Everything Under The Sun: Community-Based Transportation Justice

What Uprose is all about.

An organization that engages in community organizing, youth organizing, and cultural expression, has been around since 1966, and is focused in the Sunset Park section of the Brooklyn, NYC borough. Approaching change through climate justice, UPROSE has accumulated a variety of achievements throughout its existence. Some of the highlights include bringing back the B37 bus line, stopped the siting of power plants in this area of the city, organized the largest gathering of young people of color in the area of climate justice, supported the admission of local youth leaders to top tier colleges, leadership of a successful urban forestry campaign. That's just a small sample.

In the area of transportation justice, Uprose has been working toward the provision of reliable and accessible public transportation, along with a safe and clean streetside infrastructure for area pedestrians. To accomplish those goals, the organization works with, and as part of, the City's Department of Transportation specifically on the Upland Connector Streets project; Brooklyn Community Board 7's 4th Avenue Transportation Task Force; and Transport Workers Union Local 100.

In the case of the B37 bus route, the MTA had decided to eliminate the line, as part of a large scale service cutback. Uprose helped form the Restore the B37 Bus Coalition. The line had been a key source of transportation especially affecting the young, seniors, those with disabilities, and physically frail individuals. This was one effort that saw community members approaching the organization and developed into a strong grassroots coalition. Rallies, forums, and press conferences kept the issue in public awareness until June 2014, when the MTA restored service between Fort Hamilton and the Atlantic Avenue/Barclays Center subway station, just ten blocks short of the original line.

Around the same time, Uprose was engaged in improvements to the 4th Avenue medians, involving extension and expansion of the medians, along with fresh markings, the banning of left-hand turns, and additional parking suspensions. This was an effort to reduce congestion and traffic, thereby improving safety. Further work is planned to improve stormwater management, so subway infrastructure can be better preserved.

Some of the youth organizers at Uprose.

Recently, Uprose has become involved in opposing the Brooklyn Queens Express (BQX), a project of several powerful real estate firms for building along the Brooklyn Queens waterfront. Despite the token promise to include public house, the real estate developers control the properties involved. According to Uprose, however, the project leaves many questions unanswered and raises large concerns about the displacement of working class and lower income residents, who have lived in the area for so long.