![]() | This article contains wording that promotes the subject through exaggeration of unnoteworthy facts .(September 2023) |
Majora Carter | |
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![]() Carter in 2021 | |
Born | New York, New York, U.S. | October 27, 1966
Education | Wesleyan University (BA) New York University (MFA) |
Website | majoracartergroup |
Majora Carter (born October 27, 1966) is an American urban revitalization strategist [1] and public radio host from the South Bronx area of New York City. Carter founded and led the non-profit environmental justice solutions corporation Sustainable South Bronx [2] from 2001 onward, before entering the private sector in 2008.
After graduating from the Bronx High School of Science, [3] Carter entered Wesleyan University in 1984 to study film and went on to obtain a Bachelor of Arts. [4] In 1997, she received a Master of Fine Arts from New York University (NYU). [5] While at NYU, she returned to her family's home in Hunts Point. [6]
While Associate Director of The POINT Community Development Corporation, Carter initiated the development of Hunts Point Riverside Park. [7] She secured a $10,000 grant from a USDA Forest Service program to provide seed money for river access restoration projects. Over a five-year period she worked with other community members and the Parks Department to help leverage that seed money into more than $3 million from the mayor's budget. The money was used to build the park into the Rudy Bruner [8] award-winning iteration which re-opened in 2006. [9] [10]
In August 2001, after declining to engage in a campaign for NY City Council, [4] Carter founded Sustainable South Bronx (SSBx), [4] where she served as executive director until July 2008. [11] [12] During that time, SSBx advocated the development of the Hunts Point Riverside Park which had been an illegal garbage dump. [13] Carter was a co-founder of the Bronx River Alliance, [14] and SSBx continued to carry on Carter's involvement in Bronx River waterfront restoration projects. [5] [6] In 2003, Sustainable South Bronx started the Bronx Environmental Stewardship Training program, [15] [16] one of the nation's first urban green collar training and placement systems. [6] [17] Other SSBx projects have centered around fitness, the creation of a community market, and air quality. [5]
In 2007, Carter co-founded Green for All with Van Jones. [18] A December 2008 New York Times profile called Carter "The Green Power Broker" and "one of the city's best-known advocates for environmental justice" but reported that some South Bronx activists (who would not go on record) stated that Carter has taken credit for accomplishments when others should share the credit as well as taking credit for uncompleted projects. Other Bronx activists (who did agree to be named) stated that her recognition was well deserved. [6]
Carter was a torch-bearer for a portion of the San Francisco leg of the torch relay of the 2008 Summer Olympics. Many portions of the torch relay, including the San Francisco leg, were met with protests concerning the policies of the Chinese government toward Tibet. Although Carter had signed a contract pledging not to use an Olympic venue for political or religious causes, [19] when she and John Caldera were passed the torch during their part of the relay, she pulled out a small Tibetan flag that she had concealed in her shirt sleeve. [20]
Members of the Chinese torch security escort team pulled her out of the relay and San Francisco police officers pushed her into the crowd on the side of the street. [21] Fellow torch-bearer and retired NYFD firefighter Richard Doran called Carter's actions "disgusting and appalling" and said that he thought "she dishonored herself and her family". [22] Another torch-bearer, retired NYPD police officer Jim Dolan, agreed with Doran. [22]
Majora Carter's TED talk [23] was one of the first six publicly released talks [24] to launch the TED website in 2006. [25] Carter gave a second TED talk in 2022, [26] making her the only Black woman who is not an entertainer to be invited to their stage twice.[ citation needed ] Carter has made appearances in, written, and produced television and radio programs, including HBO's The Black List: Volume 2, [27] American Public Media's Market Place, [28] and PRX's This I Believe series [29] and has hosted several pieces on urban sustainability with Discovery Communications' Science Channel. [30]
She has been featured in corporate promotional videos and advertisements for companies such as Cisco Systems, [31] Frito-Lay, [32] Intel, Holiday Inn, [33] HSBC, [34] Visa, [35] Mazda [36] and Honda. [37]
In 2014, Carter was the on-camera and voiceover host of "Water Blues - Green Solutions", [38] a documentary on Green Infrastructure in several American cities, produced by Pennsylvania State University TV for the Public TV Market. In 2015, Carter played "TSA Agent 1" opposite Meryl Streep in Ricky and the Flash, directed by Johnathon Demme. [39]
From 2007 to 2010, Carter co-hosted on The Green, a television segment dedicated to the environment, shown on the Sundance Channel. [40] The first season consisted of a series of 90 second op-eds shot in studio. [41] The second season consisted of a series of short interview pieces with individuals taking uncommon approaches to environmental problems. [42]
In 2008, Carter and Marge Ostroushko [43] co-produced the pilot episode of the public radio show, The Promised Land (radio), which won a 3-way competition for a Corporation for Public Broadcasting Talent Quest grant. [44] The one-hour programs debuted on over 150 public radio stations across the US on January 19, 2009, was renewed for the 2010/2011 season, [45] and earned a 2010 Peabody Award, [46] but went unsupported by the public radio funding organizations after that period, and has since stopped production.
Carter co-authored a white paper on urban heat island mitigation [47] and a peer-reviewed article, Elemental carbon and PM(2.5) levels in an urban community heavily impacted by truck traffic. [48] In February 2022 Penguin Random House released Ms. Carter's first book, Reclaiming Your Community: You Don't Have to Move Out of Your Neighborhood to Live in a Better One published by Berret-Koehler Publishers.
After leaving Sustainable South Bronx, Carter has served as president of a private consulting firm, Majora Carter Group, LLC (MCG). In the June 2010 issue of Fast Company magazine, Carter was listed as one of the 100 Most Creative People in Business. [49] In 2014, B Corporation (certification) recognized MCG as one of the "Best for the World" [50] according to its ranking among other B Corps of similar size.
In 2012, Carter's consulting firm, Majora Carter Group LLC (MCG) accepted FreshDirect as a client to help the company connect to local organizations prior to its proposed relocation to the Harlem River Yards in the South Bronx. [51]
Activists opposed to the relocation claimed New York City Government and FreshDirect failed to conduct sufficient environmental review and community outreach. [52] A lawsuit and boycott campaign [53] were initiated to stop the relocation. That lawsuit was dismissed, [54] and a subsequent appeal was also dismissed; both were filed by New York Lawyers for the Public Interest. [55] Sustainable South Bronx, an organization Carter founded, opposed FreshDirect's move to the Bronx. [56]
Subsequent votes by Bronx Community Board 1 [57] and the NYC Industrial Development Agency [58] both voted to approve the move to the Bronx.
The project broke ground December 22, 2014, and was scheduled to be completed before the end of 2016. [59] FreshDirect started hiring in the Bronx ahead of its move in anticipation. [60] Consistent with activists' concerns over increased truck traffic as a result of the new FreshDirect facility, a study found that the opening the FreshDirect warehouse "significantly increased truck and vehicle flow, especially for overnight time windows, and that for one traffic monitoring site, resulting changes were not adequately predicted by the facility’s environmental assessment prior to construction." [61]
In 2007, while running Sustainable South Bronx, Majora Carter introduced MIT's first ever Mobile fab lab (digital fabrication laboratory) to the South Bronx, where it served as an early iteration of a maker spaces.
In 2013, Carter joined the advisory board of the Bronx Academy of Software Engineering High School. After co-founding StartUp Box #SouthBronx [62] in 2012 as a social enterprise to seed diverse participation in the knowledge economy, she launched StartUp Box #QA, [63] a quality assurance testing service, which assisted in the launch of Mayor Bill DeBlasio's Digital.NYC [64] in 2014. StartUp Box to victory won the pitch contest at the national Blogher Conference in 2015 with $250,000 worth of in-kind services from SheKnows Media. [65]
The social enterprise also won second place in the MIT Inclusion Innovation and the Village Capital & Kapoor Capital People Ops Competitions in 2016, (each garnering a $25,000 prize), as well as the Digital Diversity Network's Code Breaker Award in 2016 [66]
She is a BusinessInsider.com 'Silicon Alley 100', [67] and her 2006 TEDtalk was one of 6 on the launch of its website. [68] Carter is also a co-founder of the Bronx Tech Meetup. [69] She served as a judge for the NYC Office of Digital Media's "Reinvent Payphones Design Challenge". [70]
She is a Fellow of the New York Institute for the Humanities.
The Bronx is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the U.S. state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New York City borough of Queens, across the East River. The Bronx has a land area of 42 square miles (109 km2) and a population of 1,472,654 in the 2020 census. If each borough were ranked as a city, the Bronx would rank as the ninth-most-populous in the U.S. Of the five boroughs, it has the fourth-largest area, fourth-highest population, and third-highest population density. The population density of the Bronx was 32,718.7 inhabitants per square mile (12,632.8/km2) in 2022, the third-highest population density of any county in the United States, behind Manhattan and Brooklyn. It is the only borough of New York City not primarily on an island. With a population that is 54.8% Hispanic as of 2020, it is the only majority-Hispanic county in the Northeastern United States and the fourth-most-populous nationwide.
The Bronx High School of Science is a public specialized high school in The Bronx in New York City. It is operated by the New York City Department of Education. Admission to Bronx Science involves passing the Specialized High Schools Admissions Test.
The Bronx River, is a river that is approximately 24 miles (39 km) long, and flows through southeastern New York in the United States and drains an area of 38.4 square miles (99 km2). It is named after colonial settler Jonas Bronck.
Hunts Point is a neighborhood located on a peninsula in the South Bronx of New York City. It is the location of one of the largest food distribution facilities in the world, the Hunts Point Cooperative Market. Its boundaries are the Bruckner Expressway to the west and north, the Bronx River to the east, and the East River to the south. Hunts Point Avenue is the primary street through Hunts Point.
Lawrence Bender is an American film producer. Throughout his career, Bender-produced films have received 36 Academy Award nominations, resulting in eight wins.
The geography of New York City is characterized by its coastal position at the meeting of the Hudson River and the Atlantic Ocean in a naturally sheltered harbor. The city's geography, with its scarce availability of land, is a contributing factor in making New York the most densely populated major city in the United States. Environmental issues are chiefly concerned with managing this density, which also explains why New York is among the most energy-efficient and least automobile-dependent cities in the United States. The city's climate is temperate.
Environmental issues in New York City are affected by the city's size, density, abundant public transportation infrastructure, and location at the mouth of the Hudson River.
FreshDirect is an American online grocery company and among the first enterprises to sell and deliver perishable foods to consumers without maintaining a retail operation. It offers its services via a website and mobile app.
Hunts Point Riverside Park is a riverside park located in the Hunts Point neighborhood in the South Bronx section of New York City. It is the first new riverside park to be built in the area in over sixty years, and is the first of a planned series of parks to be linked by a bike route to create the South Bronx Greenway.
Sustainable South Bronx (SSBx) is a non-profit organization which promotes environmental justice. SSBx was founded by Majora Carter in 2001. Today, it is a division of the HOPE Program.
MTA Regional Bus Operations operates local and express buses serving New York City in the United States out of 29 bus depots. These depots are located in all five boroughs of the city, plus one located in nearby Yonkers in Westchester County. 21 of these depots serve MTA New York City Transit (NYCT)'s bus operations, while the remaining eight serve the MTA Bus Company These facilities perform regular maintenance, cleaning, and painting of buses, as well as collection of revenue from bus fareboxes. Several of these depots were once car barns for streetcars, while others were built much later and have only served buses. Employees of the depots are represented by local divisions of the Transport Workers Union of America (TWU), particularly the TWU Local 100 or of the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU)'s Local's 726 for all depots in Staten Island, 1056 for Casey Stengel, Jamaica, and Queens Village Depots, 1179 for JFK & Far Rockaway Depots, and 1181 for Spring Creek Depot.
PlaNYC was a strategic plan released by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg in 2007 to prepare the city for one million more residents, strengthen the economy, combat climate change, and enhance the quality of life for all New Yorkers. The plan brought together over 25 City agencies to work toward the vision of a greener, greater New York and significant progress was made towards the long-term goals over the following years.
Green For All is an organization whose stated goal is to build a green economy while simultaneously lifting citizens out of poverty. It is a DC-based group that brings unions and environmentalists together to push for anti-poverty measures and a clean-energy economy. Green For All was co-founded by Van Jones, former head of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights and Majora Carter former head of Sustainable South Bronx, and was officially launched in September 2007 at the Clinton Global Initiative.
In New York City, there is an extensive water supply system that supports several programs and infrastructure pertaining to the city's food supply. City officials, agencies, and organizations cooperate with rural farmers to grow food more locally, as well as protect waterways in the New York metropolitan area. The New York City Department of Education operates a school-time and summertime breakfast/lunch program. The city is also deprived of supermarkets in several neighborhoods, and the city government has addressed the problem by allowing extra street vendors to operate. To encourage food safety, the government also operates a restaurant-grading system that it introduced in 2010. The various food programs have made the city a model for food systems internationally.
The Earth Awards is an aspirational platform for consumer-driven ideas that challenge designers and innovators to build a new economy. It is an annual competition since 2007, aiming to "transform visionary ideas into market-ready solutions by offering finalists the unique opportunities to pitch their project to world business leaders". The Awards are open to students, graduates and industry professionals - the public is invited to submit innovations to be judged.
Allen Hershkowitz is an American environmental scientist who worked as a senior scientist at Natural Resources Defense Council from 1988 to 2014 and then at the Green Sports Alliance until 2016, when he left to become a Founding Director and Chairman of Sport and Sustainability International. Hershkowitz is currently Environmental Science Advisor to the New York Yankees, the first role of its kind in professional sports, as well as Environmental Advisor to the NBA, and Co-Chair of the WELL Health-Safety Rating for Facility Operations and Management of Sports and Entertainment Venues, created by the International WELL Building Institute (IWBI).
The POINT Community Development Corporation is a non-profit community development corporation dedicated to youth development, culture, and the economic revitalization of the Hunts Point neighborhood of the South Bronx, from which it takes its name. The mission of The POINT CDC is to encourage the arts, local enterprise, responsible ecology, and self-investment in the Hunts Point community. The organization was founded in 1993 by Steven Sapp, Maria Torres, Paul Lipson, and Mildred Ruiz-Sapp.
The South Bronx Greenway is a project to improve waterfront access, recreational facilities, and transportation systems, including pedestrian and bicycle paths, in the South Bronx in New York City.
The South Bronx is an area of the New York City borough of the Bronx. The area comprises neighborhoods in the southern part of the Bronx, such as Concourse, Mott Haven, Melrose, and Port Morris.
The environment of New York City consists of many interwoven ecosystems as part of the New York–New Jersey Harbor Estuary. The climate of New York City shapes the environment with its cool, wet winters and hot, humid summers with plentiful rainfall all year round. As of 2020, New York City held 44,509 acres of urban tree canopy with 24% of its land covered in trees. As of 2020, the population of New York City numbered 8.8 million human beings.
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