What are you excited about with the urban farm plan?

Aquaponics. It’s fun. You can teach a lot of stuff around aquaponics. You can teach microorganisms, biology, plant growth rate which includes math, and then also how to diversify the plants. When I was young, I opened an after school program doing aquaponics called the Green Jaguars. And so I carry that to heart. Kids learn, and once they’re older, if they’re really interested, they’re going to expand their knowledge. They’ll know more than what we know now.

What do you like about living in East Phillips?

It’s a great place. Like on our block, we have great neighbors. We talk to each other. We like to do block parties. We have access to the greenway. For our Latino community, there’s a lot of Latino stores that are nearby — walking distance, biking distance, driving distance. There’s a lot of places to enjoy. The environment that we’re in is good, community wise. Health wise, with the pollution, it’s not that well.

How have you been impacted by pollution?

I got asthma when we moved here back in 2006. I didn’t have asthma before then. The pollution here can also create allergies, which developed last summer for me. Allergies and asthma can lead to lack of breath just walking or biking. I like to play sports and if I can’t run well, then I can’t play that much.

There’s days when you open your window and it just reeks, from Smith Foundry. But it’s so hot that you need the air, so you’d rather have your window open. And I don’t think that's right. I have a daughter and I want her to go play outside. But when it’s really hot, you can smell the pollution, and I’d just rather not take my daughter outside.

You're a special ed teacher. What is the impact of the pollution on kids when they miss class for asthma?

With kids in school, if there’s a lecture plan or any assignments they have to make up, then they’re backtracked. So they have to catch up and catch up. So there’s a lot of impact from that. It impacts whether they can graduate.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.