PennTags Feed for /tag/environmental_justice

CC)sar CuauhtC)moc GarcC-a HernC!ndez - Malthus Lives in Anti-Immigrant Ads

Malthus Lives in Anti-Immigrant Ads

By César Cuauhtémoc García Hernández . Posted July 4, 2008.

Since the rampant anti-Chinese xenophobia of the late 1800s that led to our modern immigration laws, debate about immigration has been a wellspring of racism. Last month an advertisement in the New York Times (also printed in The Nation magazine) linking high gas prices, population control, and immigration proved that immigration restrictionists have not forgotten the tired arguments of the past.

The ad, paid for by "America's Leadership Team for Long Range Population-Immigration-Resource Planning," shows a traffic-clogged highway above the caption "One of America's Most Popular Pastimes." It argues that traffic jams will only get worse as the nation's population grows and that 82 percent of growth between 2005 and 2050 will result from immigration. "[Q]uality of life for future generations will be gone unless we take action today," the ad urges, leaving the unmistakable impression that the answer to our traffic problems--and to the "stress with our schools, our emergency rooms, our public infrastructure, even our water resources"--is to be found in ending, or at least seriously curtailing, immigration.

...

Second, it is ludicrous to suggest that the country's traffic jammed highways are caused by immigration. The great critic of urban planning Lewis Mumford must be shouting from his grave the same lessons that he taught in the 1950s and 1960s: "The fatal mistake we have been making is to sacrifice every other form of private transportation to the private motorcar . . . . we need a better transportation system, not just more highways."

Even to suggest that immigrants are the cause of transportation congestion is beyond disingenuous; rather, it reveals the lengths to which nativists now — like nativists of generations past — are willing to invent and distort facts for the sake of irrational tirades. Highway traffic is not caused by too many people trying to go about their lives.

...

This is not to say that there is no link between traffic and immigrants. There is. Like poor people and people of color generally, immigrants bear the brunt of traffic-related pollution and highway-related neighborhood displacement. The environmental justice movement has long argued that poor people and people of color are more likely to suffer respiratory and other medical problems because of the poor air quality near highways. And as anyone who has traveled on an interstate highway through a major city knows, highways are more often than not built straight through working class neighborhoods and areas where people of color live.

Though these misrepresentations are troubling, the most disturbing aspect of the ad is the barely concealed racism embedded in its references to population control. Our cherished pastime of jumping into private cars and driving for relaxation is at risk (literally stopped), the ad implies, because immigrants, especially those pesky "Hispanics," just won't stop reproducing

Global Voices Online B; [GV Show Special] Trinidad

Atillah Springer is a journalist, activist and blogger from Trinidad and Tobago and a member of a protest movement which, earlier this year, succeeded in driving the aluminium industry giant Alcoa out of a community in rural Trinidad where they had proposed to establish a smelter under somewhat dubious circumstances.

In this podcast I talk with Atillah about the movement's use of the Internet in their organising activities.

Mapping environmental injustices: pitfalls and potential of geographic information systems in assessing environmental health and equity.

Title: Mapping Environmental Injustices: Pitfalls and Potential of Geographic Information Systems in Assessing Environmental Health and Equity

Source: Environmental health perspectives [0091-6765] Maantay yr:2002 vol:110 pg:161

Abstract:

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) have been used increasingly to map instances of environmental injustice, the disproportionate exposure of certain populations to environmental hazards. Some of the technical and analytic difficulties of mapping environmental injustice are outlined in this article, along with suggestions for using GIS to better assess and predict environmental health and equity. I examine 13 GIS-based environmental equity studies conducted within the past decade and use a study of noxious land use locations in the Bronx, New York, to illustrate and evaluate the differences in two common methods of determining exposure extent and the characteristics of proximate populations. Unresolved issues in mapping environmental equity and health include lack of comprehensive hazards databases; the inadequacy of current exposure indices; the need to develop realistic methodologies for determining the geographic extent of exposure and the characteristics of the affected populations; and the paucity and insufficiency of health assessment data. GIS have great potential to help us understand the spatial relationship between pollution and health. Refinements in exposure indices; the use of dispersion modeling and advanced proximity analysis; the application of neighborhood-scale analysis; and the consideration of other factors such as zoning and planning policies will enable more conclusive findings. The environmental equity studies reviewed in this article found a disproportionate environmental burden based on race and/or income. It is critical now to demonstrate correspondence between environmental burdens and adverse health impacts--to show the disproportionate effects of pollution rather than just the disproportionate distribution of pollution sources.

Social Exclusion Unit

This information is being maintained for archive/historical purposes only. It will not be updated.
Please see http://archive.cabinetoffice.gov.uk for details.

Resisting Global Toxics - David Naguib Pellow

Resisting Global Toxics
Transnational Movements for Environmental Justice
David Naguib Pellow

Every year, nations and corporations in the "global North" produce millions of tons of toxic waste. Too often this hazardous material--linked to high rates of illness and death and widespread ecosystem damage--is exported to poor communities of color around the world. In Resisting Global Toxics, David Naguib Pellow examines this practice and charts the emergence of transnational environmental justice movements to challenge and reverse it. Pellow argues that waste dumping across national boundaries from rich to poor communities is a form of transnational environmental inequality that reflects North/South divisions in a globalized world, and that it must be theorized in the context of race, class, nation, and environment.

Building on environmental justice studies, environmental sociology, social movement theory, and race theory, and drawing on his own research, interviews, and participant observations, Pellow investigates the phenomenon of global environmental inequality and considers the work of activists, organizations, and networks resisting it. He traces the transnational waste trade from its beginnings in the 1980s to the present day, examining global garbage dumping, the toxic pesticides that are the legacy of the Green Revolution in agriculture, and today's scourge of dumping and remanufacturing high tech and electronics products. The rise of the transnational environmental movements described in Resisting Global Toxics charts a pragmatic path toward environmental justice, human rights, and sustainability.

Sustainable communities and the challenge of environmental justice / Julian Agyeman.

uthor: Agyeman, Julian.
Title: Sustainable communities and the challenge of environmental justice / Julian Agyeman.
Publisher: New York : New York University Press, c2005.
Description: Your search got no results.
x, 245 p. : ill. ; 23 cm.
LC Subject(s): Environmental justice.
Sustainable development.
Web Link: Table of contents

Location: Van Pelt Library
Call Number: GE220 .A34 2005

Minority Empowerment and Environmental Justice -- Chambers 43 (1): 28 -- Urban Affairs Review

Urban Affairs Review, Vol. 43, No. 1, 28-54 (2007)
DOI: 10.1177/1078087407301790
(c) 2007 SAGE Publications
Minority Empowerment and Environmental Justice
Stefanie Chambers

Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut

In Hartford, Connecticut, environmental health problems
disproportionately affect poor and minority residents of the city.
Minority group activists in Hartford have created a multiracial
organization composed of urban and suburban residents to fight for
environmental justice. The organization has achieved a measure of
success in terms of governmental responsiveness to their concerns.
This article highlights the strategies used by the organization to
advance its interests. These strategies are framed within the minority
empowerment and environmental justice literature to develop a
theoretical explanation for the organization's success. Additionally,
this article provides a model for other communities fighting for
environmental justice.

Key Words: environmental justice • minority empowerment • public health

Spatial Scale and Population Assignment Choices in Environmental Justice Analyses - Prof Geographer, Volume 56 Issue 4 Page 574-586, November 2004

The Professional Geographer

Volume 56 Issue 4 Page 574-586, November 2004

To cite this article: Michael T. Most, Raja Sengupta, Michael A. Burgener (2004)
Spatial Scale and Population Assignment Choices in Environmental Justice Analyses1
The Professional Geographer 56 (4), 574-586.
doi:10.1111/j.0033-0124.2004.00449.x

Abstract

Environmental justice laws protect certain populations against discriminatory actions that may result from a myriad of enterprises, including transportation activities. Previous environmental equity studies examining the effects of transportation-engendered externalities have been criticized on several points, including (1) that the choice of a reference population for comparison to the criterion variable may influence the outcome of research results and (2) that the selection and use of inappropriate methodologies intended to identify and characterize populations may foreordain research outcomes. This article examines the potentially confounding effects of selected spatial scale and population assignment strategies as applied to a study of excessive noise levels at a large Midwestern airport, finding that reported outcomes can vary significantly as a function of methodological choices.

Urban transportation and equity: A case study of Beijing and Karachi

Abstract

Development of mega cities of Pakistan and China has greatly been affected by the growth in urbanization and motorization. The uncontrolled rise in urbanization, motorization, exclusionary planning and disproportionate investment in transportation infrastructure has created a socio-economic imbalance, thereby challenging the issue of equity. This paper focuses on a comparative social equity assessment of urban development, characteristics of supply and demand of transportation and infrastructure systems and the impact of existing strategies over equity in the development of urban and transportation system of Beijing and Karachi. The paper concludes by suggesting some strategies for the development of sustainable and equitable urban transportation systems.

Keywords: Urbanization; Equity; Accessibility; Affordability; Motorization; Sustainable transportatio

Spaces of hope / David Harvey.

Harvey, David, 1935- . Spaces of hope / David Harvey. [0520225775 (cloth) ] Berkeley : University of California Press, c2000.
Call#: Van Pelt Library Rosengarten Reserve HX806 .H3 2000

Exxon Mobil Cleanup Effort Continues on Brooklyn Spill - New York Times

July 19, 200

Exxon Mobil Cleanup Effort Continues on Brooklyn Spill

By DALTON WALKER

Inside the walls and barbed wire fence that largely hides the nondescript facility beside Newtown Creek in Brooklyn, a handful of trailers sit in a cluster surrounded by smaller buildings that belong to Exxon Mobil.

It is not much to look at, but Exxon Mobil officials say the operation is slowly eliminating the contamination that has been deep underground in the Greenpoint neighborhood for decades. The operation, and the contamination, stem from an oil spill that occurred more than half a century ago and has been described as more than twice as large as the Exxon Valdez disaster, which released 11 million gallons of crude oil off the Alaskan coast.

The Brooklyn spill, which resulted from an industrial explosion in 1950, released an estimated 17 million gallons of oil and oil products, polluted the soil, left traces of toxic chemicals in Newtown Creek, led to years of community and environmental outcry and became the basis of several continuing lawsuits.

Nearly eight million gallons remain beneath the Exxon Mobil property and nearby properties along Kingsland Avenue, though the contamination cannot be seen or smelled. How long it will take to get rid of the remaining material is unclear. “We’ll be here until the job is done and done right,” said Barry Wood, a spokesman for Exxon Mobil.

Built Environment, Vol. 29, Iss. 3 - Transport and Sustainability: The Role of the Built Environment

Transport and Sustainability: The Role of the Built Environment

Authors: Randall Crane and Lisa A. Scweitzer

Page start: 238

Built Environment
Volume: 29 | Issue: 3 New Urbanism
Cover date: September 2003

New Urbanism attempts to promote ‘greener’ travel through physical design: especially through the provision of compact, walkable neighbourhoods served by transit. Achieving the desired environmental benefits effectively hinges on reducing auto trips, by encouraging people who currently travel by car to switch to walking for short trips and transit for long trips. However, while these aims may be simply asserted, the extent to which they are achievable is complex. The sustainability debate now goes well beyond merely technical discussions of environmental impacts to tackle the stickier political economy of how cities can be made to work in terms of accessibility, how environmental costs and benefits are distributed, and the concept of ‘environmental justice’. Who goes where, based on where they live and work, and the land-use levers available to affect why, have become the core policy focus. In order to understand the extent to which New Urbanism can contribute to sustainable transport and development, it is necessary to consider how different social groups using different modes of transport are related to the design of the built environment.

Transportation Research Board - Journal Article

Measuring Change in Small-Scale Transit Accessibility with Geographic Information Systems: Buffalo and Rochester, New York

Journal Transportation Research Record
Publisher Transportation Research Board of the National Academies
ISSN 0361-1981
Issue Volume 1887 / 2004
Category Public Transit
DOI 10.3141/1887-02
Pages 10-17
Online Date Tuesday, January 30, 2007

Abstract

A new method has been developed to measure directly changes in transit accessibility—the combined spatial effect of shifts in land use patterns and transit service—between metropolitan jobs and census tracts with high proportions of the people who most depend on good transit. Through focused analysis of transit routes serving one neighborhood in Buffalo and one neighborhood in Rochester, New York, two main questions are addressed. First, did transit-dependent poor people who lived in inner-city neighborhoods lose capacity to access jobs by transit during the 1990s? Second, if so, how much of the reduction in accessibility was due to changes in transit service rather than to dispersion of land use? Steps include formulating a gravity model using geographic information systems (GISs), calculating an accessibility index at two times during the 1990s at the census tract level, and disaggregating the accessibility change into subcomponents of change in land use and change in transit service by holding relevant variables constant to a base year. Findings do not support the a priori expectations: the transit component of change does not appear to contribute to a loss in accessibility from high-poverty neighborhoods. The model provides insights into the causes of accessibility change, the geographic distribution of accessibility change, and better assessments of whether transit agencies are successfully adapting to changes in land use.

Application of a Travel Demand Microsimulation Model for Equity Analysis

Castiglione, Hiatt, Chang, Charlton

Application of a Travel Demand Microsimulation Model for Equity Analysis

TRB 2006 Annual Meeting

ABSTRACT
This paper describes the application of a state of the art tour-based travel demand microsimulation model to estimate impacts on mobility and accessibility on different populations to support development of a countywide transportation plan. Equity analyses based on traditional travel demand forecast models are compromised by aggregation biases and data availability limitations. Use of the disaggregate (individual person-level) San Francisco tour- based microsimulation model made it possible to estimate benefits and impacts to different communities of concern based on individual characteristics such as gender, income, auto availability, and household structure. In this paper, the concepts and policy context of equity analysis in transportation are first presented. Identifying communities of concerns and relevant measures of transportation system performance are then outlined. The San Francisco Model structure is briefly described, and finally, the results of the equity analysis are presented.

Using GIS to Assess the Environmental Justice Consequences of Transportation System Changes

Authors: Chakraborty, Jayajit; Schweitzer, Lisa A.; Forkenbrock, David J.

Source: Transactions in GIS, Volume 3, Number 3, June 1999 , pp. 239-258(20)

Publisher: Blackwell Publishing

Abstract:
Although environmental justice research has typically focused on locations of industrial toxic releases or waste sites, recent developments in GIS and environmental modeling provide a foundation for developing measures designed to evaluate the consequences of transportation system changes. In this paper, we develop and demonstrate a workable GIS-based approach that can be used to assess the impacts of a transportation system change on minorites and low-income residents. We focus specifically on two adverse affects: vehicle-generated air pollution and noise. The buffer analysis capabilities of GIS provide a preliminary assessment of environmental justice. We integrate existing environmental pollution models with GIS software to identify the specific locations where noise and air pollution standards could be violated because of the proposed system change. A comparison of the geographic boundaries of these areas with the racial and economic characteristics of the underlying population obtained from block level census data provides a basis for evaluating disproportionate impacts. An existing urban arterial in Waterloo, Iowa, is used to illustrate the methods developed in this research.

Pratt Center: Transportation Equity Project

The Pratt Center Transportation Equity Project

Transportation policies, infrastructure, and operation have enormous impacts on New York's economy, and upon the quality of life of every New Yorker. Our transportation network plays a major role in determining where we can live and work, and is a key driver of land use and value. Transportation infrastructure itself can be a boon, or a burden. Transit nodes can leverage density and create vibrant neighborhood hubs; greenways provide not only mobility options, but green open space in areas where parkland is scarce. But highways, bus depots, and railyards can also fragment and blight neighborhoods, creating large local costs, and little local benefit.

The Pratt Center's Transportation Equity project will examine ways that New York's transportation systems can help to create a city that offers opportunity and a high quality of life to all of its residents. During the next two years, Pratt Center staff will work with community and civic organizations to analyze our transportation systems from an equity perspective, and to develop proposals and strategies for maximizing their benefits to all New Yorkers. The project is timely; transportation initiatives now being debated will shape our city and region for the next century. But the voices of communities with the most at stake are rarely heard in the discussion. Grassroots organizations may advocate for or against individual projects, but are less often involved in the technical and political processes that shape transportation infrastructure and policy priorities overall. The Transportation Equity project will develop tools to enable social and environmental justice advocates to participate effectively in decisions that will have far-reaching impacts on the communities that they represent.

The project is funded by a federal grant authorized under the August 2005 federal surface transportation reauthorization bill- the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, and Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU)- and administered by the New York State Department of Transportation.

DVRPC/ Regional Planning/ Environmental Justice / Map Gallery

EJ maps from DVRPC

Latest Round in the Garbage Wars (Gotham Gazette. June, 2007)

Latest Round in the Garbage Wars

by Courtney Gross
June, 2007

Raising signs calling for "environmental justice" and shouting "NIMBY no, justice yes," residents of the Bronx and Brooklyn circled the office of State Assemblymember Deborah Glick last week.

The protestors, members of the Organization of Waterfront Neighborhoods said they are tired of getting dumped on, quite literally, and want the state to clear the way for a recycling station in downtown Manhattan.

The station is intended to ease the burden on the Bronx and Brooklyn, which now take most of the city's trash, and is part of an effort to make the city's solid waste management system fairer and more environmentally friendly. But in the latest development in the city's garbage wars, several Manhattan Assembly members and parks groups want to block the station. Glick, whose district abuts the site, and others said the peninsula simply is not a good place for the recycling station largely because it would impinge on Hudson River Park. Their critics, however, have accused of NIMBYism (not in my backyard) sentiments.

WE ACT Website: Program Initiatives

West Harlem Environmental Action, Inc. (WE ACT) is a non-profit, community-based, environmental justice organization dedicated to building community power to fight environmental racism and improve environmental health, protection and policy in communities of color.

WE ACT accomplishes its mission through community organizing, education and training, advocacy and research, and public policy development.

Since 1988, WE ACT has worked with citizen groups, youth, community residents, environmentalists, local/state/federal governments, and educational & medical institutions.
WE ACT, a vigorous advocate for and a significant monitor of the Northern Manhattan environment, is a non-profit, incorporated, community-based organization that was staffed in October 1994. WE ACT's mission is to inform, educate, train and mobilize the predominately African-American and Latino residents of Northern Manhattan on issues that impact their quality of life -- air, water and indoor pollution, toxins, land use and open space, waterfront development and usage, sanitation, transportation, historic preservation, regulatory enforcement, and citizen participation in public policy making.

City Beat: Pollution for the Poor: Should environmental health depend on race and income?: News: News

POSTED ON FEBRUARY 28, 2007:
Pollution for the Poor
Should environmental health depend on race and income?
By Margo Pierce

Councilman David Crowley wants an environmental justice policy for Cincinnati.
Natalie Hager

Many people across the country know the Zip code area 45232 as a "toxic donut," with the residential neighborhoods of Winton Hills, Winton Place and Spring Grove surrounded by more than 50 polluting industrial facilities, according to local activists.

Yet many Tri state residents remain unaware of the way in which these low-income, predominantly minority neighborhoods are subjected to a disproportionate amount of pollution.

Exploring the Massive, Viscous Oil Blob That Lies Just Beneath the Streets of Greenpoint -- New York Magazine

The Ooze
Ten million gallons of toxic gunk trapped in the Brooklyn aquifer is starting to creep toward the surface. How scary is that?
By Daphne Eviatar

VBS.TV - Shows: Toxic Brooklyn

video series by Vice TV about pollution in/near williamsburg, brooklyn

Lucas - Providing transport for social inclusion within a framework for environmental justice in the UK

Title: Providing transport for social inclusion within a framework for environmental justice in the UK

Source: Transportation research. Part B, Methodological [0191-2615] Lucas yr:2006 vol:40 iss:10 pg:801

Abstract

This paper examines emerging trends in transport policy in the UK, as identified by the 2004 Transport White Paper and the supporting policy guidance to local transport authorities for addressing social exclusion through local transport provision; accessibility planning. It moves on to identify potential barriers to delivery at the local level and more fundamental challenges, risks and policy tensions. In this context, it critiques UK policies to deliver social equity through transport programmes in light of its Climate Change Agenda and the identified need to significantly reduce traffic levels on UK roads.

It identifies the potential synergy between these two policy ambitions, but argues that currently there is a serious policy conflict between these agendas within the UK policy framework. In the light of this conclusion, it offers some key recommendations on the best way forward, which it recommends must be based on the synergistic and integrated delivery of policies for social and environmental equity within the transport sector. It concludes by identifying the key challenges this implies for applied research in this area.

Identity and Inequality: Race and Space in Planning.

Title: Identity and Inequality: Race and Space in Planning.
Authors: Heikkila, Eric J
Source: Planning Theory & Practice; Dec2001, Vol. 2 Issue 3, p261-275, 15p

Abstract: Planners' concerns for spatial equity and for racial equity are expressed tangibly through legislation designed to promote regional development, enterprise zones, affirmative action, and in other spheres of practice. Equity concerns take on heightened meaning where issues of space and race intersect, such as inner-city revitalization or environmental justice. This article explores the underlying basis for issues of social justice in the context of race and space, leading to two principle findings. First, there is a tight correspondence between the role of race and space in the social construction of identity and corresponding formulations of social justice. This point is demonstrated using five diverse examples from the realm of practice. Second, there is a danger of misapplication of principles of social justice where the implicit dimensions of one problem sphere are applied to another. This point is illustrated with two examples; a defunct World Bank proposal to marketize waste disposal and an effort in California to restore racial equity in public university admissions through spatially mediated interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

New York Metropolitan Transportation Council

The Environmental Justice Assessment Draft Report examines NYMTC's transportation planning process in the context of the requirements of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Federal Executive Order of 1994, and other federal guidance on environmental justice. It was developed to meet Federal transportation planning requirements.

AZ DOT - What Is the Best Way to Address Environmental Justice Issues?

What Is the Best Way to Address Environmental Justice Issues?
FINAL REPORT 506

Prepared by:
Amy Jerome and Jennifer Donahue
Environmental Planning Group
4350 E. Camelback, G-200
Phoenix, AZ 85018

JANUARY 2002

Prepared for:
Arizona Department of Transportation
206 South 17th Avenue
Phoenix, Arizona 85007
in cooperation with
U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Highway Administration

Abstract
The information we received from the DOTs surveyed included a variety of responses regarding the level of implementation of environmental justice (EJ) policies, procedures and programs. Even though the level of implementation varies among the DOTs, the basic principles of EJ evaluation and response are consistent. Below, we have provided a synopsis of what can be called "best practices" for implementing an effective EJ program. The two models have been utilized in differing degrees by many DOTs. At least three DOTs have implemented the two models. However, the macro-level model has not been in practice for a long period of time and therefore its effectiveness has not fully been measured. Neither has the success of the micro-level (project specific) action been determined.

Even though there appears to be no considerable evidence of legal challenges to the more basic approaches used by some DOTs, the utilization of the proposed "best practices" is warranted. Continuing interest and concern for EJ issues in Arizona, and the potential for increased public awareness suggest that methods that formalize ADOTs EJ policies and procedures in this manner should be continued and expanded were necessary.

MTC -- Library -- 2001 RTP -- Environmental Justice Report for the 2001 Regional Transportaiton Plan for the San Francisco Bay Area

* Environmental Justice Report for the 2001 Regional Transportaiton Plan for the San Francisco Bay Area (PDF)

MTC -- Planning -- Community-Based Transportation Planning

Designing Travel Solutions
At the Local Level

MTC is taking a grass-roots approach to identifying barriers to mobility and working to overcome them. With its Community-Based Transportation Planning Program, MTC has created a collaborative planning process that involves residents in minority and low-income Bay Area communities, community and faith-based organizations that serve them, transit operators, county congestion management agencies (CMAs) and MTC.

Launched in 2002, the Community-Based Transportation Planning Program evolved out of two reports completed in 2001 - the Lifeline Transportation Network Report and the Environmental Justice Report.

The Lifeline Report identified travel needs in low-income Bay Area communities and recommended community-based transportation planning as a way for communities to set priorities and evaluate options for filling transportation gaps. Likewise, the Environmental Justice Report identified the need for MTC to support local planning efforts in low-income communities throughout the region.

MTC -- Planning -- 2030 Plan -- Transportation 2030 Equity Analysis Report

MTC long range plan --> Transportation 2030 Equity Analysis Report

AASHTO Center for Environmental Excellence: Environmental Justice

MPO actions to address EJ -

Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs). Whether in response to non-compliance determinations, litigation, or because it’s just “the right thing to do”, Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs) have become increasingly involved in identifying, providing special outreach, and engaging environmental justice populations in the development of transportation plans and programs. Resources on this topic include the following:

DVRPC - Environmental Justice Technical Work Program Activities: Annual Update: 2005

Annual update of DVRPC EJ activities

DVRPC / Regional Planning / Transportation

Transportation & Community Development Initiative

The TCDI program is an opportunity for the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission (DVRPC) to support local development and redevelopment efforts in the individual municipalities of the Delaware Valley that implement municipal, county, state, and regional planning objectives. The TCDI program is intended to reverse the trends of disinvestment and decline in many of the region's core cities and developed communities by:

1. Supporting local planning projects that will lead to more residential, employment or retail opportunities;

2. Improving the overall character and quality of life within these communities to retain and attract business and residents, which will help to reduce the pressure for further sprawl and expansion into the growing suburbs;

3. Enhancing and utilizing the existing transportation infrastructure capacity in these areas to reduce the demands on the region's transportation network; and

4. Reducing congestion and improving the transportation system's efficiency. FY 2007 TCDI awards have been approved by Board on May 24, 2007.

Teens take to streets with pollution detectors in NYC, elsewhere - AM New York

Teens take to streets with pollution detectors in NYC, elsewhere
By COLLEEN LONG
Associated Press Writer

May 30, 2007

NEW YORK --
The residents of Brooklyn's Sunset Park neighborhood often wonder about the quality of the air as they gaze at the power plants, the waste-transfer station and the traffic-clogged expressway that surround their homes.

The answer to their question could rest with a group of teenagers walking the streets of the neighborhood this summer.

Volunteers from a Hispanic community organization are taking to the streets with handheld pollution detectors to determine the quality of the air. Similar efforts are happening in three other cities around the country, with the goal of developing a clearer picture of the pollution that plagues the nation's urban areas.

"In order for us to really change things, we need to know what's there, on a daily basis," said Frank Torres, director of youth leadership for New York-based UPROSE. "We want to educate to the community, put the power in their hands so they can change their surroundings."

Amid all the recent clean-air initiatives being launched around the country is a sometimes-overlooked fact: The worst pollution exists in poor and minority neighborhoods.

More than 90 percent of Hispanics and 86 percent of blacks live in urban settings, which are typically at higher risk for air pollution, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Hispanics are more than twice as likely than non-Hispanics to live in places that fall short of EPA standards for airborne particle matter.

Foreign Policy: Inside the Digital Dump

Current Article
Inside the Digital Dump

Page 1 of 11
May/June 2007
Technology drives the forces of globalization. But when we replace our computers and flat-screens with the newest in high-tech cool, what happens to the hardware we throw away? Welcome to the digital dumping ground, where the poor make a living off other people's spare parts.

Justice and the politics of difference / Iris Marion Young.

Young, Iris Marion, 1949- . Justice and the politics of difference / Iris Marion Young. [0691078327 (alk. paper) : ] Princeton, N.J. : Princeton University Press, 1990.
Call#: [z] Lost copy. JC578 .Y68 1990

Restructuring and the contraction and expansion of environmental rights in the United States

L Pulido

Received 22 April 1993; in revised form 7 November 1993

Abstract. In this paper I examine the ways in which economic and political restructuring is impacting environmental rights as conceptualized and practised by environmental justice activists in California and the Southwestern USA. Using Iris Young's framework, I argue that the recent gains of the environmental justice movement have been based largely on procedural justice, which is insufficient to ensure universal environmental quality, a stated goal of the movement. The limits of procedural justice have become apparent through the processes of restructuring, internationalization, and immigration, all of which are creating a new landscape for activists. Activists in California find that their rights are being contracted, because of deregulation and capital flight, and at the same time are expanding to include residents of Mexico. Given these global realities, procedural justice must also be accompanied by efforts to address both uneven development and a lack of democracy over private production decisions.

Citizens, experts, and the environment : the politics of local knowledge / Frank Fischer.

Fischer, Frank, 1942- . Citizens, experts, and the environment : the politics of local knowledge / Frank Fischer. [0822326280 (cloth : alk. paper) ] Durham, NC : Duke University Press, 2000.
Call#: Van Pelt Library GE170 .F52 2000

Environmental justice analysis : theories, methods, and practice / Feng Liu.

Liu, Feng. . Environmental justice analysis : theories, methods, and practice / Feng Liu. [1566704030 (alk. paper) ] Boca Raton : Lewis Publishers, c2001.
Call#: Van Pelt Library GE170 .L58 2001

Environmental sociology : from analysis to action / edited by Leslie King and Deborah McCarthy.

Environmental sociology : from analysis to action / edited by Leslie King and Deborah McCarthy. [0742535088 (pbk. : alk. paper) ] Lanham, Md. : Rowman & Littlefield, c2005.
Call#: Van Pelt Library GE195 .E588 2005

Toxic struggles : the theory and practice of environmental justice / edited by Richard Hofrichter ; foreword by Lois Gibbs.

Toxic struggles : the theory and practice of environmental justice / edited by Richard Hofrichter ; foreword by Lois Gibbs. [0865712697 (hbk.) ] Philadelphia : New Society Publishers, c1993.
Call#: Van Pelt Library TD171.7 .T69 1993

Casino-Bound, Complaints in Their Wake - New York Times

April 15, 2007
Chinatown
Casino-Bound, Complaints in Their Wake
By CASSI FELDMAN

Around 8:30 p.m., a fat gray bus bound for Atlantic City pulls up on Division Street in Chinatown. Its doors wheeze open, and a line of riders shuffle into formation, clutching pink tickets and plastic shopping bags, and sucking a few final drags from their cigarettes before flicking them away.

The ritual takes no more than 15 minutes, but it happens dozens of times a day as buses headed to Trump Plaza, Foxwoods or other casinos load and unload passengers in the V formed by the Bowery and Division Street.

Now, citing pollution and noise, neighbors say they want the buses to find a new home.

"You can feel a toxic film in our yard," said Justin Yu, vice president of the co-op board at Confucius Plaza, a 44-story complex that overlooks the site. "It's very unhealthy."

While numerous bus companies operate out of Chinatown, Mr. Yu and his neighbors are particularly concerned about casino buses because their informal hub is a block shared by hundreds of senior citizens, an elementary school, a kindergarten and a day care center.

World cities in a world-system / edited by Paul L. Knox and Peter J. Taylor.

World cities in a world-system / edited by Paul L. Knox and Peter J. Taylor. [0521481651 (hardback) ] Cambridge ; New York : Cambridge University Press, c1995.
Call#: Van Pelt Library HT330 .M37 1995

see Keil, R - The Environmental Problematic in World Cities - p. 280-297

spatial justice conference

Colloque international "Justice et injustice spatiales"

Deep Difference: Diversity, Planning and Ethics -- Watson 5 (1): 31 -- Planning Theory

Planning Theory, Vol. 5, No. 1, 31-50 (2006)
DOI: 10.1177/1473095206061020
© 2006 SAGE Publications
Deep Difference: Diversity, Planning and Ethics
Vanessa Watson

University of Cape Town, South Africa; watson@eng.uct.ac.za

The article suggests that planning's current sources of moral philosophy are no longer an entirely satisfactory guide on issues of ethical judgement in a context of deepening social difference and an increasingly hegemonic market rationality. A focus on process in planning and a relative neglect of product, together with the assumption that such processes can be guided by a universal set of deontological values shaped by the liberal tradition, are rendered particularly problematic in a world which is characterized by deepening social and economic differences and inequalities and by the aggressive promotion of neoliberal values by particular dominant nation-states. The notion of introducing values into deliberative processes is explored.

Key Words: conflict • ethics • judgement • social difference • values

Federal Urban Transportation Policy and the Highway Planning Process in Metropolitan Areas

Title: Federal Urban Transportation Policy and the Highway Planning Process in Metropolitan Areas

Source: Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science [0002-7162] Rabin yr:1980 vol:451 pg:21

How were highways built given the requirements for evaluation in Civil Rights Act and NEPA of the "social and economic impacts of central city and its inhabitants" which this highway only policy caused? While most highways in urban centers were planned prior to these policies - "federal review and approval of many of these same projects occurred much later and was subject to some or all of the impact disclosure requirements. Yet these impacts, if they were ever considered by state highway departments during project reviews, were generally not disclosed in Title VI reviews, or in Environmental Impact Statements, or at public hearings. A significant aspect of these reviews has been the tendency of Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) to base approvals of state plans on assurances of compliance even in the absence of corroborating evidence"Federal Urban Transportation Policy and the Highway Planning Process in Metropolitan Areas"

Franklin: Penn Library Catalog - Brief Record View

CITATION] From NIMBY to Civil Rights: The Origins of the Environmental Justice Movement
EM McGurty - Environmental History, 1997

Location: Van Pelt Library
Call Number: GF1 .E183
Status: Available, check location

Martin V. Melosi - Environmental Justice, Political Agenda Setting, and the Myths of History - Journal of Policy History 12:1

Martin V. Melosi

The emergence of the environmental justice movement in the 1980s has stimulated much debate on the extent to which race and class have been or should become central concerns of modern environmentalism. 1 Leaders in the environmental justice movement have charged that mainstream environmental organizations and, in turn, environmental policy have demonstrated a greater concern for preserving wilderness and animal habitats than addressing health hazards of humans, especially those living in cities; have embraced a "Save the Earth" perspective at the expense of saving people's lives and protecting their homes and backyards. Some advocates of environmental justice have gone so far as to dissociate their movement from American environmentalism altogether, rather identifying with a broader social justice heritage as imbedded in civil rights activities of the 1950s and 1960s.

Title: Garbage wars : the struggle for environmental justice in Chicago / David Naguib Pellow.

Author: Pellow, David N., 1969-
Title: Garbage wars : the struggle for environmental justice in Chicago / David Naguib Pellow.
Publisher: Cambridge, Mass. : MIT Press, c2002.
Description: Entry Not Found
ix, 234 p. : ill. ; 24 cm.
LC Subject(s): Environmental justice --Illinois --Chicago.
Refuse and refuse disposal --Social aspects --Illinois --Chicago.
Series: Urban and industrial environments

Location: Van Pelt Library
Call Number: GE235.I3 P45 2002

SER - Chapter 25 - Environmental Justice

The purpose of the Standard Environmental Reference (SER) is to provide a single, standard reference on compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and related federal laws, executive orders, regulations, and policies. The reference is intended for statewide use by local agencies, Caltrans, and FHWA staff. The SER also provides information on compliance with the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and related state laws, executive orders, and regulations. This information is for use by Caltrans in the preparation of environmental documentation for on projects for which it is the CEQA lead agency. Local agencies, acting as lead for CEQA on their own projects, may also wish to refer to these portions of the SER for guidance and ideas supplemental to their own procedures.

PennTags Feed for /tag/environmental_justice

CC)sar CuauhtC)moc GarcC-a HernC!ndez - Malthus Lives in Anti-Immigrant Ads

Global Voices Online B; [GV Show Special] Trinidad

Mapping environmental injustices: pitfalls and potential of geographic information systems in assessing environmental health and equity.

Social Exclusion Unit

Resisting Global Toxics - David Naguib Pellow

Sustainable communities and the challenge of environmental justice / Julian Agyeman.

Minority Empowerment and Environmental Justice -- Chambers 43 (1): 28 -- Urban Affairs Review

Spatial Scale and Population Assignment Choices in Environmental Justice Analyses - Prof Geographer, Volume 56 Issue 4 Page 574-586, November 2004

Urban transportation and equity: A case study of Beijing and Karachi

Spaces of hope / David Harvey.

Exxon Mobil Cleanup Effort Continues on Brooklyn Spill - New York Times

Built Environment, Vol. 29, Iss. 3 - Transport and Sustainability: The Role of the Built Environment

Transportation Research Board - Journal Article

Abstract

Application of a Travel Demand Microsimulation Model for Equity Analysis

Using GIS to Assess the Environmental Justice Consequences of Transportation System Changes

Pratt Center: Transportation Equity Project

DVRPC/ Regional Planning/ Environmental Justice / Map Gallery

Latest Round in the Garbage Wars (Gotham Gazette. June, 2007)

WE ACT Website: Program Initiatives

City Beat: Pollution for the Poor: Should environmental health depend on race and income?: News: News

Exploring the Massive, Viscous Oil Blob That Lies Just Beneath the Streets of Greenpoint -- New York Magazine

VBS.TV - Shows: Toxic Brooklyn

Lucas - Providing transport for social inclusion within a framework for environmental justice in the UK

Identity and Inequality: Race and Space in Planning.

New York Metropolitan Transportation Council

AZ DOT - What Is the Best Way to Address Environmental Justice Issues?

MTC -- Library -- 2001 RTP -- Environmental Justice Report for the 2001 Regional Transportaiton Plan for the San Francisco Bay Area

MTC -- Planning -- Community-Based Transportation Planning

MTC -- Planning -- 2030 Plan -- Transportation 2030 Equity Analysis Report

AASHTO Center for Environmental Excellence: Environmental Justice

DVRPC - Environmental Justice Technical Work Program Activities: Annual Update: 2005

DVRPC / Regional Planning / Transportation

Teens take to streets with pollution detectors in NYC, elsewhere - AM New York

Foreign Policy: Inside the Digital Dump

Justice and the politics of difference / Iris Marion Young.

Restructuring and the contraction and expansion of environmental rights in the United States

Citizens, experts, and the environment : the politics of local knowledge / Frank Fischer.

Environmental justice analysis : theories, methods, and practice / Feng Liu.

Environmental sociology : from analysis to action / edited by Leslie King and Deborah McCarthy.

Toxic struggles : the theory and practice of environmental justice / edited by Richard Hofrichter ; foreword by Lois Gibbs.

Casino-Bound, Complaints in Their Wake - New York Times

World cities in a world-system / edited by Paul L. Knox and Peter J. Taylor.

spatial justice conference

Deep Difference: Diversity, Planning and Ethics -- Watson 5 (1): 31 -- Planning Theory

Federal Urban Transportation Policy and the Highway Planning Process in Metropolitan Areas

Franklin: Penn Library Catalog - Brief Record View

Martin V. Melosi - Environmental Justice, Political Agenda Setting, and the Myths of History - Journal of Policy History 12:1

Title: Garbage wars : the struggle for environmental justice in Chicago / David Naguib Pellow.

SER - Chapter 25 - Environmental Justice

Vicki Been - What