[CPEO-MEF] REUSE, FUEL: "A 20-year struggle for environmental justice — and a public park — in one California city" - Pt. Molate, Richmond, CA

[Lenny Siegel <LSiegel@cpeo.org>]

[Last time I researched Pt. Molate, I found that the Navy was allowed to leave behind several contaminated areas and 20 huge, empty underground storage tanks. - LS]

Opinion: A 20-year struggle for environmental justice — and a public park — in one California city

By David Helvarg
Los Angeles Times (CA)
September 20, 2024


Just up the road from Oakland and Berkeley, the city of Richmond is a minority and low-income community of 115,500 people — mainly Latino, Black and Asian American — with a major Chevron refinery whose pollution has been an ongoing source of conflict (the city just reached a $550-million settlement with Chevron to mitigate health and lifestyle effects of the refinery). It’s also home to an active port and soon — finally — a world-class park.

Point Molate exemplifies the struggle for environmental justice in under-parked and over-polluted minority communities. Political support in Sacramento and Washington helps, but the battle to guarantee the future of 413 acres of city-owned headlands relied on bottom-up organizing and determined citizen engagement that encompassed protests, local candidacies, ballot initiatives, neighborhood meetings, bilingual mailings, public testimony, photo and art exhibits, billboards, site tours and, of course, lawsuits. Democracy, in other words.

…

For the entire column, see
https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2024-09-20/california-park-point-molate-richmond-san-francisco-bay
—

Lenny Siegel
Executive Director
Center for Public Environmental Oversight
A project of the Pacific Studies Center
LSiegel@cpeo.org
P.O. Box 998, Mountain View, CA 94042
Voice/Fax: 650-961-8918
http://www.cpeo.org
Author: DISTURBING THE WAR: The Inside Story of the Movement to Get Stanford University out of Southeast Asia - 1965–1975 (See http://a3mreunion.org)




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