Traffic Calming and Environmental Justice: New York City’s Neighborhood Slow Zones

2018 ◽  
Vol 2672 (3) ◽  
pp. 175-184 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonas Xaver Hagen
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Environmental Justice ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Risk Exposure ◽  
Minority Communities ◽  
Traffic Calming ◽  
Traffic Injury ◽  
Planning Processes ◽  
Quantitative Analyses ◽  
Quantitative And Qualitative Methods

This paper examines New York City’s Neighborhood Slow Zones (NSZ) program in terms of environmental justice. The paper uses both quantitative and qualitative methods. Quantitative analyses show that the areas where the zones are implemented are well represented in regarding environmental justice (low-income and minority) populations, and that risk exposure to traffic injury and traffic casualty counts are similar in NSZ and non-NSZ areas. The qualitative analysis shows that the program was structured in a way that included the participation of environmental justice communities and led to the siting of zones in such neighborhoods. These findings suggest that the NSZ program can address environmental justice’s goals of distributing environmental risk more equitably and including low-income and minority communities in planning processes.

Where Is Pollution Moving? Environmental Markets and Environmental Justice

2021 ◽  
Vol 111 ◽  
pp. 410-414
Author(s):  
Joseph S. Shapiro ◽  
Reed Walker
Keyword(s):  
Air Pollution ◽  
Environmental Justice ◽  
Environmental Quality ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Household Income ◽  
Minority Communities ◽  
Equal Distribution ◽  
Policy Influence ◽  
Environmental Markets

Do US air pollution offset markets disproportionately relocate pollution to or from low-income or minority communities? Concerns about an equal distribution of environmental quality across communities--environmental justice--have growing policy influence. We relate prices and quantities of offset transactions to the demographics of the communities surrounding polluting plants. We find little association of offset prices or offset-induced movements in pollution with the share of a community that is Black or Hispanic or with mean household income. This analysis of 12 prominent offset markets suggests that they do not substantially increase or decrease the equity of environmental outcomes.

Seeing the park for the trees: New York’s “Million Trees” campaign vs. the deep roots of environmental inequality

2017 ◽  
Vol 46 (5) ◽  
pp. 914-930 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jessica Debats Garrison
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Environmental Justice ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Urban Forest ◽  
Tree Canopy ◽  
Environmental Benefits ◽  
Deep Roots ◽  
Census Block Group ◽  
Communities Of Color ◽  
Lack Of Commitment

Trees provide many environmental benefits, but low-income communities of color tend to have fewer of them. New York City attempted to correct this disparity by planting a million trees via public–private partnership between 2007 and 2015. This paper examines MillionTreesNYC’s environmental justice goals and planting strategies via program documents and interviews with program partners, and assesses equity outcomes via regression analysis of new trees planted, existing tree canopy, park space, and sociodemographic characteristics measured at the level of the census block group. Ultimately, MillionTreesNYC did not prioritize low-income communities of color to a measurable degree, and planted more trees in areas with greater existing tree canopy. Despite public–private partnerships’ reputation for prioritizing profit over equity, the problem was not a lack of commitment to environmental justice. Instead, MillionTreesNYC’s focus on parks, which are themselves inequitably distributed, frustrated the city’s efforts to equalize the urban forest. This paper therefore exposes the deep historical roots of environmental injustice, which are difficult to eradicate without careful attention to both past and present socio-spatial inequities.

PAR Method

2010 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 355-375 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michelle Billies
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Critical Consciousness ◽  
Design Method ◽  
Participatory Action ◽  
Community Members ◽  
Context Analysis ◽  
Gender Nonconforming ◽  
The Social ◽  
And Gender

The work of the Welfare Warriors Research Collaborative (WWRC), a participatory action research (PAR) project that looks at how low income lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and gender nonconforming (LG-BTGNC) people survive and resist violence and discrimination in New York City, raises the question of what it means to make conscientization, or critical consciousness, a core feature of PAR. Guishard's (2009) reconceptualization of conscientization as “moments of consciousness” provides a new way of looking at what seemed to be missing from WWRC's process and analysis. According to Guishard, rather than a singular awakening, critical consciousness emerges continually through interactions with others and the social context. Analysis of the WWRC's process demonstrates that PAR researchers doing “PAR deep” (Fine, 2008)—research in which community members share in all aspects of design, method, analysis and product development—should have an agenda for developing critical consciousness, just as they would have agendas for participation, for action, and for research.

No Participant Left Behind: Conducting Science During COVID-19

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stella F. Lourenco ◽  
Arber Tasimi
Keyword(s):  
Data Collection ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Internet Access ◽  
Online Testing ◽  
Minority Communities ◽  
Left Behind

Cognitive scientists have ramped up online testing in response to the coronavirus pandemic. Although research conducted online solves the problem of data collection, a lack of internet access among low-income and minority communities may reduce the diversity of study samples and, thus, impact the generalizability of scientific findings.

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