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On the Edge of Abundance: Water Affordability and Equity in Buffalo
Anna Blatto — Dec 30, 2024
This report examines the critical issue of water affordability and equity in Buffalo, New York.
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Climate Solutions are Health Solutions: An Evaluation of PUSH Green's Home Energy Efficiency Program
Colleen Kristich, Becca Bass, Clarke Gocker, Nicholas Rajkovich — Jul 6, 2022
PUSH Green, a program of People United for Sustainable Housing (PUSH) in Buffalo, New York, addresses housing, health and climate needs all at the same time. PUSH Green links homeowners and renters with low-cost or no cost home energy improvements, which reduce the household’s use of fossil fuels and in turn save money on utility bills. The primary environmental and economic benefits of weatherization programs have been apparent for decades; however, it is only recently that attention has …
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Ecovillages in the Rust Belt
Joshua Swiatek — Dec 20, 2021
This policy brief shares information about Ecovillages, provides examples of 4 other Rust Belt cities with Ecovillages (Cleveland OH, Highland Park MI, Ithaca NY, and Gibsonia PA.) and describes the potential for Buffalo to develop one (or more). Ecovillages can address many inequalities in varying ways by greening vacant lots; returning ownership of vacant lots to the community; building green and sustainable communities; promoting economic development; increasing quality of life; and …
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Community Gardens as Urban Greening: Cutting Crime and Improving Wellbeing
Nicole Capozziello — Jan 7, 2021
This policy brief shares vacant land statistics in Buffalo, highlights Philadelphia as a vacant property transformation case study, and makes the case for community gardens as the ideal form of urban greening for Buffalo.
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Pathways to reparations: land and healing through food justice
Jessica Gilbert, Rebekah A. Williams — Oct 22, 2020
While mainstream efforts for reparations center financial compensation via legislation and litigation, social movements expand this conceptualization in order to address critical and yet often overlooked components of reparations. Equitable access to land and opportunities to heal from intergenerational trauma are two of these reparations demands that social movements prioritize. However, there is a dearth of scholarly literature exploring the role and impact of social movements on reparations. …
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Photobank: Environment - Transit
Buffalo Commons Photobank — Feb 1, 2019
This photo set is from ArtWorks apprentices who met with PPG and Buffalo Transit Riders United to document public transit issues in July 2018. These high school photographers were under the creative guidance of ArtWorks teaching artist Aitina Fareed-Cooke of Get Fokus'd Productions. Instructions for downloading: You can preview the photos below and download the zip file in the upper right hand corner for the high resolution images to use in your own materials.
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The Climate Justice Movement in Western New York
Sam Magavern, Lynda Schneekloth — Jul 12, 2017
Although climate change requires an international response and will require national policies and actions, local geographies have to be involved because it that is where the harms are felt. But how can local and regional areas respond to the climate crisis? This article offers a story of the emergence of a climate justice movement in Buffalo and Western New York as an example of how one community is addressing climate change and its unequal impacts.
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The Public Service Commission Should Deny National Fuel's Request for a Rate Hike
Sarah Wooton — Oct 26, 2016
National Fuel (NF) has requested a rate hike of $41.7 million per year. The Public Service Commission (PSC) should deny this request because: It will unduly burden low-income customers, who are already struggling to pay their utility bills; NF is a very profitable company, with skyrocketing executive compensation and large dividends; As noted by the PSC’s auditors and other experts, many of NF’s claimed expenses are questionable; and Instead of investing in additional fossil …
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Traffic Equity in Buffalo, New York
Sam Magavern, Daniel Cadzow — Jul 14, 2015
Traffic is not good or bad –it’s good and bad. For example, traffic serves stores, restaurants, and cultural organizations. However, traffic, especially vehicular traffic, also causes property damage, personal injury, pollution, illness, and premature death. So, for example, by channeling motor vehicle traffic on expressways and major urban arterials, we are concentrating the bad in some places but also starving other areas of the good. We need to build a …