A New Grant for Air Quality 

We are thrilled to be one of the 22 recipients of a $3.5 million grant from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation that they announced in a press conference this week in the Bronx! We are partnering with South Bronx Unite to use this grant to install more air quality monitors and, with our existing monitors, form a network of air monitoring that stretches from Northern Manhattan through the South Bronx. This will help us to gather baseline data ahead of congestion pricing, and then to monitor its impact on environmental justice neighborhoods once it takes effect next year.

Thank You for Joining Us!

Thank you to everyone who joined us for our final membership meeting of 2023! Our members had a first look at our policy agenda for 2024, which includes the policies and campaigns that we will be pursuing at the city, state, and national levels next year. Meeting attendees broke out into small groups for discussion and feedback on some of our most important campaigns for 2024. Our planning steering committee also presented their findings on sanitation inequities in New York City including how Northern Manhattan neighborhoods have less access to trash services than other neighborhoods in Manhattan. We also got into the holiday spirit with some early Christmas raffle prizes! And we honored some of our members who have gone above and beyond for our movement in the last year!

We'd like to also extend a huge thank you to everyone who has worked, volunteered, taken action, and supported environmental justice with us throughout the year!

• Manhattan Clean Energy Hub: Columbia Spectator wrote a profile about the Manhattan Clean Energy Hub, a new resource to help Manhattanites transition to clean and affordable energy.
• Mercury in Cosmetics: Dr. Micaela Martinez was quoted in this article from Cosmetics Design Europe about the COP-5 Minamata Convention, which Dr. Martinez also attended. The Convention works to phase out mercury in cosmetics and took important steps this year to make that happen.
• Lead Exposure: Columbia Spectator quoted Jaron Burke and profiled WE ACT's work to tackle indoor lead exposure including a presentation given at last week's Healthy Homes Working Group by the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.

TAKE ACTION: Tell Mayor Adams Not to Cut Parks and Compost Funding

New York City Mayor Eric Adams has announced large city budget cuts including to the parks system and important composting programs. Please take a moment to take the following actions in defense of green space and zero waste in New York City:

• Don't Cut the Parks Budget: The NYC Parks budget has been underfunded for 40 years and now the Mayor is moving to cut the budget by as much as 15%. Write directly to the Mayor and your Council Member opposing these cuts and demanding overdue investment in our parks and open spaces. 
• Fund Composting: Mayor Adams is moving to eliminate The New York City Compost Project and GrowNYC’s compost funding, which serves millions of New Yorkers throughout the five boroughs, providing food scrap collections, organics processing, composting outreach and community education. Sign GrowNYC's petition and urge the Mayor to halt the elimination of community compost programs and guarantee full funding for these programs for the future!

Learn About Clean Energy Upgrades and Give Us Your Feedback

The Manhattan Clean Energy Hub has officially launched and is ready to assist Manhattan residents with affordable or no-cost energy upgrades, accessing energy incentives, transitioning to solar, green jobs training, and more. Visit the Hub to learn more about how you can help make Manhattan more sustainable, equitable, and green.

And please take a few minutes to share your thoughts about clean energy. Take our survey to help us learn more about how we can better connect New York residents to clean energy upgrades and green jobs - and be entered to win $100!

Take the Uptown Chats Podcast Survey

Have you listened to Uptown Chats yet? Uptown Chats is WE ACT's podcast on all things environmental justice in Northern Manhattan. Follow Uptown Chats on Spotify and Apple Podcasts, or stream directly from Castos. Have an idea for future episodes? Let us know by taking the Uptown Chats survey to help plan next year’s episodes!