Locally Founded Environmental Organization Hosts Inaugural Event

Resilient Palisades Hosted Talk by Senator Ben Allen

By LILY TINOCO | Reporter

Recently formed nonprofit environmental organization Resilient Palisades hosted its inaugural event virtually on Thursday, August 13.

The event took place via Zoom and introduced its current members as well as California State Senator and Chair of the Environmental Quality Committee Ben Allen, who took questions from attendees.

“It’s kind of overwhelming how many people have signed up for this meeting,” Ingrid Steinberg, one of the founders of Resilient Palisades, said at the start. “It’s wonderful to see the great interest in the community in doing environmental work together, which is really what we’re about.”

Steinberg shared that she’s been thinking about the environment for a long time and wanting to work locally with the community toward substantial change.

“When we get together as neighbors and in [the] community, we can make real change in the way we live our lives, and we can make it in a way that’s actually fun and brings us together and builds relationships,” she said.

Four additional members helped found Resilient Palisades: Ryan Craig, Aleksandar Pavlović, Karen Ephraim and Shayna Samuels. They all shared the ways they have been proactively working to lessen their environmental footprint and why they decided to get involved in the founding of this community-based organization.

The meeting went on to explain the organization’s future plans and its goal: to bring Palisadians together to address climate change and environmental degradation by addressing issues and learning about what can be done to ignite change.

Some ideas mentioned include advocacy for solar-friendly policy, the reduction of community consumption of animal products, buying local and organic food, working with homeowners, local stores, and restaurants to reduce food and plastic waste, and more.

“Let’s not be afraid of thinking of really big ideas and things that we can do if we all came together,” Steinberg said. “What about a community garden? … What about a virtual solar power plant? It’s never been done in a community like ours, but there is such a thing and it could be done.”

Allen then took the virtual-floor and first explained how at the Capitol, there has been discussion on how to stop the ongoing surge of hospitalization due to COVID-19 and reminded attendees to be vigilant, to work toward continuing to flatten the curve.

“A lot of businesses have suffered, a lot of hospitals have suffered, and, of course, a lot of people and families have suffered,” Allen said.

Allen then explained his gratitude to the group for their efforts to address waste management and create better consumer behavior—but added that he hopes changes can be made holistically and systemically.

“I’m happy to talk about any and every issue with you, but I’m so glad to see such a great group of folks who have gotten together to talk about doing right by our environment and thinking locally but also acting globally,” Allen said. “Our ability to make change in the policy arena can not be underestimated in terms of its importance.”

Allen then went on to take questions from the group, including the ongoing issue of the use of gas-powered leaf blowers in the Palisades, the plastic bag ban and more.

Resilient Palisades’ next event will be a community meeting that is slated to take place on Thursday, September 3. For more information, visit resilientpalisades.org.