This blog takes a deep dive into the vast array of impacts that air pollution has on human health, exploring how poor air quality affects nearly every area of the human body — from head to toe. Research shows that air pollution is a major environmental risk factor for a slew of diseases, from Alzheimer’s disease to lung cancer to osteoporosis, and can significantly lower lifespan and quality of life. Air pollution accounts for extensive damages to public health, as well as vast economic losses due to healthcare costs and lost school and workdays. While air pollution exposure can impact everyone, its damage is not distributed equally. Children, elderly individuals, those with pre-existing conditions, and those living in low socioeconomic neighborhoods or environmental justice communities bear a disproportionate burden of its impacts — emphasizing the need to protect vulnerable populations by taking better care of our air quality.
Tag Archives: Community Air Protection
City Council Hearing tomorrow Jan. 18, 2022 at 5 pm
Gas Station: 16-pump fuel center in Crocker Village
Come to the meeting. For background, see ECOS’ letter to the City.
In 2015, the Council denied the permit on a 7-2 vote. The Planning Staff are again recommending Approval based on the 2015 assessment.
This is a zoom council meeting. You can still comment by eComment and provide comments during the hearing by phone. Here is how you can do it —
- Send an eComment to the Council. The City counts comments and provides council members with a red and green pie chart showing numbers of opposed and support comments. A comment that simply says something like “I am opposed to a fuel center in Crocker Village” will be counted, but please add detail as desired. Click here for the city’s comment portal. https://sacramento.granicusideas.com/meetings/4221-5pm-city-council/agenda_items/61e0a26ff2b6701967003998-16-rehearing-third-party-appeal-curtis-park-vill
- Log in at 5PM on the 18th (click on “Join this meeting” link below), raise your hand* using the Zoom “raise hand” function when Item 16 is opened for public comment and you will be placed in line to comment. The clerk will call on you. You will not be on camera. Give up to 2 minutes (or less) in verbal comment. It is the second discussion item
Join this meeting via Zoom: https://cityofsacramento-org.zoom.us/j/98316981872?pwd=eHBBb20rY29idkZBN0NML0crWlJOdz09
Webinar ID: 983 1698 1872 Passcode: 802467
Dial in via telephone: 888 788 0099 (Toll Free) – Meeting ID: 983 1698 1872 # #
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Stockton Blvd Plan: Upcoming Events
Visioning Survey
Be a part of creating a shared vision for the Stockton Blvd area. Take the survey here.
Upcoming events: Strategies for Stockton Blvd
The City is partnering with residents, business owners, landowners, and organizations to strengthen the Stockton Blvd corridor as a vital core for the surrounding neighborhoods and region, maintaining and improving it as a great place for existing residents and businesses while also providing space for future growth.
The Stockton Blvd Plan is a partnership between the City of Sacramento, community members, and organizations to transform Stockton Blvd into a thriving corridor that expands opportunities for, and supports the cultures of, existing residents and small businesses while accommodating growth and centering racial equity.
We will have an activity to prioritize potential strategies to accomplish this under the following topics:
Topic 1. Housing & Anti-displacement.
Topic 2. Inclusive Economic Development
Topic 3. Placemaking, Arts, & Culture
Topic 4. Environment & Public Health
Topic 5. Community Engagement & Building Capacity
Dates
Date: Saturday, September 11th. Location/Time: Colonial Heights Library, 10am-1pm
Date: Wednesday, September 22nd. Location/Time: Will C. Wood, 5:30-7pm. Materials and interpreters will be available in Cantonese, Mandarin, Hmong, Vietnamese, and Spanish.
Date: Wednesday, September 29th. Location/Time: Zoom, 6:00-7:30pm. Register here
Date: Saturday, October 23rd. Location/Time: Colonial Heights Library, 10am-12pm
*In-person events are contingent on County COVID-19 Guidelines. Please note that participants must wear masks while at in-person events. If you feel unwell or have had close contact with a person with confirmed COVID-19 in the last 14 days, please do not attend and stay at home.
Give Your Input, Ask Your Questions
The City wants to hear from you! Here is a list of ways you can stay informed and involved in the process of the Stockton Blvd. Plan:
- Visit the website at cityofsacramento.org/Stockton-Blvd-Plan
- Email the City at StocktonBlvdPlan[at]cityofsacramento[dot]org with any questions
Check Before You Make a Fire!
This Holiday Season, Please Remember to Check Before You Burn
With the cold and frosty winter weather upon us, residents across the Sacramento Region might be thinking about using their fireplace to help keep warm. This holiday season, the Sac Metro Air District asks you to please remember to Check Before You Burn, to make sure wood burning is legal.
From November 1 through the end of February, the District will restrict or prohibit the use of all fireplaces, wood stoves, inserts, fire pits, and chimineas when fine particle pollution (PM2.5) is forecast to be high. The law applies to residents and businesses in Sacramento County and the cities of Citrus Heights, Elk Grove, Folsom, Galt, Isleton, Rancho Cordova, and Sacramento. Remember, if you observe burning on a day when particulate matter air pollution is forecast to be high, and burning is prohibited, you can anonymously file a complaint here. First time violations will result in either a $50 fine, or the option to take and pass a wood smoke awareness exam. Fines for subsequent violations are higher.
Letter to UC Regents re Aggie Square
October 10, 2020
Sacramento Investment Without Displacement, of which ECOS is a member, sent a letter to UC Regents regarding our concerns about Aggie Square.
Below is an excerpt from the letter.
We are writing this letter to appeal to you and the Board of Regents to request that UC Davis and its developer Wexford Science and Technology commit to signing a Community Benefits Agreement (CBA) with our broad coalition. We believe that this project could bring great possibility and promise for the future of Oak Park and other nearby neighborhoods, the City of Sacramento and UC Davis Medical Center, if the benefits are shared widely and equity and inclusion are embraced as core values.
Before this project’s Environmental Impact Report is approved, it is a moral imperative that the UC system consider our community coalition and the impacted community we represent. The leaders of our coalition are requesting a meaningful conversation with UC Davis and its developer to address inequities and unintended consequences of this project.
The Oak park community is mostly made up of people of color, low-income people and immigrants who have carried a heavy burden for generations in the history of the development of this region. Unfortunately, deep poverty, violence, inadequate affordable and safe housing, employment discrimination and the many subtle actions of hate have deeply wounded countless promising young and old souls alike. Residents have a list of concerns about how the build-out and operation of Aggie Square will impact their neighborhoods.
