(The following is a guest post from UW grad student, Kate Bonaparte, regarding The Economics of Change research project which seeks to map and measure the monetary benefits of ecosystem services for real estate investment in high performance green buildings. posted 4/23/12)
Why can’t we all just get along?
After five years of studying architecture at the University of Miami I learned the art of hand and computer drafting, design, methods of rendering and graphic communication, and even how to write with the stereotypical architectural block lettering. But the most surprising revelation I encountered upon my matriculation was that I had also learned to talk like an architect.
Showing posts with label community development. Show all posts
Showing posts with label community development. Show all posts
Apr 23, 2012
Mar 2, 2010
Environmental Justice and the EPA
Sustainable Seattle is making a conscious effort to reinvent ourselves, and one of the key aspects of this has been to pick social justice as a central principle of our work. We did this for at least three reasons: no system that serves only some people well is truly sustainable; sustainability groups haven't historically done as well as we should in reaching out to minority communities; and the impacts of unsustainable practices have tended to fall most heavily on minority communities. It's this last issue that I want to focus on today: why unsustainable practices have tended to affect some communities far worse than others, and what's being done to fix the problem now.
At heart, the problem is that poorer neighborhoods tend to bear the brunt of problems such as pollution, poorly designed & maintained infrastructure, and limited access to resources including jobs, open space and healthy food. This is not usually an issue of cartoon villains rubbing their hands together and saying "mwahaha we can dump all our PCBs over there and punish those people", but of systemic reasons why some communities have been better able to protect themselves than others. Each individual decision--the siting of a new road or landfill, or whether to spend the extra money putting power lines and railways underground--is made independently and rationally, but the end result becomes discriminatory.
One of the reasons for this is that poorer neighborhoods have historically fared less well at organizing themselves and speaking up for their interests in the planning process. Simply having money to spend can help directly by opening access to politicians, but it's not the only mechanism. The rich are more likely to have the time to do this, while people with less money have to focus on immediate needs. Neighborhoods with a range of first languages have a harder time co-ordinating internally as not everyone can communicate directly, and neighborhoods with large immigrant populations may simply lack the collective knowledge of who to approach to influence public policy.
We are working to address these issues: we are building on our historic community development projects with a renewed emphasis on the neediest neighborhoods in Seattle. Several of our staff are working with the neighborhoods along the Duwamish river, in partnership with 7 other non-profits to develop a neighborhood-led sustainability plan, and we will keep building on this work.
Another key issue, for all the same background reasons, is that poorer neighborhoods have tended to attract less attention from government bodies that can serve them by preventing and cleaning up pollution. Enforcement of environmental law tends to be complaint-driven, which unintentionally but inevitably leads to a bias in favor of neighborhoods that complain louder and more effectively. This is far from the only area where this happens--we have the idiom about squeaky wheels getting greased for a reason--but it's a significant one. Not being an enforcement agency ourselves, there is less we can do on this front, so it's very reassuring to hear that the EPA has decided to focus more of its efforts on environmental justice. Here is a press release we received from Charles Lee of the EPA's Office of Environmental Justice last week (emphasis added):
This is hugely important work, and we applaud the EPA's new emphasis on it.
Further reading: these two sites are great sources for more information about environmental justice:
Environmental Justice Network
The Environmental Justice journal (one whole issue available free online)
At heart, the problem is that poorer neighborhoods tend to bear the brunt of problems such as pollution, poorly designed & maintained infrastructure, and limited access to resources including jobs, open space and healthy food. This is not usually an issue of cartoon villains rubbing their hands together and saying "mwahaha we can dump all our PCBs over there and punish those people", but of systemic reasons why some communities have been better able to protect themselves than others. Each individual decision--the siting of a new road or landfill, or whether to spend the extra money putting power lines and railways underground--is made independently and rationally, but the end result becomes discriminatory.
One of the reasons for this is that poorer neighborhoods have historically fared less well at organizing themselves and speaking up for their interests in the planning process. Simply having money to spend can help directly by opening access to politicians, but it's not the only mechanism. The rich are more likely to have the time to do this, while people with less money have to focus on immediate needs. Neighborhoods with a range of first languages have a harder time co-ordinating internally as not everyone can communicate directly, and neighborhoods with large immigrant populations may simply lack the collective knowledge of who to approach to influence public policy.
We are working to address these issues: we are building on our historic community development projects with a renewed emphasis on the neediest neighborhoods in Seattle. Several of our staff are working with the neighborhoods along the Duwamish river, in partnership with 7 other non-profits to develop a neighborhood-led sustainability plan, and we will keep building on this work.
Another key issue, for all the same background reasons, is that poorer neighborhoods have tended to attract less attention from government bodies that can serve them by preventing and cleaning up pollution. Enforcement of environmental law tends to be complaint-driven, which unintentionally but inevitably leads to a bias in favor of neighborhoods that complain louder and more effectively. This is far from the only area where this happens--we have the idiom about squeaky wheels getting greased for a reason--but it's a significant one. Not being an enforcement agency ourselves, there is less we can do on this front, so it's very reassuring to hear that the EPA has decided to focus more of its efforts on environmental justice. Here is a press release we received from Charles Lee of the EPA's Office of Environmental Justice last week (emphasis added):
EPA Enforcement Goals and National Enforcement Initiatives Fiscal Year 2011-13
EPA’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance (OECA) has adopted three goals and announced national enforcement initiatives that put special emphasis on environmental justice in our enforcement work.
The Enforcement Goals clearly identify what we are doing to advance the Administrator’s priorities to make a real difference to people where they live and work, and will guide our work beginning now and continuing into 2011 and beyond. The goals themselves are simple and straightforward:
· Aggressively go after pollution problems that matter to communities; vigorous civil and criminal enforcement that targets the most serious water, air and chemical hazards; advance environmental justice by protecting vulnerable communities;
· Reset our relationship with states: make sure we are delivering on our joint commitment to a clean and healthy environment, and
· Improve transparency.
The national enforcement initiatives announced today also emphasize the importance of protecting over burdened communities and advancing environmental justice. With your help, we held an unprecedented National Environmental Justice Advisory Council Public Teleconference to take comment on candidates for national enforcement initiatives. The goals and national enforcement initiatives we have adopted demonstrate how we have heard the message that it is important to make advancing environmental justice an integral part of our enforcement efforts. We have also heard that vigorous enforcement depends on the effectiveness of all of EPA’s regulatory tools, including rules, permits and monitoring. Environmental justice will inform our work in all the national enforcement initiatives, but I particularly want to draw your attention to our Air Toxics in Communities initiative, which will employ all our tools to address excess emissions caused by failure to comply with EPA’s “leak detection and repair,” requirements, restrictions on flaring, and excess emissions during start up, shut down and malfunction events, particularly in communities burdened by multiple pollution sources. Impacts on overburdened communities will also be central to our work to address concentrated animal feeding operations, emissions from the largest sources of air pollution and pollution from sewer overflows and stormwater in urban waters.
More information on the Enforcement Goals and the National Enforcement Initiatives announced today is available on the internet at: www.epa.gov/compliance/ .
We have many challenges ahead, but I look forward to working with you to protect health and the environment and to advance environmental justice and protect vulnerable communities across the nation.
This is hugely important work, and we applaud the EPA's new emphasis on it.
Further reading: these two sites are great sources for more information about environmental justice:
Environmental Justice Network
The Environmental Justice journal (one whole issue available free online)
Feb 8, 2010
From the Mayor's Office
SEATTLE – Mayor Mike McGinn and the Seattle City Council announced today that the Rainier Beach and the Broadview-Bitter Lake-Haller Lake neighborhoods will begin an update of their neighborhood plans in 2010.
The neighborhood plan update process is a unique opportunity for community members to address local priorities.
Councilmembers Mike O’Brien and Sally J. Clark along with Deputy Mayor Darryl Smith will work with neighbors to address recent growth, infrastructure, housing affordability, and other neighborhood concerns. The Department of Neighborhoods and the Department of Planning and Development will facilitate the updates.
“The Neighborhood Plan Update process is an exciting opportunity for these two communities,” said O’Brien. “Recent and future transportation investments in both communities will be an important factor to consider in these updates. I look forward to working with these neighborhoods to fully utilize the new investments as a catalyst for improving housing, open space, jobs, and cultural amenities that make neighborhoods great places to live. “
In Rainier Beach, there will be a review of potential growth around the light rail station, with a focus on improving the commercial core and enhancing involvement of traditionally underrepresented communities. The Broadview-Bitter Lake-Haller Lake Neighborhood Plan Update will consider ways to take advantage of the anticipated bus rapid transit service arriving in 2013. The challenges resulting from recent growth in the Bitter Lake urban village will also be addressed.
“I’m excited for the Rainier Beach and Broadview-Bitter Lake-Haller Lake neighborhoods to re-open their neighborhood plans for tuning up,” said Clark. “Both are terrific communities with affordable housing, incredible parks and new challenges when it comes to smartly taking advantage of transit.”
“I’m looking forward to working with Councilmember O’Brien, Councilmember Clark and these great communities to see how best we can build our city together,” said Smith.
These two neighborhood plans were chosen to be updated based on a review of the criteria established in Ordinance 122799, the information collected through status reports and associated community outreach, and a review of the recommendations from the Neighborhood Plan Advisory Committee.
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