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    imageMagical Urbanism, a website about urbanization, design and social change, is maintained by Mike Ernst. I'm an urban planner and designer based in New York City. I graduated from the Masters of City Planning program at UC Berkeley.

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    AP: Blacks more likely to breathe polluted air

    Blacks more likely to suffer from air pollution

    An AP analysis of government pollution, health and census data found that blacks are 79 percent more likely than whites to live in neighborhoods where industrial air pollution is suspected of causing the most health problems.

    Odds of living in neighborhoods with most health risk from industrial air pollution, by race/ethnicity compared to whites:
    Black: 79%
    Multiple race: -6.9%
    Hispanic: -18.3%
    Pacific Islander: -36.7%
    American Indian: -38.3%
    Asian: -51.6%

    Characteristics of most seriously polluted areas, compared to all other areas:
    Poverty: 38.5%
    Unemployed: 25.0%
    No high school: 9.3%
    Over 65: 4.0%
    Under 18: 2.3%
    Income (per capita): -18.3%
    College graduate: -26.1%

    Source: The Associated Press

    This is old news to folks in the Bay Area, which has no shortage of environmental racism. Bayview/Hunter’s Point in San Francisco, a mostly black neighborhood, sits near an old naval ship-building plant, a superfund site. The PG&E coal-burning power plant sites nearby, and the area is known for its high asthma rates among children.

    Link to CNN article

    For more info on Bayview / Hunter’s Point, check out Greenaction and Literacy for Environmental Justice.

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