THE SWITCH

WHEN A NEW YORK CITY POWER PLANT SWAPS ITS DIRTIEST GENERATORS FOR BATTERIES, THE SURROUNDING NEIGHBORHOOD WILL BREATHE EASIER.

- ANDREW BLUM

WHEN COVID-19 SWEPT THROUGH NEW YORK CITY IN THE SPRING OF 2020, IT DID SO UNEVENLY. HARDEST HIT BY FAR WERE communities of color, where the death rate was roughly double that of white neighborhoods. Overlapping constellations of reasons drove this—such areas house more essential workers, living in more crowded homes, with less access to health care—but among the more insidious was chronic exposure to air pollution. A nationwide study from the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health found that COVID deaths increased by 8 percent with each additional microgram per cubic meter of fine particulate matter, the contaminant most closely linked to highways, truck traffic, and power plants. Given that the dirtiest and cleanest neighborhoods in New York City have an annual difference of about 4 micrograms per cubic meter, areas near heavy industries net a lot more deadly infections.

The residents of the Queensbridge Houses, the nation’s largest public housing project, worry this puts them at greater risk. “I’ve heard the conversation in the park over the last three months more than in the last five years,” says Suga Ray, a neighborhood activist and community builder. “People are talking about the plants over there,” he says of the Ravens wood Generating Station, whose iconic red-and-white-tipped smokestacks create an omnipresent frame for the skyline.