History of the Development of the Neighborhoods in Rockaway, Queens, NYC.
This week the NYC City Council passed the “City of Yes” housing law, paving the way for an estimated 80,000 new homes to be built over the next 15 years to address the ongoing housing crisis. Despite this major step forward for our city, areas of NYC retain their exclusivity through zoning laws and historical legacy, like in the areas of Belle Harbor and Neponsit in Rockaway, Queens. Fierce opposition from residents and community groups (like the Belle Harbor Property Owners Association) in this area of Queens (and similar communities with historically restrictive zoning) resulted in a watered-down version of what housing advocates hoped would pass by the council. The version of the “City of Yes” law that passed aims to preserve the unique characteristics of communities like Belle Harbor and Neponsit, where zoning has only allowed single-family homes for decades. But how did this area become so exclusive in the first place? What happened throughout history to give these communities their “character”? To understand this, we have to look back to the communities’ founding and policies, both formal and informal, that shaped the development of the Rockaways.
Firstly, we must examine the impact of the federal government’s policies on neighborhood development through the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation’s (HOLC) color-coded maps of the 1930s (through a process known as redlining) to understand the disparity seen across the Rockaways. Redlining produced maps for every neighborhood in the country, dividing neighborhoods into 4 categories based on “perceived investment risk:”
Green (Best): areas considered highly desirable (often white and affluent, wealthy, neighborhoods)
Blue (Still Desirable): areas considered good but significantly less affluent)
Yellow (Definitely Declining): areas considered risky for investment, often with working-class residents and/or older infrastructure (often with a large immigrant population).
Red (Hazardous): neighborhoods deemed the riskiest, often with significant populations of Black, immigrant, or low-income residents (outlined in red, where the term “redlining” comes from) and/or older infrastructure.
The green and blue designations were most desirable, and the yellow and red regions were designated too risky for investment. As a result, the people living in the yellow and red regions were systematically denied mortgages, businesses did not invest here, and it was used to justify ‘slum clearance’ projects (a hallmark of the Robert Moses era in the quest for ‘urban renewal’). These designations were racist & classist and based on the demographics of the people who lived in these areas at the time.
Here is how redlining played out on the Rockaway Penninsula by the HOLC in 1938:
To view an interactive map of redlined areas across NYC, click here.
As you can see on the map, large swaths of the Rockaways were deemed to be Grade C (Yellow, Definitely Declining). The main reasons for this were the significant Irish and Jewish populations and signs of Black migration into the area, as the HOLC explicitly considered these shifts as negative indicators for property values, using terms like “infiltration” to describe this shift. Other reasons for the low ratings were that Far Rockaway was the oldest community on the peninsula, containing both multi-family and single-family dwellings, so the housing infrastructure was viewed as lesser by evaluators compared to the more recently developed neighborhoods of mostly single-family homes. Some of Rockaway was also given Grade D or “hazardous” rating in the Hammels neighborhood, as well as parts of Far Rockaway, primarily because of its mix of Black, immigrant and Jewish people residing in this area. The impact of redlining is still felt today through economic decline, segregation, divestment, and stigmatization of these areas.
(Note: The community of Breezy Point is not included because it wasn’t formally developed as a cooperative until later in the 1960s. Much can be said about Breezy, but the focus for this post is on the other neighborhoods of Rockaway. To read more about how Breezy maintains its exclusivity, read A Gated Community in NYC Where Trump Flags Fly).
All of Rockaway was designated in Grade C (Yellow) “definitely declining” or Grade D (Red) “hazardous,” except for certain parts of Rockaway Park that were given Grabe B (Blue) or “still desirable,” starting from Beach 117th street to Beach 149th Street. These neighborhoods (Belle Harbor starting on Beach 126th Street, and Neponsit starting on Beach 142nd Street) were secluded from their inception; this section of Rockaway is not connected to the subway (which ends at Beach 116th Street) and was developed after the other neighborhoods on the peninsula. It was made up of mainly Irish and Jewish immigrant families, and the zoning laws from the beginning only allowed single-family homes.
HOLC evaluators explicitly favored neighborhoods that were racially homogeneous and white. Belle Harbor and Neponsit were overwhelmingly white and excluded Black and minority families through a combination of formal and informal practices, including restrictive covenants and community pressure. The absence of Black or other minority residents aligned with HOLC’s discriminatory standards. The houses in this area were also newer and made of higher-grade materials, making it more attractive to evaluators at the HOLC.
Belle Harbor, was founded in 1905 by real estate developer Frederick J. Lancaster. His vision was to create a high-end residential community along the Atlantic Ocean, marketed as a peaceful, escape from urban life. It was advertised as a “high-class residential district,” attracting affluent families from Manhattan and Brooklyn.
Neponsit was the last community to be developed, with advertisements like the one above explicitly stating “it’s a restricted community for refined people.”
Both Belle Harbor and Neponsit have a racial demographic make-up of 0% African American, with Belle Harbor having 87% white, 10% Hispanic and 3% Asian making up the rest, and Neponsit having 89% white, 8% Hispanic, 2% Two or More Races and 1% Asia (Source).
Given this history of how the Rockaways were developed, the impact of redlining, and the informal and formal practices to keep these sections for white residents only, I don’t think there is much of a defense for keeping the “character” of these communities intact via restrictive zoning laws that uphold these impacts today. The “City of Yes” spared these communities by allowing the parking requirements for new developments to stand as they are, as well as upholding the restrictive zoning that has led to the segregation we see here today.
I plan to unpack the “City of Yes” law more in future blog posts, so follow along for more if you found this post interesting!
If you want to learn more about the history and impact of redlining, read the book titled The Color of Law by Richard Rothstein.
One of my earliest memories about where my fascination with nature comes from is when I was on my way home from a soccer game with my dad when I was about 8 years old and, as we drove through a long stretch of trees in Broad Channel, I was curious about this place, so I asked my dad if we could stop.
We walked around the trails of this vast marshland, which is a crucial stopping point for migratory birds flying South for the winter. The vastness of this area makes you feel like you are in a truly wild place. This is Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge in Broad Channel, Queens, one of only a few national parks in NYC (part of Gateway National Recreation Area). We often would fish on the beach and bay along Rockaway with my dad and mom, so I always had ample time to explore the wildlife in these areas.
Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge, with my Nana (dad’s mom). Broad Channel, Queens, NYC (photos by me, @matthewgerard_)
Where I grew up, in Belle Harbor (Rockaway Park) located in Queens, NYC, we are surrounded by water on 3 sides (the Atlantic Ocean to the South, Lower New York Bay to the West, and Jamaica Bay to the North).
This map is from the book, Between Ocean and City: The Transformation of Rockaway, New York (2001).
I attended Xaverian High School, an all-boys Catholic school (at that time). With encouragement from my mother as well as my eccentric Spanish teacher in my sophomore year, I applied to be in the International Baccalaureate (IB) diploma program at the school. This led to me taking an IB Environmental Systems class in junior year, changing the way I thought about the world. The teacher presented environmental issues through a systems lens, and I never heard or thought about most of these environmental issues before this class. The seeds were planted for my interest in environmental studies.
Photo: depicts the components of a simple system
But as much as life’s drive comes from our passions and things we love, we are also profoundly shaped by the darker things that are a part of our life.
When my dad was diagnosed with late-stage cancer at the start of my junior year of high school, the pressure of being in an accelerated IB diploma program and navigating his illness felt daunting at times.
I am so grateful to have had amazing teachers along the way who kept me going during this immensely challenging time.
Ultimately my dad passed on a few months before I graduated from high school, on March 12, 2010. Addiction and depression are also a part of my story and began a little before & around this time.
I was also suppressing core elements about my identity at the time, in fear that I could not live a happy life as an openly queer person. It wasn’t long before things became unmanageable, and I saw a doctor for medication to cope with the depression and anxiety. Unfortunately, even doctors can be misguided and easily manipulated, so although this was a temporary and necessary fix for me at the time that allowed me to continue, addiction and depression will reemerge for me later in this story. (I debated putting details of addiction and depression in here, but I think lessening stigmas of all kinds, including around mental illness, is so essential today).
This picture was taken in New Jersey when my sisters and I would go to visit every other weekend for much of my childhood (@matthewgerard_)
I started attending SUNY Binghamton the following Fall 2010, where I would begin on a Pre-med/health major track. After seeing what happened in 2008 with the financial crisis, the health field felt like a safe bet for ‘success’. However, it never felt like I was following my passion in any particular way.
In sophomore year, I decided to take an Environmental 101 class. I was extremely captivated by Dr. Andrus’ lecture on the many issues and root causes of the most pressing environmental issues of our time. I was brought back to when I was passionately activated in high school when I took the IB environmental course, which led to me declaring my major in Environmental Studies at the end of that year.
Photo: During my time at Bing in November 2012, Hurricane Sandy destroyed many areas, including the neighborhood where I grew up. It highlighted for me the importance of studying climate change and sustainable development strategies for building resiliency in our society.
I had the amazing opportunity to attend a trip to Costa Rica to complete a Tropical Ecology course for July during the summer between my sophomore and junior year at Bing. About 15 of us stayed on a site that did not have wifi or cell phone service and was an hour and a half journey to the nearest city center. This experience was invaluable to me and helped me grasp the scope of biodiverse ecosystems that are here on Earth, and gave me an urgent sense to be a part of the environmental movement in some way. It also provided me with an alternate perspective on success, as we were hosted in the community by such welcoming, generous, happy people, but they did not have much in terms of wealth or disposable income.
Dick Andrus discussing the importance of mangrove forest ecosystems (@matthewgerard_)
I was also very lucky to have an influential professor at Bing, Dr. Andrus, who founded the environmental program at the university decades earlier and sparked my interest in that Envi 101 lecture in 2011, and who ran the trips to Costa Rica.
While I was at SUNY Binghamton, I was so grateful to have access to a free psychotherapist on campus named Sefali. She was a tremendous help at convincing me that I could live a happy life as an openly queer person, and she taught me the skills of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) that were crucial in me getting off medication in the years to come. As I became more aware of who I was, my voice was activated at my first protest against hydrofracking in NYS (which is thankfully still banned in NYS today).
I graduated from Binghamton in May 2014 with a B.S. in Environmental Studies, however I was not sure what type of job I would ultimately get with this degree because of its broad nature. I decided to apply to graduate schools, in hopes of furthering my education around environmental issues and solutions.
As I waited to hear back from schools, I volunteered with the Vermont Sail Freight Project in the summer following graduation. The goal of this project was to connect Upstate & Vermont farmers with the lower Hudson Valley and NYC to farm goods via sail transportation through NY State’s historic canal lock system. Dr. Andrus’ son, Erik, led the initiative and is primarily a rice farmer and baker in Vergennes, Vermont. I lived on Erik’s farm for a month as we inventoried and coordinated goods to sell from on the 30-foot, volunteer-built barge along the Hudson River.
Erik & Erica’s idyllic farm and home in Vermont (@matthewgerard_)
Loading the cargo onto the barge staring at Lake Champlain (@matthewgerard_)
As our four-to-five-member crew made our way down the Hudson River, I learned so much about sailing terminology and practice, the history of the lock system and NY History, and about our local food system here in and around New York State and volunteerism. It was a ton of work, and I am so grateful for the perspectives gained working on this project.
French documentarians on board the barge as we made our way to the next farmers market in the communities in the Hudson Valley. (not sure what ever came of their footage). (@matthewgerard_)
Picture of NY States Canal System consists of a series of locks connecting different canal segments that make it possible to get from Lake Champlain to the Hudson River. (@matthewgerard_)
On the Vermont trip, I found out I was accepted to a Master’s program at St. Edward’s University in Austin, TX, and another Environmental Science program at Pace University campus in Westchester. I was still not convinced that I wanted to live in NYC, and Westchester sounded a lot like Binghamton to me, so I decided to go to Austin.
The program at St Edward’s University was a Professional Science Master’s degree in Environmental Management and Sustainable Development, and it was one year in Austin, one semester at their sister school, Catholic University of the West (Université Catholique de l’Ouest, UCO) in Angers, France and one-semester doing research in the field of sustainable development to complete a thesis in a place of your choosing.
Photo of me in Austin conducting a research project on measuring community garden output in the City of Austin. (@matthewgerard_)
This is a photo in Wimereux, where we took a field trip during my stay in Angers, France. The master’s program included the study of ecology, sustainable development, and project management, as well as designing and conducting research projects. (@matthewgerard_)
Photo of Tessa and I with the Gamboa Family, who graciously hosted us for several months on the same property that SUNY Binghamton had brought us to back in my undergrad trip to complete a tropical ecology class. (@matthewgerard_)
To complete the master’s program, I returned to the same village in Southwest Costa Rica, and the Gamboa Family hosted my research partner and me. A special thanks to Mari and her family for always being welcoming, and generous and treating us like family during our several-month stay. I am so grateful to be able to have returned to such a unique place for a research project measuring the amount of carbon stored in old-growth and secondary-growth tropical forests.
Tres Piedras is the name of the village where we stayed, located along the Guabo River in rural Southwest Costa Rica. (@matthewgerard_)
As magical of an experience it was living in a tropical forest for 3+ months, conducting research to write my master’s thesis, the experience was equally as painful for me because of a medication that I had been prescribed for going on 6+ years since my dad’s passing was no longer working as intended. The first signs of a tolerance buildup to the medication were evident to me, however, I was managing it still with the help of my doctor. I decided to move to Hawaii with my (ex)boyfriend, who I met in France, and was now starting a graduate program in Honolulu. I had just graduated from my master’s program and was searching for work in the environmental field on the island of Oahu.
A medication, belonging to the class of drugs known as benzodiazepines, used to treat anxiety, began to work less and less over the years as my body gained tolerance to it (a common issue with prolonged use of benzodiazepines). I found myself in a situation of extreme anxiety when living in Honolulu, as the drug worked less and less and when trying to gradually come off numerous times had failed, and with a doctor always quick to up the dose when I complained of symptoms. The dangerous truth is that the majority of people might need these medications for a short time, but they are not intended for long-term use. They also are considered depressants, so depression is inevitable with long-term use. After about 5 months, I moved back to NYC to get support from family as I realized I needed to get off this medication at whatever cost or it would ultimately take my life.
Photo from my time living briefly in Moiliili, Honolulu, Hawaii (@matthewgerard_)
I knew what my issue was: dependency on a medication I’ve built tolerance to and that I’ve tried to stop taking for so long. I was determined to come off of the medication so I checked myself into a rehabilitation facility focusing on substance abuse disorder in Hampton Bays, Long Island for 21 days (after about a week I was able to leave, but I opted to stay because of how jarring coming back to reality was after detox). It was actually extremely important to go through with a medically supervised detox from the amount and duration I had been taking that benzodiazepine; I was at high risk for seizures during these 8 days of pure hell. That decision to go to LICR (Long Island Center for Recovery) truly changed my life and has allowed everything that followed to be possible.
My experience speaks to the need for universal healthcare and taking paid leave. I was still on my mom’s health insurance and I was able to live with her during this time, so this privilege allowed me to take the time I needed to get healthy again.
While living with my mom after the rehab, I was working as a waiter at a local restaurant and attending (Alcoholics Anonymous) AA meetings regularly. I didn’t think I was an alcoholic, but it runs in my family and is also part of the substance use disorders (like addiction), so I felt immense comfort in having a strong sense of community and accountability in working towards the same goal that AA provided to stay sober. Taking the time I needed to get sober was foundational to my future. It is no exaggeration to say I would not be here today if I did not do it.
After 6 months of being sober and having more clarity of purpose in my life, I felt like I could use my education to make a difference in people’s lives as a teacher (like some of my inspirational teachers did for me in my life). I applied to become a public school teacher through the New York City Teaching Fellows program and was accepted to teach summer school in the Summer of 2017. I soon got my first apartment after grad school, living on my own in my neighborhood of Belle Harbor, where I grew up, and the landlord was into urban gardening!
After completing the summer portion of the Teaching Fellows program, I was given a transitional license to be a full-time teacher that Fall, while I took classes at night to get a Master’s degree in Teaching at CUNY Brooklyn College. I taught high school that fall for 3 living environment and 2 AP environmental science classes (about 150 students) at William Cullen Bryant High School. I was soon extremely disillusioned by being a part of the immense system that the NYC Department of Education is and having an unsupportive school environment to navigate it all as a new educator (where constantly evaluating a teacher is viewed as the primary means of support and the school administration does nothing to support teachers in a meaningful way).
I felt I had made the totally wrong decision to become a teacher so fast, and I was totally burnt out. The depression was setting in faster than I’d ever experienced, this time due to environmental factors rather than medication tolerance-induced. I knew the quickest solution was to change my environment and invest the money I had in myself to figure out what to do next.
By December 2017, I resigned from the DOE in one of the toughest decisions I’ve ever made in my life. The students would have been why I stayed because they deserve a quality education, but I realized if I did not make a major change, I would have to go on medication for depression if I stayed in the situation I was in (whether or not this was true or if my feelings were warranted, I carry with me a hesitancy for medications after my experience with the doctor I saw in late teens/early to mid 20’s).
I realize how much of a privilege it was to be able to resign from my position as a public school teacher, and I credit having the savings to my dad who had written into his will that none of the children were to receive any of his life insurance money until we reached the age of 25. I still had enough in savings to take 4-5 month break to pay for my necessities and realize my next steps, both professionally and personally. I did have to work hard to prioritize my own health after I resigned, exercising and eating well to combat my depression over time, as well as focusing more on meditation, yoga, and skill learned in therapy (CBT). I gained a lot spiritually from taking this pause for myself, and I’m so grateful for being granted such a space. I absolutely needed to do these self-care acts daily for some time before they became routine and contributed positively to my well-being in a meaningful way.
Thank you to my family and friends for your grace and support during these years. I am grateful to say I am still counting the days I have sober from my drugs of choice since the rehab stay in 2017 (6+ years and counting).
This is a photo of my former landlord’s hydroponic indoor garden she used to grow food for her and her brother. It drew me to my former apartment, which was situated just next door to this room. When I was teaching I had no time to put it in context, but once I had some time, it began to make me wonder:
Who might be working with a hydroponic system to grow food in NYC?
This led me to take a couple of workshops around introductory DIY hydroponic systems with an organization formally known as AgtechX, now merged with Agritecture in the Spring of 2018. I met interesting people who were all working towards building a more sustainable food system right here in NYC. After putting myself out there and networking at these workshops, people pointed me in the right direction of other organizations that worked at the intersection of education and the environment (like GrowNYC and Teens for Food Justice). At this point in my life, I was determined to find a job in the food system, while somehow using my education experience too.
I began working full-time as a farmer’s market manager for GrowNYC at their Greenmarkets and Youthmarkets around NYC, managing one market in Bensonherst, Brooklyn, one in Long Island City, Queens, and one in Morrisania, the Bronx. This job was challenging and rewarding, though I did not need my degrees for the job, it helped me strengthen my sense of place and got me to really love NYC (and wanting to live here long-term).
Photo at Bensonhurst Greenmarket in the Summer of 2018.
At the same time, I drove to the Bronx every Wednesday afternoon in the Spring of 2018 to be a mentor at Teens for Food Justice’s afterschool program. This experience showed me the possibilities for large-scale hydroponic systems to be used in school settings to merge teaching STEM, food justice and advocacy education, and workforce development with high-tech urban farming.
Photo of my first DIY hydroponic system I built from scrap materials after gaining confidence from workshops and Youtube videos, as well as growing inspired by Teens for Food Justice (TFFJ) and my landlord’s systems, built in the Winter of 2018.
During this time (Spring 2018), I was able to return to the rural village where I visited in my undergrad and graduate school and reconnected with Mari and her family. They had a family wedding happening, and I’ll never forget how Mari welcomed me with this LGBTQAI+ mask to make me feel more comfortable. They are very religious here in this part of Costa Rica, so it really meant a lot to me, Love you all ❤
GrowNYC promoted me to be the Operations Coordinator at their flagship Union Square Greenmarket in the Fall of 2018, while I was simultaneously working at Teens for Food Justice part-time as their curriculum writer.
However, after only a few months at my new GrowNYC job, I was offered a full-time position with Teens for Food Justice as their Curriculum Development Coordinator to develop their school day curriculum around hydroponics and train teachers around the curriculum. I decided to leave GrowNYC, even though I loved working with those people, and at that location, I felt I would grow more professionally in the position offered to me at TFFJ. I am so grateful to still be working for them today as their STEM Programming & School Partnership Manager. Both TFFJ and GrowNYC opened my eyes to the inequities between communities right here in NYC.
Please feel free to read about my experience working with TFFJ in my recent blog post highlighting an article written about my work in St Edwards University Magazine.
Thank you all for reading if you made it this far, this blog turned out to be much longer than I anticipated, and I certainly could write a full blog post about each of these chapters of my life.
May you receive it with peace and equanimity,
Matthew (he/they)
@matthewgerard_
This post is dedicated to my dad, who passed away 14 years ago this week from a non-smoking form of lung cancer.
There is something truly calming and grounding about growing and tending to a garden at home. This has been ever more important in this time of a pandemic. I am grateful to have been involved in work with Teens for Food Justice over the past few years, where more recently, my team and I devised a plan to get at home hydroponic growing kits to students around NYC during remote/virtual learning.
Feel free to read about this experience here on TFFJ’s blog:
I was also so fortunate to have made it onto the Hunter College New York City Food Policy Center’s annual class of New York City’s 40 individuals under 40 years old who are working to transform and improve the food system, check it out here:
Follow our journey this year as we reopen TFFJ’s hydroponic farms based in public schools around NYC and resume in-person programming around hydroponics, urban farming, environmental sustainability, food justice & advocacy:
As I reflect humbly on the current social landscape, it seems necessary to reframe this blog as a platform where I write about sustainability in terms of social and environmental justice, beginning to expose white supremacy in the past and in today’s systems and structures, in particular, to address the following questions:
1. What policies and history contribute to the disparities we see across communities in NYC, and in the US more generally (ex: redlining by the federal government via HOLC)?
2. How do/did people in power contribute to segregation in housing and education through overt and covert racist behavior today and in the past?
3. Why do disadvantaged communities face higher levels of environmental burdens than white communities?
4. How can we address racial segregation in housing and education on a local and national level?
I hope you follow along on this personal journey of growth and evolution, to look critically at oppressive structures and systems, and consider a path forward that acknowledges our history bias so that we continue to learn and build better systems with compassion and awareness.
I’m humbled to be volunteering as a mentor to teens at Clinton DeWitt High School in the Bronx with a non-profit organization called Teens for Food Justice (TFFJ). The mission of TFFJ is to create a realistic solution to food insecurity, or lack of access to healthy and nutritious food, by empowering youth to build and maintain sustainable food systems in their community.
Lettuce growing at Dewitt Clinton High School in Bronx, NYC. @matt_horgan
TFFJ leads a team to train students in Title I schools in the unique craft of urban farming through the “building and maintaining of indoor farms that yield more than 22, 000 lbs. of fresh produce annually at each location” in Brooklyn, Manhattan, and the Bronx (http://www.teensforfoodjustice.org/).
Cucumbers and a variety of leafy greens and herbs growing hydroponically by students at Dewitt Clinton High School in Bronx, NYC. @matt_horgan
Additionally, these youth-run urban farms are feeding students nutritious and fresh meals in their cafeteria, as well as increasing the food security of the area by distributing fresh produce people in the surrounding local community. There is also a focus on teaching students about advocating for policy on the local, state, and federal levels of government to ensure that funding and other resources are given to increase people’s access to healthy food options.
@matt_horgan
Moreover, the mentorship program I am participating in has been really rewarding. I help facilitate a wide range of activities aimed at teaching the students about creating and sustaining hydroponic systems, advocating for food justice in the policy setting, cooking healthy and nutritious meals.
Students participate in a cooking challenge to create a veggie burger, chocolate avocado pudding, and pasta salad. (Secret ingredient: parsley grown in the schools hydroponic farm) @matt_horgan
Finally, the students put on a Leadership Conference at Agritecture Consulting where students presented data they collected from surveys they designed and conducted in the community around their school to see what fresh, healthy food was available to stores and restaurants.
The way we view the world is often a reflection of the paradigm of the day, that is the deepest set of beliefs and assumptions a culture has about any given topic at any moment in time. Needless to say, paradigms do shift over time to create the unique circumstance we see on a daily basis, and sometimes this happens rather quickly.
The new shift in thinking seems to be towards sustainable urban food production. Photo taken at AgTechX @matt_horgan
Paradigm shifts: Thinking in cycles not lines
One paradigm of today seems to be the perception of our lives as a series of linear processes. We seem to idolize cause and effect relationships whenever possible in daily life and tend to view most of our experiences through this narrow lens without analyzing the entire picture.
However, thinking of systems in terms of lines tends to be characteristically more predictable and simpler, while systems as cycles are naturally more complex.
Nature’s Cycle by Virginia Lee 2001
Shift towards interconnectedness
A personal shift in assumptions I experienced was while I was taking an ecological agriculture class during my time at SUNY Binghamton. My perception of self shifted from the individual, separate self to a more interconnected sense of identity.
Ecological Agriculture: Nature as model
Ecological agriculture is a term used to describe a type of farming that raised food without any chemical or synthetic fertilizers, to create an agricultural system that mimicked ecological systems that sustain in nature.
By: permacultureprinciples.com
The general trend in agriculture since 1950 has been towards large-scale industrial farms that use synthetic fertilizers and chemical fertilizers, but a recent surge in interest in local, organic produce by consumers is causing a paradigm shift in the way we consume and produce food.
Ecological agriculture can be seen in the increased interest in urban farming in recent years. By incorporating sustainable food systems into the built environment, we can improve food security in urban environments.
Sky Vegetables February 2018 By @matt_horgan
We can also use underutilized spaces, like basements, to produce food on land to support the health and to educate our local communities
An example of a hydroponic food system, and what my neighbor calls a “permaponic system”, is seen below (Top: after 6 weeks/Bottom: the before picture).
By @matt_horgan
The potential for ecological agriculture to foster a more harmonious coexistence between human beings and the earth, as well as the practical implications for food security and positive impact on local economies leads me to think that this will become ever more present in our city in the near future.
By @matt_horgan While walking to class at CUNY Brooklyn College, I saw this incredible urban food garden someone created on their front lawn 🙂
I look forward exploring ecological agriculture more on this blog in the future 🙂
The key to success is collaboration: an idea so simple that it is often dismissed by introverts, like myself. It is easier to stay in my comfort zone than to venture out into new environments.
Recently, I couldn’t help but wonder, who else is asking similar questions as me in NYC?
Specifically, which organizations, if any, were already established in the realm of urban farming here. I searched the internet ambitiously looking for any NYC-based organizations related to this topic. To put it simply, urban farming is the growing of food within cities, usually incorporated into the built environment. (See below image of my neighbor’s hydroponic system in a basement in Queens, NYC).
Eventually, I came across a class titled ‘Building an Urban Farm Business Plan’ that is run by AgTechX. The founders of AgTechX, Ricky Stephens and Henry Gordon-Smith, are about connecting individuals looking for opportunities “at the intersection of urban agriculture, technology, and sustainability” (https://agtech-x.com/). The Co-lab they run in Brooklyn provides a space for those of us interested in getting involved in urban farming in NYC and holds classes in hydroponics and aquaponics. Members work to build a more sustainable food system right here in the dense urban jungle of NYC.
Finally, I imagine myself working somewhere at the intersection of sustainable food and education in the near future, and the team at AgTechX is a great place for me to meet people who could, at the very least, point me in the right direction.
See below a picture of hydroponic systems over at AgTecX’s Co-lab in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
After my trip over to Brooklyn this week, I’m inspired to see a group of dedicated and passionate young people interested in urban farming. In the coming weeks, I am going to explore the classes given by the team at AgTechX with the intention to learn more about the logistics of hydroponic and aquaponics systems in NYC. This will also be an ideal way to connect with like-minded individuals in this emerging field.
Sometimes I grapple with finding a justification for traveling such long distances in relatively small periods of time for my education. As a graduate student in a program with international components and as an environmentalist, I cannot overlook the tremendous amount of energy it takes to travel to new places. Whether it be going on week long class trips or moving to a new city to study, the transportation environmental costs are tremendous. Despite the expenses associated with traveling, I tend to think it is worthwhile if your travels have a beneficial impact on your local community when you return to the place you call ‘home.’ Still, I ask myself, “Can any form of global travel be considered sustainable?”
For the first time in our species’s history, carbon dioxide has surpassed 350ppm. This greenhouse gas, along with methane and a few others, are contributing to a rapid increase in average global surface temperatures. The major implications associated with climate change are unpredictable weather patterns, increased frequency and intensity of extreme weather events, rising sea levels, more climate refugees, and species extinction on a scale humans have never before experienced in history. The wide ranging impacts of climate change are difficult to comprehend for many, and this is one of the causes of delayed action by politicians around the world. Knowing all of this and still traveling seems to be irresponsible for anyone trying to impact the environment in a positive way.
Yet, I am currently on a bus for the next 6 hours with my fellow classmates from St. Edward’s University, traveling from Angers, France to the north of France to study marine biodiversity. My peers are also astonishingly environmentally aware people who make great strides to have positive impacts on the natural world. Additionally, the people in making decisions for this Master’s degree program in Environmental Management and Sustainability, I assume, are environmentally conscious individuals. So what benefit could be behind this trip to the north of France (and to Angers, France more broadly)?
The educational benefit could not be overlooked in this situation. We will be learning valuable information about ecosystems, sustainable development, environmental pollution monitoring, and more topics that will be applicable to our future goals to help the planet in the career paths we choose to take. Education is our most powerful tool against most of the challenges we face on a daily basis. No meaningful change can arise without knowledge of the right action to take. The objective to become an educated human being, however, is not sufficient to justify such extensive travel.
Furthermore, we must have an intention on taking what we learn from our traveling and applying it to a local community in need of support economically, socially, and/or environmentally. For me specifically, it is not enough for me to learn about ways to build more sustainably and live a lifestyle that benefits the planet. What I learn on my journey ought to be shared with others and put into practice if it has the potential for a great impact on society, the environment, and/or the local economy. This may start on a global scale when traveling to acquire knowledge and new perspectives on the world’s problems, but it should always end on a local scale where these new ways of thinking can be implemented to benefit society and the environment.
On the other hand, the way we travel today is unsustainable even if you have good motives, like environmental education. We require mammoth amounts of fossil fuels to transport ourselves to far away destinations across the globe. The production, maintenance, and use of vehicles and transportation related infrastructure is dependent on a fossil fuel economy. Until it becomes more convenient to travel in a way that does not threaten global health, we will continue to choose to travel via unsustainable means until we can no longer afford the environmental and economic consequences of such actions. There is promise for the future in the realm of renewable energies and sustainable development for travel to become more environmentally friendly, but we must move definitively faster than our current pace if we want to avoid a climate crisis by raising the average global surface temperature above 4 degrees Celsius.
So, can any form of global travel be considered sustainable? Despite being torn between the answer to this question, I would still answer yes. When you travel to another country and experience another culture, you gain a new perspective on everything you thought to be truth. It challenges your most inner convictions. If you have the opportunity to gain perspective on a social, economic, or environmental issue while traveling, this experience can help you in the future when you are trying to solve the complex problems facing the world today in your career. Individually, travel benefits are immediate, but for collective society the benefits might take longer to come to fruition. The act of traveling can induce a kind of expanded consciences, therefore the traveler has an obligation to share his or her experience with the local community to which they belong. The inspiration for beneficial changes may not always start at home, but ultimately and ideally the idea of beneficial change that was gained through international travel should inspire you to go out into your community and have a profoundly positive impact.
Often it is hard to focus on the present moment, and it is in our nature to think in terms of the past and the future. After studying tropical ecology for my Bachelor’s degree in Costa Rica for the months of July 2012 and July 2013, I have since been drawn to return to the country. Likewise, as I mentioned in a previous post, the Professional Science Master’s program in Environmental Management and Sustainability that I am currently pursuing requires for its last semester that each student complete a research internship project, related to sustainability, anywhere in the world. The requirements are broad, but this allows us to actually explore something we wish to pursue as a career. Despite having the opportunity to explore somewhere new to complete my last semester of , my classmate, Tessa, and I are choosing to return to the same small village where I learned and grew a tremendous amount during my undergraduate experience with SUNY Binghamton University in Tres Piedras, Costa Rica.
As I am finishing up my semester in Angers, France, I cannot help but think of the upcoming research opportunity that I am so fortunate to have available to me. In July 2012, I enrolled in a tropical ecology class through my university, SUNY Binghamton University, which was taught a class in tropical ecology in Tres Piedras de Baru, Costa Rica every July and Spring. The property in the village was referred to as the Tropical Forestry Initiative (TFI) at the time, which was owned by a small group of professors and environmentalists. The property was used by professors to teach students, conduct research projects, and carry out reforestation efforts in the region. Unfortunately, SUNY Binghamton no longer brings students to the area anymore, but the TFI property is now in the hands of a local resident who would like to continue using the property for conservation and educational projects. Although Tessa and I will be expected to design, complete, and present our own independent research projects for our degree, we intend to help the new owner of the property with outreach initiatives that could bring student groups back to the area to partake in similar sustainable development projects and in research opportunities to the activities that used to be done with TFI.
The plans for outreach are still in their preliminary stage, as we work with the owner of the property to develop a program. My hope is to provide a site that offers students the ability to conduct their own independent research projects on site, as well as have the opportunities to volunteer on sustainable development projects and provide support for outreach efforts relating to conservation of the property and surrounding ecosystems. Ideally, we could aim to attract graduate students who could perform their research studies on a topic related to the tropical forest on the property. These students would also be willing to learn about and participate in sustainable development projects on and off site relating to reforestation, sustainable food systems, and community outreach.
Although my plans are incomplete and lacking much detail, I have high hopes for what can be accomplished in Tres Piedras, CR. Tropical ecosystems are threatened around the globe, and we need people to start environmental conservation and educational initiatives like this one to mitigate the damage we are doing to our planet. Often there is so much that is presented to us in our lives that we do not make the most of for many reasons. Yet, there might still be great potential for having a profoundly positive impact in taking advantage of what life offers you.
People often come together for a meal for various occasions. Moreover, food is often the perfect way to experience a new culture. Shortly after moving to France, I met someone I now call my boyfriend. This is totally new to me, but I am learning so much from Matthieu. I was extremely grateful to be invited to his sister’s surprise birthday a couple of weeks ago on his aunt and uncle’s farm. The farm is situated about 40 minutes outside the city of Angers, in Cheffes, France. They raise cattle for dairy and meat, corn, rabbits, and chickens (among other things). Despite my fascination with the agriculture, I was captivated by his family’s welcoming nature towards someone who can barely speak a full sentence of their language.
When we arrived at the farm, about 30 of his family members and friends greeted us. To say I was intimidated is an understatement. I was nervous, not only to meet my boyfriend’s entire family, but also I was afraid to interact with people who speak a completely different language than me. I wondered if I would unintentionally offend someone, yet this was not the case at all. Since I had already met Matthieu’s parents the previous week, his mother was quick to introduce me to her siblings, cousins, and countless other family members and friends. Although we could not say more than a few words to each other, they seemed to be happy to meet me. I felt a sense of belonging and was honored that they let me be a part of this special occasion.
At the beginning of the party (around 9pm), we drank some red wine, which was followed by some champagne. Matthieu’s sister, Margaux, was extremely surprised and pleased to see all of her family and some of her close friends at her aunt and uncle’s house to celebrate her 18th birthday. Matthieu and Margaux are about a year apart in age, and their relationship reminded me so much of my relationship with my sister Alexa. Being so far away from home and watching them interact made me miss Alexa greatly. I was still so happy to be in the presence of a wonderful family celebrating such a joyous occasion, even though I missed my own family.
As the night progressed, we sat down for a fantastic home cooked meal: paella (see picture above). I have not eaten a better meal in France till this day. Followed by a birthday cake and other delicious desserts, we drank a tasty, strong after dinner pear liquor called “Liqueur de poire.” There was loud music and a place for people to dance. Nearly everyone sang and danced until the early hours of the morning. If I learned one thing that night, it was that the French know how to eat and drink (and party). Matthieu’s family was warm and friendly towards me and made me feel like I was part of their family. Above all, they seemed to genuinely enjoy each other’s company, which was refreshing to see.
The next day we awoke around noon. I immediately went to explore the farm in the daylight with Matthieu. I saw the rows of corn, the cattle roaming in their paddocks, the rabbits eating in their cages, and the chickens. It might sound mundane to some (Matthieu grew up around all of this so it was nothing new to him), but I was in awe at the diversity on the farm. There were pear trees and a home vegetable garden as well as two baby calves that were born two days earlier. They were, by far, the cutest animals on the farm. I had Matthieu to help me talk to his aunt about the farm. He translated for me as I asked some basic questions about their home. They raise the cows primarily for milk production, so generally they do not keep the male calves (which meant one of the two baby cows I saw were going to be turned into veal). I did not get a chance to ask them about their specific farming techniques, as Matthieu was exhausted from having to be my translator the night before. Their farm, however, was breathtakingly beautiful and full of life. I felt at peace there and not at all out of place. I am thankful to have had this experience with Matthieu and his family.
Another thing I learned on this trip to the countryside was that the French do not like to say quick goodbyes. After exploring the farm in the daylight, whoever remained from the party sat down to eat a late lunch and to continue celebrations for Margaux’s birthday. We ended up staying until the about 6pm, after many of Matthieu’s family members helped with the cleanup from the party the previous night. Once the house was back in order, we said goodbye to his family in the traditional French way of two (or sometimes four) kisses on each cheek. It may have seemed like a long goodbye, but when I think back on it I believe the reason it was not a quick goodbye was because no one wanted to leave. Their family is very close and they did not want to say goodbye or leave without helping clean up. I felt this was truly thoughtful of them and so adorable.
I do not normally write blog posts that are this personal, but I am glad to be able to share my wonderful experience with others. With an approaching research internship that I must complete next semester (which could take place anywhere in the world), the future of me and Matthieu’s relationship is far from certain, yet I am still so happy to have met such an incredible and thoughtful human being. I am trying to live in the present moment and enjoy our time together without letting the future ruin today. We can never know what could happen in the future 🙂
“Tomorrow is tomorrow.
Future cares have future cures,
And we must mind today.”
Lettuce growing at Dewitt Clinton High School in Bronx, NYC. @matt_horgan
Cucumbers and a variety of leafy greens and herbs growing hydroponically by students at Dewitt Clinton High School in Bronx, NYC. @matt_horgan
@matt_horgan
Students participate in a cooking challenge to create a veggie burger, chocolate avocado pudding, and pasta salad. (Secret ingredient: parsley grown in the schools hydroponic farm) @matt_horgan
Sustain Everyone 