Environmental Health

By Diane Takvorian, Paula Forbis, Sonya Holmquist, Tony LoPresti, and Laura Benson

Low-income communities of color have long struggled with racist, discriminatory land use practices that diminish health, safety, and quality of life. It is not uncommon to see residential areas opened up for industrial development, houses located next to freeways and toxic polluters, and new freeway development and truck routes targeted at these communities.

The question is: Do these communities have the power to change these zoning practices and revitalize their neighborhoods? How can they leverage their needs against developers and decision-makers seeking to gentrify their communities?

Empowering the Poor
The Environmental Health Coalition (EHC) has worked for nearly 30 years to empower poor communities to become meaningful participants in their neighborhood’s policy decisions and development processes to:

* ensure healthy neighborhoods
* maintain and create affordable housing
* preserve community character and culture
* promote sustainable communities.

Felicia Marcus and Joanne Morse

In the late 1990s, the community garden movement was thriving in New York City. In hundreds of locations, community members had cultivated gardens of all kinds on city owned land. The gardens presented a cornucopia of vegetation—with flowers, vegetables, and fruits. Some gardens were only a sliver of land wedged between buildings, while others were contemplative or artistic, but all were social centers where life literally bloomed.

The Giuliani administration decided to sell off the 114 city-owned lots for development despite the protests of members who had created these oases of green and community. The Trust for Public Land (TPL), is a national nonprofit dedicated to conserving land for people. When it became unclear whether litigation could save the gardens, TPL stepped in and purchased a little over half of the gardens, with Bette Midler purchasing the remainder through the New York Restoration Project.

TPL’s 1999 acquisition of 62 community gardens slated for destruction was the single largest nonprofit initiative in America to preserve urban gardens. (Since then, other gardens were added to bring the total protected by TPL to 70.) Some of the gardens have been turned over to the city’s Parks Department, others needed to be taken over by the community to ensure that they would be adequately stewarded over the long term. (The deal provided that the land would revert to the city if it ceased to be used for gardens).

By Carl Anthony

After months of workshops and training for LOP members, the Richmond Equitable Development Initiative (REDI)’s General Plan campaign heated up this summer with a community forum to unveil policies on land use, transportation, economic development, and housing that will benefit all residents of Richmond. Approximately 250 community members attended to show support for the campaign and asked the city council members present – Tom Butt, Tony Thurmond, and Mayor Gayle McLaughlin – to endorse the community’s vision. The Laotian Organizing Project (LOP) led the housing presentation with an interactive skit about current housing conditions and our proposed policy recommendations. Here are some of the innovative housing policies that REDI and the LOP are fighting for in Richmond’s General Plan:

 In April, the Ports of L.A./Long Beach made history and announced a plan to clean up the port trucking industry. The Southern California Ports are requiring an 80% reduction in diesel emissions within five years. Trucking companies will also be required to hire truck drivers as employees instead of independent contractors. This would end the abuse of truckers who currently live in poverty and cannot legally negotiate for higher wages or benefits as "independent contractors."

of truckers who currently live in poverty and cannot legally negotiate for higher wages or benefits as "independent contractors."

The Ports of L.A./Long Beach are the largest in the country, setting a standard for the nation. Port of Oakland representatives were recently quoted in the media as saying they wanted to implement a similar plan. Currently, Oakland port truck drivers work an average of 11 hours per day, make as little as $8 an hour, and the vast majority have no healthcare. These drivers are forced to wait in lines an average of two hours to pick up a single container while their engines idle, spewing pollution. This not only impacts the drivers, but also the surrounding West Oakland community where diesel emissions are five times higher than in other parts of Alameda County, and one in five children suffers from asthma. What's worse is that West Oakland gets all of the pollution, but sees few Port industry jobs as there are no local hire programs for trucking companies.  The Coalition for Clean and Safe Ports in Oakland is working to address these issues.

By Victor Lewis 

For a long time now, the name of Rachel Carson has been synonymous with the environmental movement. Many times I have heard that Silent Spring, her 1962 classic, was the fuse that triggered the explosion culminating in the current wave of environmental activism, and should be counted among the few books that have actually altered the course of history. I have even echoed its praise to my friends. But until recently, I had never actually taken the time to pick up and read the book. I hadn't a clue, really, of what exactly Carson had done to change the world, or whether she had acted deliberately to have such impact or stumbled accidentally into her place in history.

By Pam Tau Lee

During the past decade, the environment has come to the forefront as a crucial issue. But many people have ignored the fact that environmental deterioration does not impact everyone equally. There is growing evidence that persons and communities of color throughout the world are the most frequently and severely affected victims. This phenomenon is called "environmental racism."

By Charles Lee 

In October 1991, more than 600 persons from virtually every state in the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico, Central America, and the Marshall Islands gathered in Washington D.C. at the First National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit. It was a defining moment for the environmental justice movement in the United States. One of the Summit's most important contributions was the adoption of the Principles of Environmental Justice.