Women & Children First

Racial minority and low-income communities often suffer disproportionateeffects of urban environmental problems. Environmental justice advocates argue thatthese communities are on the front lines of environmental and health risks. InNoxious New York, Julie Sze analyzes the culture, politics, and history ofenvironmental justice activism in New York City within the larger context ofprivatization, deregulation, and globalization. She tracks urban planning andenvironmental health activism in four gritty New York neighborhoods: Brooklyn'sSunset Park and Williamsburg sections, West Harlem, and the South Bronx. In thesecommunities, activism flourished in the 1980s and 1990s in response to economicdecay and a concentration of noxious incinerators, solid waste transfer stations, and power plants. Sze describes the emergence of local campaigns organized aroundissues of asthma, garbage, and energy systems, and how, in each neighborhood, activists framed their arguments in the vocabulary of environmental justice.Szeshows that the linkage of planning and public health in New York City goes back tothe nineteenth century's sanitation movement, and she looks at the city's history ofgarbage, sewage, and sludge management. She analyzes the influence of race, family, and gender politics on asthma activism and examines community activists' responsesto garbage privatization and energy deregulation. Finally, she looks at how activistgroups have begun to shift from fighting particular siting and land use decisions toengaging in a larger process of community planning and community-based researchprojects. Drawing extensively on fieldwork and interviews with community members andactivists, Sze illuminates the complex mix of local and global issues that fuelsenvironmental justice activism.