A New Yorker since 2001 and a Lower Manhattan resident since 2008, Megan has a background in finance, corporate law, sustainable fashion, regenerative gardening and soil health. Megan believes nature-based solutions and grassroots community engagement should be prioritized in New York City’s efforts to address climate change — and public space is where these connect!
Rosa Chang is a community advocate who is deeply engaged in issues of climate change, education, community support, the deep importance of place and how our built environment builds the people who occupy it. These passions are reflected in her membership in Manhattan’s Community Board 1 in: Youth and Education (Co-Chair), Waterfront, Parks, Cultural & Land Use, Zoning and Economic Development Committees. She is a member of the Climate Coalition of Lower Manhattan. With Gotham Park’s founding, opening and continued growth, Rosa is working to turn an infrastructural burden into a community hub that connects our diverse neighborhoods and people.
Mohamed Attia is the Managing Director of the Street Vendor Project at the Urban Justice Center. Attia migrated to the US from Alexandria, Egypt, in 2008 working as a street vendor for nearly ten years selling hot dogs, halal chicken over rice, and smoothies in Times Square. He joined as a member of the Street Vendor Project (SVP) in 2012 and was an elected member leader of the organization until 2018, when he joined SVP’s staff as Managing Director. He has been profiled for his advocacy work on behalf of the street vendor community by The New York Times and was recognized on City & State Community Engagement Power 50 List.
Carina Kaufman-Gutierrez is the Deputy Director at the Street Vendor Project at the Urban Justice Center, where she has worked to pass city legislation to reform the street vendor industry, pass state legislation to create a $2.1 billion relief fund for excluded workers, and initiated a food relief program during the pandemic that employed vendors to make healthy, culturally sensitive meals for distribution citywide. She has previously held positions at NYC Small Business Services, Community Service Society, and Fundación Corona. Carina holds a Masters in International Affairs and Urban Social Policy from Columbia University, and was recognized in City & State’s Labor 40 under 40.
The Street Vendor Project (SVP) is a membership-based organization of over 2,900 members who champion the rights of street vendors as small businesses to earn a living and contribute to the culture and life of New York City. We strive to expand vending as a viable, lawful employment option for immigrants and other entrepreneurs. We celebrate the long tradition of street vending in NYC and the diversity of cultures and backgrounds from which vendors come, noting that an estimated 95% of street vendors are immigrants who operate at the margins of the formal economy.
Through direct legal representation, small business training, organizing support, leadership development, and strategic legislative advocacy, SVP builds power and community among vendors. Language access is ingrained in every aspect of our work, and we hold capacity in the five most common languages spoken within the vending community: Arabic, Bengali, Mandarin, Spanish, Wolof, French and English.
Street Vendor Project envisions a New York City where street vendors thrive as essential entrepreneurs and anchors of community and culture in the five boroughs. At the core, our work centers on creating a diverse community of street vendor leaders, uniting people across race, class, gender, language and cultural backgrounds. Today, we are the principal voice of vendors advocating for just working conditions, defending against arbitrary harassment by law enforcement, and advocating for the formalization of the vending industry.
Red Hook Farms is a youth-centered urban agriculture and food justice program operating one of Brooklyn’s largest farms. Red Hook Farms cultivates affordable, fresh produce and provides STEM and nutrition education, leadership development and employment opportunities for youth and residents.
— rhicenter.org
Our mission is to strive for inquiry and project-based solutions at the juncture of food, environmental and social justice.
Our goal is to build a healthier and greener resilient community by engaging, integrating, educating and serving student and community members, especially low income and marginalized people, in collaboration with numerous partner organizations with common interests.
We envision a model community school that inspires resiliency, holistic sustainability, and personal responsibility.
Brooklyn Bridge Manhattan Inc. d/b/a Gotham Park is a New York State not-for-profit founded in 2021 with the goal of establishing and supporting a new kind of hyper-urban public park at the Manhattan landing of the iconic Brooklyn Bridge.
As civic activists and advocates, we first came together at a Manhattan Community Board meeting in late 2020, when community members spoke about the importance, need and impact of public space – and specifically this place, which had been closed to public access for over a decade due to Bridge repair work and security measures. We concluded that without strong directed advocacy, funding and a plan to reopen, build and protect this park, another decade or more could pass with little change. We formed our nonprofit in early 2021 and built a strong community of stakeholders and supporters including neighborhood residents, businesses, schools and their families, tourists, sports enthusiasts, public and green space advocates, urban design experts, elected officials, City agencies, and fluffy friends.
In a city where infrastructural park project developments are counted in decades and not years, we are moving at lightning speed to deliver benefits for our community. After only two years of our advocacy efforts, the first acre of our envisioned 9-acre public space was opened on May 24, 2023, the 140th anniversary of the opening of the Brooklyn Bridge.
— gothampark.org
Operating along Queens’ 34th Avenue between 69th St and Junction Blvd, the 34th Street Open Streets Coalition facilitates an outdoor community center and micro mobility corridor along 26 blocks of open streets in Jackson Heights.
Sun Kim has been helping Ray Pultinas the Founder & Director since 2016 to form the nonprofit, create and steward the garden spaces, manage the website, and as a board member. She is a certified permaculture designer, gardener, master composter and aspiring herbalist.