Today we’d like to introduce you to Adam Greenfield.
Hi Adam, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I’ve been an activist and community organizer focused on the built environment (specifically public space, block parties, community street fairs, bike lanes, pedestrian infrastructure, highways, and policy) since 2009. I’ve come to understand more and more how the built environment profoundly impacts our lives: How many neighbors we know, how we move around, our daily emotional state, and our physical and mental well-being.
In 2009, I began learning why uniting citizens is crucial for change and how to do that: How to inspire people to get involved, develop a common vision for positive change, keep people engaged, educate the public, and influence decision makers.
In 2018, I started joining discussions about what to do regarding I-35 through Austin potentially being expanded. The more I learned, the more I discovered how the history of our cities and the US is so interwoven with the history of highways. Given how seriously highways have killed, seriously injured, harmed health, polluted and environment, and been used to oppress communities of color, I discovered that highway expansions must be stopped and that we seriously need to start talking about removing many of these highways.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back, would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Organizing is a constant struggle. The first challenge is giving folks hope that change is possible and that we can win. Then there’s the ongoing challenge of building a volunteer movement: Keeping volunteers engaged and doing rewarding and effective work, respecting people’s strengths and limitations, and somehow raising funds to pay for essentials. Finally, there’s influencing deeply entrenched systems, in this case, a powerful highway political/industrial complex that continues to regurgitate new and expanded highways, despite decades of evidence that this is a deeply harmful practice and that those very same companies involved in the bad stuff could be even more profitable by improving lives through freeway removal.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
Community organizing is what I do. It’s my vocation. Passion drives me and I don’t consider my campaigns a choice – I am compelled to push them forward. I also take fun seriously! Fun is crucial to success and our movement always makes time for it.
I am most proud at inspiring others with positive visions of the future and connecting with them to get involved. Time is the most precious thing anyone can give you and many volunteers I work with have dedicated significant amounts of their time to the cause, in this case, Rethink35’s mission to stop the I-35 expansion and push for a positive alternative.
My main work since 2020 has been as Executive Director of Rethink35, a grassroots movement to stop the proposed I-35 expansion to more than 20 lanes, which would worsen traffic, air and noise pollution, deaths and serious injuries, and climate change. We’re pushing for a study of alternatives to expansion, including non-local traffic going around town on highways such as SH-130 and I-35 through Austin being replaced with a boulevard
What do you like best about our city? What do you like least?
Austin is an incredible place. I love the warmth, openness, and good humor of so many Austinites. There is warmth, openness, and good humor in the people of Austin that always inspires and uplifts. Austin has stunning natural areas, including Barton Springs, the Barton Creek Greenbelt, Mt Bonnell, Emma Long Metropolitan Park, and the Bull Creek Greenbelt. There’s a scrappy bicycling culture here, which I love; going on a group ride is one of the most fun experiences you can have.
Unfortunately, decades of poorly conceived government policies have stranded too many Austinites in unwalkable areas where people are isolated from each other and lack bustling public spaces to go and satisfy our natural need to be together. Most people in other countries enjoy such places and we deserve them too.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://rethink35.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rethink35_atx/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Rethink35/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/rethink35
- TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@rethink35_atx
