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It is not often that all United States political parties can rejoice over the passage of legislation, but New York state’s $4.2 billion Clean Water, Clean Air and Green Jobs Environmental Bond Act is worth celebrating. The bill’s landslide victory is a major step in the state’s effort to combat the intensifying climate crisis. This bill means hope for all New York residents, especially disenfranchised communities whose environmental needs often go unmet. Progressive bills like this one, which focus funding on solutions for the root cause of our climate crisis, are the most important steps we as voters and taxpayers can take to protect the environmental health of Syracuse, New York State and our planet.

Not only is the bond a major step for New York, but it also provides a path for other states to take aggressive and necessary steps to protect our planet’s people. This bill is an improvement on the foundation of a bond act with a similar budget New York proposed in 2020 that was dissolved during the initial stages of the COVID-19 economic recession. State level environmentally focused legislation helps keep our country on track towards a needed Green New Deal.

As students, we are not subject to the daily health effects of environmental degradation plaguing Syracuse at the same rate as low income communities of color. While we can still be harmed by effects like hard water and air pollution, our position of privilege in the community can make it harder to understand how vital the passage of an act like this is.

The best part of the bond is that thirty five percent of bond act funds are dedicated to environmental justice communities. Syracuse is hindered in its efforts to combat negative effects of climate change by the lack of focus on environmental justice. The newly passed bond will begin to address wounds environmental racism has created in Syracuse and the rest of the state.

Redlining has led to targeted environmental health ramifications for low income communities of color across New York. Intentional segregation in Syracuse makes it nearly impossible for marginalized communities to avoid the dangers of lead poisoning, urban heat islands, air pollution from I-81 and inter-neighborhood industrial development.

Syracuse has one of the worst lead poisoning rates in the United States. According to the Census Bureau, 42 percent of Black residents in Syracuse are impoverished compared to a rate of thirteen percent for the overall population of Onondaga county. Disproportionate rates of poverty directly correlate with high rates of lead poisoning. In one poverty-stricken Southside Syracuse neighborhood with an 84 percent Black population, over 26 percent of children tested for lead had elevated levels detected in their blood. Water quality improvement and lead service line replacements are explicitly laid out in the budget for the new legislation.

Neighborhoods suffering from neuro-toxifying lead poisoning feel the wrath of increasing, more intense heat waves at higher rates. Luckily, up to 1.5 billion dollars will be spent to reduce urban heat islands, carried out in the form of green roofs, urban tree plantings and open space preservation. Organizations like the Onondaga Earth Corps have been working for years to mitigate these pressing issues. Hopefully increased state funding will relieve some pressure for grassroots environmental organizations like OEC bearing the heavy lifting of improving conditions for communities. Human bonding, along with job creation formed while tree planting and constructing green infrastructure, has potential to create meaningful financial opportunities for struggling individuals.

For members of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, whose stolen land we all live on, the legacy left behind by colonizers is sacred waterways turned Superfund sites, most infamously Onondaga and Oneida Lakes. It is our job to perpetuate meaningful action in the wake of this act passing by ensuring our Indigenous community members are given the baton to revitalize their land the correct way.

Although the passing of this bill is an incredible achievement and taxpayer dollars are going to a vital cause, we must not forget that corporate companies such as Honeywell, General Motors, Exxon Mobil, discriminatory city planners and other major polluters should be the ones paying out of pocket to clean up their filth. Holding greedy corporations and racist city planners accountable is important for future passage of green bills, bonds and grants. Speaking out against proposals intended to harm communities and taking action to bring up community organizations is key.

Many community members disproportionately affected by climate change do not have a voice to fight unjust policies and some do not have the right to vote due to their citizenship status or discriminatory laws barring convicted felons from their right to vote. Votes in favor of passing this bill help everyone, but are crucial for communities relying on progressive legislation to have a chance at the quality of life everyone deserves. If you voted yes, thank you and keep it up. If not, step up the next chance we get, because it isn’t just about you: for some, it means life or death.

Let us take time to celebrate but not get comfortable. For over a century, capital gain has been placed over residents’ health in Syracuse. More progressive bills, like the Clean Water, Clean Air, and Green Jobs Environmental Bond Act, are needed to ensure safety for the people of New York.

Conor Sarasin is a Junior Environmental Studies Major. His Column appears bi-weekly. He can be reached at cjsarasi@syr.edu.

Published on November 10, 2022 at 9:28 pm