Volunteers Paint the Town White

NEW YORK—Manhattan Borough President Scott M. Stringer joined The White Roof Project, NYCº CoolRoofs, the Cooper Square Committee, and other organizations on the Lower East Side on Monday to laud volunteers painting 35,000 square feet of rooftops in a one-block radius with reflective white paint.

The paint will deflect 90 percent of the sun’s rays thereby cooling the affordable low-income housing buildings and small businesses along East Fourth Street between the Bowery and Second Avenue. This will generate significant energy savings, benefiting both the environment and the residents’ pocket books, says Stringer.

Since its inception a year ago, The White Roof Project has left its mark on rooftops all over the city. But this is its flagship project—the largest concentrated area of white rooftops.

“When you have a group of buildings, the center area is actually more energy-efficient than before … that’s why the model block is so important,” says founder of the White Roof Project, Juan Carlos.

The layer of white paint washing over the neighborhood is the only the first step in a broader initiative to make the Cooper Square Mutual Housing Association (CSMHA) buildings a model of environmental sustainability.

CSMHA is a nonprofit that manages buildings in the area to keep the costs as low as $285/month for a 300-square-foot studio apartment, to $578/month for a 1,104-square-foot apartment. CSMHA hopes to cut costs with a further greening—or in this case whitening—of its properties.

The “Model Block Project” is an environmental sustainability pilot program that Stringer hopes will spread citywide. Several environmental measures are in the planning for the area, though Stringer’s office isn’t quite ready to make the announcement on what’s up next.

This block has changed much over the years said Roseann Hamila whose family has inhabited the neighborhood for four generations.

“To me, I think it came full circle,” began Hamila, as she recounted the evolution of her neighborhood. “It was family, it was neighborhood, [and] it was community. [Then,] everything went downhill. Then, there was gentrification. But we stood our ground and we’re still here,” said Hamila.

New York University speculators came to scope out the land, but did not succeed in expanding into Hamila’s home. At one time, powerful urban planner Robert Moses wanted to build a highway through there interjected another local resident, Lucielle Carrasquero. The housing developments that faced obliteration multiple times are now being painted as the beacon of hope for a sustainable future in New York City.

Carlos sees the “Model Block Project” as a full-circle venture in another way.

“The concept is not even a new concept, it’s something very old. The Europeans have done it for years, coating the roofs in white. So to do it again is almost like a regression back to the old ways,” said Carlos.

He proudly announced The White Roof Project’s new slogan, which he feels describes it perfectly, “Simple, tangible change.”