The Rosedale Neighborhood Association works to keep the New Orleans area clean and healthy while campaigning for structural change to target deep-rooted environmental issues. A low-income neighborhood affected by refuse dumping and neglect, the community “faces the same issue poor-classed citizens face every day,” says Sylvia McKenzie, one of the group’s founders. As well as coordinating community cleanups and distributing hurricane preparation kits, the group, which was founded in 2006, also agitates on systemic environmental justice issues. The organization is also pushing for water testing and air monitoring for residents, who suffer cancer rates above the national average, like others living in “cancer alley”, the approximately 85-mile stretch between New Orleans and Baton Rouge, so called because of the concentration of industry linked to carcinogens. Banding together with other mission-driven organizations, the association regularly attends city council meetings to exert pressure on local government.
Volunteers gather to distribute hurricane preparation kits in July 2024. Source: Courtesy of Sylvia McKenzie
The organization, which is led by eight board members drawn from the local area, works hand in hand with the community it represents. Formed in the wake of Hurricane Katrina’s devastation, McKenzie explains, “we worked together with three neighboring organizations to save and rebuild our areas”. Following the disaster, the city’s poorer and majority Black neighborhoods experienced slower recovery and high degrees of displacement. As the neighborhood’s households face rising housing costs, the association has also raised the topic of rent controls with the city council, McKenzie says. The group in 2019 successfully resisted an attempt to turn the residential area into a commercial zone after members interceded during a planning commission meeting, she says. It prides itself on combining cooperative, hands-on action with civic efforts to shape policy. “We have meetings with other groups to resolve problems, we don’t just wait on the government,” McKenzie says. “Environmental justice – it’s everyone’s fight.”
Volunteers join the group as it prepares to distribute the kits. Source: Courtesy of Sylvia McKenzie