Greening the Ghetto

Urban Farm DB summary

This piece, published in the Anglican Theological Review, is a first-person essay by an author raised in the South Bronx, New York, discussing environmental injustice and hopes for greening in the neighborhood. It states that the South Bronx is the poorest congressional district in the United States, with over 20% unemployment and more than one-third of residents living in poverty, hosts four power plants and most of New York City's solid waste and sewage processing, and has a childhood asthma hospitalization rate seven times the national average, alongside fewer trees and parks per person than other parts of the city. It cites a 2006 Columbia University report finding learning disabilities in children living nearest to fossil fuel emissions sources. The piece is a personal essay drawing on the author's experience and advocacy rather than an empirical study, and presents no methodology or sample.