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Not everyone agrees with these efforts. The council chamber thisevening is packed with a rainbow of races and ethnicities clad incolorful T-shirts representing an array of factions. LiUNA BuildsAmerica, proclaims the shirt of one of the 111 people signed up toaddress the council. "I am absolutely, totally, completely insupport of environmental issues," the man says, emphatically."However, what I am not in support of is tunnel vision withblinders." A shirt reading Don"t Kill Our Jobs waves inthe audience. And Christopher Thornberg, an economist hired by theRichmond Chamber of Commerce, warned that some of the plan"snew proposals to reduce air emissions would not only harm thecity"s main industries but would hurt neighboring shops andrestaurants, too. Richmond has "an economy that is finallystarting to pull out of the doldrums," said Thornberg."This will nip it in the bud." The overall plan passes, although some strict air quality measuresare set aside. It is a landmark event, illustrating how muchRichmond has changed after years of struggle by people whohistorically have borne the brunt of industry"s environmentalimpacts. The victories for these bulldoggish community activists have beenpiling up; just a few years ago, they persuaded a judge to halt theexpansion of Chevron"s massive Richmond refinery and ordermore research into its potential effects on residents' health. "People have heard about Richmond," said Jessica Tovar,an organizer for the environmental group Communities for a BetterEnvironment (CBE) who has assisted the Richmond residents."They want to know how Richmond was able to fight the oilindustry. We're making a bigger impact than we know." "When you elevate the rights of corporations...over therights of people...then you get this pattern of unequal protection.That's why we get communities like Richmond." -Robert Bullard, Texas Southern University Richmond is emblematic of a movement underway across the nation.Environmental justice is a growing effort to address a dangerousdivide: Minority and low-income communities tend to encounter fargreater environmental risks and far less protection than moreaffluent, white communities. Major forces behind this are racialsegregation and discrimination, income gaps and social inequality,coupled with a politically powerless and na ve populace unableto advocate for itself. Similar efforts are taking place nationwide, such as a coalition ofAfrican-Americans and Latinos stopping a sewage treatment plantfrom being built in their Northern Manhattan neighborhood, and amulticultural group in Boston helping local communities fight,among other things, a diesel power plant slated to be built next toan elementary school. "These are environmental sacrifice zones that theenvironmental justice movement has been fighting for 30years," said Robert D. Bullard , dean of the Barbara Jordan-Mickey Leland School of Public Affairsat Texas Southern University, who is considered the"father" of environmental justice. Polluting poor, minority neighborhoods "is often seen as theprice of doing business," he said. "When you elevatethe rights of corporations to pollute over the rights of people tohave a clean environment, then you get this pattern of unequalprotection. That's why we get communities like Richmond." In Richmond, population 103,701, one in six residents lives belowthe federal poverty level, and more than eight in 10 are people ofcolor, according to 2010 U.S. Census data. In North Richmond, nextto one of the nation"s largest refineries, 97 percent ofresidents are non-white and nearly one in four live in poverty. The plight of Richmond, within a ring of five refineries, threechemical plants, eight Superfund sites and numerous other pollutionsources, has turned many local residents of all colors intoactivists, and drawn the attention of sociologists, legal scholarsand scientists. Now its city hall is an example of one that is "listening toand forced to respond to environmental justice activists,"said Jason Corburn , an associate professor of city and regional planning in theschool of public health at UC-Berkeley. He studies environmental justice movements and was an advisor on early stagesof developing the new general plan. "Organizations like APEN[Asian Pacific Environmental Network] were instrumental in the lastcouple of years in shifting the balance of power at the citycouncil." Throughout Richmond"s past, Corburn said, "the city wasvery much in the pocket of Chevron." A refinery operating inRichmond since 1901, first as Standard Oil and later as the ChevronCorporation, had long been the city"s biggest single sourceof tax revenues – and air pollution. Officials often made decisions that benefited industry withouttaking into account the risks to residents. Despite having had anAfrican-American majority on the city council since 1988, ethniccommunities had little voice in local politics, according toCorburn and others who follow the environmental justice movement inRichmond. So in the lead-up to the 2004 election, when APEN joinedwith organizations of African-Americans, Latinos and others toelect new leaders, it was, in Corburn"s words, "a majorwin." Andr s Soto, co-founder of the Richmond Progressive Alliance,credits this cross-cultural cooperation with bringing about thechanges in the city council, and ultimately, the new city plan."If it was not for the creation of a multi-ethniccollaboration, none of this would have happened," said Soto,a lifelong Richmond resident who, in his other job, plays Latinmusic at Bay Area venues. "It would have been filthy businessas usual.". We are high quality suppliers, our products such as Magnetic Bookmarks , China Magnetic Nail Art for oversee buyer. To know more, please visits Magnetic Nail Art.
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