At a press conference on Thursday, February 12, Mexican government leaders recognized a joint government and community group as the official advisory committee for preserving an important part of the Tijuana River ecosystem known as Arroyo Alamar. This group, the Mesa Tecnica, watched the deterioration of their river when the same government paved nearly 75 percent of it between 2011 and 2014. The channelization displaced thousands of families, destroyed ecosystems and left only three kilometers untouched. This space currently houses a lush forest with wildlife and homes for industry workers in Tijuana.

Now, we are finally part of the solution.

With the Mesa Tecnica in charge of preserving the remaining three kilometers of Arroyo Alamar, the community can work to conserve its quality of life, wildlife and precious natural space along the river.

This is a milestone for a variety of reasons:

It took years of work to get here.

We have worked since 2011 for this type of agreement. With 70 percent of the Arroyo Alamar paved, we were able to protect the three kilometers with the densest vegetation and most biodiversity.

Now government leaders have acknowledged the importance of community involvement.

At the ceremony to announce the community and government partnership, Director General of the Cuenca Agency (CNA) acknowledged that this community involvement “is unprecedented,” meaning the government has never before had community members involved in government land-use decisions. He continued to say that he hopes the partnership offers "broad guarantees of sustainability and environmental stewardship." You can watch his statement in Spanish here. 

We’ve inspired a hopeful future for Arroyo Alamar.

Moving forward, we have built a rare opportunity for the people who treasure Arroyo Alamar, on both sides of the border, to work together with the local government for a solution that preserves natural space and quality of life along the river.

To learn more about Thursday’s victory, click here: English / Spanish 

To get involved, join EHC today and visit http://alamarsustentable.org.

If you want to know what is happening in your community and how you can get involved, you’re not alone. Dozens of residents show up at our community meetings each month to learn about making a positive difference in their neighborhoods. Read below and join us at the next meeting in your community.

What are community meetings?

A few times a month we goes into our core communities (Barrio Logan, National City, Sherman Heights and City Heights) to speak directly to residents about the issues affecting their neighborhood, the region that we live in and their families. Often we give a brief presentation and answer questions about hot community topics such as climate change, air pollution and transportation justice. We typically hold these meetings in the evening and provide dinner, childcare and translation for English, Spanish and Vietnamese.

Why do community meetings matter?

Community meetings bring together residents who want to improve their neighborhoods, build a better future for themselves and their children and join a movement. We hope to empower neighborhoods and unite communities to form a strong, persistent and informed voice that speaks up for environmental health issues and pushes for victories that make real change.

Who can go to community meetings?

Anyone who wants to improve the quality of life in his or her neighborhood or learn more about their neighborhood and the health of their family can go to community meetings.

When are community meetings?

The schedule changes every month. Check our Facebook or sign up to get our monthly newsletter for meeting notifications. You can also contact Franco for more information at (619) 474-0220 ext, 164 or Esta dirección de correo electrónico está siendo protegida contra los robots de spam. Necesita tener JavaScript habilitado para poder verlo..

Do I need to buy a ticket or RSVP?

No. Just show up. 

Can I bring my kids?

Absolutely. We even have childcare available at the meetings so they won’t be bored.

What else do I need to know?

We want you to be there. You don’t need to know, bring or do anything besides an open mind and an eagerness to learn and get involved in creating #healthyhoods.

Please join us at a community meeting! Follow us on Facebook and Twitter to find out about the next meeting in your neighborhood.

When I speak about transportation justice to SANDAG, I keep hearing the same buzz phrase: “balanced approach”. SANDAG claims the transportation plan for our region is a “balanced approach” because some funding is going to public transit, bicycling and walking improvements.

I think we have different opinions on what it means to be “balanced”.

Let’s imagine there are two children. Let’s say I give one child two pieces of chocolate and I give the other child twenty. The child who gets two may say, “Hey, that’s not fair,” and he may be right.

To remedy the situation, I give them both twenty more.

Does that make it balanced? Does that make it equal?

No. The children still began at a place of imbalance. If I continue to give them both the same amount of chocolates, one will still have more chocolate than the other because they didn’t begin at the same place. They were imbalanced from the start.

This example isn’t so different from the transportation conversation I’m having at SANDAG.

Where do we see imbalance?

1. Neighborhoods

Just like the chocolates, when one community begins from a place of very little transportation access, poor sidewalks, dangerous bike paths, poor air quality, and more (two chocolates) and another community has plenty of transit access, wide sidewalks, paved bike paths and toxic-free air, (twenty chocolates), investing the same amount in both communities who are severely imbalanced from the start doesn’t make it balanced. Ignoring the glaring deficit of one community in comparison to another is unjust and, as the child with two chocolates may say, unfair.

2. Funding

For the past few decades, freeways have received significantly more funding than infrastructure that supports public transit, bike paths and sidewalks. We know this to be true because it is difficult, sometimes impossible, to get to certain places without a car.

3. Travel Time

When it comes to competitive travel times between modes of transportation the imbalance is obvious. In San Diego, the average commute time by car is typically 25 minutes while it can be up to two or three times longer on public transit.

4. Public Health

As a result of freeways running through or near their neighborhoods, certain communities experience elevated cases of asthma, cancer and heart disease. SANDAG may say, “But we are investing in strategies to relieve the air pollution in these communities, such as expanding freeways for carpool lanes and for transit.” But this is not a solution to toxic air pollution because we know freeway expansion only worsens air quality and the effects of climate change.

5. Safety

Sadly, residents in low-income San Diego neighborhoods are ten times more likely to be hit by a car. Walk around San Diego’s underserved communities and see the broken or nonexistent sidewalks, lack of cross walks and public transit stops or pedestrian-friendly infrastructure for yourself. You don’t have to be a city planner to know that certain neighborhoods have considerably “less candy”, so to speak.

Transportation justice means true balance.

When EHC talks about transportation justice, we’re talking about the need for true balance and we are disappointed that SANDAG proposes a plan that only perpetuates a legacy of imbalance.

If SANDAG really wants a balanced transportation plan for the region, they will:

• Build efficient transit, bike and walk infrastructure
• Prioritize transit, bike and walk projects first before freeway expansion
• Make taking transit not an inconvenient form of travel
• Apply innovative transportation solutions that improve the air quality in low-income communities
• Fund transit, bike and walk infrastructure first in overburdened communities that have been neglected for too long

We can have a balanced transportation plan in our region, but it will require a new approach to what the term balance means and recognition of communities that have been behind from the start. If one child has two candies and one child has 20, why not give the first child 18 more and implement the values of equity and justice?

Thank you for supporting transportation justice.

To get involved, please Esta dirección de correo electrónico está siendo protegida contra los robots de spam. Necesita tener JavaScript habilitado para poder verlo. today.

Monique Lopez, policy advocate

El objetivo de la Mesa Técnica del Arroyo Alamar es mantener los servicios ambientales que presta el arroyo Alamar a la comunidad. Es un esfuerzo social dedicado a buscar una alternativa de encauzamiento sustentable y en equilibrio con la naturaleza que permita el desarrollo económico de la ciudad de Tijuana.

La Mesa Técnica del Arroyo Alamar inicia como una iniciativa del Colectivo Chilpancingo Pro Justicia Ambiental, afiliado a Environmental Health Coalition y vecinos del Arroyo Alamar a la que se unieron diversas organizaciones ambientalistas de Tijuana y San Diego entre las que destacan: Proyecto Fronterizo de Educación Ambiental, Tijuana Calidad de Vida, Red de Ciudadanos por el Mejoramiento de las Comunidades y  CICEA Papalotzin.

Esta propuesta fue llevada al Consejo Consultivo para el Desarrollo Sustentable de la SEMARNAT, quienes lo adoptaron y actualmente son coordinadores.

Por la parte gubernamental participan CONAGUA, SEMARNAT y otras entidades de gobierno federal, estatal y municipal que tienen responsabilidad en la canalización del Arroyo Alamar.

Una vez que esté firmando el acuerdo de instalación de la Mesa Técnica por todas las entidades de gobierno y ONG’s la mesa será el consejo que recomiende el proyecto ejecutivo a CONAGUA para el tramo que no se ha canalizado todavía del arroyo.

Today, more than 30 community residents and allies traveled two hours and 60 miles to Barona Casino to make their voice heard. They traveled to tell SANDAG board members not to gamble away the region’s future by continuing to heavily invest in freeway expansion projects when the community is longing for improvements to public transit, bicycling and walking. They’re longing for #transportationjustice.

Today we heard from community members, students and local organizations including City Heights Community Development Corporation, BAME Community Development Corporation, Center on Policy Initiatives, Cleveland National Forest Foundation and the San Diego Housing Federation.

• Alma, a resident of Sherman Heights, spoke about the need to move away from freeway expansion by telling her own story. Alma lives near the SR-94, where there is a proposal to build extra lanes. Alma’s kids already suffer from asthma, much in part triggered by the air pollution from cars on the freeway neighboring her home.
• Avital Aboody from BAME Community Development Corporation spoke about the need to make transit ridership a viable option compared to driving in a car. In San Diego the average commute time by car is about 25 minutes, whereas transit may take two to three times as long. By investing in public transit systems we can make transit a more realistic option for residents.
• A student from San Diego State University spoke about the need for better bike and pedestrian infrastructure. He rides his bicycle to and from school every day and often finds himself in dangerous situations due to the lack of good quality and safe infrastructure.

These are just a few examples to show how SANDAG’s prioritization of freeway expansion is not in the best interest of the community. Residents continue to demand a plan that prioritizes transit, bicycling and walking infrastructure projects before any new freeway projects.

While SANDAG has taken small steps toward building a more sustainable Regional Transportation Plan, the community’s needs remain unmet. The region continues to ask that SANDAG:

• Create a plan that deprioritizes freeway expansion projects to prioritize and invest in public transit, bicycling and walking instead. This leads to greater transportation access and significantly reduces air pollution in communities already overburdened from the air quality impacts of freeways in their neighborhoods.
• Once this plan is developed, treat it as a legitimate option by putting it through the same environmental review process as the freeway-centered plan. Without this review process, our #transportationjustice plan doesn’t stand an equal chance.

To get involved in demanding transportation justice, please contact Monique Lopez today: 619-474-0220 x 130 or email her at Esta dirección de correo electrónico está siendo protegida contra los robots de spam. Necesita tener JavaScript habilitado para poder verlo..