Regenerative Urbanism: Cultivating a Commons in New York City
Julie Souza, Josh Nodiff, Jes Vesconte, Ziyi Lai
A speculative and transformative vision for a regenerative future in the City of New York.
Introduction
New York City and all of its inhabitants have the potential to co-create a regenerative and transformative urban landscape that addresses the social, ecological and technological issues we experience today. Here we will focus on three, out of many seeds that are being planted today, which will play a part in achieving a more just future: capacity-building projects, local liberation centers, and eco-symbiotic systems. While the implementation of these seeds, as well as new systems in general, will have challenges given the political, social, environmental, political, and cultural context of today, they will create synergistic benefits that support the thriving of human and more-than-human life. The trajectory of growth for each of these seeds is rooted in scientific evidence and empirical data pertaining to the volatile effects of the climate crisis. In New York City, these effects include flooding, sea level rise, heatwaves, drought, and storm surges related to extreme weather events exacerbated by the changing climate. Frontline communities, city infrastructure, and ecosystems are especially vulnerable to cataclysmic climate exposures. Yet, the germination of our seeds will cultivate resilience against these climate calamities. A collaborative and just future is attainable with a climate positive perspective, collective effort, and a co-creative shared vision for a transformative future in New York City.
Socio-Ecological-Technological Trends
and Key Interactions for Urbanism In New York
Given our current challenges with climate adaptation there is the potential to disrupt several social, ecological, and technological systems (SETS) due to New York City’s high population density, as well as, the fragile and inflexible city operations. The introduction of a new system will require the citizens, governing bodies, and stakeholders to accommodate its implementation. The acclimatization period can create an economic issue that can significantly disrupt the city’s operation. Another social issue that can substantially affect the project and vice versa is the established participatory model of democracy utilized in New York (Bennett et al. 2016). Participatory democracy is an approach to democracy that involves the people’s input in the running of activities, involving people in decision-making through public forums. The participatory democracy social element can hinder the system’s implementation in various avenues, including securing the necessary budget to actualize the project (Bennett et al. 2016).
SETS present challenges and synergies that intersect in a way where one element may influence another. The system’s social and technological aspects could hinder ecological elements. For instance, it is illegal to harvest food on public land. However, this provision can create economic disenfranchisement and undermine the significance of attaching financial incentives to ecological campaigns. If people are likely to benefit economically from the system, they might support its implementation. Therefore, introducing new technologies will help ensure ecological initiatives have economic value to help the citizens support themselves. Other environmental issues in New York result from the natural environment, and thus, it is challenging to attach a monetary value to them. However, utilizing technology will help the city avert their impacts. For instance, New York grapples with strong winds that can become hazards. Using windbreaks, especially natural windbreakers like trees, will help mitigate their effects on the city. The city and our SETS need to provide ecological protection from such issues (Bennett et al. 2016).
The technological components related to the system include the logistics of implementing the design and the technical infrastructure required to facilitate operations. The system needs the introduction of new technologies that can be safely implemented without triggering social and ecological damages. For instance, the system will introduce green spaces in the city that are free of charge and accessible to everyone in New York. However, such an undertaking raises social and ecological questions concerning what happens to the people living there and how implementation will keep public health at the forefront. Introducing new technologies to solve the city’s problems could also create other issues. For instance, if the city is to promote electric vehicles, the technological solution could foster social problems if there is no consideration for affordability and accessibility. It creates an ecological problem when it’s time to discard the batteries (Bennett et al. 2016). It may be challenging to navigate social and cultural changes especially if met with resistance from New York’s neoliberal hegemonic power structure. SETS show that there needs a holistic consideration of how to implement new systems before actually taking the steps to implement.
The First Seed:
Capacity Building Projects
Capacity-building projects require multiple stakeholders in an open discourse on how to enrich and enable the project. One of the most effective capacity building avenues available to the city for exploitation is the Thriving Communities Program by the Department of Transportation. The program offers two years of intensive technical assistance to under-resources and disadvantaged communities enabling them to build upon existing expertise and knowledge to improve and ensure their project undertakings succeed. The city will enroll and utilize the program in its efforts to secure capacity building (U.S. Department of Transportation, 2022). Capacity-building programs will play a crucial part in the system and its implementation. New York facilitates participatory democracy, allowing regular citizens to participate in the development and drastic restructuring of any aspect of their city. Through capacity building, the project receives inputs from the public, which can have several advantages, such as feelings of acknowledgment and acceptance from the citizens towards the systems (Ochoa et al. 2018). It can also help highlight any weaknesses and areas of improvement within the system that can be addressed before implementation. The seed’s primary and secondary social consequences are that the public can participate in the change process. Including public opinions will help the project avoid disenfranchising the people and creating a social crisis where the system’s consequences are responsible for their woes. Therefore, it is important to encourage public participation to help the citizenry actively participate in the running of the project. The seed can be enhanced by allowing the public to evaluate the project.
The technological consequence of the seed is the acquisition of specific technologies that are socially conscious. For instance, capacity building can help the city identify the most appropriate technology to utilize when replacing roads with green spaces. The city can establish strategic partnerships with relevant firms through capacity building to help them innovate and create new technologies to facilitate the project. The creation of new technologies also ties in with the environmental consequences of the seed. Some of the processes in the system will lead to the drastic recreation of the city. Capacity building, especially involving experts, can help the city avoid grappling with ecological threats like invasive species. The political impact is establishing consensus towards every undertaking of the community (U.S. Department of Transportation, 2022). Highly consultative and participatory capacity building sessions will help the city secure political support from the citizens especially when implementing more elements of new SETS. The cultural consequences of the mature seed are establishing a strong and open participatory democracy where the citizens actively participate in the city’s matters, especially those likely to have their lives change drastically.
The Second Seed:
Local Liberation Centers
The second will facilitate the establishment of local liberation centers. Local liberation centers are meant to be “anti-racist, anti-oppressive, and multi-cultural” (Project Liberation, 2022) physical and emotional spaces for people to connect to community members and collaborate on climate action. Project Liberation represents just one of the many liberation centers that offer training, community programs, and more for citizens and community leaders alike to congregate (Project Liberation, 2022). The centers will be crucial and will help establish a credible avenue to engage the public in various discourses on properly governing the city. The liberation centers will be strategically placed in New York to allow every willing participant access. Establishing the local liberation centers will have numerous benefits once the seed matures. One of the primary benefits it will have on the city is that it can create a stronger relationship between various stakeholders. For instance, through discussions, the city can empower residents to help co-create and implement future programs. The seed will also have a technological impact as it will ensure citizens participate in acquiring and designing the various technologies to be used in improving the city’s governance systems, living conditions, and climate justice impacts. Local liberation centers will also introduce new technologies and practices through citizen engagement and co-creation via grassroots practices. For instance, it will facilitate virtual meetings to keep up with the shift to online platforms when holding consultative meetings. Liberation centers will serve as places for community gathering and mutual aid, allowing the people of New York City to practice self-determination.
The environmental impact of the seed will be a change in the city’s landscape. Such an undertaking will aim to drastically regenerate the city’s ecosystems. The seed’s political impact will present an avenue for political discussions. It will create accessible and consistent spaces for the public to participate in the discussions to help in consensus building and the introduction of interventions that the public supports, thus making them more effective (McPhearson et al. 2021). The mature seed will change how the city engages in political discourse and enhance the participatory democratic traditions of the town. The cultural consequence of the source is that it will help change the political discussion in the town to a more people-oriented meeting. Utilizing local liberation centers can effectively change the city’s political culture, which consequently changes how the city performs in other sectors.
The Third Seed:
Eco-Symbiotic Systems
An eco-symbiotic system refers to a system which is mutually beneficial for the organisms that inhabit an ecosystem and for the long term thriving of thathome ecosystem. An ecosystem is at balance when all major stakeholders benefit from each other without one inflating harm over the other. Likewise, the organisms depend on each other in a mutually beneficial relationship. An eco-symbiotic relationship should be the goal of any project that can have environmental impacts. Implementing the system will not only impact the environment, it will improve other facets of life, like the economic and social structures. The third seed will ensure every undertaking is considerate of the environment and does not include any operations that comprise other aspects of life. The Billion Oyster Project demonstrates how New York City is currently working to achieve an eco-symbiotic future. They, “restore oyster reefs in New York City’s harbor through public education initiatives… The harbor is a world-class public space, well used and well cared for—our Commons” (Billion Oyster Project, 2021).
Creating new green spaces will likely have multiple benefits. For instance, replacing some of the concrete structures with more eco-friendly infrastructures that could not only reduce heat island effect, but also improve absorption of water during flooding events through permeability, and serve as areas for community building and public enjoyment. The removal of the concrete to favor the green area would both improve quality of life in the city, and help regenerate New York’s biodiversity by opening up native habitat space. However, these processes come with challenges, such as how the city must safely dispose of or reuse the concrete in ways that do not degrade the environment, as well as, political and economic resistance. The eco-symbiotic relationship will help the city ensure a thriving place to live for both humans and our more than human neighbors.
The technological impact of the seed will be the introduction of eco-friendly technologies in city undertakings. For instance, there will be a complete switch to the use of renewable energy sources to power city operations. The use of non-renewable energy, especially fossil fuels, are significant contributors to global warming. Therefore, it is imperative that the city phase out all fossil fuels for the city to establish an eco-symbiotic relationship. Such technological shifts will have a positive effect on the environment as they will help make the city more habitable to plants and animals. The political impact of the seed will likely lead to new laws and regulations that alter how the city will operate. The change in regulations will also change the cultural practice and traditions within the city as residents will have to adjust their routines to fit the provisions of new rules. However, which changes may be systematic in nature, these adjustments will benefit everyday people through material and daily improvements to their qualities of life.
Social, Technological, Environmental, Political,
and Cultural Consequences of the Mature Seeds
When the pursuit of one seed impacts another, there are social, technological, environmental, political, and cultural consequences. Therefore, there should be holistic approaches that address each problem without undermining any one aspect. For instance, introducing local liberation centers will have technological, economic, and social implications that will intersect with the other seeds. Therefore, a holistic approach is the best way to ensure the city accrues the benefits across all categories without losing sight of the political or cultural challenges that may present barriers when maturing other seeds. Making holistic considerations can help the city anticipate future complications. Though the seeds complement each other, they can also create conflicting scenarios. For instance, at times, if a problem requires immediate intervention, then prioritizing said resolution may limit resources for other seeds. Another potential hindrance to the implementation of the seeds are budgeting concerns. Securing the proper financial support for the realization of the three seeds without making significant compromises is crucial when addressing the city’s problems. The seeds will fail without the appropriate budgetary assistance, and the city’s issues will go unsolved. Therefore, participatory and progressive budgeting that achieves redistributive justice will be helpful to enact these seeds.
A future scenario where all three seeds have matured will bring an equitable society with a participatory democracy that aims for a balanced ecosystem. All the seeds foster a scenario that increases the effectiveness of participatory democracy in New York. Focusing on the participatory element is crucial because it leads to the creation of pluralistic policies that not only address the issues but have the support of the people. Such policies are effective and help mitigate disenfranchisement. It also effectively turns the citizens into governors of their own self-determination. This process provides an avenue for the city to source ideas and experts cost effectively without requiring external help from external personnel. The future scenario focuses on the environment and how our roles as stewards will benefit not only us, but all non-human life, ecosystem health, etc. Maturing the seeds will establish an effective eco-symbiotic relationship between all the facets of urban life. Finally, the city must be able to identify weaknesses and future challenges prior to experiencing them, so that they can be addressed effectively.
To understand the consequences of these seeds this paper will describe in detail the ways each of the seeds will progress into their ideal future. With the grant from the Department of Transportation (DOT), New York City will craft a proposal to democratize the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA), create a participatory budget, and ultimately grant reparations to our communities. From the creation of local liberation centers, there will be a strengthening of climate justice coalitions, reallocation of city funding to said coalitions and organizations, and cultivate self-determination and decolonization of our current systems. Finally, the growth of the Billion Oyster Project will create living shorelines that address loss and damage of coastal communities. In the next section the paper will discuss how an idealized future will grow these seeds while considering the synergies and challenges.
As it currently stands, DOT can grant up to $6 million dollars for a single capacity building project (U.S. Department of Transportation, 2022). With this funding New York City community leaders can work with government official technical assistants (such as architects, engineers, and urban planners) to craft a proposal for democratizing the MTA. Building relationships between social and technological networks will progress systematic changes necessary for climate action. The democratization of the MTA may include, but is not limited to transit unions, congestion taxes, and pay-what-you-wish/free fare. In said proposal a creation of a participatory budget that supports community transit initiative and climate resilience will be crucial to building a foundation for a sustainable future. Investing in public transit projects that grant access for frontline communities will support a healthy social and economic system synergy.
Local liberation centers, such as Project Liberation, strengthen coalitions between frontline communities and grassroots environmental organizations through anti-racist, anti-oppressive, and multi-cultural co-production approaches (Project Liberation, 2022). The connections formed among groups will allow for co-knowledge production that can advocate for the reallocation of city funding to community-led initiatives. This will affect political and economic systems as they exist today and require strong, collaborative efforts. Efforts that organize to defund NYPD are an ideal example of where to reallocate funding from. It’s important to note here there are cultural and political challenges to funding reallocation and the co-knowledge production must be aware of said challenges especially by keeping decolonization and self-determination at the forefront. The redistribution of economic and political capital to BIPOC and low-income communities will aid in future seed growth, as well as, social and cultural synergizes.
The Billion Oyster Project demonstrates how the remediation and restoration of oyster reefs as a natural storm barrier aids social and ecological systems (Billion Oyster Project, 2021). The creation of living shorelines will mitigate the effects of sea level rise (Alexander, 2022). This in turn will create opportunities for unique technological advances in the form of architectural and urban development (SCAPE, 2022), as well as, social benefits from the creation of green public commons. As long as these public commons are created with coastal communities in mind, then we can protect and compensate for the loss and damages caused by climate-induced events. This seed has the potential to expand social, technological, and ecological systems in New York City through powerful, collaborative climate action.
For the future of these seeds to achieve this idealization requires strong community building, organizing, and climate positivity. All of these seeds are based on collaborative action that aims to abolish racialized capitalism and neoliberalism, democratize and create equitable governance, and finally achieve an eco-symbiotic system. The political and economic consequences are highly influenced by the social and cultural ones, and vice versa. The ecological consequences will play a role in every element of our society, so a consideration for how to mitigate the negative impacts will be imperative to the growth of these seeds. The following section will discuss how these seeds will continue to grow in this idealized future.
The Growth of Seeds and Metrics of Change
Efforts to measure progress while holding our seeds accountable to the co-production process in dialogue with community stakeholders in order to safeguard against changes in exposure, vulnerability, and resilience will be addressed in the growth and metric of change of each seed.
In the example of the capacity building project, we aspire to democratize the Metropolitan Transit Authority. In other words, we want to democratize the public transit infrastructure, design, policy, and planning process for the City of New York. There are tremendous climate benefits that will result from this endeavor, including the reduction of global greenhouse gasses due to the elimination of cars and carcinogenic exhaust byproducts in the atmosphere (Rosenzweig, 2019). This is a multifarious ambition, which we believe will culminate in the cultivation of a green public commons.
The first metric in the growth of this seed is to engage public stakeholders and community organizations. These include — but are not limited to — municipal agencies such as the New York Transit Authority and the Mayor’s Office, state agencies like the New York State Department of Transportation, advocacy groups and think tanks such as the Transit Center, and grassroots community groups alike. Collaboration between stakeholders will ensure mutual dialogue, accountability, and trust between the grassroots and policymakers. This is essential for measuring progress but is only effective if all voices are given equal weight and consideration rather than engaging for the purpose of virtue signaling. Community members, who are often more knowledgeable about local transit issues and complexities, can hold policy makers accountable for their commitments and shortcomings should the trajectory of the growth of seeds veer off course due to changes in exposure, vulnerability, or resilience.
The next step to democratizing public transit in New York City is to engage with the participatory budgeting process. Participatory budgeting is a system pioneered, iterated, and codified by the New York City Council over the past decade. It enables New Yorkers — community members without policymaking stature — to propose and vote on the allocation of public funds toward municipal projects and capital expenses (Saltonstall, 2022). Typically, this happens on the scale of community boards comprising each borough, overseen by a city council representative. Participatory budgeting is indispensable to democratizing public transit because it enables community members to vote for which transit projects deserve to be funded. This process is, in itself, a model for direct democracy in the transit planning process. Using participatory budgeting, we can democratize the disbursement of funds to community transit initiatives, such as those that prioritize climate resilience against flooding from storms resulting from extreme weather events. The metrics for participatory budgeting are evaluated by the New York City Council, and budgeted for on a borough by borough basis on behalf of the respective Borough President (Saltonstall, 2022). The Office of the Borough President, in dialogue with the New York City Council and the Community Board, can audit funds to ensure that they are being properly disbursed and used (Saltonstall, 2022).
By democratizing public funds through participatory budgeting, the many frontline communities of New York City — low-income communities and communities of color at the frontlines of the climate crisis — can receive reparations in the form of investments to public transit projects in neighborhoods without ample access to transit. Frontline communities can partner with local community organizations and nonprofits to integrate public transit services with services for marginalized communities — for example, supportive housing so that the needs of unhoused people in the public transit system can be seamlessly taken care of. Moreover, investments can be made to provide access to public transit in areas with historic barriers to mobility. These exist in every borough of New York City and are especially rampant in low-income neighborhoods and neighborhoods of color in Brooklyn and Queens (Hu, 2022).
There are three stages for which these investments in public access can occur. The first stage is the current state of reality. Within the next few months, the city will begin executing two projects in various timeframes: East Side Access, which extends the Long Island Railroad service to Grand Central, and Penn Station Access, which extends the Metro North service to Penn Station (Gay, 2022). The second stage is for projects that are in development but are still years away from completion. An example of this is extending the 2nd Avenue subway to Harlem, where the Q train would provide an alternative route for gaps in coverage on the east side that are currently handled only by the 4, 5, and 6 trains (Gay, 2022). The third stage is for projects that are in the planning process, with no committed development timeline. These include a new route in Red Hook, Brooklyn, which the Mayor’s Office is currently in the preliminary steps of exploring (Gay, 2022). It also includes the BQX, a proposed streetcar that would connect Queens and Brooklyn — which currently has no rail connection — in addition to a proposed project called the QueensLink. The QueensLink is a north-south transit link that would use existing abandoned rail from the Long Island Railroad in Jamaica Bay, Queens. It would also transform available space into a new public park space (Hu, 2022). These are just some examples of what a new transit service could look like in a democratized space. But certain climate considerations must be taken into account in order to ensure that progress on the transit project is measured with climate goals at the forefront.
The democratization of public funds means there must be significant investments in climate resilient transit infrastructure. Just last year, Hurricane Ida cost New York City $100 million in damages to the public transit system (Rosenzweig, 2019). New York’s aging transit infrastructure is notorious for decrepit signaling systems. In addition to improving these systems with state-of-the-art infrastructure, there must be investments made to ensure that rail infrastructure can withstand exposure to flooding, heat, and extreme weather induced by the climate crisis. Storm surges and heatwaves plague the transit system, which can be catastrophic to commuters and to the vulnerability of the infrastructure (Rosenzweig, 2019). Investments in resilient infrastructure will curtail vulnerabilities from exposures due to climate-induced extreme weather events. Investments must also ensure that the electrification of rail is powered by renewable energy, and not fossil fuels, in order to reduce the production of global greenhouse gasses. Energy democracy is another aspect of this endeavor, and the renewable energy system must be socially owned and managed at the community level. This is already happening in pockets of New York City, such as the Brooklyn Microgrid, but must happen everywhere concurrently (Ramirez, 2020). There are organizations pursuing this right now, including the New York Energy Democracy Alliance, BlocPower, and the Democratic Socialists of America’s Eco-Socialist Caucus’s Public Power campaign (Ramirez, 2020). These must be coupled with public transit efforts to electrify the rail with renewable energy.
With this in mind, the next step is to eventually make public transit free for all commuters. Washington D.C. has just taken this step by making all buses free forever (Goodman, 2022). New York City must do the same and extend it to the subway system as well. Police officers, who disproportionately surveil and arrest BIPOC commuters for fare evasion, must be removed from the transit system until the New York Police Department is fully defunded and their budget reinvested into climate resilience projects. We’ll talk about this in more depth shortly.
With a more resilient, equitable, and accessible public transit system, we will eliminate cars from streets because the demand and necessity for cars will decline drastically. Ultimately, we hope this will extend to commercial vehicles as well. To ensure this is done equitably, we are advocating for a just transition for all rideshare drivers, ensuring that they have guaranteed job training and placement in the public transit system or in adjacent green jobs — each with a living wage and a union. The elimination of cars will lead to cleaner air and less smog, which will lead to a reduced urban heat island effect and a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions (Rosenzweig, 2019). It will also enable streets to be converted into green space, turning roads into bike lanes and walkable streets. Carless streets can be transformed into public parks — and abandoned subway stations can be transformed into public parks. The most obvious example of this is the High Line, but there is also a Low Line in development — its underground counterpart, transforming a network of abandoned subway tunnels into luscious green space with a thriving underground ecosystem. Carless streets can also be converted into foodways — streets in which New Yorkers can walk down and harvest fresh fruit and vegetables from trees and gardens along the road while commuting around the city. While harvesting fruit and vegetables is currently illegal, this law would be repealed. Two examples of foodways in New York City currently exist in Concrete Plant Park in the Bronx and on Governors Island. Both foodways were designed by Swale, a floating food forest built atop a barge sailing to food insecure neighborhoods across the Hudson River.. We envision expanding this model across the entire city, culminating in a walkable public commons for all New Yorkers.
A necessary metric for evaluating progress and measuring resilience to exposure and vulnerability for this phase is through traffic metrics. Traffic could be measured, such as the number of miles traveled per vehicle and hours of traffic delay, to determine the extent to which public transit has presented a sufficient alternative to cars. An element for consideration is traffic congestion pricing, which creates a financial incentive to use transit systems while also collecting data on per capita emissions. New York can learn from Los Angeles, for example, which is experimenting with using revenue generated from congestion pricing to fund public transit expenses (L.A. Metro, 2022). In other words, today’s traffic could be used to fund tomorrow’s transit infrastructure in New York City. In Los Angeles, communities adjacent to streets undergoing congestion pricing — especially in Downtown L.A. — experience a reduction in smog ingredients, such as PM10 and NOx, by as much as 6.7% and 10.2% respectively on a typical weekday (L.A. Metro, 2022). Another metric could be environmental health data from communities near highways and high congestion areas. Moreover, financial data can be another metric for evaluation, measuring how much money is saved on road maintenance. Furthermore, people who use the services can be surveyed and asked questions about how safe they feel and whether the system has improved their quality of life. Commute times could also be measured to determine whether there has been a significant improvement. Another measurement is cost of living to determine whether expenses have been reduced because of better access to public transit.
Our second seed is the proliferation of local liberation centers, for which we are using Project Liberation as a model. Without going into as much detail as the previous seed, the metrics and trajectory of growth for this seed is quite similar to the previous example. We begin with what we have today: climate justice coalitions, such as NY Renews, the New York City Environmental Justice Alliance, the New York Energy Democracy Alliance, and national coalitions such as the Climate Justice Alliance which contains New York frontline organizations, such as Uprose in Brooklyn and We Act for Environmental Justice in Harlem (Ramirez, 2020). We want to strengthen coalitions between frontline communities and environmental organizations in order to increase stakeholder engagement and effectively measure progress, accountability, and resistance to change in dialogue with all interested parties.
Next, we want to invest in frontline communities by elevating these climate justice coalitions. We want to reallocate funding to frontline communities and organizations that have been historically excluded from funding, which are typically grassroots environmental justice organizations with BIPOC leadership (Mahoney, 2021). This, too, can occur with support from participatory budgeting. As a result, we strive to cultivate mechanisms for self-determination and decolonization, following the example of Cooperation Jackson in Jackson, Mississippi and other scalable models of the municipalist movement (Mahoney, 2021). In doing so, we aspire to redistribute economic and political capital to low-income communities and communities of color. There are several mechanisms for doing this, such as block associations and tenant unions, which have been historic agents of change for community organizing in New York City, bringing neighbors together to build collective bargaining power. These can coalesce into popular assemblies, expanding direct democracy through face-to-face arenas for participation in the political process.
The ultimate goal is to cultivate direct democracy as a means of eliminating ineffective bureaucracies and expanding participatory models of collective decision-making, autonomy, and consensus. Through a more directly democratic system, we aspire to defund carceral systems and reinvest in climate solutions. For instance, defunding the $11 billion budget for the New York Police Department would enable public funds to be reinvested in climate solutions, communities, and critical infrastructure. These include — but are not limited to — public education, housing, healthcare, the arts, jobs, community safety alternatives to policing, and environmental justice (food sovereignty and agroecology spaces — such as community permaculture gardens to combat food insecurity; energy democracy mechanisms — such as community solar arrays and community-owned microgrids with socialized utilities; and water reclamation infrastructure — such as ecosystems that purify wastewater and recharge the aquifer in a closed hydrological loop). This massive investment would culminate in a green public commons through community-led initiatives with an emphasis on justice, equity, and liberation for all New Yorkers struggling to navigate the climate crisis.
Our third seed is the regeneration and restoration of eco-symbiotic systems, for which we building off the example of the Billion Oyster Project, which is remediating oyster reefs as a natural storm barrier in New York Harbor, increasing biodiversity while cleaning up nitrogen and phosphorus pollution in the waterways of New York City. An adult oyster can filter 50 gallons per day (Billion Oyster Project, 2021). New York Harbor was once home to 220,000 acres of oyster reefs (Billion Oyster Project, 2021). It was the world’s largest oyster bed until the 19th century, when the oyster population died from siltation, over harvesting, dredging, and pollution (Billion Oyster Project, 2021). The harbor — which connects New York and New Jersey to the Hudson River, East River, Long Island Sound, and Atlantic Ocean — has served as a source of sustenance for the Lenape people, a naval port during World War II, and a port for millions of immigrants and refugees (Billion Oyster Project, 2021).
With the sea level rising in New York City by 1 inch every 7-8 years, coastal communities and ecosystems are becoming highly vulnerable to storm surges and flooding due to the changing climate (Sea Level Rise Database, N.d.). Since the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy ten years ago, many extreme weather events have cost the city hundreds of millions of dollars in damages, as well as the loss of life in coastal communities across the city. Communities can design living shorelines using oyster reefs to increase resilience against climate-induced flooding and storm surges to manage and adapt to the sea level rise (Billion Oyster Project, 2021). SCAPE, a regenerative landscape architecture studio, is chiefly responsible for the design of living shorelines in New York City. One example is the Living Breakwaters Project, which has a $60 million investment in coastal resilience from New York State (Governor’s Office of Storm Recovery, N.d.). The project will reduce waves reaching buildings and roads to below 3 feet in height in the event of a 100 year storm, assuming up to 18 inches of sea level rise (Governor’s Office of Storm Recovery, N.d.).
Building off this model toward an equitable future, we envision a loss and damage fund for coastal communities. This is based on the loss and damage efforts from COP27, but on a much more local scale — and, the more local the scale, the more measurable the efficacy. In doing so, we will protect frontline communities from flooding while compensating damages caused by climate-induced events. This will enable a healthy harbor — New York Harbor and its many rivers and waterways can become clean, thriving, and devoid of pollutants. Much of this work has been pioneered by folk singer Pete Seeger with the Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, but the restoration of oyster reefs will further remediate the phosphorus and nitrogen pollution in the harbor (Billion Oyster Project, 2021). The process will enhance social equity through advocacy, job creation, and coalition building as part of a just transition for New Yorkers. This will engender economic liberation, advancing a Green New Deal for New York City, building upon existing legislation such as the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA) — praised as the most extensive municipal environmental legislation — as well as the Climate, Jobs, and Justice policy package proposed by NY Renews (Ramirez, 2020). This will catalyze human and ecological wellness, improving physical and psychological wellbeing in symbiosis with the ecosphere.
As a result, New York’s waterways and coastal communities will become transformed into an abundant and resilient commons, with a thriving quality of life for all its inhabitants. Ecological data could be used as a metric, measuring the three things: the quality of river water (i.e. nitrogen and phosphorous levels), the biodiversity of the harbor, and the rate of oyster reproduction (i.e. whether oysters are reproducing at a healthy enough rate to replenish the population). More notably, the effectiveness of oyster reefs in wave attenuation and storm surge protection can be measured as well. These metrics are essential for measuring exposure, vulnerability, and resilience while plotting a trajectory for the growth of our seeds from where they exist today into the future we aspire to create together for a healthier, more equitable, and more resilient New York City.
Time Frame and Process of Change
The time frame and process of change for the regenerative urbanism in New York City transformational program that we have proposed would progress in stages, with short term, medium term and long term goals. These sets of goals come with different temporalities based on their scope. For short term goals, such as establishing the liberation centers or extending individual transit lines, transformation may take place over the course of 5 to 10 years. For medium term goals, like innovating public transit in the New York City area, completion might take longer, from 10 to 15 years. Longer term goals, like ecosystem symbiosis, completion would be aimed for by 2050, giving about 30 years for the City to adjust and transform its systems.
These would track goals like the “planetary boundaries” and “doughnut economics frameworks” set up by Johan Rockström (Director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, an leading organization, members of which regularly advise the United Nations and contribute to the Ingergovermental Panel on Climate Change Assessment Reports), et al., and by Kate Raworth (Senior Associate and teacher at Oxford’s Enviromental Change Institute), while generating pluralist practices for intersectional feminist climate justice (Rockström, 2009; Raworth, 2012). Processes of realizing these transformations would grow from ground up, grassroots praxes, working with local mutual aid and collective self-determination to build citywide and planetary transformation. Likewise, the processes’ impacts would be organized around the goal of cutting global emissions by 7.6 percent or more each year – as recommended by the United Nations Environment Program – to meet the 1.5 degree Celsius target outlined in the Paris Agreement (Christensen, 2019). The planetary boundaries framework and doughnut economics model provide an important paradigm shift from the current hegemony of extractive capitalism which grew out of settler colonialism, to transform towards a regenerative economies and ways of life that co-create wellbeing for people, and thriving ecosystems on a flourishing planet. Therefore, by using these frameworks to guide local change, New York City can be an effective part of the global effort to overcome the climate emergency.
To achieve these transformations, it is necessary to engage in grassroots work, as we have outlined in our discussion of capacity building, and to sow and nurture the seeds of participatory democracy. Realizing participatory democracy is not just imperative to improve the lives of New York City’s 8 million inhabitants, it’s a way to improve the lives of the 8 billion people that call Earth home, as well as its ecosystems. Participatory democracy means regaining control of governance for the people, wrestling it from corporate capture, and retaking control of the economy for workers. All of this rests on ongoing collective praxes to fight the white supremacist, patriarchal, and imperialist structual oppressions that underpin the current governances and economic systems in the US, and on overcoming these systematic disposessions through intersectional feminist, anti-racist and anti-colonial organizing to realize collective liberations. Put simply, economies and democracies are meant to serve the needs and prosperity of the pluralistic many, not the whims and luxuries of a domineering few, and New York, like the planet, needs to transform its governance systems to reflect this and enact climate justice. Working from a bottom up model for climate justice, New York City is an excellent place to start, because due to the City’s immense economic, political and cultural power, local and regional change here can ripple throughout the globe.
To enact these transformations, we suggest following tried and true methods of social organizing. There is no need to reinvent the wheel. Unionization, community self-defense, and mutual aid can form the groundwork for local liberation. In this way, starting with activist techniques like door knocking, holding community events, and organizing citizen assemblies at the local liberation centers, community members can empower themselves throughout the process of regenerating New York City’s ecosystem. Following in the footsteps of organizations such as the Black Panthers Party for Self Defense, the Combahee River Collective, mutual aid organizations and workers unions everywhere, community empowerment will be nurtured through collective action to meet material needs, like food, health care, child care and housing in a way that realizes intersectional justice. By organizing specific working groups, like tenants rights unions to provide free legal advice and assistance to those who are housing insecure, or local food programs to foster access to cheap and nourishing regional food, we will build self-sufficient local practices that simultaneously grow regional empowerment.
Building local liberation means walkable neighborhoods, regional food systems, and public access to the green commons. It means expanding free public transit, more public parks and community gardens with native plants and reorganizing the city so that mobility is prioritized for pedestrians, cyclists and equitably accessible to those in the (dis)ability community who have specific mobility needs. To have a walkable neighborhood doesn’t just mean having access to a grocery store, doctor, childcare pharmacy, public bank, public indoor and outdoor exercise areas, and common spaces like libraries, and gathering places like coffee shops, bars, clubs and restaurants within a few blocks – it means these must also be worth walking, that is affordable and high quality. It seems walkable neighborhoods must become the norm. We must cut the emissions heavy, car based, urban design that is choking cities. Redesigning our cities around people, not cars, is necessary to fight the climate emergency. Yet to do this, we need to address two key economic factors: rents and budgeting.
The first step should be to address rent. It is impossible to have walkable affordable neighborhoods everywhere if rent is too expensive for grocery stores or shops to charge prices that working class people on a living wage can afford. Similarly, the social and political instability that is preventing the city and the entire country from meeting the challenges of climate change is exacerbated by housing insecurity. If a working class person or a family are paying exorbitant amounts for a place to live, they may have little time or money to get involved with the political process, and find themselves at the whims under and exploitation of the ownership class. Housing security is the bedrock of a stable life, and this basic foundation is a prerequisite for political empowerment. Therefore, not only are addressing rents key to creating walkable neighborhoods that would fight the climate emergency by reducing emissions, they are a bedrock necessity of functioning participatory democracies. In June of 2022, the average rent for a Manhattan apartment soared to $5,000 a month (Frank, 2022). It is often said that rent should only make up 30% of your monthly budget, meaning to afford rent in or in many cases near Manhattan requires a six figure salary. This is obviously unjust. So why are shoebox apartments in New York City going for unlivable prices, and what can we do about it? Each year New York has tens of thousands of vacant rent stabilized apartments, sitting empty, while folks are forced into housing insecurity and onto the streets by landlords, eviction courts and the police (Rabiyah, 2022). The answer to this crisis is housing justice: this means strengthening tenants unions, passing rent cap laws, shifting to co-op buildings owned by tenants, and following a model recently passed by citizen’s referendum in Berlin, the City should expropriate apartments from landlords who own over a certain number of units to fight the commodification of housing. De-commodification of needs is a key component of nurturing a regenerative New York City.
As for budgeting, the keys here are participatory budgeting, decriminalization and demilitarization. Participatory budgeting is a process by which citizens engage to co-create the common public budget. Similar to the military industrial complex, which takes up an astonishing amount of the United States’ federal budget, the New York Budget is nearly 11 billion dollars for 2023. This policing does not address the root causes of social instability, and similarly the rest of New York City’s 100 billion dollar budget could be used more effectively to address root causes of social and ecological instability, for example by funding free public transit, guaranteed basic income, or guaranteed basic housing. So, instead of relying on the current model of policing, where militarization of the police force and criminalization of marginalized and exploited poorer communities culminate in high incarceration rates and an overpoliced New York City, police patrols can be replaced with initiatives like mental health crisis professionals, basic needs outreach, and violence de-escalation/harm reduction teams. Importantly, this would both have the effect of abolishing the police, an important step in fighting the rampant racial injustices and police brutality which plague the American policing, judicial and legal systems. (The scope of this paper is too small to expound at length on this, however additional transformations to abolish the American prison-industrial complex are needed. In New York City for example, the case of the notorious systematics abuses at Rikers Island jail is a prime example of the urgent need for a transition to a restorative and regenerative practice of justice.) Moreover, participatory budgeting of this type can alleviate the root causes of social instability and foster regenerative justice by reallocating funds towards material needs like basic income, housing, and food to reduce social tensions.
By effectively allocating funds to meet material needs and reduce social tensions, this builds the groundwork for a stable and functional participatory democracy, where people have the time and resources to co-create their own collective self determination. A participatory democracy counteracts the forces of corporatist capture, which have allowed corporations to pollute without accountability, and obstructed governments from urgently addressing the climate crisis locally, regionally and globally. Using the models of citizen assemblies, and simple innovations in democratic practices like ranked choice voting, abolishing gerrymandering, ensuring population proportionate legislative bodies (unlike the US Senate which gives smaller states more voting power than large states), and getting money out of politics (prohibiting disproportionate spending by the wealthy and corporations through superPACs and similar means, to avoid plutocracy) we can move to a participatory model of governance. This is in line with the democratization of economic bodies and public utilities recommended in our presentation, like democratizing the MTA to be free, modernized, and publicly participatory institution, and to establish worker ownership of businesses and corporations through methods like co-opiing. Given that the United States is a settler-colonial power, it is vital that as participatory democracy is nurtured in New York, the Indigenous nations and communities in the New York City area regain equitable empowerment, and that Indigenous sovereignty movements like the LANDBACK movement are supported through rematriation of material power over lands, resources, and funding.
These democratizations support ecologically just transition, by ensuring that everyday people have the power to directly shape the institutions which create our society’s social metabolism, whether those be political or economic bodies (although this distinction is tricky as all economic bodies are political and all political bodies, economic). Given the plutocratic capture of the US through neoliberalism, the distinction is increasingly blurred). Social metabolism is the exchange of materials and energy between earth-systems and society, and carbon emissions are a key example. The water system is another excellent example. If the behavior of society releases pollutants into the water system, these are in turn reintroduced into society by the water cycle, making their way into the food we eat. It is absolutely imperative that the social metabolism of the world, including New York City, be realigned within planetary boundaries, and that its social metabolism becomes eco-symbiotic. Eco-symbiosis means to be in a mutually beneficial and regenerative relationship with ecosystems. Whether by greening transit and taking back streets for pedestrians through the DOT programs mentioned above, or through the proceedings of the local liberation centers, or through initiatives like the Billion Oysters Project, the aim of the programs we suggest are to nurture a green public commons, where we behave with the understanding that we are a part of the ecosystem. In the words of Resistencia Indigena, “We are not defending nature. We are nature defending itself.” Similarly, contrary to the somewhat cartesian idea of a duality between the city and the ecosystem. The city is an ecosystem, and it is part of the local, regional, and global ecosystems. Therefore, whether in industrial processes, road runoff, waste, or foodsystems, we must shift to regenerative practices that promote a flourishing and biodiverse eco-sphere, whether in the Hudson Bay, on the island of Manhattan, or in the surrounding boroughs and region.
To establish eco-symbiosis may take a longer time, since it involves phasing out harmful materials like non-compostable plastics and damaging industrial chemicals for ecologically friendly alternatives, and will likely involve major changes in building and engineering practices. Industrial processes, like the use of environmentally degrading methods to build batteries and produce hard construction materials like concrete and steel will need to be redesigned to function in an eco-systematically beneficial way. However, the magnitude of the challenge is no reason to stall, it is all the more reason to act urgently. On the bright side, one of the most pressing challenges, energy, already has immediately implementable changes. Energy is the foundation of every organism, from a biological and physical standpoint, likewise is this the foundation of every society, whether in biological, economic or political terms. Economies are made up of the flows and organizations of energy, quite literally, as the capacity to do work, whether through biological energy exerted through human bodies, or the way we traditionally think of energy in fuels and electrified utilities. New York State’s current plan aims for fully electrified green energy by 2040 (New York State, 2022). We applaud this and recommend a faster timeline, with increased care to ensure that the benefits of the green energy transition are redistributed to the working class, especially to poorer folks who have been disproportionately impacted by intersectional systematic oppressions. The energy transition is a key part of creating eco-symbiosis, as it will reduce emissions and improve air quality, however we must ensure that not only the ends, but also the means of achieving a green energy transition are eco symbiotic. For example, New York’s current plan relies on a large amount of hydroelectric energy, yet dams can be ecologically disruptive to river systems and to the organisms that call them home. So as we nurture green energy in New York, it is imperative that our new energy system does not repeat the mistakes of the past. In this way, New York can build an eco-symbiotic and regenerative urbanism, from our food systems, to daily life, and through the energy transition.
Conclusion
In summation, this regenerative urbanisms project will drastically change the city’s landscape to co-create a thriving ecosystem. Its undertakings will consider how the project impacts the lives of the citizens on the social, ecological and technological levels. All these levels must be taken into consideration if the project is to succeed, have the support of the citizens, and positively impact each other’s lives. The project will unfold utilizing three seeds. The first is the capacity building seed which encompasses building the grassroots organizing base necessary for the city to become capable of executing the project. One resource the project will utilize is the Thriving Community Program by the Department of Transportation which provides technical support to various authorities across the United States. The second seed is the establishment of a local liberation center which addresses the social justice aspects of the project. The center is useful in engaging the community in the discourse and realization of the project and its progress. The third seed is eco-symbiotic systems, which address ecological relations and ensure that all operations respect ecology and establish a symbiotic relationship where the natural environment benefits from the project and vice versa. The combination of the seeds will lead to the establishment of sound projects that benefit every citizen.
Crafting a future for these seeds must be founded in the reality we currently live in, while also striving to achieve sustainable alternatives that address our broken systems. Seeds such as capacity building programs, local liberation centers, and eco-symbiotic systems only represent a fraction of the seeds that are being metaphorically planted now to address climate change. A holistic understanding of the social, technological, environmental, political, and cultural consequences of the mature seeds will be valuable to anticipate because when faced with disastrous events — in other words, we will already be prepared for the expected loss and damages. Balancing the understanding of anticipated loss and damages with climate positivity will be vital to creating consistent, collective, climate action. Strong leadership, especially from community leaders, will be crucial to this work, particularly when faced with uncertainty, climate disasters, etc. Seeds, such as the ones explored in this paper, will ideally cultivate those strong leaders and as the seeds continue to mature our communities will ideally strengthen despite expected and unexpected challenges.
While we are radical dreamers with a bold vision for a regenerative future, our roadmap is feasible, viable, scientific, and grounded in present realities. Our seeds, as they exist today, are currently being planted in fertile soil by intergenerational, intersectional, and multiracial gardeners on the frontlines of the climate crisis, spanning all genders, nationalities, faiths, sexualities, ethnicities, abilities, and identities. Community groups, grassroots organizations, BIPOC leaders, faith communities, storytellers, youth leaders, activists, artists, scholars, indigenous peoples, elders, scientists, and policymakers are just a few of the co-creators that are already planting these seeds in the grand garden of New York City. Each of these seeds have the potential to germinate into a roadmap for a more equitable and regenerative future, bridging the gap between where we are today, where we want to be, and where we will be tomorrow. A more democratic public transit system, more liberatory community gathering spaces to redistribute economic and political capital, and a more resilient and biodiverse harbor are three examples of seeds that can transform New York City into a public commons to curtail the effects of flooding, heatwaves, storm surges, extreme weather events, and sea level rise exacerbated by the climate crisis. With a resilient and thriving commons, communities can have more equitable access to public transit, food sovereignty, renewable energy, and healthier waterways, while measuring the progress and resistances to change through metrics that take into account exposure, vulnerability, and resilience of climate impacts. The proper evaluation of these metrics, in dialogue with members of frontline communities, can ensure that change and transformation is being measured with mutual trust and accountability at the forefront, for just and effective growth of our seeds. A more equitable and regenerative future isn’t just possible — it is absolutely inevitable.
In conclusion, by using grassroots organizing practices combined with an eco-symbiotic critical systems-thinking approach, a regenerative urbanism for New York City will be nurtured. In collaboration with the dozens of intersectional justice organizations which are already working on these issues in New York City, local action would foster community empowerment for collective self determination, by meeting mutual material and social needs. This foundation of collective wellbeing would help build the political and economic stability for everyday people to enact a participatory practice of democracy. By combining this direct action based work with the “planetary boundaries” and “doughnut economics” frameworks, local liberation work can build the foundation for systematic change wider than the City level. Through capacity building initiatives, liberation centers, and eco-symbiotic practices, a regenerative urbanism could be nurtured from the ground up, co-creating a green public commons for the people, the flora and fauna, a thriving way of life for New York City, and climate justice within planetary boundaries.
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