Building a Healthier New York

A few years ago, a Manhattan borough president community initiative called “Go Green” was launched in East Harlem with the help of local Council Member Melissa Mark Viverito. The goal was to engage New York’s dynamic communities in the effort to bring farmers’ markets, greenspace and cleaner air back to our city neighborhoods, and to reduce the impact of environmentally driven diseases, like asthma and obesity.

Go Green was about the sustainability of our neighborhoods, but as the project continued, eventually spreading as far north as Washington Heights and Inwood, and south to the Lower East Side, we realized that the sustainability of New York goes hand-in-hand with the sustainability—i.e., the health—of New Yorkers. Read more