S3 E7: “We're going to be loud about this until something's done.” We’ve heard from so many amazing individuals and organizations that are mobilizing on the grassroots level, but how do they harness all of that local power and get things done legislatively? Christina speaks to Lonnie Portis, the New York Policy and Advocacy Manager at WE ACT for Environmental Justice. Lonnie shares the key to getting things done at the policy level. Then, Christina sits down with Louise Yeung, the Chief Climate Officer with the Comptroller’s office to ask whether New York is putting its money where its mouth is when it comes to climate solutions and environmental justice.
S3 E7: “We're going to be loud about this until something's done.”
We’ve heard from so many amazing individuals and organizations that are mobilizing on the grassroots level, but how do they harness all of that local power and get things done legislatively? Christina speaks to Lonnie Portis, the New York Policy and Advocacy Manager at WE ACT for Environmental Justice. Lonnie shares the key to getting things done at the policy level. Then, Christina sits down with Louise Yeung, the Chief Climate Officer with the Comptroller’s office to ask whether New York is putting its money where its mouth is when it comes to climate solutions and environmental justice.
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[00:00:29] Anna McClain: Okay. Um... [Facetime chimes] Hey, Christina.
[00:00:39] Christina Thompson: Hi Anna.
[00:00:40] Anna McClain: Can you hear me all right?
[00:00:42] Christina Thompson: Yeah, you sound great. Are you recording?
[00:00:45] Anna McClain: Yes.
[00:00:45] Christina Thompson: Okay, cool.
[00:00:47] Anna McClain: Um, okay, so we are on Episode 7.
[00:00:52] Christina Thompson: Got it.
[00:00:53] Anna McClain: Cool.
[00:00:54] Christina Thompson: It's kind of crazy. Penultimate episode.
[00:00:57] Anna McClain: Penultimate -- love to use that word correctly.
[00:00:59] Christina Thompson: Yeah, we just like to say penultimate. I'm just reading the opening part.
[00:01:05] Anna McClain: Okay. Great.
[00:01:05] Christina Thompson: Episode 7. I mean, I just feel, like, pretty proud to not only live in a city where there actually is a lot of ground up change...
[00:01:14] Anna McClain: Yeah.
[00:01:15] Christina Thompson: ...but, like, my neighborhood. In my backyard alone, there's just so many smart, amazing, hardworking, brilliant people who are doing this every day to make the place we live more livable, like, for all of us in the future.
[00:01:30] Anna McClain: Yeah, I think that's like a, actually, like, a really powerful side of hope is that feeling, like, you have the ability to change something. So, you know, we've talked to so many cool people doing really awesome things. I guess I'm wondering how all this change manifests at the policy level.
[00:01:50] Christina Thompson: Yeah. And who's doing it? Where is it happening?
[00:01:53] Anna McClain: Totally. All right. Episode 7, Christina. Let's get into it.
[00:01:58] Christina Thompson: Okay. Can I go?
[00:02:12] Lonnie Portis: So WE ACT, we are a nonprofit organization that has been around for over 30 years.
[00:02:18] Christina Thompson: I caught up with Lonnie Portis, New York's Policy and Advocacy Manager at WE ACT for Environmental Justice. He helped me get a better idea of how they empower, organize, and advocate for their community to make change at the government level.
[00:02:31] Lonnie Portis: And I basically oversee all of our New York City policy work. So that's all of the, the bills that kind of come through at the local level, uh, working with council members, um, advocating to build healthy communities by ensuring that people of color and/or low income residents participate meaningfully in the creation of sound and fair environmental health and protection policies and practices. I love our mission statement because it's so concise, and it says all the right things and uses all the right words, um, to basically say: we want to make sure people who have been marginalized in the past and who have been impacted by the negative harms of climate change -- usually first and hardest -- they get that justice, and they get an ability and a chance to be a part of the conversation.
[00:03:17] Christina Thompson: Lonnie champions WE ACT's environmental policy agenda with elected officials, as they're the ones who make decisions and set legislative priorities.
[00:03:25] Lonnie Portis: So it's not just one thing that I'm focused on, it's, it's everything environmental and climate justice in some way, shape or form. Where does that show up in the city, and city policy, and legislation? I think New York City really does a great job of harnessing its own local power. What can the city do if you know the state's not going to do this or the federal government's not going to do this? What can the city do, and how can we protect New Yorkers?
[00:03:54] Christina Thompson: It's this local power that makes Lonnie and WE ACT effective. A lot of people understandably fall back on this notion that the individual has no real power in the face of climate change, that they have no real way to make a huge difference. So, a lot of what Lonnie's work does is break down that notion, and he helps empower communities and individuals to realize that they don't need to be a lawyer or a politician to see anything actually get done.
[00:04:20] Lonnie Portis: People care. People want to see these changes, and people are going to start basically firing and hiring elected officials based on these kind of things.
[00:04:28] Christina Thompson: While there are a lot of upper Manhattan residents involved in WE ACT, engaging people isn't always easy.
[00:04:34] Lonnie Portis: There's a lot of factors in play that make this work a little bit harder. I don't think there's anyone who doesn't want cleaner air, cleaner water, like, they're not actively fighting against those things, but the political system, and our structure, and the question of our democracy, and everything that's going on, I think makes people kind of have that nihilistic approach of, like, "Well, nothing can get done." When people get a little more pessimistic about these things, it makes it harder to collect and gather that power; which is really important to the work that we do, is that we need to show that there are communities here that care. I think a lot of people in the communities that we serve, you know, usually the communities of color and low-income communities, they never really had the bandwidth to think about climate. They were focused on things like their energy bill is too high. You know, do I pay for food? Do I pay for my child's medicine? Or do I pay my light bill? Right?
[00:05:36] Christina Thompson: Lonnie and WE ACT make the case that climate change affects all of these important aspects of our lives.
[00:05:42] Lonnie Portis: Here are the things that you talk about and that you're concerned about every day, and we can tell you how it's connected to the work that we're doing.
[00:05:48] Christina Thompson: WE ACT connects with people where they're at.
[00:05:51] Lonnie Portis: It's less "save the planet," and more so we are trying to save your lives as well, right? Just find out what's valuable and what's important to them. I think that's what's happened, like, kind of the conversation that has changed a little bit on the community level. [Rain and thunder]
[00:06:02] Christina Thompson: I asked Lonnie how all of this extreme weather, like the flood in September of 2023, affects how this conversation has been going.
[00:06:15] Lonnie Portis: Convincing people that climate change is real is not really the focus anymore, right? I, I feel like even the people who were staunchly, like, "No, no, no," They realized, "Oh, my house is gone." At this point, it's too visceral for so many people. We're not going to deny it anymore. It's like more so like, "Oh, no, we need to convince people that we need to invest time, money, and resources into getting at some of the root causes of climate change."
[00:06:42] Christina Thompson: And this visceral experience presents an opportunity for a different kind of conversation; one that demonstrates just how much we need an approach that centers environmental justice.
[00:06:53] Lonnie Portis: It creates the conversation. You have the visual. Then you get the question of, "Well, why is this happening? It didn't used to rain like this. Why is it happening here and not there?" And that's the real question is, like, infrastructure...
[00:07:06] Christina Thompson: Exactly.
[00:07:06] Lonnie Portis: ...and disinvestment in communities of color and low-income communities, and that's what really piques their interest when they're like, "Oh, so some of this is purposeful." It's like a gift and a curse to have these events happening and happening more frequently. I think that's what people really pick up on too. It's like, "How many more times do I need to be inconvenienced?"
[00:07:22] Christina Thompson: Totally.
[00:07:23] Lonnie Portis: Or, "How many more people need to die or be harmed by, by these things before someone does something?"
[00:07:28] Christina Thompson: Yeah.
[00:07:29] Lonnie Portis: We can't let that momentum die just because it gets dry.
[00:07:33] Christina Thompson: Even though people are talking more about this, it can be hard to maintain that energy, similarly to getting people engaged in the first place. So one really cool way that WE ACT has responded is by creating their own disaster preparedness plan -- one that does cater to their local needs. And it's a plan that was initiated and led by community members.
[00:07:55] Lonnie Portis: We created this thing called the Climate Ready Uptown Plan. We help lead this group of people to really come up with a plan that's really interactive. It's like a map that folds out and has like, all the different climate risks. Like, it really kind of goes through and makes people aware of what's going on and being prepared. And I think that was such a, a cool project.
[00:08:14] Christina Thompson: And if Lonnie weren't busy enough, he's part of another awesome project that's keeping momentum going.
[00:08:20] UPTOWN CHATS CLIP: Welcome to Uptown Chats, a podcast where we share stories about environmental justice by and for everyday people. I'm your co-host Lonnie. And I'm your other co-host Jaron, and we both work at...
[00:08:30] UPTOWN CHATS CLIP: And it's one that's pretty close to my own heart.
[00:08:33] Lonnie Portis: "Wouldn't it be fun if we had a podcast?" So we talked about composting, we talked about lead, we talked about environmental justice, we talked about toxics and beauty products. Voting and workforce development, like, all the key things that we already work on.
[00:08:44] Christina Thompson: So good.
[00:08:44] Lonnie Portis: And, like, one of our goals is to just kind of include that storytelling and talk about people who are doing stuff on the ground in terms of environmental justice who might live around the corner from you or down the block. My dream is to maybe go into a barbershop one day, and the conversation is about environmental justice or...
[00:09:00] Christina Thompson: Yes! Oh my God.
[00:09:01] Lonnie Portis: That's, like, my goal is, like, okay, all right, so we're doing something by, you know, taking these concepts that are seen as, sometimes, like, academic, and elitist, and complicated and, and super, you know, wonky--
[00:09:13] Christina Thompson: You got to have three PhDs in order to be in the conversation.
[00:09:16] Lonnie Portis: Exactly. And it's like, well, you don't technically, and--
[00:09:19] Christina Thompson: No!
[00:09:19] Lonnie Portis: --you know, Jaron and I got sick of actually having those conversations so often because we have to do it for work, and we can have those conversations, but it's like, I don't know, I just want to bring it down a little bit to like--
[00:09:27] Lonnie Portis: Yeah!
[00:09:27] Lonnie Portis: --kitchen table talk. Like, what are people talking about and how do they talk about it? And kind of finding ways to break down some of these concepts to make them a little bit more approachable. Let's give them something informative, but also give them a spirit of, "What can I do?"
[00:09:41] Christina Thompson: So once this local power is harnessed, WE ACT takes it to decision makers.
[00:09:47] Lonnie Portis: Building those relationships are really important for WE ACT so that they know what our priorities are so that they can adopt those priorities. We can also educate them, um, as they go through their, their legislative and budget processes. And you can get the communities on board and, like, "Well now we want to elect people who are actually going to address these concerns." And so now your platform as a politician has to include something. People are talking about this, like, it's, it is becoming more so kitchen table conversation, right? Like, we're going to be loud about this until something's done.
[00:10:23] Christina Thompson: And when decision makers and the will of the people align, that's where real change can happen. So, let's take a look at the other side of this policy equation for a minute. We know that the conversation has been happening, the momentum's there, but I want to know, is New York City actually putting its money where its mouth is?
[00:10:50] Louise Yeung: Yeah. Hi. Thank you so much for having me on the podcast today. Um, my name is Louise Yeung, and I go by she/her pronouns, and I am coming in from New York City.
[00:11:00] Christina Thompson: Louise is the Chief Climate Officer for the Comptroller's office.
[00:11:04] Louise Yeung: For many people who don't know what a comptroller does, it is the oversight and accountability arm of government, and we often address fiscal responsibility and risks facing the city. And one of the biggest risks that we see is the risk that climate change poses to our communities, our infrastructure, and our economy.
[00:11:26] Christina Thompson: And what makes this role so significant is that the comptroller is the elected position that basically keeps the city honest when it comes to spending money -- think the CFO of the city. And notably, Louise is the first person to ever serve in this role, so she's making sure that New York City walks the walk when it comes to all of their climate talk. And this is a pretty bold, outward-facing move. It's like the city is finally giving climate a seat at the boardroom table.
[00:11:52] Louise Yeung: This role did not exist before, and so it's been really exciting to shape what that role can do, um, and really highlights how much we want to prioritize climate change as a major issue for New York.
[00:12:16] Christina Thompson: So what does your day-to-day look like, um, at your office?
[00:12:19] Louise Yeung: So, you know, the way that I think about my role is, in order to have a thriving, and equitable, and resilient New York City, we really have to confront the climate crisis here at home. And we do a lot of oversight on how well the city is meeting our climate commitments -- where we're falling short, where we need to be more ambitious. And that work can take a lot of shapes.
[00:12:41] Christina Thompson: Her work encompasses all sorts of things like creating budget and policy analysis, and she's also working hard to increase transparency. The office even created a climate dashboard where anyone can track the city's progress on climate change. [Mouse clicking and keyboard typing] What?! Amazing. More recently, they launched an investigation into the very kind of flooding we've been talking about on this podcast.
[00:13:05] Louise Yeung: I am excited that this work really spans a lot of different areas of climate action. It's both how we're mitigating our emissions, as well as how we're really preparing our neighborhoods for the realities of hotter summers, of, you know, stronger hurricanes, and that sort of thing.
[00:13:24] Christina Thompson: Yes, I know -- budgets, accounting, numbers -- boring. But how the city spends money shows where the priorities are, and Louise's work is key to preventing the level of catastrophe that we saw with Superstorm Sandy. So, 10 plus years later, I asked her how she thinks things are looking.
[00:13:43] Louise Yeung: So I think there's been a lot of really meaningful progress, but we, as a city, are just simply not moving as fast as the climate is changing.
[00:13:52] Christina Thompson: In 2022, the 10 year anniversary of Sandy, the comptroller's office led a budget analysis to answer this very question.
[00:14:00] Louise Yeung: After Hurricane Sandy, the city received $15 billion of federal funding for recovery to repair damaged buildings and install, you know, new infrastructure. And we found that 27% of that funding had yet to be spent. That is a full decade after Sandy made landfall. And, you know, that's not to say that the city hasn't done anything, it's just that we have to move a lot faster. It cannot be 10 years from one disaster to the next because we don't have that kind of time, um, as the climate really continues to change.
[00:14:33] Christina Thompson: When I spoke to Louise at the end of 2023, the city had gotten that number down to 10%.
[00:14:39] Louise Yeung: But that's still not fast enough. And so, zooming out, you know, what's clear to me is that we need to be doing a lot more to prepare for intense and frequent hurricanes, and rainstorms, and heat waves, and we need to do it faster. We also need to contend with a lot of different kinds of new climate threats. So I think it really begs us to look at a new normal for what our future looks like.
[00:15:04] Christina Thompson: Louise mentioned a new normal, so I wanted to know whether the city's taking this opportunity to cultivate a better new normal. One that's more equitable and is driven by the principles of organizations like WE ACT.
[00:15:18] Louise Yeung: Environmental justice is so core to how I and our office think about addressing climate change. When you look at the racial and economic disparities of climate impacts, it is so clear, um, that our communities of color and environmental justice communities -- that have long borne the brunt of environmental pollution -- are facing the highest risks. And so, in order to think about climate solutions, I think it's really important to recognize some of these historic systemic racial disparities and disinvestment that we have historically made. So that has to be front and center of how we're making policies and how we're prioritizing investments.
[00:16:02] Christina Thompson: This powerful collaboration between city officials like Louise and grassroots organizers like Lonnie is exactly the kind of nexus that we need to drive positive change.
[00:16:12] Louise Yeung: Without really investing in our grassroots, um, organizing, we will not have the kind of social resiliency or community resiliency that we really rely on when it comes time for preparing for and responding to disasters. And so, you know, really proud to have uplifted some of that work around the city.
[00:16:34] Christina Thompson: Louise shared an idea that's guided her in her work, and it's one from activist and organizer, Miriame Kaba.
[00:16:40] Louise Yeung: Hope as a discipline.
[00:16:42] Christina Thompson: To quote Miriame:
[00:16:44] VOX POP: ...It's work to be hopeful...
[00:16:45] VOX POP: ...You have to actually put in energy, time...
[00:16:48] VOX POP: ...and you have to be clear-eyed...
[00:16:50] Christina Thompson: ...and you have to hold fast to having a vision.
[00:16:52] VOX POP: ...It's a hard thing to maintain...
[00:16:52] VOX POP: ...it's a hard thing to maintain...
[00:16:53] VOX POP: ...it's a hard thing to maintain...
[00:16:54] Christina Thompson: ...but it matters to have it,
[00:16:57] VOX POP: ...to believe that it's possible to change the world.
[00:17:02] Louise Yeung: Cultivating hope as a discipline -- I think that can really drive and motivate action, whether that is how you vote, how you get engaged in community organizations, even educating yourself about different things happening in your city. And it's okay sometimes to feel a little bit of despair, but that's why hope is something that we have to kind of actively cultivate in order to remain engaged in, in climate change.
[00:17:29] Lonnie Portis: One thing I always like to tell people is that it's so easy to get involved, and it's so simple. You do not have to be at every rally. You don't have to chain yourself to anything. You don't necessarily have to be, again, have the PhD. You can really start by finding an organization that talks about a cause that's climate or environmental justice-related that you're into, that you know affects you, your family, your block, your neighborhood, and you can start by simply just, if they have a newsletter, just sign up for the newsletter. Read what's going on. Learn a bit more. If there's an event, if you can make it go to the event, like, there's very simple ways to kind of enter this space. Just go. Just go do it, and dive in.
[00:18:08] Christina Thompson: To learn more about WE ACT for Environmental Justice and to listen to Lonnie and Jaron's podcast visit, weact.org. On the next and last episode of Season 3 of A Little Green, we are back in Red Hook, and we're talking about the future.
[00:18:24] Gita Nandan: We have created this future here. I think we can also create a different future.
[00:18:31] Christina Thompson: A Little Green is an Avocado Green Brands podcast. This podcast was written and produced by Anna McClain, and myself, Christina Thompson. And the music you heard is by Aaron Levison
.