistance and organizing. In the 70s, the Young Lords, a Puerto Rican human rights organization fighting for self-determination, took over Lincoln Hospital, a local public hospital, to demand better health care. At the time, Lincoln was widely known by locals as the butcher shop because of the deplorable care provided there. Out of that occupation of the hospital came one of the country’s first patient’s bill of rights. The Young Lords also collaborated with The Black Panther Party to start a program that treated addiction with acupuncture. Resistance also came in the form of culture: the South Bronx is recognized as the birthplace of hip hop, breakdance, graffiti, and Bamba music. So South Bronx Unite, our creation story, is in the context of all of this, both the injustices, but also this rich legacy of organizing. And we stand on that history. We stand on the shoulders of organizers and cultural workers, and we are grateful to them.

12 years ago, FreshDirect, the food delivery company, was incentivized to relocate to our section of the South Bronx with about $135 million in city and state taxpayer subsidies. Now, the immense pollution burden that I mentioned earlier already existed in the South Bronx. So here was the city and state, incentivizing another polluting operation to come to a community that  was already experiencing this disproportionate pollution burden. And folks were fed up at that point. Community members organized and did direct actions, marches, challenged the relocation of FreshDirect in court – and thus was born South Bronx Unite. 

And as much as that battle with FreshDirect and the city and state was lost, the organization endured and grew stronger. Just about three years ago we hired our first full time staff, which was me, and now we are five full time staff people, and growing because there is a lot of work to be done. And we’re hoping to at least make a dent in some of the injustices here. Before we staffed up, South Bronx Unite was entirely volunteer-run by founders and community members.

In general, the way we go about addressing these injustices and working towards improvements is through community organizing, through advocacy, including legislative advocacy and changing public policy, through research. We have collaborations with different academic institutions, one of which is through our air quality monitoring project, where we’re documenting air quality across the South Bronx, and our academic partner is analyzing that data for us. So that type of research really strengthens our advocacy campaigns. And then we also have a sibling organization which is called the Mott Haven/Port Morris Community Land Stewards. Because land has throughout history been used to subjugate, oppress, displace. And as much as we don’t believe in the ownership of land the way that real estate companies do, we do believe that having control of the land, being able to steward the land advances self-determination. And so we’re working to be able to acquire land in Mott Haven/Port Morris so that we can advance our community’s self-determination. 

And just about a year ago, through an RFP (Request For Proposal) process that the city administered, we won a derelict and abandoned city building. It’d been lying abandoned for 10 years. Now, we’re in the midst of turning that into a community hub that offers programming around preventive health – not diagnostic health, which there’s enough of – preventive and holistic health, education, and the arts. So those are some of the programs. 

We also have a greenspace equity initiative because we don’t have enough greenspace in the community. We’re working to get more greenspace. We are also advancing a waterfront plan, and I’ll tell you a little bit more about the waterfront plan in a moment, but all of these polluting facilities that I mentioned to you, they are on our waterfront. So whereas other parts of the city for the last couple of decades have been experiencing a waterfront renaissance – promenades, green spaces on the waterfront – what this community has, unfortunately, is this host of polluting facilities. And we have a community-envisioned waterfront plan that would transform at least the part of the waterfront that abuts the water into a series or network of green spaces.

Ayana: Wow. Yeah. When you say that you’re a community-founded organization, I really hear that – not just South Bronx Unite, but everything that came before, and everything that is continuing through this work and beyond. I would love to hear more about that waterfront plan – how are you envisioning this plan to be carried out, what’s the timeline, who’s involved – anything and everything you’d like to share?

Arif: Yeah, of course. Thanks for being interested in it, and I think we all can agree that our stewardship of our natural environments, and how healthy our natural environments are, is inextricably linked with our own health. And that’s something that Indigenous communities have known for a long time, including Indigenous communities here in the United States. And I think with industrialization that connection was severed. But I think we’re at a point when people are really beginning to understand that we need to keep our natural environments healthy to be healthy as people.

And with that as the background we are, again, the southernmost tip of the South Bronx, and so we have a few different water bodies that abut our peninsula. And many community members don’t even know that we are a waterfront community because it’s entirely inaccessible. And there is really no reason for people to walk to the waterfront area because it’s just industry, which is what I described to you earlier. And many people don’t even know that the water is right here. 

About 10 years ago we led a process where we invited and welcomed community members to learn about the waterfront, but also to communicate what they would want to see on the waterfront, how they would want to use it. And out of that, it’s a series of charrette style gatherings, convenings. Out of that came what’s called the Mott Haven-Port Morris Waterfront Plan. And that waterfront plan in short is comprised of seven open greenspaces that are connected by a green band or a green pathway. 

And what is important to also lift up about this plan is, it’s not just about creating greenspaces. Of course, that in itself is very important for physical health and mental health – we know that greenspaces are very directly correlated with mental health. We can’t discount that, particularly in a community like this. But that this waterfront plan and the greenspaces created by the waterfront plan would also provide protection for community members against flooding.

And of course, with the onset of climate change, sea level rise and coastal storms are more and more a threat. So through green infrastructure and nature-based solutions, our waterfront plan would provide meaningful protection against flooding. It would also provide some pollution mitigation for the disproportionate pollution burden we have, again, through this green infrastructure and nature-based solutions in addition to creating an opportunity for people to be in the space for recreation, for relaxation with their children, family, friends, etc. 

This plan was prioritized several years ago by the New York State Department of Conservation’s Open Space Committee. Now, that hasn’t resulted in any funding for it, but it still helps our advocacy. And so we have been advocating for it for many years. One of the ways we advocate for it is by doing tours of the waterfront. We’ll invite people, both local community members, but anyone. Whether it’s academic institutions or partner organizations or elected representatives, we invite folks to have a look at our waterfront. 

And it’s an eyesore. There’s nothing pretty to look at on the waterfront, but that’s the point. We show them the waterfront and ask them to imagine. Because it could be something else. And that’s what happened with so many waterfronts across New York City. That’s what happened with space like the High Line. It was an abandoned rail yard, but people imagined what it could be. And our community has already imagined it, and we invite other people to imagine that as well. And by inviting people to do this tour of our waterfront, we also make them into advocates for our waterfront plan. And the more people who know about us and who know about the work that we’re doing, the better, the stronger our advocacy is because people are just better informed. 

Right now, we’re working on a large grant application. Through the Inflation Reduction Act, many grant opportunities have become available, and one is through the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and that’s specifically called the Community Change Grant. And I know that everyone and their grandmas are applying for that, but I think we stand a good chance. We were awarded a Technical Assistance award by the EPA. So we’re working with architects, engineers, an urban planning organization, as well as core partners like Waterfront Alliance, and Olin Architecture, which has been a long term partner and they’re great a landscape architecture firm. So they’re part of our core team and then we’ve got the larger technical assistance team. And we are applying for $20 million to activate two sections of our waterfront plan. So we have seven sections and we want to activate two sections of our waterfront plan. And this would, again, create access to the waterfront, create greenspace, etc. Right now we’re finalizing the application and we hope to submit it soon.  

Ayana: Yeah, that’s so exciting. And, like you mentioned, there’s only four or five folks working at this organization, so I bet that federal funding support will go a long way. 

Arif: Yeah. We hope to bring on at least one person who can take that on as a project manager. One of the other things I’ll mention about the water here is we have three different water ecosystems. The Harlem River is one. The Bronx Kill is a very unique ecosystem because it’s very narrow, it’s very shallow, and it’s the section that is between – one can say connects or separates – Randall’s Island and Mott Haven/Port Morris. And the Bronx Kill is along some bird migratory pathways, and then that spills into the East River. And what we have, particularly in the Harlem River, are several combined sewer overflow outputs (CSOs) which has resulted in, unsurprisingly, very poor air water quality. So we don’t just have bad air quality, we have bad water quality as well.

And we are working right now on a water testing experiment with Randall’s Island Park Alliance, where we’re collecting water samples every week, bringing it to Randall’s Island, and at the end of 16 weeks, they’ll give us results. We know that the water quality is bad, but now we’ll have the data to show that the water quality is bad – just as we know that the air quality is bad, but with the air quality monitoring project that we’re doing, we’ll have the data to back that up and then strengthen our advocacy. 

We envision that the waterfront plan will not only create these open greenspaces and offer protection, etc, but that the stewardship of the waterways will also improve, which would then mean that the habitat will also grow healthier. All of that, again, is very linked. We want to make sure that the waterways are healthy and that the critters that occupy those waterways are healthy as well.

Ayana: Right, all of our health is so connected. I’m curious, are there ways that you’re actively involving community members in this process? Can you tell me a bit more about how folks can engage and what’s happened so far?

Arif: Yeah, absolutely. Community engagement is in our DNA. The organization was founded by community members. All of our board members are community members. And all of them are very active in our work and in providing guidance and leadership. 

But of course, board members alone don’t make a community. And so we’re constantly doing community engagement, community outreach, tabling, etc. Over the last month, we’ve been tabling at NYCHA public housing development family days, just so people know more about our work. And different other types of events that we’re tabling at: we have a climate justice event that’s coming up in September that we’re helping to organize and that we’re also tabling at, there was an event at Lincoln Hospital earlier this summer that one of our colleagues tabled at, and then in addition to that we do surveys, so that’s another form of community engagement. We use social media as well to get the word out, and sometimes on social media we’ll make it a participatory exercise where people get a chance to weigh in on questions that we ask and take actions based on what we’re requesting. 

And then we have very intentional community engagement sessions. So for the two sections of our waterfront plan that we are hoping to activate with the Community Change Grant, we had three community convenings during which, through charrette activities, we asked folks how they would envision the these two particular sections, how they want to use it, even how they want to reach it. And that allowed us to learn more about, for example, is there adequate lighting? Do people feel safe reaching these waterfront areas? We can create waterfront areas, but if people don’t feel safe reaching those areas, then they’re gonna be very underused. If there aren’t inviting corridors to reach those spaces, they’re gonna be underused. So all of those really need to be taken into consideration. And of course, we can think about it, but we have blind spots. And community members will be able to point out those blind spots or will be able to offer ideas that we just didn’t think about.

So yes, community gatherings, community convenings, community outreach, community events, community events with music and food. Culture is part of the organizing work we do; it makes no sense to divorce culture from organizing, whether that’s art, whether that’s music, et cetera. But yes, community engagement is a constant activity for us. 

Ayana: It sounds like there’s so much intention and care about the way that you approach that, going through all these different mediums, coming to the people. When you were talking about some of those blind spots or things that you might’ve overlooked initially, can you think of a time or an example of one particular idea or feedback that you received that really changed some of the planning process?

Arif: Yeah, I would say the lighting piece where, when we were asking people for advice, when we did breakout groups, in all of the breakout groups, everyone mentioned adequate lighting. And so that was a blind spot for us. I think that we also became more aware of how important it is to not only have a greenspace at the water’s edge, but also to invite people, lead people to the water’s edge through green corridors and tree lined streets. That would just make it more likely for these spaces to be used. So that’s something that community members also communicated to us. And these engagements, even if it’s something that wasn’t a blind spot for us, but something that they state that we were thinking, it makes us feel more affirmed that it’s not just staff or board that is thinking this, but that larger community is thinking this. They confirm and affirm our thoughts around it, our ideas around it. And that’s important as well because we don’t want to make any decisions that are not vetted by, but also not communicated by community members. 

Ayana: Yeah, absolutely. That makes a lot of sense. And I’m curious too, what kinds of activities or uses do you think this waterfront will have for people? I imagine there’s so many, but are there some that have really come to the forefront? Like families wanting a place to grill and gather, or people wanting to be able to fish recreationally?

Arif: Yeah, all of the above. We heard grilling, and I think that there’s no reason why we couldn’t do that. Park space in general. Also expressed was a desire for food growing gardens. There’s no reason why that couldn’t happen either. Benches and places for people to relax, greenspace for people to play sports, activities like that.

One of the things that was very surprising to me in the community engagements that we did was until we mentioned it, no one suggested in-water activities like canoeing or kayaking. And I think that really is a reflection of what people feel is even possible. Because if it’s not within the realm of people’s imagination, then it’s an impossibility, right? Whereas other communities immediately might say yes, of course, kayaking, canoeing. And so when we mentioned that everyone said, yes, of course, we want to be on the water. It was really telling that’s not an idea that groups suggested, but we definitely want to introduce that. I think being on the water will open up people’s worlds as well. And safe water activities. So that would mean like some boat launch areas as part of this green space. 

We also imagine a pier, and we’ve been in discussion about what we’re calling an eco barge or a bio barge which can move as well. And so this barge would not only have greenspace, but it would be also be a space for experimentation, maybe testing air quality, testing water quality, maybe having some type of mini lab there, involving local students in those types of activities – getting them on a barge, getting them on the water could open up their world as well. So we’re in conversation about having a barge parked somewhere on our waterfront as well. 

Ayana: Wow. That’ll be such an amazing environmental education opportunity for students.

Arif: Yeah. And also on the topic of educational opportunities, maybe even planting some oysters and mussels. There’s this Billion Oyster Project that’s happening across New York City, where oysters are being used to not only remediate the water, but also provide protection against flooding because of the current breaks they can provide. And an organization that we’ve been partnering with or has been an ally for many years, the RETI Center, they’re doing kelp farming. So maybe even bringing kelp farming to this area. There’s so many ideas and opportunities for us, once we’re able to really access the water. 

Ayana: The possibilities seem almost endless, that’s so exciting! I can really imagine how vibrant it’ll be for the community to have this space. So maybe circling back a bit to some of the more technical aspects behind this whole process, I’d love to hear more about how this is even happening behind the scenes. Who is involved, how are you getting support from these partners that you’ve mentioned? Because again, it’s a beautiful vision, and I can also imagine it will also take a lot of work to get there.

Arif: Yeah. There are many different parties and right now we’re fortunate to have this TA team, but even without the TA team, we’ve been fortunate to have Olin and Waterfront Alliance on board. The types of activities or work that’s being done is, what kind of in-water structures can be built within this time period of three years? Because the Community Change Grant, one of the requirements is that the grant be spent down within three years.

In a place like New York City, permitting alone can take three years. And so we’re trying to get ahead of that by speaking with different city agencies, state agencies, the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers – these are all permitting bodies, and getting a sense from them: “Okay, here’s what we want to do. Do y’all have any red flags?” Because if they have any red flags and if they tell us it’s going to take a much longer time, then obviously we have to pivot. We have to modify our plan a little bit. So far so good. They’ve all said that there aren’t any major red flags. And hopefully the permitting process will go smoothly should we receive this grant.

I think that is a huge part of this – navigating city bureaucracy, navigating jurisdictional authority over certain spaces. There are sections that we are working on that there’s confusion even between city agencies, who has jurisdiction over what. So this process has also been an investigative process. We’ve had to be detectives as well. But we’re getting closer to some answers for certain sections of the waterfront plan, particularly the two sections that we’re hoping to activate, which we’re calling the catalyst projects.

We’re also getting hydro analyses done. And we’re working with an engineering firm that specializes in hydrology called eDESIGN dynamics, and they have been able to tell us about current flows and where sewage ends up. And even though we have several CSO outputs in our section of the South Bronx, in fact, many of the other CSO outputs upriver, that debris and waste end up coming to our section just because of currents and flows.

So we’re learning about that. And we’re learning about green infrastructure. Olin and One Architecture, which is the architecture firm on our TA team, they have a lot of experience around waterfront plans, learning about green infrastructure and what kinds of plants can be planted, etc, soft edges, hard edges, living shorelines, all of these things. They’re the experts. I have a very high level, cursory understanding. Budgets, of course, because we’ll need to stick within the $20 million budget. What’s a particular thing going to cost? Those are all things that need to be taken into consideration as we prepare this grant application.

Ayana: Yeah. So many moving parts. So much knowledge. What do you think has been maybe the biggest challenge so far in navigating that? 

Arif: Talking specifically about the two sections of our waterfront plan that we are submitting a grant application for, really that permitting can take time. And I think the EPA was very well intentioned in this Community Change Grant, but I don’t think they fully considered that in big cities like New York, it takes a lot longer for projects to happen because of how large the city is and how much bureaucracy there is in the city.

Thankfully we’ve been organized enough to get ahead of it and have these conversations, but most grassroots organizations would not have had the ability to do that. So I would say that navigating the alphabet soup of city and state agencies, finding out who is responsible for what, trying to get an audience with the deputy mayor, and jurisdictional issues as well – I would say those have been the most challenging. But we’re making progress, and at least we’re engaged in conversations with the different city agencies that we need to be engaged in conversations with.  

Ayana: Yeah, that makes sense. Right, a community change grant – change doesn’t happen overnight, especially in a place like New York, like you said. Yeah, I can imagine there will be so many things that need to happen for all of that. 

Arif: Exactly.

Ayana: Well, we’ve covered so much, you’ve shared so much – I think maybe as one of our final questions, I’m wondering if you have any advice for any other community organizations that are really hoping to do something similar.

How do you even know where to begin? How do you know who to get involved with? What does that process look like for people who might look at your waterfront plan and think, wow, I really want my community to be able to do that. 

Arif: I would say start talking to your neighbors. If you’re not doing this through an established organization – and when I say established, it could be a community group – but if there’s nothing like that exists in your community, then start talking to your neighbors, sharing your ideas, asking for their ideas, maybe getting a few people together and organizing an event so you can, start collecting more ideas, then organizing, convenings, charette type activities where people can offer more input. 

At the same time, start involving or sharing this information with your elected representatives because ultimately, even if you’re disillusioned with electoral politics and electoral representatives, they’ll need to be involved in some way or other. So keeping them posted and maybe even involving them in these discussions could be useful. Seeing what organizations are out there, not just in your community, but in the larger community or adjacent communities or citywide or adjacent town or nearby town. Are there organizations that are working on something like this? And if so, inviting them to your event and learning from them, because we don’t need to reinvent the wheel. We can take templates and models that already exist and then tailor them to our own specific needs and build on them.

But really just making sure to engage community members, making sure to have regular community presence through community activities, through community engagements, through workshops, outreach, etc. And then making sure that you keep the community informed and updated on progress, speaking with city agencies. Again, this is over the course of, not just a few months I’m talking about, but over the course of a few years. Speaking with city agencies, making sure that you’re developing relationships with city agencies right now, so that they’re not scratching their heads over who you are, really developing a reputation as a credible community organization. And joining – whether it’s the community board or whether it’s an open space committee that is in your community – joining relevant committees’ boards, etc. 1. To inform more people about the project that you have in mind, but also 2. to be able to use that influence to highlight the project.

And local media is always hungry for stories. So developing a relationship with local media, inviting them to your events – even if the event is a workshop, they’ll cover it. And sometimes when local media covers it, a larger media company may be pouring through local media for stories, and this might be something that attracts them. But developing those relationships with local media and inviting them to amplify the message. Social media is another form of media. You can reach a particular demographic through social media that you might not through traditional media. So making sure that the way you’re doing outreach is inclusive. And so if you’re also wanting to get elders involved, do you have elder-appropriate, elder-sensitive outreach materials? So some of the basics of community organizing is based is what I’m getting at.

None of what we’re doing is impossible. And as long as you’re organized, as long as you have a group of people, this is entirely possible. You just have to be consistent. You have to be on top of it. You have to make sure that there aren’t too many ebbs and flows. Of course, there will be some ebbs and flows, but you have to make sure that there aren’t too many gaps in the activity and that there aren’t too many ebbs and flows. So those are some things I can think of off the top of my head.  

Ayana: Yeah, thank you. Like you said, both great advice for this type of work, but also more broadly just for organizing around any community issue. I appreciate you sharing that. So I think the last question I’ll ask – and feel free to be as broad as you’d like with this one – but I’d just love to hear from you, what do you think an environmentally just future for this community would really look like? 

Arif: First and foremost, that people will be able to continue to live in this community. Because we can bring in greenspaces and more trees and river access, but if the cost of living goes up to an extent where people aren’t able to live in this community, then who is enjoying those amenities?

New luxury developments in Mott Haven along the Harlem River.

Ayana: Green gentrification, right? 

Arif: Green gentrification is very real. Gentrification in general is very real. As we’re talking, behind you are seven luxury developments that went up in the last couple of years. 1,350 units in these luxury developments, not one of which is truly affordable. So first and foremost, we can’t talk about access, we can’t talk about green spaces without first talking about gentrification and green gentrification. We need these spaces. I’m not at all ever suggesting that  we stop advocating for these because of what the consequences are. How can we have these types of healthy, needed spaces in frontline communities at the same time that communities can continue to live there?

But getting back to your question, first and foremost, making sure that people can continue to live here. And that might be doing Know Your Rights and tenants’ rights trainings. That might be doing other types of organizing to make sure that happens. 

What does this community look like otherwise? People are healthier because the pollution burden is lifted. People are breathing cleaner air, fewer incidents of asthma and other respiratory illnesses or other illnesses related to exposure to air pollution. As a result, children are performing better in schools and more kids are graduating, more kids are going to college or able to pursue what they want to pursue.

There are good paying jobs that are available, maybe even maintaining some of these greenspaces in the community. And that will allow people to have a better quality of life. And of course, access to the water. But the reason why I kept access to the water at the end is, of course that’s the centerpiece – however, we can’t ignore all of these other pieces. We have to think about all of these pieces together is what I’m trying to say. It can’t be just about waterfront access; it has to be about all of these things, because we’re not single-issue people. No one is single-issue, and all of these issues are inextricably linked. Thinking about it holistically is critical.

Ayana: Yeah, absolutely. And I really hope and believe that is a future that we will see in our lifetime.

Arif: Me too. It’ll happen. We’ll make sure it does, both as an organization, but including through partnerships and allyships with organizations including the River Network. Appreciate that. We’re in this together, right? We can’t work in silos or in vacuums because we’re not as powerful in that way. We have to work together and collaborate. 

Ayana: Yeah. And we are in this together. Well, thank you so much, Arif. 

Arif: Of course, my pleasure. 

Ayana: This was such a wonderful conversation. And I’m sure folks who are listening or reading will have a lot to learn. 

Arif: Yeah, and find out about us, come to our website, southbronxunite.org, get in touch with us. If we don’t answer immediately, it’s because we’re very capacity limited, but give us a little bit of time, we’ll get back to you. And to anyone who’s listening, you have a standing invitation to the South Bronx to the Mott Haven/Port Morris sections of the South Bronx. We’re happy to give you a waterfront tour, get a group of people together. Let’s do this! Thank you.

Ayana: Woohoo! Thank you!

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Ayana: One more time, a huge thank you to Arif for joining me in this expansive and inspiring conversation. Like Arif said, if you’d like to learn more about South Bronx Unite, you can visit their website at southbronxunite.org.

And finally, if you enjoyed this Meet Your Network episode, you can find more conversations and connect with us at rivernetwork.org. Thank you for listening, and we hope to see you around.