Students take the lead toward a greener future in Washington Heights
At Open Plans, we love every community who is working together to build a better future for their neighborhood and city. But when students are the center of the movement, we’re really impressed. The educators and students of the Clean Air Green Corridor are doing something totally unique and revolutionary in Washington Heights. Combining public space stewardship, block parties, street beautification, and environmental research, they’re taking a critical eye to their neighborhood’s streets and the underlying issues that have created them. All their work centers, and is led by, students. These young New Yorkers are not only making the streets of Washington Heights better for today, they’re instilling a culture of stewardship and advocacy that will pay off for the future.
Back in February, Open Plans honored the Clean Air Green Corridor as Best School Street at our first-ever Public Space Awards. We wanted to hear more from the leaders of the project, so we talked with the program manager and three students about the impactful work their doing, why it’s so important to them, and what kind of immediate impact they’re seeing on the streets of their neighborhood.
Credit: Future’s Ignite
Tell us a little about yourself and the Clean Air Green Corridor.
Genesis, Leadership and Enrichment Manager: The CAGC is a Youth-led initiative empowering Black and Brown youth from the Washington Heights Expeditionary Learning School (WHEELS) to reimagine how the streetscapes of Washington Heights can transform into hubs for building community power, climate change resilience, and intergenerational outdoor and environmental education.
This initiative was born out of an elective course in 2017 taught by WHEELS teachers Dr. Fox and Mr. Espin. Students learned about the history and importance of green space, the neglect of Highbridge Park, and the systemic barriers to green space in our neighborhood. Since then, WHEELS students and alumni are working towards transforming all of 182nd Street from Amsterdam to Broadway into a walkable, car-free green corridor so that all students, teachers, and neighbors in our community can enjoy a safe, clean, and healthy community to live, learn, work, and play.
It’s important to note and to highlight that there are five other schools, apartment buildings, small businesses, and street vendors on 182nd we understand the various stakeholders on 182nd street and that this vision cannot be done if there isn’t support and leadership from the whole community.
Anais Martinez, CAGC Youth Leader: My name is Anais Martinez and I come from Washington Heights where I grew up my whole entire life. I come from a indigenous/Mexican background so I’m often exposed to plants and my mom teaching me how to grow a plant. This then made me become interested in the environment because when growing up in the city and going to parks, I noticed there was so much trash and didn’t understand why the same trash was in the same spot for over three years. I knew I wanted to do something about it so I decided to join the green air corridor where you basically learn more about the environment and collecting data. I loved learning about animals, plant life, and hanging out with my friends in new places. Throughout the journey of becoming a student leader, I developed many skills like communication, team building, and becoming more comfortable with speaking out about important issues like how the environment is affecting our daily lives.
Carlos Genao, CAGC Youth Leader: My name is Carlos and I was born in the Dominican Republic and I’m gay and trans and love Dominican food. I also come from a indigenous background. I love animals and I love running and being in touch with the environment around me, I love fresh air and my friends . The Clean Air Green Corridor to me is community coming together and saving and fighting for the environment and working to together to make the world a better place.
Brenda Mestiza, CAGC Youth Leader: My name is Brenda Mestiza and I am a Mexican and was raised in Washington Heights my entire life. Being Mexican is something that I’m really proud of. I wasn’t sure about being Mexican couple years ago, but with all of my experience I was able to accept myself and my identity and who I have become. I’ve always been interested in my community and how I can improve it because I noticed people would always throw trash in the most pretty places and then we wouldn't have access to them. When I came to school I noticed this program called the Clean Air Green Corridor where they would help clean the community, or even just the street would be the start of something. Me and a couple of my classmates started doing it and we enjoyed it. It was really fun to do and it felt really good doing something that would not only help me or us but help the community and people who are living in this community. Now in my junior year, cleaning up for our community is called the Stew Crew, the green air corridor is its own program where we have started to collect data to try to improve our neighborhood. It's not only to do work for our community but it's also about team building and working together to make a difference. With me and my other colleagues we were able to accept an amazing award with the work we have been doing for 2 ½ years. We are also hoping people would take away from this and would want to help out their community in any way they can.
A youth block party on the Open Street. Credit: Future’s Ignite
What is Environmental Justice in your mind, and why is it important to you?
Gen: The ability of all people, regardless of race, class, gender, ethnicity, status, and religion, to live, work, play, worship, and learn in a safe and healthy environment AND to have the ability to help shape the conditions of your environment and be shaped by it in a positive, empowering way.
Brenda: Environmental Justice is many things but the work is making injustice heard and having to do something about it to change it. It's when people of a certain community are living in a really poor environment and it’s making us sick and the government doesn’t seem to care since we are people of color. it’s very important to me because this is the reason why I’m in this program.
Anais: Environmental Justice is getting what the people need and having accessible necessities for all, such as fresh food, clean water, and clean green spaces. This also means getting people to gather around and spreading awareness about issues in the environment.
Carlos: Environmental Justice is when we clean the streets of the litter that people throw on the ground. It is also when the people come together to ask for the things they need to survive and clean the environment around them. Another example of Environmental Justice is when the people are provided with clean water and food. Environmental Justice is important to me because I go to school in this environment and I live in a very similar one too.
Credit: Future’s Ignite
Tell us what livable streets and sidewalks are to you.
Gen: In Northern Manhattan, centuries of excluding people of color from decisions around land use has resulted in schools being built near highways and truck routes, resulting in our young people having poorer air quality, higher asthma rates, and other adverse health outcomes. This is unsurprising, given that our school WHEELS is impacted by the substantial car and truck traffic brought by the Trans-Manhattan Expressway, George Washington Bus Terminal, and the Harlem River Drive.
Youth have traditionally been neglected in planning for the design of public spaces, despite the fact that teenagers are often the most frequent users of these areas, making them important for their mental health and development of self-identity. By being actively engaged in the design of youth-friendly spaces, young people can not only advance the goals of Environmental Justice but also feel like they have investment in their community and develop a sense of pride and ownership in these places. This type of involvement provides opportunities to learn communication skills, decision-making, and develop relationships with adults in the community, helping to encourage future community involvement and build professional skills.
Anais: In the years I’ve been involved in the program I’ve notice that school buildings are near highways, which can make people have health risks and knowing that our program helps collect data to prove this we learned that livable communities should have many green space because we don’t want to suffocate in the smell of trash. We also want to see people enjoying the gray spaces and having a place to have fun.
Carlos: Trash cans and recycle bins on every corner of each street. Our school building should be clean and should have a Open Street or a street that can be closed for the community to enjoy and respect it. It also means to help the community by building safe spaces for people of marginalized groups or/and people dealing with addiction. And hearing the community when we think a new project in the neighborhood is a bad idea, or at least including us when is comes to our home.
Brenda: It's being able to enjoy the streets where our school is located. Schools in the Bronx or in Brooklyn are located near busy highways and construction which is a health issue and is really bad. Which is why we are doing the work to help the school communities to have a better environment. Because there has been a lot of people with high asthma and cancer rates when people live near the highways.
Credit: Future’s Ignite
What do you enjoy most about this work, and what drives you to be a youth leader?
Anais: Seeing the change we have made so far and how we were getting our voices heard by other organizations. I was really happy that we got an award for doing something we are passionate about. Becoming a youth leader is important to me because it helps the younger generations know that they have a voice, too. I also enjoy learning about our environment which wasn’t something I expected to be interested in but this led me into wanting to become an environmental scientist.
Carlos: I enjoy the hard work and what comes with that for example the people see us doing something and they get motivated to do the same for the community, I also enjoy the people that I meet while doing this work it’s nice to see others that share your same ideals. Something that drives me is the future generation and this community that needs help also seeing other people fight for change.
Brenda: With the work we’ve done over the years, getting the recognition we have been waiting for feels very important to me because I really enjoy doing this work and being able to make a difference, even if it’s starting to make a small difference in our schools or neighborhoods. Later, I’m confident that we are able to make a better change for the whole city. It’s a wonderful experience that I’ve been through over the years. I never thought I’ll be doing this, being able to make a change, being able to find my voice in what I love the most. My work and research makes me a youth leader, having my voice heard and people being amazed at the work we all have been doing at a young age. Being able to learn about my community a lot more and make it better.
How would you say your work has made 182nd Street and Washington Heights more livable?
Anais: The beginning of joining this program the streets were horrible, there was trash every corner you walk and since then, our program gathers youth leaders to collect data and trash. With this evidence, we use it to advocate about the issues in our community. Since October 2022, we have collected 487.75 pounds of trash off 182nd street! And starting this month, we will start collecting air quality and temperature data, too. Then next thing you know, one year later you barely see trash, which is good. I remember there was one moment where me and my other colleagues were picking up trash and a group of people saw us doing it. Then they went up to us saying if we want anything to drink and saying how they respect us for doing this every week.
Carlos: When I first joined the group, the streets were dirty and disgusting and people were not properly educated about this topic and what we needed to do to make it better for the community. Since then we have gone out to clean the streets and educate people about this and how they can help the cause and themselves. We have also expanded our group which means we should have a bigger impact.
Brenda: When I first began doing our research we started to clean the school streets. There were a lot of people throwing trash in the streets and it was just everywhere. There was trash the day after we cleaned. It made it feel like people saw us doing some work and they just didn’t care or bother to clean up after themselves. After a couple of months, that’s when we were able to collect the data we needed and see what can be done for the people to throw away their trash in a trash can. After being in this program for a year, there has been a difference in the trash. They usually have a lot of trash bags on Thursdays, which is usually the day the trucks come to pick up the trash. That made me feel a lot better about my work and seeing a difference. Some people, even before all of this, did see our efforts and noticed it. They asked us questions, like what school are we from. They were really surprised when they saw kids doing work like this. It’s a small difference, but we are doing it in small steps.
Accepting their Best School Street award at the 2023 Public Space Awards.
What has been the most impactful thing about your work with the Clear Air Green Corridor?
Anais: The most impactful thing about my work with the clean air corridor is knowing that we made a difference in our community just by picking up trash. Even doing the littlest thing can make such a big impact which just makes me keep doing it. I also just love the fact that we were able to build such a good relationship with Gen who taught us so much about nature and also brought us closer to nature.
Carlos: One thing that was and is very impactful about my work is that we encourage others to do the same work we do. Another thing is that our voices are finally being heard and respected.
Brenda: Something that happened while working in the clean air corridor that was very impactful for me was being able to accept the award for our work, even just by being there it was still very special to hear that people enjoyed our work and would love to work with us and believe that we can do it. Being able to make big changes to our community and making it better is something that’s also very impactful for me. Collecting data in different parts of my community is something that I enjoy.
What’s next for you and the Clean Air Green Corridor?
Anais: I hope I’ll be able to explore more about the environment and make a change just like what the clean air corridor did to our school block. I’m also looking forward to seeing how my team building, leadership skills, and my relationship with the future grows. As for a clean air corridor, I would like to make our dream come true by closing streets for our school to be able to use. I know everyone would love that because everyone could finally go out and have fun outside and have a place to chill. I hope other schools do the same as well.
Brenda: I hope to get more recognition for the hard work we are doing on our environment and make bigger changes for Manhattan and have more people join us in this work. The Clean Air Green Corridor has one goal that I would love to accomplish in a year or so, and that is closing the school streets to make it easier for the students to learn outside and have a different change in environment. We can do that if many people agree with us and have important calls to show that this is a good thing for us. And have the schools agree with us.
We thank Genesis, Carlos, Anais, and Brenda for talking with us! And for their dedication to the future of their neighborhood, city, and climate. We shared the students’ hope that their work will inspire others, especially young New Yorkers, to get involved in their own streets and public spaces.