Greenpoint has been plagued with environmental problems going back decades, but a fund established in 2011 helped to mitigate some of that damage.
Now, in celebration of Climate Week, New York Attorney General Letitia James and Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) Interim Commissioner Sean Mahar recently announced the completion of the Greenpoint Community Environmental Fund.
The fund was created as part of a 2010 settlement with ExxonMobil, responsible for polluting Greenpoint in the one of the biggest ever oil spills. Matching funds from grantees more than tripled the fund, totaling a little more than $68 million. Community members acted as a key part of the decision-making process, with an advisory panel of locals and frequent votes on program grantees.
“Throughout its 13 years, GCEF created a wide range of public space enhancements, infrastructure improvements, and environmental education programs, including a new, state-of-the-art public library and environmental education center, a tree planting program, and major park upgrades,” a press release reads. “In total, GCEF awarded 77 grants, ranging from $5,000 to more than $5 million, to initiatives selected with the input from the Greenpoint community.”
The Greenpoint Library might be the most obvious example of the funds at work, but the program also aided Greenpointers in smaller, subtler ways—community programming like McGolrick Park’s birdwatching club, planting and beautification across nearly 20 parks, and more canoe tours from North Brooklyn Community Boathouse.
While there’s still plenty of work left to address our environmental concerns, it’s evident that the community got our money’s worth from the GCEF.
No disrespect to the library and its supporters but that money should’ve 100% been used to improve our public parks and clean up environmental disasters in the area. NYC will never realize it’s full potential with pork and bloat siphoning off crucial funds earmarked for greenspaces.
This library was entirely built for the gentrifiers of the community, who economically removed the white and Hispanic working class residents who most experienced the years of the oil spills. They benefited nothing. They didn’t want a new library: the old one was ugly but fine. They wanted economic reparations, much like the Lenape in their time