environmental justice
Streetsblog LA
What LACBC’s Monique López Thinks About When She Rides Her Bike
What do you think about when you ride your bike? When you pound the pavement and engage area residents? When you have the privilege to sit in rarefied spaces discussing transportation?
September 5, 2017
Gateway Cities COG Walks Away from Active Transpo Commitment; EYCEJ, Urban Health Strategies Say, “Not So Fast…”
The report is much more than just a discussion of the region's active transportation needs. It's a call to arms - a plea to the Southeast cities to take a leadership role in investing local return dollars from Measure M in infrastructure that serves the area's most vulnerable road users.
June 1, 2017
As SCAG Talks Environmental Justice, Tea Party Group Hones in on E.D.
Regional planning documents and hearings are hardly exciting to write about. Interminably long public meetings, wonky terms, never-ending studies. It's one reason that Streetsblog hardly covers the Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG), even though the regional plan it puts out is incredibly important in determining which projects receive federal funds and which ones don't.
April 21, 2015
At What Point Could this Have Been Stopped?: Community Celebrates Exide’s Closure, Seeks Full Accounting from New DTSC Director
"We won, folks. We won!" Monsignor John Moretta addressed the crowd that had gathered at Resurrection Church in Boyle Heights to hear about the process by which the closure of Exide Technologies' embattled lead-acid battery recycling facility would begin. "Siempre adelante. Siempre adelante." [Always moving forward.]
April 14, 2015
Is CEQA Reform Truly on Its Way? If It Is, Should We Be Happy or Worried?
California Forward released this video last November making the case for CEQA reform on transportation issues.
September 5, 2013
Hearing Today Will Determine if Lead-Acid Battery Recycler Can Resume Operations in Vernon
"Lead-acid batteries are the environmental success story of our time," touts the Battery Council International.
July 2, 2013
BNSF Falsely Claims Marginalized Communities “Better Off” with Proposed Railyard; Public Hearing Tonight
In a sadly misunderstood and ill-grounded editorial, the Press-Telegram endorsed Burlington Northern Santa Fe's (BNSF) proposed 153-acre railyard project west of the 710 freeway, the Southern California International Gateway (SCIG). The endorsement comes right before a public hearing featuring demonstrations from some 20 community organizations who will offer evidence denouncing the benefits of the project as well as proposals for a new site.
October 18, 2012
Transportation and food Access idea 3: Regional Food Hubs
I’ve written about how transit could be improved and sidewalk vending legalized to increase access to healthy food. Before food can get from stores and food trucks and carts to shoppers, it first has to be transported from farms, through distribution chains, to retail sources. This third installment in a short series on transportation and food access considers how we can improve food distribution channels to expand the availability of good, healthy food in the Los Angeles region.
November 15, 2011
Transportation and Food Access Idea 1: Transit and Good Food
(Mark Vallianatos is Policy Director of UEPI and an Adjunct Professor at Occidental College, where he currently teaches the Environmental Stewards class. Mark is co-author of The Next Los Angeles: the Struggle for a Livable City and a number of publications on food access, transportation, and goods movement.)
October 25, 2011
USC Research: Freeway Pollutants Cause Brain Damage in Mice
In a study that should give pause to anyone proposing a highway expansion project near where people live, A new study out of the University of Southern California should give them pause. Research by University Professor and senior author Caleb Finch and Constantinos Sioutas of the USC Viterbi School of Engineering demonstrates a direct correlation between certain types of brain damage and highway pollution.
April 7, 2011