COMMUNITY JUSTICE RESOURCE CENTER NEWSLETTER ARCHIVES


Community Law Center Launches Urban Environmental Justice Initiative

 
The Community Law Center is a nonprofit, public interest law firm that has provided legal counsel and technical assistance to Baltimore Cityâs community and faith-based organizations for over 16 years. In this time, the Law Center has recognized that in order for Baltimore City to be a desirable place to live, basic quality of life issues need to be addressed, particularly in those communities that do not have an adequate voice in the governmental decision making process. These issues include a disproportionately high amount of crime, vacant and abandoned properties, and environmental degradation. Low-income urban communities rarely have the resources to combat environmental threats effectively, but they are much more likely to live near environmental hazards than their suburban and rural counterparts. The Community Law Center recognizes this fact and is proposing to provide the services needed to help neighborhoods address their environmental concerns.

Earlier this year the Community Law Center launched the Urban Environmental Justice Initiative in Baltimore City. Baltimore is an older industrial city that is suffering from property abandonment and a declining population. According to the 2000 census, Baltimore City is 64% African American, with a growing Asian population. The number of households in Baltimore that consist of female head of households is 44%. Of those female head of household families, nearly a third have children under eighteen. Just over fourteen percent of housing units in Baltimore are vacant; this figure represents a 56% increase over the 1990 census. Likewise, the housing abandonment rate has increased 111% since 1990. As these properties are abandoned and or demolished for redevelopment, communities are faced with numerous environmental threats. For example an unsafe demolition project in a residential neighborhood can release harmful lead and asbestos dust as well as increase the neighborhoods rat infestation.

Most of Baltimore Cityâs housing stock was built before 1939 when the use of lead-based paint and asbestos products were common. Thousands of children in Maryland are diagnosed with lead poisoning each year. In the last three years alone over 25,000 young children in Baltimore City have been diagnosed with blood lead levels over 10Fg/dL. Some neighborhoods in Baltimore City have lead poisoning rates of over 65% of the screened population. Baltimore also has a host of sanitation issues that includes illegal dumping, rat infestation, and street garbage (some of which gets deposited into storm drains and is then swept into the Chesapeake Bay).

Furthermore, the City of Baltimore is ranked among the dirtiest/worst 10% of all counties in the U.S. in terms of the number of people who face a cancer risk of more than 100 times the goal set by the Clean Air Act. The Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE) has identified 75 hazardous waste sites in and around Baltimore City. In addition, the Baltimore Development Corporation has 85 industrial brownfields and vacant lots listed that cover 1,016 acres of the City. The Environmental Protection Agency has already designated one site to itsâ National Priorities List (NPL) and there is another proposed NPL site in Baltimore City.

The Community Law Centerâs Environmental Justice Initiative seeks to address the environmental concerns of underrepresented community associations in Baltimore City by providing comprehensive legal services and technical assistance to empower communities to solve environmental problems.

The objectives for the Urban Environmental Justice Initiative are:
  1. To advocate on behalf of Baltimoreâs communities to proactively resolve environmental problems in urban neighborhoods;
  2. To encourage the realization of Smart Growth policies for the revitalization of older neighborhoods;
  3. To better utilize the tools provided by state and federal environmental laws to clean up contaminated sites that cause communities to be unattractive for redevelopment; and4) To give communities a voice in, and a roadmap for, the decision-making processes.,/li>
For more information, contact Isazetta A. Spikes at 410/366-0922 ext. 209 or isazettas@communitylaw.org.