Climate And Environmental Justice For All
What is happening?
In Oakland, there has been an uneven distribution of environmental harms and an uneven development of environmental goods. Low-income residents and communities of color have been disproportionately exposed to environmental hazards while also being prevented from benefiting from environmental amenities, such as parks, wetlands and forests. On the streets, thirty-five people lost their lives to traffic violence in Oakland in 2022, with District 3 containing some of the most high-injury intersections and corridors. All while one's zip code is still the most potent predictor of an individual's health and well-being.
We can trace these discrepancies back to the 1930s, when Roosevelt's New Deal created the Home Owners’ Refinancing Act of 1933 and the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation. The color-code classification system they implemented divided areas based on housing stock, type of housing, stock, racial demographics, and the surrounding environment. It bifurcated Oakland into differently valued landscapes, with the hills predominantly in green and blue and the flats in mostly yellow and red.
Where Oakland had five green tracks, such as the Claremont and Montclair neighborhoods, the areas received infrastructure funding and green space development. They are now beautiful neighborhoods right next to expansive green spaces such as Joaquin Miller Park and Redwood Regional. In contrast, West Oakland has thirteen smaller parks, all at inferior air and recreation quality than the hills and many within exposure zones of highways and roads. We also see in District 3 many brownfield sites, high lead levels, and unsafe street level design.
Why is it important?
The legacy of redlining stays not only in poverty and income inequality, but also low environmental quality, through the lack of tree canopy coverage, high collision deaths, and inferior air and soil quality. As a result, redlining continues to capture, contain and contaminate our communities for generations. Kids who grow up in West Oakland have a life expectancy 15 years less than kids born in the Oakland hills and much of that difference comes down to these harms. Oakland’s Transportation Department released a report in 2017 that showed the majority of collisions that led to deaths and serious injuries in the city occurred in West and East Oakland, where most Black and brown people live.
Carroll has spoken to one too many families impacted by these harms to not make environmental design and justice a priority. Everyone in Oakland should be able to breathe and thrive, free of environmental terrorism.
Designing our urban spaces thoughtfully can advance sustainable goals, address climate change, improve quality of life, and minimize negative environmental impacts. Parks can absorb CO2 and pollutants in the air, reduce flooding and stormwater runoff, and mitigate urban heat island effect. Parks also create spaces for recreation, food production, wildlife, habitat formation, novel ecosystems, and recreation and social cultural activities. We see this at Defremery Park and Mosswood, as well as other parks, where Black cultural events serve as network connectors and create spaces for Black joy.
Public safety research has also shown that environmental design can have a significant impact on managing human behavior and mitigating crime. When we focus our crime-fighting efforts on proactive actions such as environmental design, we choose a path that does not simply benefit status quo practices and those who benefit from keeping failed systems in place.
What’s been done so far?
➔ Introduced legislation to pilot community-driven traffic safety solutions, by allowing schools, businesses, and community centers that serve vulnerable populations to apply for temporary encroachment permits to install removable traffic safety treatments and create traffic calming zones in the city’s streets. Covered by the Oaklandside here.
➔ Co-introduced Measure U for infrastructure funding, providing $300 million over the next four to six years for road infrastructure repair and redesign that can now be programmed.
➔ Supported the development of a farmer’s market in West Oakland in order to increase access to fresh and healthy food.
➔ Advocated for cost-saving opportunities for civilian employees to take over certain functions performed by sworn police officers, resulting in the Vehicle Enforcement Unit within the Oakland Dept of Transportation. More than 5,600 calls for abandoned vehicle service each year will now no longer be handled by police, resulting in more timely and cost-effective service.
➔ Multiple community clean-ups focused on making our parks and public spaces more beautiful and cared for.
What’s coming up next?
➔ Use Measure U funds to create more bike and pedestrian friendly streets in order to encourage using car alternatives for travel, ultimately leading to improved air quality, reduced emissions and safer streets.
➔ Finalize the Enhanced Infrastructure Financing District (EIFD) that would allow for restoration of brownfield sites and construction of parks, greenways, and climate change focused projects.
➔ Convene a District 3 composed Transportation Cabinet to consult on policy and initiatives specific to District 3.
➔ Further fight illegal dumping by hiring workers to fill empty positions.
➔ Plant 1000 trees in West Oakland.
Deep Dive: The History Of Environmental Racism In Oakland
If you’re interested in learning more, check out this video of Dr. Corbin presenting at the Black New Deal Symposium.
