Examining Environmental Injustice

Moore, Danielle 2020 Environmental Studies Thesis Title: America’s Finest City? : Examining Environmental Injustice in San Diego, CA Advisor: Pia Kohler Advisor is Co-author/Adviser Restricted Data Used: None of the above Second Advisor: Release: release now Authenticated User Access (does not apply to released theses): Contains Copyrighted Material: No America’s Finest City?: Examining Environmental Injustice in San Diego, CA by Danielle Moore Pia M. Kohler, Advisor A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Bachelor of Arts with Honors in Environmental Studies WILLIAMS COLLEGE Williamstown, Massachusetts May 31, 2020 Moore 1 Acknowledgements First off, I want to give my sincere gratitude to Professor Pia Kohler for her help throughout this whole process. Thank you for giving me constant guidance and support over this time despite all this year’s unique circumstances. I truly appreciate all the invaluable time and assistance you have given me. I also want to thank my second reader Professor Nick Howe for his advice and perspective that made my thesis stronger. Thank you to other members of the Environmental Studies Department that inquired about my thesis and progress throughout the year. I truly appreciate everyone’s encouragement and words of wisdom. Besides the Environmental Studies Department, thank you to all my family members who have supported me during my journey at Williams and beyond. All of you are aware of the challenges that I faced, and I would have not been able to overcome them without your unlimited support. Thank you to all my friends at Williams and at home that have supported me as well. Especially to my Williams friends, you have helped me find a community at this school, a place so far away from my home. To especially Krystal Hahn, Cristina Mancilla, Tiffany Zheng, and Rachel Porter, thank you all so much for your friendship and support over these years through everything. Lastly, thank you to all the environmental groups in San Diego who have been trying to make a healthier environment in the city for years and largely inspired my thesis. Moore 2 Table of Contents Acknowledgements 1 Abstract 5 Preface 6 Chapter 1: Introduction and Background 9 Inspiration 9 Overview of Southeast San Diego 10 Overview of Barrio Logan 13 Scale 15 Methods 17 Secondary Sources 18 Street Science by Jason Corburn 18 Power Politics: Environmental Activism in South Los Angeles by Karen Brodkin 20 Laotian Daughters: Working toward Community, Belonging, and Environmental Justice by Bindi V. Shah 24 Environmental Health: From Global to Local by Howard Frumkin 26 Bridging Silos by Katrina Smith Korfmacher 29 Chapter 2: Environmental Injustice in Barrio Logan and Southeast San Diego 32 Kumeyaay Indigenous Peoples and Colonization of San Diego (1542 – 1890) 34 Early Planning, Population Boom, and Building of the City’s Heart (1891 - 1937) 40 Summary 40 Urban Planning and the Military 40 Immigration and Migration 45 Infrastructure and Housing 50 Industrialization and Infrastructure (1938 - 1960) 52 Urban Planning and Zoning 52 The Military, World War II, and Barrio Logan 52 Immigration and Migration 55 Transportation Infrastructure and Housing 55 Suburban Growth and Temporary Paradise (1961 – 1974) 62 Moore 3 Urban Planning and Temporary Paradise 62 The Military and Barrio Logan 64 Transportation Infrastructure and Housing 66 Beginnings of Environmental Justice (1975 – 1997) 70 Redevelopment and Downtown 70 The Barrio Logan Environmental Health Coalition and Fighting Injustice 71 Highway Infrastructure and Public Transportation 73 Southeast San Diego and Changing Demographics 75 Flaws in Earlier Urban Planning: Analyzing the Outcomes (1998 – 2012) 79 Shipyards, the Military, and Air + Water Pollution in Barrio Logan 79 Skyline-Paradise Hills Community Plan 81 Southeastern San Diego Community Plan 85 Analyzing Gentrification and Why the Barrio Logan Update Failed (2012 - today) 89 Gentrification 89 Analysis of the Failed Barrio Logan Community Plan Update and Next Steps 91 Freeway Expansion Projects 95 Chapter 3: Policy Recommendations 98 Overall 100 List of Overall Recommendations 100 Recommendation #1: Have Less Freeway Construction Projects 100 Recommendation #2: Include Facets of New Urbanism Principles in Future Planning 101 Recommendation #3: Form a Coalition Between Barrio Logan and Southeast San Diego Environmental Groups 103 Recommendation #4: Further Publicize Grassroots Organizations in Barrio Logan and Southeast San Diego 104 Recommendations Specifically for Barrio Logan 105 Recommendation #5: Update the Barrio Logan Community Plan 105 Recommendation #6: Lessen the Political Connections Between Politicians, the Military, and the Shipyards 105 Recommendation #7: Create Tighter Air Emission Standards 106 Recommendations Specifically for Southeast San Diego 107 Recommendation #8: Update the Skyline-Paradise Hills Community Plan 107 Moore 4 Recommendation #9: Increase and Improve Public Transportation Routes Through Southeast San Diego 107 Recommendation #10: Stronger Communication Between the Planning Department and Community Members 111 Chapter 4: Conclusion 113 Appendix 119 Skyline - Paradise Hills Community Planning Meeting 119 San Diego Promise Zone All Partner Meeting 120 Resources for Further Information and Links 122 Pueblo Watershed and Chollas Creek Pollution 122 Urban Agriculture Potential 122 Bibliography 124 Moore 5 Abstract My thesis is a combination of urban planning, environmental policy, and environmental law. The goal of this thesis is to investigate the causes of environmental injustice in two communities in San Diego. To do so, I have created a timeline from the 1542 to the present that outlines the histories of the two marginalized communities of Barrio Logan and Southeast San Diego. Specifically, I have explored the history of Barrio Logan, a neighborhood near downtown San Diego, to analyze how the U.S. Navy and shipbuilding industry have overburdened Barrio Logan with air and water pollution. The second case study I analyzed involves the greater Southeast San Diego area and how transportation infrastructure surrounding the community led to air pollution problems. I have chosen to analyze both communities, instead of just one, because I want to understand the unique environmental injustices each faces and further connect their environmental issues to larger systemic injustice. It is worth noting both communities have been affected differently by industry and the government, and each have their own activist movements that I have looked further into. Overall, my timeline highlights zoning legislation, building of transportation infrastructure, siting of industry, and redlining. This thesis concludes with specific policy recommendations about transportation infrastructure, community plans, industrial expansion, and emission standards that will reduce the pollution burden in these two communities. Moore 6 Preface Jill G. Hall No Such Thing as Global Warming? The overhead fan starts to twirl even though no one has turned it on. It’s 90 degrees at the coast and 110 in El Cajon while slate-colored ash sifts over San Diego and Santa Ana fires flame once more.1 As I was finishing up my thesis, I couldn’t help but reflect on the crazy weather that I experienced over the past two months. The week I came home from college, it was raining for days at a time, which is already rare for San Diego past February. Another week it was in the mid-90s at my house with a multiple day heat wave in April. Then another week the weather went back to typical “May Gray” with morning and evening overcast. The thing is – this has become the new normal over these last few years. Climate change has noticeably been hitting San Diego and California harder than before. Fire season has gone from late summer and fall now to year-round. Whole winters have been dry except for a few days of record breaking rain. 1 Jill G. Hall, “No Such Thing as Global Warming?,” in Sunshine/Noir II: Writings from San Diego and Tijuana, ed. Kelly Mayhew and Jim Miller (San Diego: San Diego City Works Press, 2015), 173. Moore 7 Environmental problems in San Diego range from the global to the local, and now 72 degrees and sunny is no longer guaranteed. So now that turns us to questioning what other environmental problems are San Diegans facing besides climate change. How could “America’s Finest City?” have any environmental problems at all? What could be going wrong in San Diego? Well, a lot. In this thesis, I have explored those questions of what environmental problems people are facing in the two communities of Barrio Logan and Southeast San Diego. I have traced back the histories of these communities starting with the indigenous people of the San Diego up until today to better understand the root of their environmental problems. In addition, I have dived into the topics of air and water pollution, transportation, politics, urban planning, and environmental justice in the timelines I have created. Afterwards, I have used the timelines to give ten specific policy recommendations that I believe can redress the environmental injustice Barrio Logan and Southeast San Diego face in the future. The core of my analysis is in these recommendations and the last sections of Chapter 2 as I looked into what led to marginalization of these communities and then how the government, residents, and activists can best address their needs. Furthermore, the analysis I have done helps expand our understanding of the intertwined problems of environmental injustice, slow violence, racism, poverty, climate change, and political corruption in these two communities. I argue that all these environmental problems need to be addressed, but their ties to other forms of injustice need to be address simultaneously as well. For example, I put forward a recommendation for walkable and bikeable streets. But what good is my recommendation if the street is walkable, but people do not feel safe in that area due to violence? Hence, it is crucial to be aware of other forms of injustice that tie to the environment and community, as they are not treated separately in residents’ everyday life.

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