Climate Change is here. New York City must adapt, and green infrastructure is a critical tool for climate resilience. NYC has built over 12,000 rain gardens since 2011 with a capital investment of over $1 Billion. In addition, the City plans to build thousands more rain gardens over the next decade with another $1 Billion capital outlay. Each rain garden can hold 2,500 gallons of stormwater during a rain event, reducing combined sewer overflow and mitigating local flooding.

What happens if we don’t maintain our green infrastructure investments? Without proper maintenance, vegetated rain gardens not only cease to function properly, but they also become an eyesore and a blighting influence on neighborhoods. When plants die, soil is compacted, trash and sediment build up in inlets, and water does not percolate as intended. Therefore, rain gardens are not able to function as intended an mitigate local flooding or substantially reduce combined sewer overflow into our waterways. Unfortunately, a 2019 NYC Comptroller audit found that New York City is not adequately maintaining its rain gardens, reducing their effectiveness and undermining public confidence in the city’s ability to successfully employ green infrastructure for climate adaptation.

The RAIN (Rain Garden Action in Neighborhoods) Coalition came together in 2021 to pilot a model of watershed-based green infrastructure maintenance linked with quality job creation. RAIN is a partnership of four watershed organizations—Bronx River Alliance, Gowanus Canal Conservancy, Guardians of Flushing Bay, and Newtown Creek Alliance—and one workforce development group—The HOPE Program. The RAIN Coalition is on a mission to provide high quality rain garden stewardship that is rooted in local neighborhoods and watersheds, connected to robust community education and volunteerism, and grounded in workforce development for communities most impacted by climate change.

Readers of WaterWire know the issues.

• Every year, 27 billion gallons of raw sewage are released from combined sewer overflows into NYC waterways, threatening public and environmental health.
• Climate change is causing more frequent and intense cloudburst events: rainstorms that drop huge amounts of water across the city, overwhelming drains and waterways and catastrophically flooding homes, highways, and other vital infrastructure. NYC’s Chief Climate Officer Rohit Aggarwala recently stated, referring to recent flash floods, “Everything the science tells us is that it’s going to get worse before it stabilizes. Climate is changing faster than our infrastructure can keep up.”
• The harms of climate change are not shared equally among all groups. Black and brown communities are disproportionately impacted, and this impact is layered on top of other social and environmental injustices. RAIN applauds the fact that 78 percent of NYC’s 12,000 rain gardens are located in Environmental Justice areas. However, lack of proper maintenance undermines these efforts.

The RAIN Coalition believes that New York City has a tremendous opportunity to provide a higher level of green infrastructure maintenance and economic justice through a reconceived regimen that achieves multiple benefits. High quality maintenance is at the top of the list, including water capture and infiltration, community greening and cooling, pollinator habitat and local beauty—but also prioritized are green jobs for communities most impacted by climate change, community engagement and volunteerism, and youth development and education. The RAIN Coalition stands in solidarity with the environmental justice movement in calling for a Just Transition to climate smart communities. We have a moral obligation to ensure that the benefits of climate investments—green projects and green jobs—accrue to the low-income, BIPOC communities most affected by climate change.

Since 2021, RAIN has been piloting such a program, in partnership with NYC DEP and NYC Parks. RAIN has stewarded 57 rain gardens in the Bronx River, Gowanus Canal, and Newtown Creek watersheds, and will expand the pilot to additional rain gardens in the Flushing Creek watershed in 2024. Partner groups offer robust opportunities for volunteerism and the integration of youth development into rain garden care. Partner groups also make explicit the connection between on-street rain gardens and the local waterways and offer many opportunities to enjoy and experience the water first-hand.

The RAIN Coalition believes that green infrastructure is a catalyst for economic empowerment and skill-building within local communities. RAIN envisions a future where New York City’s expanding network of rain gardens serves as a pathway for green jobs as well as a solution to the challenges posed by sewage overflows into local waterways and flooding due to climate change.

NYC’s current maintenance shortfall can be rectified through partnerships with groups like the RAIN Coalition to ensure that past and future investments are stewarded for the long-term, all the while developing green jobs, community volunteerism, and youth development. This is why RAIN is hard at work ensuring that every dollar of climate investments is safeguarded and leveraged for environmental resiliency and justice as we weather the coming storms.