Advocacy
South Bronx Unite
South Bronx Unite organizes Mott Haven and Port Morris residents against warehouse expansion, truck corridor pollution, and luxury waterfront development along the same corridor the Cross Bronx Expressway first cut. The group pairs air-quality data collection with land-use fights and a community-controlled waterfront plan.
- Location
- Bronx, NY
- Founded
- 2012
- Website
- https://southbronxunite.org/
South Bronx Unite formed in 2012 as a coalition of Mott Haven, Port Morris, and Melrose residents and community organizations confronting a proposed FreshDirect warehouse relocation that would have added thousands of additional truck trips per week to neighborhoods already holding some of the highest asthma rates in New York City.
The group now runs three parallel campaigns. The Mott Haven-Port Morris Waterfront Plan, which community residents developed through open planning sessions between 2014 and 2017, is the counter-framework to the speculative luxury-waterfront development that followed the 2017 rezoning of the area. The Environmental Justice program tracks air quality, truck traffic, and industrial polluters along the Cross Bronx Expressway and Bruckner Boulevard corridors. The Community Governance Collaborative works on alternatives to police-first responses to mental-health and public-safety calls.
South Bronx Unite draws a direct line between the Cross Bronx Expressway’s 1948-1972 construction and the present-day warehouse-and-truck economy that serves wealthier boroughs through the same neighborhoods. The group’s organizing treats the expressway and the warehouses as one continuous displacement pressure across two generations.
Cited in
- Cross Bronx Expresswaynew-york