#greenpoint library

Excerpted from ‘Architecture in 2018: Look to the streets, not the sky’, written by Sean Weiss, Assistant Professor of Architecture, City College of New York and published by The Conversation:

”The architecture of social engagement – the idea that buildings should address inequality and improve the lives of all dwellers – first started gaining steam during the Great Recession. It’s important to continue moving this work out from under the shadows of the glossier buildings that tend to receive the most media attention.

VICTORIA CAMBRANES

“Now because of all these new developments they are kicking all these things (contaminated soil)...a lot of people are getting away with not following the rules.. they (DOB) issue stop work orders and violations then they’ll (developers) send their lawyer to court to talk it down and they write it off as a business expense...which is a very common tactic of these big developers.”

To hear the excerpt, click below.

JANE POOL

“We had a rally with thousands of people at Warsaw (against the TGE proposed power plant)...our community came together...people became experts and learned how to strategize to fight off what would have been awful.”

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FELICE KIRBY

“A really bad one was the lead paint factory on the corner of North 12th and Bedford Ave., was Reichhold Paint….she told me ..I can see paint bubbling up from the drain (in her basement).... that’s totally illegal it’ll seep through the groundwater. For 100 years...they had been dumping lead paint down the drains.”

To hear the excerpt, click below.

MARCY BOYLE

“Nobody thought about the environment...they didn’t worry about what was in their backyards or pollution…. we weren’t aware of those issues ….those issues came to the fore with the environmental movement….in the 1960s …. and the formation of the EPA and the Clean Air Act.”

To hear the excerpt, click below.

JOHN DERESZEWSKI

“The kind of pollution that people accepted is pretty kind of staggering….whether it be open smoke stacks, clearly terrible water pollution....(people accepted) that’s how things are.  There was a kind stoic (attitude), not only for the environment, but how people can work against government elections.”

To hear the excerpt, click below.