New York State has added areas of New Rochelle to a program monitoring air quality in communities considered most vulnerable to the effects of pollution and climate change, according to an article published in LoHud and USA Today on March 16.

Entitled, “As New Rochelle grew, Black residents wondered what they were breathing. NY’s air quality data will offer clues,” the article highlights the environmental impact of redlining and highway and industrial development that destroyed hundreds of homes and businesses in what was once Westchester’s largest Black community (see “History of Pugsley Hollow”). 

“A half-century later, “the article states, “Black and brown New Rochellians in these areas continue to experience higher rates of respiratory illnesses and low birth weights, leaving them wondering what’s in the air they breathe.” 

Citing data from the state Department of Health, the article states that “children under 17 in two New Rochelle ZIP codes encompassing historically Black and Latino neighborhoods exhibit higher rates of asthma emergency department visits than those in Westchester County and New York outside of the five boroughs.”

New York State law requires that at least 35% of spending on clean energy and energy efficiency must go toward communities disadvantaged from the effects of pollution and climate change.

Although Pugsley Hollow and other largely Black and Latinx neighborhoods in New Rochelle are listed as “disadvantaged communities” by state criteria, New Rochelle was originally not included among cities to receive mobile air monitoring by the state Department of Environmental Conservation.  That exclusion has now been corrected.

The article also highlights the city’s decision to place a Starbucks drive-thru adjacent to the Bracey Houses, New Rochelle’s last public housing development, despite restrictions in other parts of the city that prohibit drive-thru restaurants near residential housing (see “Environmental Racism and the Fight to Stop a Drive-Thru”).

At present the full article is only available to subscribers of LoHud and USA Today.  New RoAR news will alert readers when the full article is made available to the general public.

The day before the article was published, Congressman Jamaal Bowman visited New Rochelle High School to inform the community of potential environmental benefits to the local community from the Inflation Reduction Act, enacted last year by Congress and President Biden.  See our coverage of Congressman Bowman’s visit here.