January 29, 2019
I worked with Nora Elmarzouky and Russell Hicks from Centennial Parkside to develop a program for their eighth Green Economy Chat n Chew event, titled Dignity Over Dumping. This event is part of a series of community discussions on issues impacting residents of the Parkside neighborhood. In the past, they’ve held discussions on food sovereignty, flooding and green stormwater infrastructure, and redlining and gentrification. We developed a Chat ‘n Chew Green Economy Workshop on waste and litter, an issue that has been brought up in past Chat n Chew meetings because illegal dumping and littering is a pervasive issue in the community.
The purpose of the program was to:
- Explain the systems and processes related to trash removal and waste management
- Talk about how to access resources that taxpayers are paying for already (311, Community Life Improvement Program, etc.)
- Identify problems that impact local residents related to dumping and trash
- Learn about our campaign to support city sanitation workers’ fight for safe work conditions and proper compensation
We had a great turnout (over 20 people from the community joined the discussion) from East Parkside and neighboring neighborhoods, including block captains, community leaders, and business owners. Overall, it was a great opportunity to record the issues residents have been fighting against, like illegal dumping, and analyze the system that the City designed to help address them. We also heard from Southwest CDC, a group that has worked with the City to develop a Community Litter Plan with interventions, and we heard from the owner of a private waste hauler located in the neighborhood.
I gave a presentation on the health and safety hazards faced by sanitation workers and how those hazards are connected to how/what residents throw away, the collection infrastructure (struck by / caught in hazards, and diesel pollution), and the lack of sufficient safety gear and compensation to help protect and secure the futures of workers. I also shared a petition with attendees and collected 15 signatures from community members urging Mayor Kenney to support Hazard Pay, new safety gear and uniforms and an electric sanitation truck pilot program.
This event is a great model for the community-labor conversations that our coalition plan to continue hosting, and is also a model for collaborative work that advances the goals of our member organizations and PCW.
Photo Gallery
Photos from the Green Economy Chat ‘n Chew: Dignity Over Dumping, c/o Centennial Parkside CDC, inSITE Collaborative, and Ebony Suns Enterprises.