Alameda County
Oakland Environmental Justice Advocates Want A Seat at the Table to Fight For Healthy Neighborhoods
Families living in East and West Oakland neighborhoods have long been the victims of pollution due to major interstate freeways, the San Francisco Bay Oakland International airport, and the seaport. Despite their pleas for a better living environment, their concerns have long gone ignored. At an Oakland City Council meeting last month, environmental justice advocates and affected residents gathered to ask the council to reconsider mayoral appointments for the Port of Oakland Board Commissioners in order to allow for climate justice experts to represent the community.
Part 1
By Magaly Muñoz
Families living in East and West Oakland neighborhoods have long been the victims of pollution due to major interstate freeways, the San Francisco Bay Oakland International airport, and the seaport. Despite their pleas for a better living environment, their concerns have long gone ignored.
At an Oakland City Council meeting last month, environmental justice advocates and affected residents gathered to ask the council to reconsider mayoral appointments for the Port of Oakland Board Commissioners in order to allow for climate justice experts to represent the community.
The council voted against taking more time to hear from community-elected candidates and instead accepted the two appointments from Mayor Sheng Thao. This decision left advocates disappointed by the lack of consideration for local representation in their fight to mitigate the city’s growing environmental problems.
Pollution from diesel trucks on the freeway, emissions from passing airplanes, and water quality concerns have caused decades-long problems for those living in these highly impacted areas with solutions remaining scarce, according to activists.
Margaret Gordon, co-founder of the West Oakland Environmental Indicators Project, told the Post that having experts with a justice-minded background allows for proper communication among the board members, helping them understand the biggest challenges the community is having with the Port’s projects.
“[The Port Commission] only has two people doing environmental work… But if environmental justice activists are not on the Board then there is no plan of total engagement [between agencies and the community] at the Port, it’s not an ongoing thing,” Gordon said.
Gordon was seemingly the last Port appointee to have experience and ongoing concern for the human impacts of the worsening climate problems in Oakland since her departure from the commission in 2012.
Alongside her colleagues at the West Oakland Environmental Indicators Project, the group has been fighting for 20 years to secure healthy neighborhoods for people living and working in the city.
The Interstates
Oakland’s history with harmful environmental impacts near low-income zones with majority people of color goes back almost 100 years to redlining practices.
A map of Oakland reveals two major interstates- the 580 and 880- running through East and West Oakland neighborhoods. These areas are home to thousands of residents who suffer from lung diseases such as asthma, housing insecurity, and low wages, a huge difference from the affluent homes of those in the north towards the Oakland Hills.
“You look at that [redlining] map, and that pretty much tells you where all the asthma is. It’s all the low-income areas near factories, near the freeways, near pollution. That’s the only place people of color were allowed to live,” Jack Fleck, president of 350 Bay Area, told the Post. “It’s like environmental injustice was inbred into the zoning of Oakland, the whole history of it.”
The emissions from large semi-trucks, often coming from the Port of Oakland, and the constant Bay Area traffic, approximately 80,000 vehicles a day, have caused small particles to pollute the air, posing a danger to those working and living in the area.
Asthma rates are two times higher in West Oakland than anywhere in Alameda County, according to county health data. Because of this, West Oaklanders also have higher rates of emergency room visits and hospitalizations.
Environmental data from CalEnviroScreen shows that people living in the homes along the interstates are 60% to 95% more likely to suffer from cardiovascular diseases, which can be contracted from poor air quality.
One in two children in West and East Oakland are likely to be brought in for asthma-related reasons. Comparatively, 1 in 5 kids in the Oakland Hills are likely to have asthma problems.
The characteristics of individuals in West and East Oakland versus the Hills are drastically different. For example, families in the West and East often have an annual median household income ranging from $75,000 to $85,000, according to Census data. The people living there are also largely Black and Brown.
In the Hills, the median household income is upwards of about $160,000 and the population is 70% white.
The Port of Oakland Expansions
In the last few years, the Port of Oakland has settled on two major projects that, in their words, would “bring economic prosperity” to the city and larger region. The projects being an expansion of the turning basins at the seaport and constructing more terminals at the Oakland airport.
EarthJustice, a nonprofit environmental justice law organization, works closely with groups like West Oakland Indicators to fight against local actions that harm residents.
EarthJustice and activists insist that expansions like the turning basins at the Port will further exacerbate the health and climate problems in West Oakland.
