In My Backyard a Profile of Hunts Point with Recommendations for Realizing Community Members’ Vision for Their Neighborhood
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
In My Backyard A Profile of Hunts Point with Recommendations for Realizing Community Members’ Vision for their Neighborhood February 2008 Sustainable South Bronx (SSB) is a Hunts Point‐based organization committed to envi‐ ronmental justice through innovative, economically sustainable projects that are in‐ formed by community needs. Founded in 2001, SSB addresses land use, energy, trans‐ portation, water and waste policy, and education in order to advance the environ‐ mental and economic rebirth of the South Bronx. Majora Carter Marta Rodriquez James Chase Jon Santiago Rob Craudereuff Phil Silva Miquela Craytor Jenny Ulloa Amilcar LaBoy James Wells Duaine Lee Annette Williams Maria Ramos Warnke Community Consulting (WCC) is a community development consulting firm that partners with nonprofit organizations to design and implement community‐based planning processes, develop and finance affordable housing and community facilities, and build sustainable organizational capacity. Heidie Joo Burwell Kyra Davis Francis Lam Jonathan Leit Benjamin Warnke February 2008 Dear Community Member, During the summer of 2007, Sustainable South Bronx asked local residents to take an active role in shaping the future of the Hunts Point community. Elected officials and government agencies make many decisions that impact thousands of lives, our lives. Sewage treatment plant expansions, power plants, large truck‐dependent development, and most recently a 2000 in‐ mate jail proposal, are all examples of decisions made without our best inter‐ ests in mind. These decisions have resulted in low numbers of local jobs, bad smells, unattractive land uses that discourage community pride and re‐ investment, and high rates of asthma & other health problems. In light of the city’s decision to spend $375 million for a jail in Hunts Point, SSB decided to make sure that community concerns and visions were com‐ municated to the City. SSB worked with Warnke Community Consulting to collect your voices. This report is the result: over 450 residents, workers, and community stakeholders shared their visions for the future of our com‐ munity. We hope you will examine the results, and discuss your own desires for this community with friends, family, and elected officials. Do you agree or dis‐ agree with the results of this survey? We want to know. Thank you for your time and interest in this important moment. Sincerely, Majora Carter Miquela Craytor Executive Director Deputy Director 4 In My Backyard: A Profile of Hunts Point with Recommendations for Realizing Community Members’ Vision for their Neighborhood T ABLE OF CONTENTS 1 Executive Summary 7 2 Methodology 15 3 Neighborhood Profile 17 3.1 General Demographics 17 3.2 Workforce & Economy 19 3.3 Housing 31 3.4 Recreational Areas 35 3.5 Community Health 41 3.6 Public Safety 45 3.7 Community Identity & Participation 53 4 Community Vision & Recommendations 61 4.1 Workforce Development 61 4.2 Housing 69 4.3 Recreational Areas 73 4.4 Community Health 79 4.5 Public Safety 83 4.6 Community Identity & Participation 87 5 Conclusion 93 Acknowledgments 95 5 6 In My Backyard: A Profile of Hunts Point with Recommendations for Realizing Community Members’ Vision for their Neighborhood 1 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The Hunts Point neighborhood in the South Bronx, one of processed at the various waste treatment plants in Hunts New York City’s last remaining industrial areas, is a commu‐ Point.1 nity of contrasting realities that finds itself at a key point in its development. On the one hand, the neighborhood has nu‐ The Sustainable South Bronx (SSB) initiated this community‐ merous assets, including a waterfront location on the Bronx based visioning process to empower residents to participate and East Rivers, proximity to Manhattan, the economic en‐ in influencing the future of their neighborhood. SSB is a gine of the Hunts Point Food Distribution Center, new City‐led Hunts Point‐based organization committed to environmental development projects and waterfront parks, and a strong lo‐ justice through innovative, economically sustainable projects cal organizational infrastructure. Simultaneously, it exhibits that are informed by community needs. Founded in 2001, one of the highest poverty and unemployment levels in the SSB addresses land use, energy, transportation, water and City, with poor community health, noxious uses and commer‐ waste policy, and education in order to advance the environ‐ cial traffic, and substance abuse and prostitution issues. mental and economic rebirth of the South Bronx. The project Caught in the middle of these pressures are approximately was implemented over a six‐month period from April to Sep‐ 11,000 residents, who have been neglected, under‐served by tember 2007, and culminates with this report, “In My Back‐ the neighborhood’s strong local economy, and historically dis‐ yard: A Profile of Hunts Point with Recommendations for Re‐ empowered by development projects that often burden the alizing Community Members’ Vision for their Neighbor‐ area with the City’s undesirable uses while failing to benefit hood.” The objectives of the project have been twofold: the local population. • Empower community members through a process that Hunts Point, the total area of which covers one square mile, is provides an opportunity to directly voice their needs and bound by the Bruckner Expressway to the north and west, aspirations, as well as influence the future development and the Bronx and East Rivers to the south and east. It is lo‐ of their neighborhood cated in Bronx Community Board 2. As with the entire bor‐ ough of the Bronx, the 1970s and 1980s witnessed severe de‐ • Inform and guide SSB’s work, as well as projects under‐ terioration in property and living conditions, and only in the taken by other entities in the neighborhood late 1990s and 2000s has the neighborhood begun to receive the attention that it requires to revitalize. Still, major chal‐ lenges remain, not the least of which is its role in New York City as a literal dumping ground: nearly two‐thirds of the City’s sludge and 40% of Manhattan’s commercial waste is Executive Summary 7 Thematically, the project has focused on six major areas of tions, as well as U.S. Census, Department of Labor, and community development: other government demographic and economic data • Community Survey: 425 residents and workers surveyed • Workforce & Economy over seven weeks, with an instrument of 50 questions • Housing covering quality of life, housing, workforce, and general • Recreational Areas community issues • Community Health • Focus Groups: three focus groups over a two‐month pe‐ • Public Safety riod, with participants numbering from four to 14, cover‐ • Community Identity & Participation ing housing, quality of life, and workforce issues • Stakeholder Interviews: interviews with 26 organizations To implement the project, SSB collaborated with Warnke and individuals, conducted in‐person and via telephone, Community Consulting (WCC), a community development ranging from Community Board members, to educators, consulting firm that partners with nonprofit organizations to to organizational staff design and implement community‐based planning processes, develop and finance affordable housing and community facili‐ ties, and build sustainable organizational capacity. This report has been prepared by WCC, in cooperation with SSB. Methodology SSB and WCC collaborated to develop a methodology that would maximize participation in the process by residents and other community members. While the focus of the project has been the Hunts Point peninsula, it has also covered por‐ tions of the Port Morris and Longwood sections of the South Bronx, which are included in SSB’s service area. The project utilized four information gathering components: • Existing Reports & Data: review of the myriad reports produced by New York City agencies and local organiza‐ View of East River from Hunts Point peninsula. 8 In My Backyard: A Profile of Hunts Point with Recommendations for Realizing Community Members’ Vision for their Neighborhood Neighborhood Profile • Apprenticeship programs may not be meeting the diver‐ In many ways, Hunts Point is an unusual poor community. sity of residents’ interests and needs While its residential population ranks among the most impov‐ • Informal economic activity represents a potential area of erished in New York City, the neighborhood is home to an in‐ economic growth credibly lucrative local economy with the Hunts Point Food Distribution Center. Clearly, the billions of dollars of eco‐ Housing nomic activity in the neighborhood fails to benefit residents. • Hunts Point and Bronx CD 2 are growing as residential This tension manifests in several areas of community develop‐ communities ment, and the visioning project sought to balance these dual • The housing typology of Hunts Point and Bronx CD 2 is realities. The following summary presents the profile of overwhelmingly dominated by mid‐rise, multi‐family Hunts Point that emerged from the project: rental buildings • The quality of the housing stock is a significant issue General Demographics • The community has an extremely low homeownership • The populations of Hunts Point and the greater SSB ser‐ rate vice area are growing • Rents are among the lowest in the City, but are still diffi‐ • These communities are markedly young cult to afford • These communities are largely Hispanic • Rental vacancy rates are extremely low • Community members overwhelmingly want residential Workforce & Economy growth, but are dissatisfied