Meet the Built Environment Team.

EHC, in partnership with City Heights Community Development Corporation, International Rescue Committee and Proyecto de Casas Saludables, joined forces five years ago to develop an advocacy curriculum, identify advocacy priorities and develop strategies to meet the needs of City Heights residents.

The Built Environment Team was created to work with residents to develop the community driven action plan. This multi-year plan empowers local residents to be central leaders for change with the support of community organizations and existing leaders. Today, EHC continues to collaborate and co-facilitate the progress of the grassroots group.

Over the past five years, EHC has collaborated with BET to accomplish key victories, including:

• Securing more than $22 million for the North Park – Mid-City bikeways project
• Influencing the development of two additional transit-centered alternatives for the SR 94: $31 million for a pilot study of one and $66 million for a much-needed transit stop in Sherman Heights
• Electing new members on the City Heights planning committee

Through this leadership, we’ve established our community members as local leaders on mobility issues in City Heights.

Every week, diverse groups come together to advocate for justice in their neighborhood. They hold regular meetings to discuss important local issues in English, Spanish, Karen and Vietnamese.

Community members like Tunn, pictured below, step up to lead EHC’s community action teams. Tunn invites volunteers into his home for meetings and he writes poetry to raise awareness about causes that matter to his neighborhood.

We’re proud to see the Built Environment Team grow because we know community change starts with local leadership.

To get involved with the Built Environment Team, please contact us at 619-474-0220.

Environmental justice matters because of people like Lourdes Lujan. For 18 years, Lourdes has helped inform her neighbors about local health and environmental hazards. At our 2016 award celebration, One People, Una Frontera, Lourdes shared stories of protecting Arroyo Alamar in Tijuana and organizing a cleanup of 45,000 tons of toxic waste. Now, she shares her story with you:

I was introduced to EHC in 1998, and have been a part of this movement ever since. Similar to many who work at EHC, I started out knocking on my neighbors’ doors to explain the health and environmental threats that Metales y Derivados represented for all of us. I would invite them to meetings – which were held in our homes back then – so that all of us could find a solution together.

I never imagined that from that work to organize our neighbors that we would achieve a clean-up of 45,000 tons of toxic waste and that we would now be successful in saving part of the Rio Alamar.

When I was invited to participate in the Maquilapolis documentary, I could not imagine how a video could explain the environmental, health, and work issues we were living through, much less that the documentary would make it around the world.

We, the community health workers, feel proud of having met Vicky Funary and Sergio de la Torre, the project’s producer and director. Maquilapolis gave me the opportunity to see many more cities and countries that I never thought I’d get to see in my lifetime.

I am very grateful to EHC for everything I have learned; I am grateful for all the support for our community; I am grateful for being able to work with all of you for a healthier community.

Conocí a EHC en 1998 y desde entonces soy parte de la organizavion. Al igual que varios de los que trabajan en EHC, yo comencé tocando las puertas de mis vecinos para explicarles los problemas ambientales y de salud que representaba Metales y Derivados para nosotros. Los invitaba a reuniones, que en ese entonces las hacíamos en nuestras casas, para encontrar la solución entre todos.

Nunca imaginé que de ese trabajo involucrando a mi comunidad, lograríamos una limpieza de 45,000 toneladas de residuos toxicos, y que ahora tendríamos el éxito en poder salvar parte del Arroyo Alamar.

Cuando me invitaron a participar en el documental Maquilápolis, no imaginaba cómo un video podría explicar los problemas ambientales, de salud y laborales que vivíamos, y además que daríamos la vuelta al mundo con este documental.

Nosotras las promotoras nos sentimos orgullosas de haber conocido a Vicky Funari y Sergio de la Torre, productores y directores de este proyecto. Con Maquilápolis tuve la oportunidad de conocer muchas ciudades y países que nunca en mi vida pensé que llegaría a visitar

Estoy muy agradecida con EHC por todo lo que he aprendido, estoy agradecida por todo el apoyo a nuestra comunidad, estoy agradecida por trabajar con ustedes por una comunidad más sana.

A few months ago, we rejoiced when same-sex marriage became a legal right for all people who identify as LGBTQ. We chanted “Love Wins” and posted photos of rainbow flags rippling proudly in the wind against a sunny blue sky.

This week, the same flags tether under somber grey clouds as we mourn the many tragic losses in Orlando. The largest mass shooting in U.S. history targeted an LGBTQ community that is also a community of color; 90 percent of the victims were Latin and more than half were Puerto Rican.

The atmosphere of disrespect and hatred that communities of color continue to suffer is incomprehensible and ugly. In the words of an LGBT organizer in a recent YouTube video, “We have to demand a stop to that message of hate and intolerance.”

We have hope that out of this awful darkness will come a light. A shining, blinding, blazing light. And to get there, we must stay together with people that share our values. We must hold hands with others who have zero tolerance for hate and violence. We must stay strong, united and focused. We must balance our sorrow and anger with action. We must work even harder to end the epidemic of gun violence and racism.

This loss is beyond heartbreaking. We’re still here. Flags fly high. Love – still – wins.

While pollution affects all of us, it hits low-income communities first and worst.

The City of San Diego has unveiled a plan to reduce our city's pollution over the next 50 years and in the spring of 2016, Mayor Kevin Faulconer released a strategy for meeting the plan's goals. 

The proposed plan lacks a strong focus on social equity – protecting our neighborhoods that already suffer disproportionately more than other neighborhoods.

That's why Policy Advocate Monique López delivered this letter to Mayor Faulconer on the importance of equity in San Diego's climate action plan, and now we want to share it with you.

May, 2016

Mayor Kevin Faulconer
City of San Diego
202 C Street
San Diego, CA 92101

Re: City of San Diego- Climate Action Plan Implementation Report

Dear Mayor Faulconer:

The Climate Action Plan (CAP) "Implementation Report" is a good first step describing the planned expenditures for each CAP strategy proposed for the FY 2017 budget. The plan asserts that more than $127 million will be dedicated to CAP implementation in FY 17.

However, an implementation road map that further defines what are all the activities that need to take place in the next five years, ten years, and fifteen years which goes beyond the year to year budget analysis is needed in order to ensure that the City is on a trajectory to meet its Climate Action Plan goals. Such an Implantation Plan can institutionalize practices in the various departments, and identify a timeline for ordinances and actions that need to be pursued.

What are the associated green-house gas reductions? An analysis should be provided that highlights where specifically these investments are being made and where greenhouse gas emissions are being reduced, in both the short term and long term.

Where is the equity? In the current Implementation Report, the social equity requirement in the CAP is not acknowledged nor is there an allocation of funds based on CalEnviro Screen or any other method of ensuring equitable distribution of resources. The impacts of a changing climate are most detrimental in neighborhoods such as Barrio Logan, City Heights, Sherman Heights, Logan Heights and San Ysidro that suffer from damaging air quality, burdensome energy bills and inaccessible public transit.

The CAP recognized these challenges and included a mandate to prioritize the most impacted communities for mitigation and investment. The CAP States, “The General Plan includes policies to pursue environmental justice in the planning process through greater community participation, to prioritize and allocate citywide resources to provide public facilities and services to communities in need, and to improve mobility options and accessibility for the non-driving elderly, disabled, low-income, and other members of the population……The City interprets the Council Policy to include the use of the California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) CalEnviroScreen tool to identify under-served communities and prioritize the CIP in census tracts ranking in the top 30% of CalEnviroScreen scores, which may be locally normalized.” In order to comply with this requirement, the CAP Implementation Plan must, incorporate specific equity strategies in each element. For example: the Energy Conservation and Disclosure Ordinance should include specific actions such as providing assistance to low income households for energy reduction and access to renewables; and directing new tree planting to those areas with limited tree canopy.

Include staffing for equity and implementation. We are supportive of the hiring of one additional staff to assist with the implementation of the Climate Action Plan; however, in most cities where implementation of a Climate Action Plan is given priority there is often multiple staff working on this issue. Therefore, in addition to this staff person, we encourage hiring at least five staff people, in which one is fully dedicated to equity, be included in the budget allocation. An Equity Specialist should be included to ensure compliance with this important CAP requirement. An Equity Specialist can help analyze and prioritize low-income communities of color in the struggle against climate change and the implementation of this plan.

Thank you for your consideration. We look forward to working with City staff to move the Climate Action Plan forward.

Sincerely,
MONIQUE G. LÓPEZ 

To download a PDF of this letter, click here.

As part of a master plan for developing the Chula Vista Bayfront, the Port of San Diego recently approved the Chula Vista Natural Resources Management Plan. This is the latest milestone in a community planning process that has been ongoing for at least two decades.

The plan is intended to protect and enhance fish and wildlife populations and habitats through environmental protection measures applicable to all development within the Chula Vista Bayfront project area.

Laura Hunter, longtime EHC policy advocate, served as chair of the wildlife advisory group that sheparded the plan to completion.

“This is a historic agreement for the region that will guide us as we seek to improve the Chula Vista Bayfront with more recreation and economic opportunity while protecting the birds, fish, plants and animals that live here and that people love so much," she said.

Ash Israni, chairman of Pacific Companies and one of the major developers for the Bayfront Project, agreed. “It’s amazing to be in the position once again to speak in support of an element of a plan that began as a large scale development proposal with powerful public opposition," he commented. "This is now a model for collaboration and conflict resolution."

After decades of work, this victory is a tremendous step toward protecting the environmental health of the Chula Vista Bayfront, and all the plants, animals and wildlife that depend on it.