Letters to the Editor
Harper’s Magazine
By: Mychal Johnson and Monxo Lopez
As organizers mentioned in Audrea Lim’s essay on community land trusts [“We Shall Not Be Moved,” Report, July], we wanted to expand on why we have pursued this model. Mott Haven–Port Morris, where we live, is a vibrant neighborhood in the South Bronx, both a cradle of arts and culture and a survivor of decades of neglect, environmental injustice, and insidious, top-down decisions involving public land use. Under the premise of economic development, public land in our community has been zoned for noxious waste-treatment facilities and fossil-fuel power plants, while a highway system has callously divided neighbors. Following decades of planned shrinkage, the community is now fending off real estate speculation. New market-rate developments are bringing thousands of luxury residential units into a community where nearly half the children live in poverty and where the pre-pandemic unemployment rate was higher than the national average.
Building on a deep legacy of organizing, we developed our community land trust, the Mott Haven–Port Morris Community Land Stewards, to ensure that community members could preserve a stake in this neighborhood. We have identified several vacant and underutilized buildings and lots, and have held dozens of sessions to reimagine their uses. Most notably, we aim to acquire and repurpose a 25,000-square-foot building, currently vacant and owned by the city, as a center for health, education, and the arts. This is a building that the Black Panthers and Young Lords used to serve the needs of the community nearly fifty years ago.
