Envisioning Newtown Creek: Past, Present & Future

by Laura Hofmann

As both a board member of the Newtown Creek Alliance and student of LaGuardia Community College, it was quite exciting for me to be part of the Urban Studies Symposium put together by Professor Steve Lang. The focus of the symposium was on the "past, present & future" of the Newtown Creek, a highly contaminated water body whose tributaries are literally yards from our campus. The event was well attended by LaGuardia students, who seemed to be both surprised and interested to learn about the school's part in a local environmental movement to clean up massive contamination in the Newtown Creek community.

The symposium was a wonderful forum for representatives from the Department of Environmental Protection, the Newtown Creek Alliance and others, to share their knowledge and vision of the Newtown Creek community with LAGCC students. The event also highlighted the community based environmental work that our college professors and students are doing to effectively bring the issues of Newtown Creek into school and bring the school out to the creek. Professor Lang who is a Newtown Creek Alliance board member is bringing much needed local environmental awareness to LAGCC. Likewise, Doctor Sarah Durand who kick started a LAGCC water-monitoring program of the Newtown Creek, along with her students, are collecting valuable data regarding the water quality and benthic inhabitants of the creek.

To learn more about how you can become involved in the local environmental movement to revitalize, restore, and reveal the Newtown Creek, visit http://newtowncreekalliance.org or email Laura at laura.hofmann@live.lagcc.cuny.edu