‘A slap in the face’: pipeline violates civil rights, say New Yorkers

Residents have been protesting National Grid's pipeline, which bypasses wealthier, whiter Brooklyn areas, since 2020

At first glance, the construction along the Brooklyn streets appeared routine. You wouldn't think anything of it," said Fabian Rogers, a community organizer in Brownsville, a majority Black neighborhood where construction began in 2017.

It wasn't until years later, in 2020, that he learned that the overturned streets were making way for a fracked gas pipeline. It just felt like a big slap in the face - to have [a pipeline] in my backyard that I didn't know about," he said.