Focus Areas

We see local spaces - either underutilized or vacant - as platforms for neighborhoods to uncover neighborhood history and culture, organize around neighborhood issues, and generate solutions to local issues. Historically disenfranchised communities on the North Shore have radically different economies and community spaces than those on the South Shore. The South Shore has a high number of green spaces, updated park facilities, healthier grocery stores, and access to more stores with basic amenities and goods than those on the North Shore. North Shore neighborhoods, particularly those that are low-income, Black and Latinx, are the epicenter of hyper-development and urban planning projects. Many of these projects result in pushing these communities out from the area. This spatial difference and imbalance between the North Shore and South Shore is a by-product of racial capitalism, displacement, and marginalization—all rooted in Staten Island’s history of the enslavement of African-Americans. As a result, we are working with North Shore communities to create more local and economic spaces that reflect and center North Shore communities, cultures, and local wisdom. We are seeking the material redistribution of land and money to go back into North Shore communities. We are building new democratic systems and institutions grounded in and with the active participation of North Shore residents. We are developing the capacity for grassroots, North Shore-led democracies and advocating for full community control of development projects that take place in these neighborhoods. We are seeking the repair of North Shore ecosystems.