Oh, and Make My Recovery Green
Dan D. Irizarry

In the shadow of the Queensboro Bridge, in a light-industrial section of Long Island City, the hum of commerce is constant and pervasive. A steady flow of commercial traffic rattles windows and shakes the ground continually, letting you know that you are in a different part of the city. There is serious business taking place here, but nowhere are the stakes higher than on what is taking place in and around the headquarters of the Community Environmental Center (CEC) – New York State’s largest provider of weatherization services.

Inside this non-descript structure some of the brightest minds in green building technology and energy efficiency are hard at work, infusing life and meaning into a government acronym unlike any other – ARRA. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is, these days, a much-maligned and generally misunderstood Presidential initiative that doesn’t lend itself to facile description – unless, of course, you are a cable news pundit. The stakes are high, no doubt.

But to the men and women hired with ARRA funds to work on weatherization, the feeling of self-respect and empowerment resulting from a day’s wages for a hard day’s labor is easy to describe: It feels good to work.

For the New York State Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP) and its network of not-for-profit practitioners – known in program lingo as “subgrantees” – the arrival of ARRA funding has translated into more homes to work on, and the ability to train and hire more people than ever before.  The program vaulted forward with an infusion of stimulus funding that nearly quadrupled New York State’s Weatherization allocation over prior years.

But as was with every government program ever invented, there were bugs to work out, guidelines to set up, and strict rules of transparency to follow to prepare to channel the unprecedented influx of government stimulus funding. Unlike past new programs, however, the expectation of seemingly every segment of civil society was of a quick and meticulous execution – after all, nothing less than the fate of the economy and the lives of the surging numbers of unemployed rested on its (ARRA’s) success.

Rick Cherry, the executive director of CEC, shares many traits with his peers in weatherization. He is clear-eyed and focused on making a difference in the lives of people and the planet they inhabit, having been convinced long ago that this was the path to accomplishing both. Also like many of his cohorts, he has been around since the days of the Arab Oil Embargo and the inception of the program, and seems unaccustomed to all the attention his chosen vocation is receiving – unaccustomed, but pleased nonetheless.

“I guess the day I bought into the idea of energy efficiency and self-sufficiency was at this Jobs and Energy conference, when I heard this guy from Exxon/Mobil speak.  I thought to myself ‘this is where we’re headed in the future,’ and I never really looked back since then.”  Asked about the difference between the early days of the program and now, with the new funding in place, he points out that “from the beginning, the WAP program was perceived by many to be strictly an employment program.  I think it’s important that we dispel that perception; this is more than employment-for-employment’s-sake. There is a marketable skill being taught here that can provide a solid future for many of our participants, and advance the cause of saving the planet.”

President Obama’s underlying rationale for creating ARRA makes perfect sense to WAP directors, like Rick Cherry: take advantage of the current economic crisis to “make the transformation to a clean energy economy smoothly and effectively,” and create employment opportunities in an industry with unimagined growth potential.  Long-time practitioners, though, have understood the perfect confluence of energy efficiency, job-training and full employment that WAP represents, for decades.

To these green pioneers, it’s like the rest of the country is finally catching up to them and embracing their way of thinking.

In early 2007, at the height of the real estate bubble, Starrett City – the sparkling jewel of New York’s Mitchell Lama affordable housing portfolio – became embroiled in a protracted battle over its acquisition. Arrayed on one side were politicians, government agencies, and the low- and middle-income residents of the complex; on the other was a private corporation with unrestricted capital and visions of deregulation dancing in its head. An epic battle-of-wills ensued and in the end, Spring Creek née Starrett City remained affordable, with the help of a major state/federal refinancing package.

On a recent early spring day, a crew of mainly Black and Hispanic young men made the rounds of the nation’s largest affordable housing development, comprising 46 buildings and  15, 881 apartments. They wielded natural gas detectors and clipboards in their hands, and on their backs they sported the dark-green tee-shirts of the Green City Force’s Clean Energy Corps. Led by Erika Symmonds, an energetic young African American woman with an Ivy League background, these serious young men conducted energy audits to determine the air quality and energy consumption levels of the units they visited.

The CEC-sponsored Spring Creek Tower project received $6 million from ARRA and an owner match of $3 million – required by WAP for multi-family projects – to decrease energy consumption and reduce its carbon footprint, bringing total project costs to $9 million. The work scope already underway involves duct cleaning for miles of duct work; lighting up-grades; refrigerator replacement; and CO2 detector replacement throughout.

What frustrates the Rick Cherry’s of New York State’s unrivaled Weatherization network is that the media is paying scant attention to the thousands of scenes like the one unfolding on the grounds of Spring Creek. Their significance should not be lost on the public, especially when viewed against the backdrop of unemployment rates among minorities during the current recession. (By some estimates, the unemployment rate among young Black men ages 16 – 24 stands at levels unseen since the Great Depression.)

The unique partnerships forged between CEC and inner-city groups like Green City Force are being made possible through ARRA funding. Likewise CEC’s ability to provide employment for at least 25 workers and energy audit experience to the different Clean Energy Corps to perform the work on Spring Creek.

It is not a sexy story, this tale of government funds allocated to a state agency, funneled through a local not-for-profit, and finally put to use on an aging affordable housing asset, once in danger of losing its historic place and purpose. But it is a story of economic recovery nonetheless, and one that bears repeating for all the naysayers to hear.