The Thanksgiving Sewage Backup of 2019:Infrastructural Failure and Environmental Racism in South Ozone Park, Queens

Natalie Bump Vena is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Urban Studies. She received her J.D. and Ph.D. from Northwestern University’s School of Law and Department of Anthropology. Her research and teaching interests concern environmental policymaking in U.S. cities. She is admitted to the New York State Bar. Vena’s long-term research examines the history of natural resources preservation in the Forest Preserve District of Cook County, which protects 69,000 acres of land encompassing Chicago. Vena also has an active research agenda in New York City. In addition to undertaking fieldwork and advocacy concerning a South Ozone Park community’s protracted recovery from a sewage backup that occurred in 2019, she is studying the implementation of New York’s Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (2019). In particular, she is examining the process of identifying the “disadvantaged communities” who are slated to receive 35% to 40% of benefits derived from the state’s green transition.