The New School
New York, NY
Apr 9th, 2007
[A video version of this presentation is available at Fora.tv]

Getting the South Bronx Greenway wasn't easy. Some stages were a battle between David and Goliath to secure funding and coax the city to promote community interaction. Majora Carter's vision for a new park first started when her dog became lost in an old dump sight along the Bronx river. Taking a gray space and turning it into a thriving ecological zone required a fine amount of elbow grease and creative thinking, but also meant working with developers interested in building an owned model.

In this heartfelt and informative talk, Majora Carter discusses some of the trials and tribulations of creating a strong and lively community in a depressed area left isolated by developers and banks. Starting from the late 1970s, Carter introduces us to some of the great, and not so great, practices that have brought the South Bronx community to the state it's in today. She also discusses some of the lessons that can be learned from poor planning and from taking a more community-driven approach to development beyond the construction of mega-highways.

Ultimately, we hear some of the latest developments going on in the South Bronx community, such as the creation of an Eco-Industrial park to bring in jobs on top of a multi-million dollar jail site and sewage treatment plant. With new municipal by-laws and state funds available for such initiatives, Majora Carter shares Martin Luther King's dream of a new promised land that surpasses economic poverty and jails, to one of success and business development that understands the importance of ownership and business-building in these communities.