Welcome to Urban Habitat
Urban Habitat builds power in low-income communities and communities of color by combining education, advocacy, research and coalition building to advance environmental, economic and social justice in the Bay Area.
We envision a society where all people live in economically and environmentally healthy neighborhoods. Clean air, land and water are recognized as fundamental human rights. Meaningful employment honors a worker’s right to dignity and a living wage with benefits. Effective public transportation and land-use planning connect people to the resources, opportunities and services to thrive. Affordable housing provides a healthy and safe home for all. And quality education prepares visionary leaders to strengthen our democracy with new ideas, energy and commitment. [MORE]
Program Updates
20 Years of Social and Environmental Justice
From the Editor
In this issue we celebrate our 20th anniversary with reflections on the social and environmental justice landscape from 1990 to the present. When the journal was founded, the EJ movement was just beginning to be heard on the national stage. A succession of intense local struggles around the siting of toxic facilities in communities of color had brought the impacts of racism back into public view.
The movement welcomed a publication that could, in the words of founding editors Carl Anthony and Luke Cole, “strengthen the networks between environmental groups and working people, people of color and poor people.” In these times of multiple crises, as racial and economic justice seem ever more elusive, we are proud to play a part in reporting on the valuable thinking and work of this crucial coalition. In addition to a sampling of reprints from the last two decades, we share speeches and interviews from a cross-section of today’s engaged activists.
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How to Strengthen the BART Draft Public Participation Plan
Presented to the BART Board of Directors, May 13, 2010
BART's Draft Public Participation Plan (PPP) is a good first step toward providing meaningful public participation in BART decisions. But it is missing some crucial components. We recommend additional steps be taken to ensure the public input is not empty, but has real impact.
By adopting these recommendations, you will make the public a partner in BART decision-making as well as move the agency towards achieving the ultimate objectives of Civil Rights and Environmental Justice regulations.
Carl Anthony: Earth Day and Environmental Justice - Then and Now
Carl Anthony co-founded Race, Poverty and the Environment in 1990. In this interview with RP&E editor B. Jesse Clarke, Anthony shares his reflections on some of the key milestones that led to the creation of the Journal and its role in the ever-evolving environmental justice movement. Recorded at the studios of the National Radio Project, this interview introduces Radio RP&E—Podcasts and Broadcasts from the national journal of social and environmental justice. Read an edited excerpt below or listen to the full interview.
 Subscribe to the RP&E Radio podcast feed. Download the mp3. Use the player above. Or use this ITunes link. |
Jesse Clarke: Can you talk a little bit about where the environmental movement was on Earth Day 1970?
Carl Anthony: Earth Day 1970 was started, in part, as a result of the work of Rachel Carson who wrote Silent Spring in 1962. That book and similar research on the effects of DDT sparked a growing interest in the environment that went beyond protecting wildlife and open spaces. In some ways, it was paradoxical, because it became a powerful protest movement that was also distancing itself from issues of race and social justice.
Some proponents of environmentalism sought to use it to put a closure on the struggles of the 1960s and launch a new kind of consciousness about the earth and the environment, without really addressing issues of social and racial justice. But in fact, all these movements were interrelated. Many people, for innumerable reasons, were really upset with the dominant society and the way in which it was destroying both culture and places. Indeed, the new environmental movement owed something to the civil rights movement.
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BART Seeks Public Input, People Want Accountability!
BART's Outreach
BART recently announced an unprecedented community outreach schedule to improve outreach to “minorities and other underrepresented communities.” What BART didn’t announce was that it was only doing this to fulfill a federal funding requirement, not out of concern or moral obligation to the poor and disadvantaged.
Earlier this year, the Federal Transportation Administration (FTA) withheld $70 million in stimulus monies because BART ignored civil rights issues, both with its proposed Oakland Airport Connector (OAC) project, and as an agency as a whole. From the murder of Oscar Grant, to fare hikes and service cuts to BART’s arrogance over the OAC project, the transit agency has consistently shown disregard for low-income and communities of color. BART’s public meetings are part of their efforts to get back into compliance with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act.
ACTION ALERT! City of Pleasanton – Will you Uphold or Neglect Your Duty to Provide your Fair Share of Affordable Housing?
What hangs in the balance? Suburban Sprawl, Air
Pollution, Inadequate and Unaffordable Housing, Long Commutes for City’s
Workforce!
WHO: Pleasanton City Council
WHAT: To hear from the public on how to respond to a recent court ruling that would require Pleasanton to BUILD ITS FAIR SHARE OF AFFORDABLE HOUSING – Will the City follow the MORAL and LEGAL path or will it continue to pander to NIMBY fears?
WHERE: City of Pleasanton, City Council Chamber, 200 Old Bernal Avenue
WHEN: Tuesday, April 6, 2010 at 7:00 p.m. (and again on Tuesday, April 20)
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