MAJORA CARTER

Sustainable South Bronx advocates for environmental justice through sustainable environmental and economic development projects.

We've got to decide that we want to live in a world that is sane and happy and healthy, and that everyone deserves that.

Many people still believe that 'green' solutions are too expensive, but they are actually much cheaper when all of the costs to public health, social services, and waste handling are factored into the same equation.

Just because you have a piece of trash and you throw it away and it gets hauled away, it doesn't mean that it's not affecting someone else.

One thing I noticed working in the Bronx is that leaders come in the craziest places. They don't always show up at community board meetings. Sometimes it's just the guys on the corner that the boys on the block respect.

I am a local economic revitalization strategist. But I am also a TV/radio host, and a small business owner. I find ways to use money more efficiently to realize positive goals for everyone.

My real dream is that everybody will see their self-interest tied up with someone else, whether or not they see them, and see that as an opportunity for growing closer together as a culture and as a world.

To me, charity often is just about giving, because you're supposed to, or because it's what you've always done - or it's about giving until it hurts.

What's popular in places considered ghettos - whether that's the inner city or Appalachia - is having a decent quality of life.

You know, people understand fear and opportunity. It may look different, but it's really the same thing.

Race and class are extremely reliable indicators as to where one might find the good stuff, like parks and trees, and where one might find the bad stuff, like power plants and waste facilities.

As a black person in America, I am twice as likely as a white person to live in an area where air pollution poses the greatest risk to my health. I am five times more likely to live within walking distance of a power plant or chemical facility - which I do.

Working-class and poor urban Americans are not benefiting economically from our current food system. It relies too much on transportation, chemical fertilization, big use of water, and also refrigeration.

I want to be known internationally as one of the most creative real estate developers in low-income communities. I want to be known as someone who actually promotes economic diversity and does a great job.

I think the biggest learned behavior that I would love to get rid of is that little voice that tells you, 'That's stupid. You shouldn't say that.' And then five seconds later, you hear somebody saying the same thing, and you think, 'Seriously, what is wrong with me?' I think, in particular, a lot of women do it. And that's a problem.

We need to work together to embrace and repair our land, repair our power systems, and repair ourselves. It's time to stop building the shopping malls, the prisons, the stadiums, and other tributes to all of our collective failures.

From a planning perspective, economic degradation begets environmental degradation, which begets social degradation.

I personally think that gentrification happens long before you start seeing white people in formerly people-of-color neighborhoods. It starts happening when we start telling the young, hard-working, quote-unquote 'smart' kids that they need to measure success by how far they get away from our communities.

Environmental justice, for those of you who may not be familiar with the term, goes something like this: no community should be saddled with more environmental burdens and less environmental benefits than any other.

Smart infrastructure can provide cost-saving ways for municipalities to handle both infrastructure and social needs. And we want to shift the systems that open the doors for people who were formerly tax burdens to become part of the tax base.

Prior to Katrina, the South Bronx and New Orleans' Ninth Ward had a lot in common. Both were largely populated by poor people of color, both hotbeds of cultural innovation: think hip-hop and jazz. Both are waterfront communities that host both industries and residents in close proximity of one another.

'This will pass and it always does.' I consistently have to keep telling myself that because being an entrepreneur means that you go to those dark places a lot, and sometimes they're real. You're wondering if you can you make payroll. There is a deadline, and you haven't slept in a while. It's real.

Most people don't know that the biggest regret that I have - and it's a biggie - is not fighting harder for policy and very practical measures to support the development of the green jobs industry.

I do have a problem with developments that hyper-exploit politically vulnerable communities for profit. That it continues is a shame upon us all, because we are all responsible for the future that we create.

Even when we think or talk about recycling, lots of recyclable stuff ends up getting incinerated or in landfills and leaving many municipalities, diversion rates - they leave much to be recycled. And where is this waste handled? Usually in poor communities.