REPORTS
New Report!
RACE, EQUITY, AND SMART GROWTH:
WHY PEOPLE OF COLOR MUST SPEAK FOR THEMSELVESby Robert D. Bullard, Ph.D., Glenn S. Johnson, Ph.D., Angel O. Torres, M.C.P.
Sprawl means different things to different people. Sprawl is random unplanned growth characterized by inadequate accessibility to essential land uses such as housing, jobs, and public services that include schools, parks, green space, and public transportation. Suburban sprawl is not new. It is an extension of long-established patterns of suburbanization, decentralization, and low-density development (Bullard, Johnson, and Torres, 2000). Sprawl-driven development has "literally sucked population, jobs, investment capital and tax base from the urban core" (Anthony, 1998).
People of Color Environmental Groups Directory (EJRC, 2000). The People of Color Environmental Groups Directory 2000 is the only resource guide of its type in the country. The current edition of the directory lists more than 400 people-of-color groups from 45 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico, up from 200 groups in 1992. Created as a standard reference guide, the directory is designed to help environmental justice organizations network with one another, as well as aid public and private decisionmakers reach community constituents and stakeholder groups.
Because of the international nature of environmental justice work, 49 groups in Canada and 24 groups in Mexico also are included in this edition. The directory profiles sixteen environmental justice case studies from Alaska to Puerto Rico. These "voices from the grassroots" include groups struggling against hazardous waste dumps in Chicago, Tucson, and Pensacola (FL), proposed uranium dumps in Claiborne Parish (LA) and Ward Valley (CA), petrochemical plants in Los Angeles and Louisiana's "Cancer Alley," military toxics in Alaska, pesticides in Puerto Rico, discriminatory land-use zoning in Austin, discrimination against black farmers in the South, sweat shops in the San Francisco Bay Area and Silicon Valley, and transit racism in Harlem and Los Angeles.
Today, environmental justice is accepted as a legitimate movement among many mainstream environmental activists. It is even possible to build an academic and legal career around environmental justice study. This was not the case a decade or so ago. The resource section of the directory lists over 200 groups that provide a wide range of technical, scientific, research, education, training, and legal support to grassroots groups. For example, the guide lists over three-dozen legal groups that handle environmental justice cases. It also includes an up-to-date annotated bibliography, and a list of environmental justice videos and related Web sites.
The directory documents that a "new" environmentalism is being practiced in small towns and large urban centers, and in barrios, ghettos and rural "poverty pockets" alike. Unlike the mainstream environmental movement, the vast majority of the grassroots environmental justice groups are led by women. As a collective, they have been the primary impetus behind the recent government policy shifts to include equity and equal protection consideration in environmental enforcement, industrial facility siting and permitting, pollution monitoring, brownfields redevelopment, and transportation investments. Their message of social equity is even beginning to filter into the suburban sprawl and "Smart Growth" dialogue. The directory is free. Copies can be obtained from the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation's Publication Request Line at (800) 645-1766 or by visiting their Web site at www.mott.org.
SPRAWL ATLANTA: Social Equity Dimensions of Uneven Growth and Development January 1999. $20.00 Electronic Publication Only. This new study from the Environmental Justice Resource Center examines the impact of urban sprawl on communities in the Atlanta metropolitan region. The report, written by Robert D. Bullard and a team of social scientists, urban planners, educators, and environmentalists, reveal that Atlanta is rapidly becoming the "sprawl capital" of the nation. The researchers highlight government policies that have actually aided and in some cases subsidized urban sprawl. The study examines the impact of sprawl on housing, employment, economic activity, land use, transportation, energy, environment, and education opportunity in the region.
From Plantations to Plants: Report of the Emergency National Commission on Environmental and Economic Justice in St. James Parish, Louisiana 30 pages. (This report is only available via this webpage) This report examines the conditions surrounding the attempt and subsequent defeat of the siting of a PVC plant in a poor, rural, African- American community in Louisiana, made famous on the news as the "Shintech" case.
Healthy and Sustainable Communities: Building Model Partnerships for the 21st Century Conference Proceedings Document $20.00 Electronic Publication Only. These proceedings document the outcomes of the Healthy and Sustainable Communities : Building Model Partnerships for the 21st Century conference that was held in Atlanta, Georgia in March of 1997 and focused on "what has worked " for communities of color. The conference addressed issues of sustainability, health, quality of life, networking, and enforcement. You may download a electronic version of the document by clicking HERE (644kb). To download the PDF right click on the link and "save target as" to your computer. The Acrobat reader is free via the Adobe website www.adobe.com. For any questions please contact the center : ph (404) 880-6911; fx (404) 880-6773; or e-mail : ejrc@cau.edu
Region IV Environmental Justice Partnership Project: Lessons Learned (EJRC, 1997)
Environmental Justice and Transportation: Building Model Partnerships Conference Proceedings (EJRC, 1996). $20.00 Electronic Publication Only. The report includes highlights and summaries of the three-day conference held in Atlanta, Georgia. The conference was attended by some 250 grassroots leaders, community activists, transportation planners, and public policy makers.
TO ORDER FROM THE EJRC CLICK HERE.
