In June 2007, Leonard Pitts, a legendary columnist for The Miami Herald, launched a year-long look at programs that are elevating the dire circumstances facing many African American children in America today. He called his series simply, "What Works." In his reporting, Pitts chose to focus on the strategies yielding positive results instead of on the underlying ills creating the crisis in the first instance. And in so doing, he underscored the notion that there can be deeper teaching moments in "words of solution" than in "words of sorrow, sarcasm, censure."

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This particular type of teaching moment resonated in early February at an inspiring workshop on equitable development at the 9th Annual New Partners for Smart Growth Conference in Seattle. Speaker after speaker drove home the point that, as a catalyst for community resilience and an incubator for consensus-driven redevelopment that maximizes environmental restoration, public health protection, economic revitalization, and equitable profit-making, there is no more accomplished and innovative force today than the grassroots movement, which has fiercely embraced Brownfields revitalization and turned it into a powerful platform for social and environmental progressivism.

With a tip of the hat to Pitts, grassroots organizations work. In fact, in a redevelopment and sustainability context, they work better and more completely than just about any other single public or private sector actor in the country. For those paying attention, we are witnessing a most compelling ascendancy in our environmental justice communities.

Although there were a number of grassroots organizations that distinguished themselves at the Seattle conference as models of leadership and action in today's Brownfields arena, two in particular stood out: United Puerto Rican Organization of Sunset Park (UPROSE) and WE ACT for Environmental Justice (WE ACT).

UPROSE's portfolio of accomplishment and level of sophistication are what you would expect from a Fortune 500 company, not from a local not-for-profit: Concerned about rising sea levels, they developed a neighborhood-wide plan to mitigate and adapt to climate change. They purchased four hybrid shuttle buses and retrofitted 12 diesel trucks to provide clean-fuel transportation options for the community. And they led the charge for the planning of a "greenway-blueway" design that links 25 miles of green space to a waterfront park. Perhaps most relevant, they identified and mapped dozens of potential sites for cleanup and redevelopment in connection with New York's Brownfields Opportunity Area Program.

Executive Director Elizabeth Yeampierre said that UPROSE "created a program that is a model of how communities take ownership over the redevelopment of Brownfields, which is the only real estate that exists in our communities. And it becomes a community-driven process where we work with bankers and developers to try to make sure that that development happens consistent with community priorities."

Grassroots advantage
This bottom-line approach to negotiating with investors from outside of the community is a muscular expression of autonomy and vitality and puts grassroots organizations on a level playing field with developers who routinely come to the table with a decided economic advantage.

It also serves to remove any ambiguity about planning, end-use, and the nature and quantum of social equity that should be enjoyed by those who have lived and worked in the community, sometimes for generations. As Yeampierre put it, "to what extent are [outside developers] willing to deal with their privilege? Are you willing to put your privilege in the back pocket and really roll up your sleeves and work in a very different kind of relationship with people? Are you really willing to have non-traditional relationships? Can you put your ego in check and stop making yourselves the go-to people in our communities when we are the ones at the grassroots level that are transforming community. . . with limited resources, with no resources, we are transforming the landscapes in our communities."

This notion of transforming community was a theme also emphasized at the workshop by Cecil Mark Corbin, Deputy Director for WE ACT, which was founded in 1988 as an "environmental justice organization dedicated to building community power to fight environmental racism and improve environmental health, protection and policy in communities of color." In operating primarily within Harlem and Washington Heights, they have a special focus on transportation policy, transportation equity, and the relationship between poor transportation planning and poor health outcomes. As Corbin observed, "When we create a system that helps the least of us, it will be a system that better serves all of us."

To that end, WE ACT was the driving force in transforming a riverfront garbage transfer station into a community park as part of its "Trash to Treasure Campaign." WE ACT is also actively involved in a select steering committee guiding Go Green East Harlem!, an initiative launched in 2007 to "create community sustainability from the ground up" by addressing issues related to public health and asthma, parks and open space, sustainable business, farmers' markets and healthy eating, green building, and transportation.

Like UPROSE, WE ACT has a vital climate change initiative and is working to obtain funding to retrofit and create "green" uptown taxi and care service fleets. And, again perhaps most relevant to the readers of this publication, WE ACT has participated in a land use initiative for the 125th Street Corridor by issuing a set of design and construction principles that speaks to the likely impact that the initiative will have on air quality, wastewater infrastructure, hazardous materials management, construction related pollution, and public health and safety. As a catalogue of thoughtful recommendations and commonsense solutions, this document is an essential roadmap that can—and should—be used in any community where proposed changes to historic patterns of development demand constructive collaboration among neighborhood stakeholders, local government planners and third party developers.

Creates level playing field
The bottom line is this: The most exciting, important, challenging, and sustainable work is happening at the grassroots level. And grassroots organizations, fully ascendant and fully aware of the needs and desires of their constituencies, are in control of not just the planning and design agenda but the way in which outside developers and sources of capital are welcomed into their communities. This is a sea change in the historic dynamic among Brownfield stakeholders, and places grassroots organization on very much the level playing field with developers, investors, lenders, and their retained professionals.

Academic studies are recognizing this fundamental transition as well. In March, an eye-opening Ford Foundation funded report entitled, "Environmental Justice and the Green Economy: A Vision Statement and Case Studies for Just and Sustainable Communities," looked at how nine low income communities and communities of color are responding to and leveraging the new challenges and opportunities welling up at the "intersection of sustainability and social justice."

The report found that "although environmental justice communities may have emerged from a shared opposition to unjust and polluting practices, many have moved into proactively exploring alternative energy solutions, community driven decision making, and urban design discussions with partners in the public and private sectors. These solution-based approaches are aimed not only at minimizing environmental degradation, but also building community political power and enhancing overall quality of life."

As this dynamic continues to evolve, the texture of Brownfield projects will become more nuanced and richer. The riches—financial, social, health—will be spread wider and more equitably. The concept of what equity means will expand. Developers will find better partners at the community level. Communities will see more earnest and equity-conscious developers showing up to do business. The results, all around, will be more satisfying... and sustainable.

Michael Goldstein is an environmental attorney with a principal focus on the reuse of contaminated sites for renewable energy production. He can be reached at michael.goldstein@akerman.com