Malthus Lives in Anti-Immigrant Ads

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

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.

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.

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
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.

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

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

 

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

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.

 

Authors: Randall Crane and Lisa A. Scweitzer

 

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

 

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.

 

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.

EJ maps from DVRPC

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 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.

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.

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

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

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]

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.

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.

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

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 long range plan --> Transportation 2030 Equity Analysis Report

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:
 

Annual update of DVRPC EJ activities

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
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.

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.

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.

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.

spatial justice conference

Colloque international "Justice et injustice spatiales"

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

 

 

 

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 

Copyright © 2000 by The Pennsylvania State University. All rights reserved.
Journal of Policy History 12.1 (2000) 43-71
Environmental Justice, Political Agenda Setting, and the Myths of History

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.

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

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.

Journal of Planning Education and Research, Vol. 18, No. 3, 233-243 (1999)
DOI: 10.1177/0739456X9901800305
© 1999 Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning
Environmental Justice and the Sustainable City
Graham Haughton

As the debate on sustainable development and environmental justice has gathered momen tum, considerable attention has been paid to identifying key principles. In this paper, I highlight a number of core principles and then move on to examine differing styles of policy approach, which have gained favor among different sources, for moving toward the sustainable city from market-based neo- liberal reformism to deep green ecologically centered approaches. I highlight four broad categories of approach to sustainable urban development and begin linking those to the core principles of sustainable development.

Title:	Environmental Justice Analysis: Challenges for Transportation Planning
Accession Number:	(not assigned)
Record Type:	Component
Language 1:	English
Order URL:	http://pubsindex.trb.org/orderform.html
Source Data:	Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting 2007 Paper #07-2866

Abstract:	This research focuses on three major challenges of incorporating Environmental Justice into metropolitan transportation planning. Needed data is compared with what is currently available on spatial distribution of race and income, spatial distribution of trip ends, trip tables, network performance, and cost estimates of improvements. Several conflicting definitions of equity are offered, as well as applications for each within the context of Environmental Justice. The importance of choosing a correct unit of analysis is discussed, with particular emphasis on how the geographic unit of analysis is a poor proxy for the group unit – that is theoretically required as the analysis’ purpose is to compare performance measures between groups. The primary goal of this paper is to explore challenging topics such as these, raising questions and concerns. The answers to the questions raised will differ depending on each implementing agency’s objectives and resources.
Report Number:	07-2866
Media Type:	CD-ROM
Authors:	Duthie, Jennifer ; Cervenka, Ken ; Waller, S. Travis

"Environmental Ethics and Planning Theory"

Beatley, T. (Winter) 1989
JOURNAL OF PLANNING LITERATURE 4:1-32

Environmental Justice Database

---

Bibliographic entries on issues related to environmental justice.

Call # KF5698 .R63 - at circulation desk
Lib. has v.1-8 No longer updated as of 7/91
Author Rohan, Patrick J
Title Zoning and land use controls / by Patrick J. Rohan ; contributors, Gary I. Cohen ... [et al.]
Imprint New York : M. Bender, 1978-

 

Call Number	HB72 .P62 2000
Title	The political economy of inequality / edited by Frank Ackerman ... [et al.]
Imprint	Washington, DC : Island Press, c2000

Pt. VIII Categorical Inequality
What's Fairness Got To Do With It? Environmental Justice and the Siting of Locally Undesirable Land Uses / Vicki Been 255

Civil Rights Programs
Nondiscrimination

Nondiscrimination provisions apply to all programs and activities of Federal-aid recipients, sub-recipients, and contractors, regardless of tier. The obligation to not discriminate is based on the objective of Congress to not have funds, which were collected in a non-discriminatory manner used in ways that subsidize, promote, or perpetuate discrimination based on race, color, national origin, sex, age, or physical or mental disability, sexual orientation, or retaliation. Primary recipients are responsible for determining and obtaining compliance by their sub-recipients and contractors. The recent passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act and the clarifications of the reach of Title VI in the arenas of Environmental Justice and the needs of Limited English Proficient populations have expanded jurisdiction, clients, and complexity.

ENVIRONMENT
COURSE NUMBER: FHWA-NHI-142042
COURSE TITLE: Fundamentals of Title VI/Environmental Justice

LENGTH: 2 Days CEU: 1.2 Units
FEE: $270 Per Participant
CLASS SIZE: Minimum:20; Maximum:30

DESCRIPTION:
Environmental justice and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 apply to every stage of transportation decisionmaking. The U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) and its partners are committed to integrating the nondiscrimination principles of environmental justice and Title VI into all Federal-aid programs. Through these and other transportation programs, many opportunities exist to establish partnerships with other public and private organizations to create livable communities that meet the needs of all people. This course presents participants with a framework for using a variety of approaches and tools for accomplishing environmental justice goals in Federal-aid programs and other transportation projects.

U.S. Department of Justice
Civil Rights Division

Title VI Compliance Reviews

The FTA Office of Civil Rights conducts periodic discretionary compliance reviews of recipients of FTA funding, including transit providers, state Departments of Transportation, and Metropolitan Planning Organizations to determine their compliance with FTA Circular 4702.1, "Title VI Program Guidelines for Federal Transit Administration Recipients." Compliance reviews also provide technical assistance and make recommendations regarding corrective actions, as deemed necessary and appropriate.

Beginning in 2002, FTA has conducted compliance reviews and finalized reports for the following grant recipients:

The Transportation Equity Research Program

Open printable version in a new window

In 2006, the Federal Transit Administration Office of Civil Rights initiated the Transportation Equity Research Program (TERP) pursuant to Section 3046(a)(3) of the Safe, Accountable, Flexible and Efficient Transportation Equity Act, a Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU).

Section 3046(a)(3) states that "not less than $1 million of research funds shall be allocated towards research and demonstration activities that focus on the impacts that transportation planning, investment, and operations have on low-income and minority populations that are transit dependent. Such activities shall include the development of strategies to advance economic and community development in low-income and minority communities and the development of training programs that promote the employment of low-income and minority residents on Federal-aid transportation projects constructed in their communities."

Welcome to CalEJ.org! We hope that this site has something for everyone, whether or not you live in the San Francisco Bay Area, and from people who have never heard of environmental justice (EJ) before, to life-long activists, and everyone in between. This space is envisioned to be a place to come for EJ-related news, discussions (debates and questions), real-life experiential knowledge, and research. We do not need to rely solely on mainstream corporate-owned media to get our word out. We have begun with a focus on the Bay Area and California because this is our home and we love it!

16. Abstract
This report was commissioned by the Greater Baltimore Urban League (GBUL) to the Graduate Program in City and Regional Planning and the National Transportation Center at Morgan State University. The purpose of the report is to answer two broad research questions: (a) How does the public participation process in transportation reach, empower, and take into account low-income and minority communities and their needs, problems, and aspirations? And (b) how are equity and environmental justice data and concerns incorporated into the decision- making process? The research employed multiple methods. These included a literature review; qualitative interviews with transportation planners, practitioners and policymakers, and other stakeholders in transportation planning and policy; a focus group; and a survey. Our primary analytical framework was drawn from critical ethnography and studies of practice and discourse in public policy.

Urban Geography, 2001, 22, 1, pp. 78–90.  

PROGRESS REPORT
DEFINING ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE AND ENVIRONMENTAL RACISM
Ryan Holifield
Department of Geography
University of Georgia

American Behavioral Scientist, Vol. 43, No. 4, 508-580 (2000)
DOI: 10.1177/0002764200043004003
© 2000 SAGE Publications
The Rise of the Environmental Justice Paradigm
Injustice Framing and the Social Construction of Environmental Discourses
DORCETA E. TAYLOR

University of Michigan

This article uses social movement theory to analyze environmental justice rhetoric. It argues that the environmental justice frame is a master frame that uses discourses about injustice as an effective mobilizing tool. The article identifies an environmental justice paradigm and compares it with the new environmental paradigm. In addition, the article discusses why the environmental justice movement grew so fast and why its adherents find the environmental justice frame so appealing.

Journal of Planning Education and Research, Vol. 22, No. 4, 420-433 (2003)
DOI: 10.1177/0739456X03022004008
© 2003 Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning
Bringing Local Knowledge into Environmental Decision Making
Improving Urban Planning for Communities at Risk
Jason Corburn

This article reveals how local knowledge can improve planning for communities facing the most serious environmental and health risks. These communities often draw on their firsthand experience-here called local knowledge-to challenge expert-lay distinctions. Community participation in environmental decisions is putting pressure on planners to find new ways of fusing the expertise of scientists with insights from the local knowledge of communities. Using interviews, primary texts, and ethnographic fieldwork, this article defines local knowledge, reveals how it differs from professional knowledge, and argues that local knowledge can improve planning in at least four ways (1) epistemology, adding to the knowledge base of environmental policy; (2) procedural democracy, including new and previously silenced voices; (3) effectiveness, providing low-cost policy solutions; and (4) distributive justice, highlighting inequitable distributions of environmental burdens.

Key Words: local knowledge • environmental health • community planning

Journal of Planning Education and Research, Vol. 26, No. 1, 92-106 (2006)
DOI: 10.1177/0739456X06288090
© 2006 Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning
Just Planning
The Art of Situated Ethical Judgment
Heather Campbell

Department of Town and Regional Planning at the University of Sheffield.

The conceptualizations of justice that have most influenced recent debates in planning theory have focused on procedural concerns, while questions of value and the good have been regarded as problematic given a world of plurality and difference. This article argues that questions of value are an inescapable part of the activity of planning and hence its purpose is to identify the key dimensions of a reconceptualized notion of justice for planning. The argument is presented through consideration of two key themes: the relationship between the individual and the collective, and the notion of "reasonableness" in relation to matters of public policy related to planning. The implications of this analysis lead on to consideration of the scope of collective obligations and the nature of judgment and reasoning in planning. The article concludes by arguing that justice in planning is about situated ethical judgment- a conceptualization of justice that raises significant issues in relation to future developments in planning thought.

Key Words: justice • ethical judgment • planning theory

Journal of Planning Education and Research, Vol. 16, No. 4, 280-290 (1997)
DOI: 10.1177/0739456X9701600404
© 1997 Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning
A Model for Teaching Environmental Justice in a Planning Curriculum
R. O. Washington

Denise Strong

College of Urban and Public Affairs, University of New Orleans.

This article describes a course, Environmental Justice Movement, initiated at the College of Urban and Public Affairs at the University of New Orleans in the spring of 1995. A companion to a course in environmental planning, the course was designed to prepare planning students to engage in the environmental policy debate by exposing them to its historical, moral, and technical dimensions. By examining strategies and tactics of planning practice, they learn to apply their analytic and research skills to appropriate advocacy, mediation, and community planning roles. The course seeks to connect the environmental justice movement with social movement theory, concepts of procedural justice, and advocacy and equity planning. It integrates propositions and concepts about the politics of planning, land use policies, and practices with political philosophy, populist beliefs and what Perry (1994) calls "the street-level Rawlsian approach."

Journal of Planning Education and Research, Vol. 23, No. 1, 24-38 (2003)
DOI: 10.1177/0739456X03255431
© 2003 Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning
Environmental Justice on the Streets
Advocacy Planning as a Tool to Contest Environmental Racism
Stacy Anne Harwood

Department of Urban and Regional Planning at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign

This article argues that environmental racism should be broadened to include the maldistribution of beneficial environmental conditions and proposes that advocacy planning may be an effective way to address the spatial absence of beneficial environmental services and amenities. The article examines advocacy in the context of neighborhood improvement, specifically around the placement of a streetlight and stop sign. Neighborhood infrastructure and transportation planning are vital for safety and quality of life, especially for communities of color, yet planning at this level often revolves around physical aspects of the neighborhood with minimal attention paid to planning processes and outcomes likely to marginalize and even endanger communities. Through an examination of one municipality's neighborhood-based advocacy approach to neighborhood improvement, this article considers the opportunities and challenges in using advocacy planning as a strategy to promote environmental justice on the streets and sidewalks of distressed urban neighborhoods.

Key Words: environmental racism • neighborhood improvement • advocacy planning • environmental justice

Environmental Justice in Transportation Planning and Policy: Some Evidence From Practice in the Baltimore-Washintgon DC Metropolitan Region.
Morgan State Univ., Baltimore, MD. National Transportation Center.
Product Type: Technical report
NTIS Order Number: PB2005-101330

Page Count: 56 pages
Date: Nov 2004
Author: S. Sen, L. M. Azonobi
The purpose of the report is to answer two broad research questions: (1) How is environmental justice in transportation addressed and implemented to take into account low-income populations and minority communities and their needs, problems, and aspirations; and (2) how are environmental justice data and concerns incorporated into the transportation decision-making process. The research employed multiple methods. These included a literature review; qualitative interviews with transportation planners, practitioners and policymakers, and other stakeholders in transportation planning and policy in the Baltimore-Washington D.C. metropolitan area; and a focus group in Baltimore. Our primary analytical framework was drawn from critical ethnography and studies of practices and discourse in public policy. Three different views of environmental justice emerged from this study of the Baltimore-Washington D.C. metropolitan area. Most private consulting firms in the area are engaged in environmental justice, because it's a source of job and contracts. Most public officials in the region are engaged in environmental justice and public participation because it's a federal regulation and requirement. However, most citizen and advocacy groups in the region environmental justice and its implementation as part of the agency's mission. The lack of uniform standards regarding environmental justice issues, coupled with scarcity of information as well as the complexity of the issues, are all obstacles to implementing and enforcing environmental justice principles. Access to information is an important issue for community organizations, advocacy groups, low income and minority groups. Public agencies often hold meetings at places that are not easily accessible, or at times difficult for transit dependent, low-income, and minority populations to attend. We recommend that transportation agencies in the Baltimore-Washington D.C. metropolitan area take a proactive stance in involving low-income and minority communities in the transportation policy and planning process. 

Demography
Volume 43, Number 2, May 2006

Reassessing Racial and Socioeconomic Disparities in Environmental Justice Research
[Access article in HTML] [Access article in PDF]
Subjects:

* Hazardous waste sites -- United States.
* Environmental justice -- United States.

Abstract:
The number of studies examining racial and socioeconomic disparities in the geographic distribution of environmental hazards and locally unwanted land uses has grown considerably over the past decade. Most studies have found statistically significant racial and socioeconomic disparities associated with hazardous sites. However, there is considerable variation in the magnitude of racial and socioeconomic disparities found; indeed, some studies have found none. Uncertainties also exist about the underlying causes of the disparities. Many of these uncertainties can be attributed to the failure of the most widely used method for assessing environmental disparities to adequately account for proximity between the hazard under investigation and nearby residential populations. In this article, we identify the reasons for and consequences of this failure and demonstrate ways of overcoming these shortcomings by using alternate, distance-based methods. Through the application of such methods, we show how assessments about the magnitude and causes of racial and socioeconomic disparities in the distribution of hazardous sites are changed. In addition to research on environmental inequality, we discuss how distance-based methods can be usefully applied to other areas of demographic research that explore the effects of neighborhood context on a range of social outcomes.

Paul Mohai, Ph.D.
Professor of Natural Resources and Environment
Environmental Justice; Environmental Policy; Environmental Sociology

Equity and Environmental Justice in Sustainable Transportation: Toward A Research Agenda

Elizabeth Deakin - University of California, Berkeley
STELLA -Athens
June 2004
FOR DISCUSSION AT THE CONFERENCE

Abstract - In this paper I present a theoretical and legal framework for consideration of equity and environmental justice (EJ) and identify key issues in EJ as they are raised by low income and minority groups in the United States. I begin with a review of alternate theories of justice as well as the main theoretical arguments made in favor of public participation in government decision-making - both basic elements of the equity and environmental justice debate. I then review the development of EJ as a political movement in the United States, with roots in civil rights law, protests against hazardous waste sites and urban freeways, and advocacy planning. I discuss the current status of EJ as a legal and regulatory mandate and identify its implications for planning approaches, public participation practices, and analysis and evaluation methods. Drawing upon my work in the San Francisco Bay Area, I show that the agendas of low income and minority communities are substantially different from those of the overall population, and these differences raise important questions about the responsiveness of transportation programs and decision processes to EJ communities. I then identify a preliminary list of research needs, including research into procedures, methods, and outcomes. As planning practices in Europe expand opportunities for public participation in transportation decisions and the diversity of European populations increases, many of the issues illustrated by the US experience are likely to be seen in Europe as well. Similar issues also may arise in the countries of the South and East as planning agencies seek to accommodate differences of opinion and preference.

Issue 13 - Immigration: What it Means for Cities - Winter 2006/2007
Wrong Complexion for Protection
by Robert Bullard
In the real world, all communities are not created equal. If a community happens to be poor, black, or located on the "wrong side of the tracks," it receives less protection than communities inhabited largely by affluent whites in the suburbs. Generally, rich people tend to take the higher land, leaving the poor and working class more vulnerable to flooding and environmental pestilence. Race maps closely with social vulnerability and the geography of environmental risks.
...

Transportation Equity Project's Mission

The Transportation Equity Project of the Center for Community Change seeks to advance equity in transportation planning and policy. Transportation equity is the fair distribution of public resources across all communities, paying particular attention to the environmental and community development needs of low-income and minority communities. Today, transportation infrastructure too often neglects the economic and job access needs of low-income and minority people, while piling the brunt of environmental harms on these same families.

The Transportation Equity Project provides technical and organizational assistance to community organizing projects and brings community organizations working for transportation equity together to help strengthen their hand in regional, state and national transportation policy debates.

The Struggle for Transit Justice: Race, Space, and Social Equity in Los Angeles

Journal of Planning Education and Research, Vol. 26, No. 2, 174-184 (2006)
DOI: 10.1177/0739456X06288093
© 2006 Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning
Unraveling Equity in HOT Lane Planning
A View from Practice
Asha Weinstein

urban and regional planning, San José State University

Gian-Claudia Sciara

University of California, Berkeley

This article investigates how concern about equity has arisen in the planning and implementation of high-occupancy/toll lane projects, or so-called "HOT lanes." Specifically, the research assesses (1) where and how equity issues have surfaced in the debate over HOT lanes and (2) how practicing planners have responded to these equity concerns. By looking explicitly at the planning process through a series of case studies and a review of newspaper coverage, the research suggests strategies for how practitioners can craft a comprehensive and meaningful framework for assessing and addressing equity issues.

Key Words: transportation planning • transportation finance • HOT lanes • congestion pricing • equity

DVRPC's Public Participation Plan: A Strategy for Citizen Involvement

While today's public is far more sophisticated and modern standards are more all-inclusive, the basic tenet of public participation remains the same , to reach out to and satisfy as many populations as possible and to do so in an equitable and timely manner. Public participation is the only real way to ascertain the needs of a wide variety of citizens , the underinvolved and often unconcerned, the private sector, special interest activists, mature citizens, educators and parents, public officials, and the physically and economically disadvantaged. DVRPC believes that planning must be done with the public's full involvement and consensus.

We, therefore, have issued this publication which is designed for the DVRPC's Board, staff and the general public as an outline of the Commission's overall strategy for public participation, as well as the policies that have been adopted as inherent to the operation of this agency as we move into the 21st century.

 

The purpose of this memorandum is to issue clarification to you in implementing Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act (42 U.S.C. 2000d-1) and related regulations, The President's Executive Order on Environmental Justice, the U.S. DOT Order, and the FHWA Order.

Title VI states that "No person in the United States shall, on the ground of race, color, or national origin, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance." Title VI bars intentional discrimination as well as disparate impact discrimination (i.e., a neutral policy or practice that has a disparate impact on protected groups).

The Environmental Justice (EJ) Orders further amplify Title VI by providing that "each Federal agency shall make achieving environmental justice part of its mission by identifying and addressing, as appropriate, disproportionately high and adverse human health or environmental effects of its programs, policies, and activities on minority populations and low-income populations."

Increasingly, concerns for compliance with provisions of Title VI and the EJ Orders have been raised by citizens and advocacy groups with regard to broad patterns of transportation investment and impact considered in metropolitan and statewide planning. While Title VI and EJ concerns have most often been raised during project development, it is important to recognize that the law also applies equally to the processes and products of planning. The appropriate time for FTA and FHWA to ensure compliance with Title VI in the planning process is during the planning certification reviews conducted for Transportation Management Areas (TMAs) and through the statewide planning finding rendered at approval of the Statewide Transportation Improvement Program (STIP).

This memorandum serves as clarification pending issuance of revised planning and environmental regulations.

Reconsidering Social Equity in Public Transit
Mark Garrett and Brian Taylor

Abstract: Over the course of this century, public transit systems in the U.S. have lost most of the market share of metropolitan travel to private vehicles. The two principal markets that remain for public transit systems are downtown commuters and transit dependents — people who are too young, too old, too poor, or physically unable to drive. Despite the fact that transit dependents are the steadiest customers for most public transit systems, transit policy has tended to focus on recapturing lost markets through expanded suburban bus, express bus, and fixed rail systems. Such efforts have collectively proven expensive and only marginally effective. At the same time, comparatively less attention and fewer resources tend to be devoted to improving well-patronized transit service in low- income, central-city areas serving a high proportion of transit dependents. This paper explores this issue through an examination of both the evolving demographics of public transit ridership, and the reasons for shifts in transit policies toward attracting automobile users onto buses and trains. We conclude that the growing dissonance between the quality of service provided to inner-city residents who depend on local buses and the level of public resources being spent to attract new transit riders is both
economically inefficient and socially inequitable. In light of this, we propose that transportation planners concerned with social justice (and economic efficiency) should re-examine current public transit policies and plans.

	Publisher:	Routledge, part of the Taylor & Francis Group
	Issue:	Volume 9, Number 1 / April 2005
	Pages:	51 - 66
	URL:	Linking Options
	DOI:	10.1080/13604810500050161

The abandoned social goals of public transit in the neoliberal city of the USA

Joe Grengs

Abstract:

 

A preface and a bus rider’s story: “two-tiered” transit system in the making?

Imagine a bus stop in a typical working-class neighbourhood of inner-city Los Angeles, a city with an extraordinary array of peoples and cultures. The bus pulls up with standing room only, filled with a variety of people: Mexican, Salvadoran, Korean, Filipino and African American; men and women going to jobs, some of them janitors, some street vendors. People on the bus include women clutching children and grocery bags, kids going to school, elderly folks off to the Senior Centre. The ride is like always: hot, noisy and desperately crowded. The riders come from decidedly different backgrounds, yet share the same experience daily—jostled against one another, staring blankly out cracked windows, minding their own business, intent on getting where they need to go. And getting it over with as quickly as possible.

In another part of town, people of a different income class are riding in a new train. They come from the suburbs, clacking away at laptops and sipping cappuccino on their way to downtown jobs. These are people taking advantage of what Mike Davis (1995, p. 270) calls “the biggest public works project in fin de siecle America”, an ambitious series of commuter rail lines that were budgeted at $183 billion over 30 years (Sterngold, 1999). These train riders choose to leave their cars at home to avoid the maddening freeway jams of Los Angeles. Some ride the train on principle. Trains are, after all, better for the environment.

Back on the inner-city bus … someone’s handing out leaflets and talking about forming a union—of bus riders? First in English then in Spanish, the organizer tells riders how the train that’s always in the newspapers is costing more than planners expected, and that politicians now propose to take money away from buses to keep building the train lines. Then the organizer talks about racial discrimination. Racial discrimination? What do buses have to do with racial discrimination?

TASKS (1.) Review recent and ongoing research and literature on consideration of environmental justice in transportation systems, corridor, and project planning. Highlight innovative procedures and the findings of recent research and report on their effectiveness in improving transportation decision making. (2.) Review existing practices and procedures of federal, state, and regional transportation and nontransportation agencies that assess and consider environmental justice implications in plans and programs. (3.) Review significant federal and state environmental-justice-related regulations and guidelines that can be expected to affect transportation planning and decision making. (4.) Review and analyze statutes and case law and provide a synthesis of what is legally required by existing environmental justice requirements. (5.) Identify best practices and deficiencies of procedures, practices, and analytic methods for considering environmental justice effects in plans and programs. Identify ways that federal and state administrative processes and regulatory reviews can be improved from an efficiency standpoint. (6.) Prepare an interim report covering Tasks 1 through 5 for NCHRP review and comment. Meet with the project panel to discuss feedback and gain approval for the remaining tasks. (7.) Develop new and improved qualitative and quantitative measures for identifying the environmental justice populations and the positive and negative effects of transportation plans, programs, and projects. (8.) Develop a draft guidebook that includes the measures developed in Task 7 and provides updated reference information on environmental justice and its integration into transportation planning and decision making. The guidebook is intended to improve the practice of assessing environmental justice effects and to provide perspectives on the tools and procedures available to practitioners. The guidebook should include practical illustrations and examples of effective environmental justice applications, methods, tools, and analyses at the systems, corridor, and project levels. (9.) Present the draft guidebook for review by NCHRP. (10.) Develop a plan to present and obtain feedback on the guidebook, reference information, and key research findings to selected focus groups comprised of practitioners representing various national transportation organizations and environmental justice stakeholders. (11.) Develop recommendations and guidance for disseminating the research findings and the guidebook to appropriate federal, state, and local practitioners. Recommend appropriate training approaches or opportunities to encourage widespread guidebook use. Identify other research needs emanating from this project. (12.) Prepare a final report that documents the entire project. The guidebook should be the primary product of the final report and is intended as a reference document for practitioners, containing best practices, methodologies, issues, and implementation approaches. The study design, methods, and Task 11 recommendations should be included as appendixes.

 

Environmental Justice Reports and Information.

MPO Environmental

Justice Report

Mid-Ohio regional planning commission

MORPC's efforts are noteworthy for using analytical techniques and public involvement. The agency effectively used Geographic Information Systems (GIS) mapping to locate low-income and minority populations within the Columbus metropolitan area. This information was incorporated into a travel-demand forecasting model to assess the benefits and burdens of existing and planned transportation system investments on target populations.

...

Central to MORPC's study plan was the agency's use of the travel-demand forecasting model that it had used to prepare its Vision 2020 Transportation Plan. This model employed land use and demographic information for each TAZ within the MORPC planning area to forecast existing and future traffic patterns and volumes on the regional transportation network. By expanding the modeling process to take into account the distribution of target versus nontarget populations within each TAZ, MORPC was able to estimate the extent to which low-income and minority populations were equitably served for each measure conside

Court oversight of L.A. transit services lifted

Saying that Los Angeles County transit officials have "substantially complied" with their promise to improve bus service for poor and minority riders, a federal judge Wednesday ended a decade of court oversight of the nation's third-largest public transportation system.

Policy on Transportation Improvement Program (TIP) Preparation

Denver Regional Council on Governments

2005 

Journal of Planning Education and Research, Vol. 25, No. 3, 249-263 (2006)

Environmental Justice and the New Regionalism

Joel Rast
University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee
During the past decade, renewed calls for central city revitalization have come from scholars and practitioners working within a new regionalist perspective. Such arguments have provided much of the ideological underpinning for coalitions around the country promoting smart growth and other regional reforms. Smart growth policies seek to curb urban sprawl by channeling investment into already developed areas, including inner-city communities. Given the attention paid to urban policy among advocates of the new regionalism, one would expect inner-city minorities to be well represented in the dialogue. However, the dialogue over smart growth and regionalism has largely failed to engage inner-city African Americans, Latinos, and other minorities. This article asks why that is the case, examines the consequences, and proposes a strategy for reframing the new regionalist debate in a way that may resonate more with minority stakeholders.

And (Environmental) Justice for All

Robert Bullard, Ware Professor of Sociology and Director of the Environmental Justice Resource Center at Clark Atlanta University and Sheila Holt-Orsted discuss Holt-Orsted’s family’s fight against cancer and environmental racism as they participate in the nationwide Environmental Justice bus caravan tour taking place this week.

 

Environmental Justice
Case Study: Air Toxic Releases in New Jersey
(from Mennis, J. and Jordan, L., 2005. The distribution of environmental equity: exploring spatial nonstationarity in multivariate models of air toxic releases. Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 95(2): 249-268)
Introduction
Geographic information systems (GIS) and multivariate regression are used to analyze socioeconomic inequity in the spatial distribution of New Jersey air toxic release facilities listed in the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Toxic Release Inventory (TRI).

Taking the high road : a metropolitan agenda for transportation reform / Bruce Katz and Robert Puentes, editors. [0815748272 (paper : alk. paper) ] Washington, D.C. : Brookings Institution Press, c2005.
Call#: Van Pelt Library HE308 .T35 2005

The TCDI program is intended to assist in reversing the trends of disinvestment and decline in many of the region's core cities and first generation suburbs 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.

Session 282
Monday, January 23, 2006, 10:15 AM - 12:00 PM, Hilton
Transportation and Economic Development
Michael Bell, MEB Associates Inc, presiding

Sponsored by:
Transportation and Economic Development Committee (ADD10)

Sharing the Wealth: Targeting Transportation Funding to Economic Development in Low-Income Communities (06-1677)
Shirley M. Loveless, Coleshill Associates

Highway-Induced Development: Evidence from Sri Lankan Household Sector (06-0202)
Kumudu Gunasekera, Parsons Brinckerhoff
William Anderson, Boston University
T. R. Lakshmanan, Boston University

Stochastic Data Envelopment Analysis Based on Choice Theoretic Approach to Analyze Interaction Between Transportation and Economic Development (06-1208)
Jobair B. Alam, Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology
Konstadinos G. Goulias, University of California, Santa Barbara

Assessing Economic Impacts of Large-Scale Transport Infrastructure Projects: Case of Lyon-Turin Corridor (06-1256)
Wolfgang K. E. Schade, Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research, Germany

Subject Areas:
Transportation Policy

Sharing the Wealth: Targeting Transportation Funding to Economic Development in Low-Income Communities (06-1677)
Shirley M. Loveless, Coleshill Associates

ABSTRACT Economic development benefits are often cited as justification for transportation investments. For a variety of reasons, Federal transportation funds go mainly to large, regional-scale projects with identified regional economic benefits. Local benefits to low-income communities—where they exist—are usually incidental. The transportation and economic development needs of such communities generally get overlooked in transportation project planning. This has led to distributive inequity. A review of state and regional level transportation programs found few that target transportation investments to economic development in disadvantaged communities, either in effect or in stated purpose. The Transportation and Community Development Initiative (TCDI) program administered by the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission (DVRPC) is one of a very small number of such programs. This program is in its fourth year of competitive grants to local municipalities. While the DVRPC’s municipal eligibility criteria for the TCDI now go beyond strictly disadvantaged communities, in order to serve other goals such as regional growth management, the economic development benefits are still aimed primarily at disadvantaged communities. The program can point to some impressive results in local economic revitalization of disadvantaged neighborhoods that probably would not have occurred without the impetus the TCDI provided. On balance, the TCDI program is a good model for integrating transportation and economic development planning for the purpose of reviving disadvantaged communities. However, even TCDI’s emphasis on revitalization of such communities is no guarantee that their inhabitants will benefit from economic development that might be generated by the program’s projects.