Building community resilience

As the relationship between air pollution and the effects of COVID-19 disproportionately affect Black and Brown communities, El Puente is building a community resiliency initiative to combat air pollution in largely Black and LatinX communities in Brooklyn. El Puente’s Our Air! / ¡Nuestro aire! campaign includes citizen science air quality monitoring studies and holistic community led solutions to improve quality of life and mitigate the negative impact of environmental and health inequities. Research shows that coronavirus patients in areas that had high levels of air pollution before the pandemic are more likely to die from the disease than patients in cleaner parts of the country. El Puente is advocating for a reduction in truck route coverage, restrictions on local deliveries made by trucks or vans, creations of a continuous green plaza, and a permanent or long-term closure of certain streets to vehicular traffic.