Environmental Justice Alliance, NRDC Attend Chicago Conference

Representatives of the New York City Environmental Justice Alliance and NRDC attended the Transportation, Environmental Justice and Social Equity Conference in Chicago November 16 and 17. The conference highlighted nationwide inequities in the distribution of transportation

resources. At the conference, moderators led working groups in sharing strategies to combat inequitable policies from transportation agencies and metropolitan planning organizations. It is obvious that continuous discrimination by transportation policy makers has taken its toll in every region of

our country, said Michelle DePass, executive director of the New York City Environmental Justice Alliance. The highlight of the conference was a panel of community representatives from Texas, New Mexico, New York, Chicago, Georgia and San Francisco which described how pro-sprawl/anti-

urban land use policies, transit desubsidization and highway encroachment have contributed both to exploding metropolitan car use (vehicle miles of travel) and environmental and social decay in urban communities of color. Contact New York City Environmental Justice Alliance, 212-866-4120