Environmental Justice Law and the Challenges Facing Urban Communities
By Charles P. Lord
INTRODUCTION
Throughout American history, environmental scholars have considered the city to be the antithesis of the environment. Thus, for many decades, environmental science and policy has focused solely on the degradation of natural systems. Often, environmental experts address the city only as a cause for environmental harm. As a result, few studies analyze the city as an ecosystem. Although residents of American cities and urban activists have fought pollution for decades, their struggle was not considered an environmental struggle until recently. Consequently, there has been little mainstream discussion about the quality of the urban environment, its unique problems, the causes of those problems, and possible solutions.
The description of the urban environment in this article is based in part on a survey of environmental and public health studies. To a greater extent, however, the issues that residents and community organizations find most troubling inform this description of the urban environment. Urban environmental leaders fight battles that can be loosely divided into three categories: 1) vacant lots and open space; 2) the ratio of jobs to public health impacts; and 3) toxics (including lead). A close examination reveals that these problems share certain characteristics. For example, all urban environmental problems result in part from other basic challenges facing urban communities in the 1990s, such as racial discrimination and economic degradation. Furthermore, each urban environmental problem also contributes to these other major challenges in some way.
Urban environmental issues are unique because they are inextricably linked to the issues of economic development, planning, and racial politics that beset urban communities. The strategies for addressing urban environmental problems are not, therefore, simply environmental strategies. Addressing the unique degradation of the urban environment means responding to the larger, related struggles faced by people of color and low-income communities. Therefore, environmental strategy is necessary, but not sufficient, in the effort to achieve social justice in our inner cities.
What follows is a description of the urban environment in Boston -- faithful, it is hoped, to the issues raised by our community partners. Understanding the origins of these issues provides critical insight into the merits of varying strategies for improving the quality of the urban environment.
Throughout American history, environmental scholars have considered the city to be the antithesis of the environment. Thus, for many decades, environmental science and policy has focused solely on the degradation of natural systems. Often, environmental experts address the city only as a cause for environmental harm. As a result, few studies analyze the city as an ecosystem. Although residents of American cities and urban activists have fought pollution for decades, their struggle was not considered an environmental struggle until recently. Consequently, there has been little mainstream discussion about the quality of the urban environment, its unique problems, the causes of those problems, and possible solutions.
The description of the urban environment in this article is based in part on a survey of environmental and public health studies. To a greater extent, however, the issues that residents and community organizations find most troubling inform this description of the urban environment. Urban environmental leaders fight battles that can be loosely divided into three categories: 1) vacant lots and open space; 2) the ratio of jobs to public health impacts; and 3) toxics (including lead). A close examination reveals that these problems share certain characteristics. For example, all urban environmental problems result in part from other basic challenges facing urban communities in the 1990s, such as racial discrimination and economic degradation. Furthermore, each urban environmental problem also contributes to these other major challenges in some way.
Urban environmental issues are unique because they are inextricably linked to the issues of economic development, planning, and racial politics that beset urban communities. The strategies for addressing urban environmental problems are not, therefore, simply environmental strategies. Addressing the unique degradation of the urban environment means responding to the larger, related struggles faced by people of color and low-income communities. Therefore, environmental strategy is necessary, but not sufficient, in the effort to achieve social justice in our inner cities.
What follows is a description of the urban environment in Boston -- faithful, it is hoped, to the issues raised by our community partners. Understanding the origins of these issues provides critical insight into the merits of varying strategies for improving the quality of the urban environment.
