A biography for Majora Carterhasn’t been written yet.
“One thing I noticed working in the Bronx is that leaders come in the craziest places. They don't always show up at community board meetings. Sometimes it's just the guys on the corner that the boys on the block respect.”
“We need to work together to embrace and repair our land, repair our power systems, and repair ourselves. It's time to stop building the shopping malls, the prisons, the stadiums, and other tributes to all of our collective failures.”
“Environmental justice, for those of you who may not be familiar with the term, goes something like this: no community should be saddled with more environmental burdens and less environmental benefits than any other.”
“We've got to decide that we want to live in a world that is sane and happy and healthy, and that everyone deserves that.”
“You know, people understand fear and opportunity. It may look different, but it's really the same thing.”
“Smart infrastructure can provide cost-saving ways for municipalities to handle both infrastructure and social needs. And we want to shift the systems that open the doors for people who were formerly tax burdens to become part of the tax base.”
“What's popular in places considered ghettos - whether that's the inner city or Appalachia - is having a decent quality of life.”
“Prior to Katrina, the South Bronx and New Orleans' Ninth Ward had a lot in common. Both were largely populated by poor people of color, both hotbeds of cultural innovation: think hip-hop and jazz. Both are waterfront communities that host both industries and residents in close proximity of one another.”
“Sustainable South Bronx advocates for environmental justice through sustainable environmental and economic development projects.”
“'This will pass and it always does.' I consistently have to keep telling myself that because being an entrepreneur means that you go to those dark places a lot, and sometimes they're real. You're wondering if you can you make payroll. There is a deadline, and you haven't slept in a while. It's real.”
“I want to be known internationally as one of the most creative real estate developers in low-income communities. I want to be known as someone who actually promotes economic diversity and does a great job.”
“Even when we think or talk about recycling, lots of recyclable stuff ends up getting incinerated or in landfills and leaving many municipalities, diversion rates - they leave much to be recycled. And where is this waste handled? Usually in poor communities.”
“As a black person in America, I am twice as likely as a white person to live in an area where air pollution poses the greatest risk to my health. I am five times more likely to live within walking distance of a power plant or chemical facility - which I do.”
“From a planning perspective, economic degradation begets environmental degradation, which begets social degradation.”
“Just because you have a piece of trash and you throw it away and it gets hauled away, it doesn't mean that it's not affecting someone else.”
“I personally think that gentrification happens long before you start seeing white people in formerly people-of-color neighborhoods. It starts happening when we start telling the young, hard-working, quote-unquote 'smart' kids that they need to measure success by how far they get away from our communities.”
“Most people don't know that the biggest regret that I have - and it's a biggie - is not fighting harder for policy and very practical measures to support the development of the green jobs industry.”
“I am a local economic revitalization strategist. But I am also a TV/radio host, and a small business owner. I find ways to use money more efficiently to realize positive goals for everyone.”
“Working-class and poor urban Americans are not benefiting economically from our current food system. It relies too much on transportation, chemical fertilization, big use of water, and also refrigeration.”
“I do have a problem with developments that hyper-exploit politically vulnerable communities for profit. That it continues is a shame upon us all, because we are all responsible for the future that we create.”