Join WE ACT, the NYC Community Land Initiative, and more than 150 community, housing, and environmental justice groups to provide testimony and rally for the Community Land Act on Tuesday, June 3rd. The New York City Council is holding a hearing on the Community Land Act, a set of bills to expand truly affordable housing as well as community and commercial spaces, at 10:00 AM that morning and we’ll have a rally beforehand, starting at 9:00 AM at City Hall. If you are interested in testifying at this hearing, join us on Wednesday May 28th at 5:30 PM for a virtual training on Zoom to learn how to testify at a City Council hearing. We will help people sign up, answer questions, and work on their testimonies. RSVP

How can we ensure that New York State achieves the emissions reduction goals set forth in the Climate Leadership & Community Protection Act we fought so hard to pass? Join us for a virtual teach-in to learn about the State’s Cap & Invest program, the Clean Air Initiative, and how your participation in upcoming hearings for the proposed Mandatory Greenhouse Gas Reporting Rule can make sure polluters disclose what they are pumping into our air. Eric Walker will join NYLCV & NYLCVEF President Julie Tighe for this discussion, with New Yorkers for Clean Power & Association for Energy Affordability President Betta Broad moderating this virtual teach-in via Zoom at 12:00 PM on Thursday, May 29th. RSVP

Are you interested in improving the parks in Northern Manhattan? Then join us along with the New York League of Conservation Voters Education Fund for our Northern Manhattan Parks Day on Saturday, May 31st from 12:00-4:00 PM at Marcus Garvey Park, Jackie Robinson Park, Thomas Jefferson Park, Riverside Park, Fort Tryon Park, and Inwood Hill Park. As part of our Our Parks, Our Backyards campaign to engage Northern Manhattan residents on parks issues and the importance of parks funding, we will celebrate by bringing together the community to enjoy the parks in Northern Manhattan. No set agenda. Just come, enjoy the park, and tag us on social media! The rain date for this will be June 7th. RSVP

It's been a cool week, but the sizzling summer is around the corner - along with skyrocketing energy bills as we try to keep our families cool. If you want to lower energy bills in New York State, join us in Albany on Thursday, June 5th to lobby for the NY HEAT Act, which will cap energy bills at 6 percent of your household income. RSVP

Our bill to ban PFAS and other toxic chemicals from menstrual products sold in New York State has passed both houses – unanimously! This is a big win for our JustGreen Partnership, which has a long track record of passing legislation to reduce toxic exposure in our communities. But now we need your help to make sure New York State Governor Kathy Hochul signs this bill into law. Click here to send the Governor a letter, asking her to sign the bill. And while you are at it, we hope you will also click here to send her a note urging her to pass the Beauty Justice Act, which will ban these toxic chemicals from all personal care products sold in New York State.

We now have two networks of air quality monitors installed across Northern Manhattan! We recently installed 18 high-end QuantAQ air quality monitors on schools throughout the community. These monitors collect more data than the PurpleAir monitors we used as part of our Community Air Monitoring Project (CAMP), which involved installing basic air quality monitors outside the homes of community members to see what impact congestion pricing might have on the air quality in Northern Manhattan (see below). We will be formally announcing the installation of these new QuantAQ monitors with the New York City Department of Education shortly, but you can click here (and zoom in on Northern Manhattan) to see what these monitors are saying about our current air quality. Learn more about our air quality monitoring work here.

Caleb Smith will be speaking on the America the Beautiful for All coalition's webinar, Cooling the Heat & Weathering the Storm: Climate Resilience in Our Cities, at 11:00 AM on Friday, May 30th. RSVP

At 6:00 PM on Thursday, May 29th, Peggy Shepard will join a panel to help educate members of the Federal Bar Council about environmental justice. The Federal Bar Council is an organization of lawyers who practice in federal courts within the Second Circuit.

WE ACT members and staff have been visiting stores throughout Northern Manhattan as part of our citizen science project collecting data on the toxic ingredients found in personal care products being sold in our communities. Member Skyller Walkes (above left) and Valentina Rojas (above right) are among the volunteers who have been using the Clearya Survey app to collect the data. If you want to learn more, RSVP to join our next Healthy Homes Working Group virtual meeting via Zoom at 6:00 PM on Thursday, June 19th.

It's been a month since our amazing 5K, and we would like to thank our Gold Sponsor Champlain Hudson Power Express along with our Silver Sponsor Kinetic Communities Consulting; our Bronze Sponsors USL Technology, Ørsted, & Apex Building Group; and Supporter Sponsor Holland & Knight - plus our top fundraising team, For Sunny 2025. Not only is their support helping advance the work we do, but it has inspired our staff to do a Spring Step Challenge for wellbeing!

Yosef Robele was featured in a press release issued by Senators Edward J. Markey (D-MA), Chuck Schumer (D-NY), and Ron Wyden (D-OR) condemning congressional attacks on efforts to address the climate crisis. In addition to appearing in the photo with the Senate leaders, he was quoted: “Today Congress has decided to fundamentally deny states their rights to reduce pollution and protect public health. In environmental justice communities, people of color and lower income face the greatest rates of asthma and cancer. This action enables a continued unjust assault on overburdened communities choking on diesel fumes. A clean transportation sector benefits us all and we will continue to fight for one that’s healthier, cheaper, and accessible to everyone.”

Eric Walker was quoted in an RTO Insider article on the New York State Public Service Commission’s allocation of $5 billion for energy efficiency and building electrification. Eric and other advocates raised concern that only 30 percent of this funding is dedicated to low- to moderate-income households, which is far short of the 50 percent we had been asking for. If you can’t get past the paywall, you can read the press release here.

Harlem World shared our call to participate in New York City’s Urban Forest Plan survey to provide suggestions on how to increase the number of trees in the city.

New York's Primary Election will be on June 24th, with early voting running from June 14th through 22nd. This election will use Ranked Choice Voting, which you can learn about by watching this informative video. June 14th is also the last day to register to vote and apply for an absentee ballot. Visit this link to register to vote and visit this link to learn about and apply for an absentee ballot. You can find this and more information on WE ACT's Voter Information page at weact.org/vote!

Sign-up to get ready to testify for the Community Land Act.

Click here to ask Governor Hochul to sign this bill banning PFAS and other toxic chemicals from menstrual products sold in New York State.

Click here to urge Governor Hochul to pass the Beauty Justice Act, which will ban these toxic chemicals from all personal care products sold in New York State.

Join us for an Albany Advocacy Day on Thursday, June 5th to help pass the NY HEAT Act.

Share your suggestions to improve New York’s tree canopy as part of New York City’s Urban Forest Plan by June 30th.

Take New York’s air quality survey to draw attention to Northern Manhattan’s air quality.

Make sure you are registered to vote in the June Primary Election.

Donate to support out work!