Environmental Justice And The Border

One of STOPDRTP's proudest moments when I was General Counsel came when, after a secret meeting of the previous Council, Council apparently agreed to allow DRTP North to be built. To give comfort to home-owners in DRTP South, that part of the DRTP corridor was to be turned into a park or bicycle path. Clearly, this was an attempt to split the richer southern part and poorer northern part of the City. STOPDRTP turned that idea down cold, calling it a betrayal of Council's public position of only a month earlier opposing DRTP in its entirety. I recalled that event when I received the following email from a person I met at the recent Bi-national CCG meeting. I thought it important to set out especially since she opposes the Ojibway Bridge.

The person lives in Delray, Michigan which is described as "one of the most polluted places in the state of Michigan...Its current residents are predominantly low-income people, about half are people of color, and many residents have either owned their houses for many years or have inherited their homes from parents and other relatives. There are many seniors living below poverty on fixed incomes. Most of them could not move out if they wanted to, due to financial constraints and low property values in the neighborhood. "

It brings into play an aspect of this struggle that we in Canada are not that familiar with: "environmental justice." (Environmental Protection Agency (1997) defined environmental justice as "fair treatment for people of all races, cultures, and incomes, regarding the development of environmental laws, regulations, and policies.) This email brings the point home better than I could ever describe it and presents a different aspect in determining a border solution!

• "I live in a area in Detroit called Delray, west Delray to be exact. They split our area into east and west Delray so they can put their bridge here somewhere. We are on the "short list' of sites left for the possible new border crossing (a bridge).
  
  First of all let me say that I really enjoy reading your blog. It makes me laugh sometimes at the way you word things and it also gives me a feeling of hope at other times.
  
  I belong to our community group, the Delray Community Council and on the LAC, local advisory council which is like your CCG in Canada. All the community groups get together to bring up issues and try to discuss them at a reasonable tone. But I can not. I always stand up for myself and now I'm standing up for our community.
  
  Our entire neighborhood will be leveled for this crossing. 320 homes, several businesses, a long standing history over 100 years, and about 12 places of worship. One of those churches, Holy Cross, is on the registry of historic places and is in excellent condition. We have pictures of it on our web site www.delraycommunitycouncil.com We just got this site a few weeks ago.
  
  Anyway I believe that if the Ambassador bridge goes through with their expansion process, another crossing won't be needed at least not for a very long time.
  
  By all of the reading, meetings, and information I have found, I feel they only want this bridge for status, power, control, and money reasons. Not even for money reasons because I believe they will lose money not make it. Then what; another 800 pound gorrilla to take care of! And we will be the ones losing our homes and churches for a project that will probably fail. The irony is that our tax dollars will help them to throw us out and pay for this thing! We can never get all that back.
  
  We had a LAC meeting on Wed. Oct. 26th and they were talking about how the final 2 or 3 sites will be announced in late Nov., the 28th to be exact. Our group is pretty sure that we are one of them.
  
  Also we are told we will get market value for our homes. The problem with that is the market value here is low because the city has let this area go to hell. We do the best we can to keep it up and even host clean-up days and do the work ourselves. Market value here is around 10 to 30 thousand dollars.
  
  How can I start over somewhere else for that! It won't even cover moving expences. I have a large home with 9 rooms, a finished basement, a large yard and a 3 car brick garage. I checked out other areas in Michigan and other states in the U.S. and this property anywhere else runs 350 to 550 thousand. It's over 100 years old with 12 foot curved ceilings, claw foot bathtubs, glass beveled french doors inside and the old ironing board in the wall trick in the kitchen. They can never replace this house with something similar at 30 thousand.
  
  But we are at the mercy of these a-holes who don't care that they are feeding us to the dogs. My family has been in this neighborhood, on this very street, for over 100 years. That they can't replace either.
  
  This area is mostly low to middle income and our seniors are living on their social security. Their homes are paid for so all they pay is gas, lights, phone and grocery bills. They have no living relatives and say they would rather die than live in a state runned facility.
  
  Well I have bent your ear enough. Sometimes you just need to vent. Please keep up the good work and if you hear any good news, please let me know. I don't know if you go to these bridge meetings or not but if your interested I can send you dates and times about where ours are taking place. It's going to get REALLY INTERESTING from here on out. Thanks for your blog site."