Race, ecology and campaigns

Chapel Hill Herald, Saturday October 22, 2005

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, there was a brief moment in which the long-neglected problem of environmental racism received some attention. Katrina exposed the racism in state and national efforts to aid victims, in who lives near Superfund sites, in who lives in the most vulnerable areas and in who has the means to evacuate.

It also laid bare the difficulty in disentangling questions of race and class particularly in a city like New Orleans. In the flooded Lower Ninth Ward, more than 98 percent of residents are black and more than a third live in poverty.

Katrina made manifest the nature of American poverty. Suddenly, we could see, as Duke professor Mark Anthony Neal put it, that the poor are "already dying a slow death, brought on by a concentration of financial limits, inferior housing, dilapidated educational structures, violence, environmental decay and systematic state neglect."

Katrina revealed that the typical understanding of environmental racism -- that it merely defines who lives near garbage dumps or Superfund sites -- is insufficient. When it comes to the ill effects of environmental degradation, the poor, and especially poor people of color, suffer more.

Despite Katrina, environmental racism has not been raised as a concern in our current political campaigns. The lone African-American candidate for the Carrboro or Chapel Hill boards, Bill Thorpe, speaks of his support for bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure, against excessive road widening and for mass transit. But he has not connected these issues to the problems of racial justice he has addressed as a leader of the NAACP.

Recent election results indicate that voters motivated by environmental and neighborhood concerns generally understand that Chapel Hill still faces serious problems involving race. Nor are voters unaware of the environmental implications of decisions forced on lower income households.

Consider, for example, the problem of sprawl. There is no question that the negative consequences of sprawl hurt those of lesser means the most. They are the ones forced to live far from work, who can least bear the cost of commuting and who are unlikely to be doing so in a late-model hybrid. They are also less able to deal with the health consequences of air pollution.

One mechanism in Orange County to reduce sprawl is the rural buffer. Most citizens recognize that to violate the rural buffer to build affordable housing would be to sacrifice one good to attain another.

The result is not that we turn our backs on affordable housing. Instead, we elect candidates who support programs for inclusionary zoning and increasing affordable units in existing neighborhoods and especially downtown, closer to workplaces and other destinations.

Or, consider Carrboro's debate over the application of its vernacular architecture standards to affordable housing. While not in itself an environmental question, these standards are established to improve the quality of life for residents. If government is setting a standard, the mechanism must be found so rich and poor alike share in its presumed benefits.

The Chapel Hill Herald pointed out recently that a large proportion of this year's candidates are recent arrivals in Orange County. Nonetheless, there is a deep and abiding memory of our history of slavery and Jim Crow and of persistent discrimination today. As committed as we are to righting old wrongs, it still took a divided council a tortured 10 months to approve the Airport Road renaming after the proposal was brought forward by Thorpe and Edith Wiggins.

In 1965, President Lyndon Johnson said in a speech at Howard University "Negro poverty is not white poverty. Many of its causes and many of its cures are the same. But there are differences -- deep, corrosive, obstinate differences, radiating painful roots into the community and into the family and the nature of the individual. These differences are not racial differences. They are solely and simply the consequence of ancient brutality, past injustice and present prejudice. They are anguishing to observe. For the Negro they are a constant reminder of oppression."

Orange County is unlikely to have a natural disaster that so vividly reveals the hardships faced by many of our fellow citizens. But, thanks to Katrina, we have seen the stark reality of poverty and better understand that environmental stewardship is not just a privilege for the affluent or middle class. It turns out that environmental protection is, in the end, human protection: essential to safeguard us from the consequences of our own behavior.

Candidates may not be talking about it in the campaign, but let's hope we can elect leaders who will not shy away from addressing the social, economic and environmental dimensions of racism, and the incorrigible intersection of race and poverty.

Issues: 

Comments

Dan, you write:

“Recent election results indicate that voters motivated by environmental and neighborhood concerns generally understand that Chapel Hill still faces serious problems involving race. Nor are voters unaware of the environmental implications of decisions forced on lower income households.”

AND

“One mechanism in Orange County to reduce sprawl is the rural buffer. Most citizens recognize that to violate the rural buffer to build affordable housing would be to sacrifice one good to attain another.”

How do you know these things about voter motivation and understanding, or the things that most citizens recognize? Is there data on such things or are these just your “feelings?”

Then you state:

"Instead, we elect candidates who support programs for inclusionary zoning and increasing affordable units in existing neighborhoods and especially downtown, closer to workplaces and other destinations."

Have any candidates identified what specific neighborhoods they consider as viable prospects? Do the residents support affordable housing in their neighborhoods?

PS: Thanks for the reference to the LBJ graduation address to the Howard University Class of 1965 . I suspect that I might be the only one here who was there that June evening when he charted the plan for affirmative action, even though he never used the term.

I'm a little concerned about what is happening on the Chapel Hill side of Roger's Rd. It seems to me that we're piling up low cost housing upon low cost housing here, and that we're headed straight for the dump!
Now, my understanding is that no one has any firm idea about how many decades will have to pass before a closed landfill can be built upon, but my guess is that we'll all be dead before any misguided soul can try to place low cost housing here. In the meantime, does the Chapel Hill planning department see a trend out here or am I out of line?

Monday night the town council voted 9-0 to approve the lot 5 development including a significant component of affordable housing. A project is in the works for Rosemary St with a major commitment to affordability. An East-West Partners proposal on 54 promises 30% affordable units and has received a warm initial reception from the council. All of these are placed near employment centers and with good public transportation access.

It is worth noting that major developers are now offering significant affordability. They didn't do that six years ago (the council's turning point on the issue, according to Mayor Foy at last night's forum). The council is to be commended not only for requiring affordability but for conveying an ethic of its importance that the development community seems to have adopted.

Given the standard that you seem apply to others Dan, it's surprising that you fail to answer legitimate questions that are asked of you. Your non-answers speak volumes.

p.s. I'm glad the LBJ quote resonated for you. I thought it was pretty powerful.

I think it is worth noting that rural buffers or urban growth boundaries are - in most places - flexible, specifically as an attempt at maintaining a reasonable stock of quality affordable housing.  The boundaries of Portland, Oregon's UGB have been adjusted more than 30 times since the UGB was implemented, and at least 5000 acres was annexed into the 'urban' side of that boundary.  Such an act can only be done after studying the environmental risks that would be connected to developing a specific parcel, but maintaining a mandated quantity of affordable housing is written into UGB requirements - if it isn't available, it must be built, and if necessary, the boundary has to move to allow that.  This provision is a part of the overall UGB concept as a mechanism to lessen or eradicate the possible side-effect of permanent boundaries exerting upward pressure on costs of living.  The overall affordability of Portland, and the causes for that can and are debated, but as similar pressures intensify in Chapel Hill and Carrboro, it would be well worth noting the principle of flexibility written into Oregon's UGBs.

 

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