Strength lies in unity. Los Angeles Communities for Environmental Equity seeks to bring together neighborhoods, likeminded organizations and stakeholders of all types – be they residents or visitors who simply enjoy a walk along the Los Angeles River – to work together and rectify decades of social and environmental injustice suffered by the many communities along its 51 miles. As efforts at beautification and restoration intensify, matched by monied interests in development and big spending from City Hall, having the voices of our neighborhoods heard becomes even more crucial. We cannot allow neglectful and abusive relationships, such as that between the city and Metrolink’s Central Maintenance Facility (CMF) to continue unabated. We must do for ourselves what the city has failed to do for us: protect the air, water and quality of life for all.
Then-candidate Mitch O’Farrell Speaks to the Social Justice Issue of Metrolink’s facility as a “danger” in our daily lives. We want our elected officials to stand up for clean air in our communities and create effective change that will improve the health of our neighborhoods and our environment.
Keep your promise, Mitch! We want noise mitigation, life-saving hood technology and true 3rd-party oversight of Metrolink now.
“Avoid truck routes and the ‘diesel death zone’
It’s especially unhealthful to live near freeways and roads frequented by diesel trucks, which spew many times more harmful gases and particles than cars. Diesel particulate matter, carcinogen-laden soot that deposits deep in the lungs, is responsible for the bulk of the cancer risk from air pollution and more than 1,000 early deaths a year in California.
Experts are most concerned about people living near ports, warehouse distribution centers and other freight corridors. Asthma rates and cancer risk there can be so elevated that physicians have labeled it the “diesel death zone.””
