Special Report: Pollution, Poverty, People of Color Communities across the US face environmental injustices Part 2 of Pollution, Poverty and People of Color RICHMOND, Calif.—"Sa Bai Dee," begins the small,white-haired man in the lime-green T-shirt, speaking in his nativedialect, Khmu. "Good evening, Madame Mayor and members of thecity council," translates the younger man in a matching greenshirt, "I am Lipo Chanasack. I live here in Richmond."Through his translator, Chanasack urges the seven members of theRichmond City Council to reduce the outsized environmental burdenon the low-income, largely non-white neighborhoods beneath thecity"s industrial smokestacks. He speaks of being part of adiverse, ethnic coalition that has banded together to fight forthis common goal. "We are Richmond. We are inside, notoutside," Chanasack"s translator tells the panel."We don"t need any pollution." Then both menpress their hands together in traditional Laotian nop, bow andleave the podium. This is Richmond today: A dynamic, multi-cultural community that istransforming its political climate from a polluted company town toa vanguard in the environmental justice movement. Its jumble ofsmokestacks and storage tanks overlooking a port is one of the mostindustry-dense areas in the San Francisco Bay Area, and one of themost beleaguered. But residents have reached across racial andsocial divisions to achieve some of the nation"s biggestsuccesses for environmental equity. The topic of this meeting is a revision of the general plan, anofficial document that will guide Richmond"s land-use policyfor the next two decades. When the process began six years ago, thecity claimed it was the first in the nation to address racial andeconomic inequities in residents" environmental health in itsgeneral plan. While other cities have since come on board, andRichmond"s lofty ambitions have been toned down some overtime, the plan is still one of the nation"s mostbroad-reaching efforts to make environmental justice a part of citypolicy. 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.". I am an expert from customsiliconerings.com, while we provides the quality product, such as China Rubber Covered Roller , Rubber Ring Seals Manufacturer, Oil Seal Viton,and more.
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