NOTE: These are DRAFT documents that are for CUCREJ partners’ consideration only. |
“What’s Going On?: Community-Based Research for Transportation, Environment, and Sustainability The Problem: Communities of color and low-income communities in New Jersey,
New York and Puerto Rico remain peripheral to the processes that plan for and shape the future of their neighborhoods, their cities, and their region. Their marginalization is compounded because it is self-reinforcing:
the less communities participate in planning, the less access and input they have to expertise on visions of their future. With no voice and no expertise from these communities, local and regional plans continue to
emerge that put them at the receiving end of our most noxious urban activities. CUCREJ’s first year focus in community-based research is designed to address this disenfranchisement with its partners.
Environmental justice communities in New Jersey, New York, and Puerto Rico face overwhelming burdens of air, noise, and traffic pollution as the hazardous side-effect of a car- and truck-centered society. Their
exclusion is so complete that they also struggle for access to these very same transportation services vital for their economic and social health. From Newark’s Ironbound communitycrisscrossed with freeways and
commercial truck routesto the South Bronxwhere plans are being made to double-deck the Bruckner and Cross Bronx ExpresswaysCUCREJ’s member communities have joined to develop the tools they need to articulate a
sustainable future. The Solution: Community-Based Needs Assessment and Transportation Inventory To play a meaningful role in planning the region’s transportation, EJ communities
need a clear understanding of the transportation burdens they face. Their exclusion from planning forums has turned them into the “black boxes” of our region. Our transportation infrastructure expects to keep pouring
more traffic into these communities as if the problems caused by such traffic will never leak out. CUCREJ’s work in this area will seek to open this box. The plan laid out below will build local expertise
and knowledge about communities’ specific transportation-environment nexus within a framework of regional (but community-based) cooperation and exchange. In a pilot program, CUCREJ will take this knowledge to develop an
in-depth inventory of transportation conditions in one of our member communities. Finally, this pilot will produce not just an inventory, but a workbook and process for expanding the inventory to each of our other
partners. The lead academic institution for this project is the University Transportation Research Center (UTRC) at the City College of the City University of New York. UTRC is itself a consortium of 11
other major institutions in the regionCornell University, New Jersey Institute of Technology, New York University, Polytechnic University, Princeton University, Rensselaer Polytechnic University, Rutgers University,
State University of New York, Stevens Institute of Technology, University of Puerto Rico, University of the Virgin Islands. Its Director, Dr. Robert E. Paaswell has held numerous academic positions in addition to having
been the Executive Director of the Chicago Transit Authority from 1986-1989. The UTRC has been working for the past few years to provide technical assistance to EJ organizations and education to low-income students and
students of color throughout the region. A well-developed model for institutionalizing and augmenting this interaction has emerged from this collaboration and serves as the starting point for the plan described below. The Plan:
Steering Committee. CUCREJ is a consortium serving nine community-based organizations. Community research is rooted in the community, serves its interests, and encourages citizen
participation at all levels. Thus, the steering committee that will direct this pilot will consist of one member from each of our nine community-based partners. To support their roles a steering committee, they will
receive training from experts on transportation issues. In this manner, the members of the steering committee will learn how to address transportation issue responsive to their resident’s needs.
Needs Assessment. As part of the steering committee training, a needs assessment will be developed for each member community to ensure that we are asking the right questions. A variety of community
members would be surveyed: residents, schoolteachers, business people, workers, health care professionals, local leaders, etc. Questions that could be asked include:
In addition to completing a number of surveys, CUCREJ will hold focus group discussions with various stakeholders in the community. Pilot In-depth Transportation Inventory.
Equipped with the community-specific needs assessments, one partner community will be targeted for an in-depth transportation inventory. At this moment, two of our communitiesthe South Bronx and the Ironbound
community of Newarkare under consideration for the in-depth study. The problems in both communities are a result of negligence in transportation planning. The South Bronx is home to many highways used by NYC commuters
that result in adverse health impacts on its community. Many of its schools and homes are greatly impacted by vehicle exhaust from the highways as evidenced by high asthma levels of schoolchildren and residents. In
addition, there is a large concentration of waste-related industries (including recycling) in the South Bronx resulting in large waste-filled trucks travelling local routes. Similarly, the Ironbound has a great number
of sludge-filled trucks travelling local routes to access a sludge processing plant located within the community. The Ironbound is also impacted by the large volume of traffic on its roads that serve as main
thoroughfares for motorists to enter and leave the city of Newark. Although the in-depth inventory will be shaped and guided by the findings of the community-specific needs assessment, the UTRC and CUCREJ
partners have identified the universe of tasks that could be included the inventory:
The in-depth inventory will be designed for the collection of information from community members in their own languages. This is important since professional surveyors conduct most community surveys having
little or no affiliation with these communities and often face significant language barriers. As a result these professional surveys end up overlooking problems that the community feels are important.
Ongoing Evaluations. The steering committee will meet monthly to track progress of the pilot inventory and oversee the transfer of technology to all communities. As the pilot inventory progresses,
members of the steering committee will be receive weekly updates of the study’s progress giving them the opportunity to respond to any questions raised in the course of the study. Outcomes. A workbook based on the in-depth inventory will be developed by the steering committee. The committee will draw from the ongoing evaluation of the pilot study to create a final workbook. This will ensure
maximum transferability of technology of the pilot to address the needs of other communities. Community partners will also be able to access a model Web-based GIS that CUCREJ will develop to address the transportation
needs of the community inventoried in the pilot. Finally, the results of the pilot study will be used in a transportation report that will lay out guidelines for the planning and design of transportation that are
sensitive to the environmental and health needs of communities. These guidelines are meant to create a sustainable environment that will benefit all residents of these communities. |