The Coalition

It took a year to organize the joint effort. It crystallized in Williamsburg's first environmental town meetingin early 1992, in which community leaders spoke on the environmental issues affecting their people. This meeting brought together more than one thousand people, not only Latinos and Hasidim but also African Americans, Polish and Italian Americans of all sectors of the neighborhood. The meeting ended with the formation of the Community Alliance For the Environment, CAFE, in which residents and local groups committed to an agenda of fighting the incinerator and promoting ethnic harmony among the coalition's diverse groups.

The main players in the multi-ethnic, multi-racial anti-incinerator coalition were El Puente and UJO. CAFE also included the New York Public Interest Research Group (NYPIRG), an organization which represents statewide environmental and consumer interests and that had been involved in the battle against the incinerator for a long time, representatives of various community-based organizations, local religious leaders and groups, local environmental groups (such as the Fort Greene/Clinton Hill Coalition for Clean Air and the WWW--Williamsburg, Waterfront, the World), and housing advocates.

CAFE lacked a formal structure, headquarters or staff. This forced the groups to work together developing tactics, dividing organizing tasks, and so forth, and also to focus on their different strengths, on what each one did best. The leading organizations particularly contributed their resources to the coalition. For example, El Puente put its organizational infrastructure to the service of CAFE; it was joined by a Jewish and a Polish organizer.

Although not a local organization, the role of NYPIRG in this coalition was particularly important for two reasons. First, it brought a needed expertise often lacking in community-based struggles. For example, its environmental lobbying experience significantly contributed to the passage of the environmental law of May 1996, which amended the solid waste provisions of the State conservation law. Its long involvement in the issue and previous collaboration with UJO added to its expertise. Furthermore, NYPIRG was aware of the critical role of the Williamsburg community in this battle, and focused its efforts on working together with El Puente and UJO.

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