A Review of Noxious New York by Julie Sze, MIT Press, 2007
On March 22, 1987, a barge called the Mobro 4000 departed from New York with 3,168 tons of trash on board. It journeyed the entire length of the eastern coast of the United States and continued as far south as Belize in search of a dumping destination. Four months later the ship returned to New York with its load still intact, having been rejected by authorities at every stop.
While the journey of the “Gar-barge,” as it was called at the time, may have been a unique incident that embarrassed New York, it also highlights a period of time when garbage began to take on complex cultural, political and economic contexts. In the 1980s, New York and much of the rest of the country were faced with the question of what to do with an ever-increasing amount of waste. The creation of large-scale municipal waste management sites was a solution, but only for some. Indeed, the presence of new industrial facilities in certain neighborhoods helped spark environmental justice activism in New York.
In her book Noxious New York, Julie Sze analyzes how industrial waste and energy facilities influenced the distribution of environmental benefits (i.e. clean air) and burdens (pollution and smell) in New York neighborhoods. Sze grew up in New York and worked for an environmental justice organization in the city for seven years before pursuing her PhD and becoming a professor in American Studies at UC Davis. Sze draws on interviews, historical records, biographies, narratives, city data, and newspapers to examine the roots of New York’s changing physical and socio-political landscape, their environmental and health effects, and the mobilization of local activists. Taken together, Sze sheds light on a movement that often goes undiscussed and works towards identifying more equitable solutions in urban environmental and land use policy.
Sze profiles four low-income and minority neighborhoods in New York: Sunset Park and Williamsburg in Brooklyn, West Harlem in Manhattan and South Bronx. Each of these neighborhoods was subjected to the citing and expansion of various noxious facilities in the 1980s and 90s. Sze draws together these case studies through their similarities in demographics, zoning designations, and historical factors. She then places these local factors against the backdrop of emerging globalization, privatization, and deregulation, in order to paint a vivid picture of environmental activism in these communities.
Sze argues that to understand environmental justice activism, one must first examine the relationship between cities and power. In the mid-twentieth century, New York’s real estate became “too valuable” for manufacturing, as its economy shifted to revolve around finance and intellectual capital. However, scenarios like that of the Mobro 4000 highlighted the need for more municipal sanitation services. As a result, Manhattan’s garbage was not being processed in Manhattan, but rather was trucked outside of the city where land was believed to be “less valuable.” Privatization and deregulation of these services placed power in the hands of the private sector so that issues such as environmental quality, safety and freedom from urban pollution were not treated as inherent rights, but rather as commodities available to select “consumers.” The consequences of privatization on development were shaped by the introduction of municipal zoning.
The New York City Board of Estimate and Apportionment originally introduced zoning as a way to promote and protect public health, safety, and general welfare, but it soon became clear in all four case studies that zoning would be most beneficial for those with political clout. Sze explains how, in one case, more affluent residents were able to move the Bronx-Lebanon medical waste incinerator from downtown Manhattan location to South Bronx. The designation of the South Bronx as a “mixed-use industrial” area by the zoning commission allowed the incinerator to be built blocks away from 2,300 public housing units and several schools. Though these policies were not intended to be discriminatory, they had the effect of heightening social differences based on race and class.
Ironically, those most affected by such decisions often lacked the access, or political agency, to rebuff the introduction of noxious facilities, such as the Bronx-Lebanon incinerator. As a result, incinerators pumped toxins into the air, sewage treatment plants emanated odors that seeped through the streets and homes, and diesel buses trucked garbage through neighborhoods. All the while asthma, hospitalization, and death rates rose. There are roughly 300,000 children diagnosed with asthma in New York, but low-income children have rates 3.5 times greater than higher-income children. Sze quotes a journalist who writes about asthma in the South Bronx: “Men talk of not being able to work, mothers of constantly worrying whether their children might be playing to hard, and youngsters of the moment when their heart starts to thump if they run too fast.”
Photo: WE ACT
Local community members mobilized around the relationship they saw between their changing neighborhoods, increasingly toxic environments, and poor health. “If You Live Uptown, Breathe At Your Own Risk.” This slogan was part of a massive bilingual campaign in 1997 by WE ACT, a West Harlem non-profit environmental justice group, centered on reducing diesel exhaust. Another version of this ad continues: “Because clean air is a right, not a privilege, even if you live above 96th St.” Sze focuses on the implications of this type of community assertions within its broader social context.
The term “We Speak for Ourselves” came to define the environmental justice movement in New York. By using racialized language and imagery and giving faces and voices to those affected by environmental pollutants, these communities were able to insert themselves into discussions that had historically excluded them. Residents spoke out at city council hearings and children appeared on television saying, “When buses drive by, the smoke gets in little people’s eyes.” Whether it is the reduction in diesel-fueled garbage truck, the decrease in polluting sewage facilities, or the shutting down of the Bronx-Lebanon incinerator, Sze demonstrates how residents with the least access to resources were able to shape the struggle for environmental justice by becoming political activists for their community.
While there are certainly success stories within each case study, Noxious New York shows us that there is more work to be done. Though all four urban neighborhoods have contributed to the creation better policy and environmental conditions, inequities still exist and they are not only in New York. Indeed, by situating the local efforts of New York environmental activists within the larger scope of the U.S., Sze creates an important framework for talking about the inequitable distribution of environmental burdens across the country. This book acts as a call to action for increased consideration of environmental justice and is a powerful contribution to our understanding of urban spaces, the environment, and equality.