This episode features a conversation with Dr. Catherine McNeur, an environmental historian at Portland State University and the author of Taming Manhattan: Environmental Battles in the Antebellum City.

We discuss how during the early nineteenth century, working class New Yorkers living in Manhattan raised livestock and even practiced a form of recycling by reusing urban waste. Battles over urbanizing and beautifying New York City ensued, involving tension over curated public outdoor spaces like Central Park; fights over sanitation and animals in the streets; and how to manage recurring epidemics and diseases like cholera that ravaged the city. 

Professor McNeur explains how these tensions exacerbated early forms of gentrification in the nineteenth century, and contemplates how we can learn from the past to create more equitable urban green spaces and shared environmental resources in the future. 

To learn more about Catherine McNeur's work, visit her website: http://www.catherinemcneur.com/

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Everyday Environmentalism is a podcast that tells past and present stories about "urban nature" in New York City. We interview current activists in tandem with environmental historians to produce a long history of the ways ordinary New Yorkers have experienced the urban outdoors and created more sustainable relationships with their environment.

Visit www.everydayenvironmentalism.org for more information.

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For a full transcript of this podcast, visit this URL: https://otter.ai/u/aevndM7qESN1G1VxpjoREoLHPqY