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Citizen of the Week: Majora Carter

Majora Carter is a human dynamo. She looks and talks like she’s incapable of sitting still, and for many in New York’s South Bronx, it’s a good thing she dosn’t stay still for long.

When I teach about progressive reformers, I teach about three different types: advertisers, who point out problems, use-the-governmentors, who legislate solutions, and roll-up-your-sleevers who jump in and solve problems with wild abandon. Majora Carter is THE roll-up-your-sleever.

Carter grew up in the South Bronx. Her older brother survived Vietnam only to be gunned down at his front door. She grew up in poverty across from a crack house. She resigned herself to making her life better. Her decision to include the South Bronx in that decision has helped to make the South Bronx a better place.

For years, the South Bronx was the dumping ground for environmental poisons, as well as the location of last resort for polluting factories that had been pushed out of more desireable locations. It was sacked in a waves of white flight and urban renewal and written off as a human wasteland.

All of this has had devastating effecrs on the residents of the South Bronx. It has affected obesity, diabetes and asthma, and has been the root cause of myriad other health issues affecting an already poverty stricken and underinsured population.

As the leader of Sustainable South Bronx, Majora Carter has done a great deal to change all that, and has amvitious goals to improve the living environment of the South Bronx and to revitalize the economy. She has written grants to improve the waterfront, traffic safety, and placement of toxic waste.

Sustainable South Bronx sponsors Bronx Ecological Stewardship Training, which trains young people for jobs in ecological reclamation that they can put to use on planned projects like reclaiming an unused expressway, and installing “Green Roofs” throughout the South Bronx that clean the air after years of unadulterated pollution.

To find out more about Sustainable South Bronx, visit their website at http://www.ssbx.org/

Watch Majora Carter in action. Warning! Her enthusiasm is infectious.