For the last four years, PolicyLink has collaborated in California with Community Action to Fight Asthma (CAFA)—a network of 12 local coalitions from around the state—and its coordinator, Regional Asthma Management and Prevention (RAMP), to move policies that reduce environmental triggers of childhood asthma. Last month, PolicyLink, CAFA, and RAMP convened a meeting at The California Endowment Center for Healthy Communities for the network to discuss local objectives and strategies, and to prioritize state policy options for the coming year. 

To improve community health and promote well-being, local coalitions discussed a number of local objectives, which included: improving indoor air quality in classrooms and other school facilities; improving outdoor air quality related to asthma triggers; and eliminating allergens and other asthma triggers in homes.  Collectively, coalitions identified two state-level policy priorities that will direct much-needed resources toward reducing outdoor air pollution and improving school facilities.

With California’s recent passage of infrastructure bond measures—particularly Prop 1B that supports highway safety, traffic reduction, port security, and air quality improvements—coalition partners agreed to push to ensure the one billion dollars allocated for air pollution emission reductions will be allocated appropriately.  They also agreed to advocate on the implementation of the important Williams settlement—a class-action lawsuit that proved agencies failed to provide public school students with equal access to instructional materials, safe and decent school facilities, and qualified teachers.  Coalition members will work to ensure that the evaluation instrument used to assess school conditions will include good measures of indoor air quality.  This data will provide important information that can be used in future advocacy efforts to improve indoor air quality in California schools.  

PolicyLink will continue to provide leadership development, technical assistance, and advocacy trainings to CAFA as the network, and RAMP, work to achieve identified policy goals.  Through these strategic partnerships, and the concrete policy goals achieved, the lives and health of Californians will be improved for many years to come.

As in many lower-income communities and communities of color across the country, residents of Harlem and the South Bronx suffer from disproportionately high rates of diabetes, heart disease, and obesity.  Healthy eating is critical to preventing and managing these kinds of chronic conditions—yet low-income urban, suburban, and rural communities also struggle with a lack of access to fruits, vegetables, and other fresh foods.  Decades of disinvestment has left many neighborhoods without a full service supermarket, forcing residents to rely instead on an overproliferation of fast food outlets, small groceries, and convenience stores.

Two out of three food stores in East and Central Harlem are bodegas (small corner groceries), where fresh produce is typically scarce.  According to the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, only one in four East Harlem bodegas sells apples, oranges, and bananas, and leafy green vegetables are only available at four percent of stores.  The department’s 2004 Community Health Survey found that about 20 percent of respondents in these neighborhoods had eaten no fruits or vegetables during the previous day. 

In early December, the Department of Health launched “Move to Fruits and Vegetables” a partnership with the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets and the Bodega Association of the United States.  Building on the city’s past “Moooove to 1% Milk” campaign, the health department will encourage bodega owners to expand their stock of fresh produce by conducting outreach at community gathering places, providing a toolkit of promotional posters and postcards, and offering store owners in East Harlem and the South Bronx a free shipment of ready-to-eat local apples and carrots, which the bodegas will sell at 50 cents per pack with an initial “buy one, get one free” discount. 

Along with developing full-service supermarkets and cultivating farmers’ markets, helping small bodegas and small stores improve their stock of fresh fruits and vegetables gives underserved communities the food access necessary for healthier living.  These key strategies were highlighted in the PolicyLink report Healthy Food, Healthy Communities: Improving Access and Opportunities through Food Retailing, and PolicyLink is working with advocates to reintroduce promising legislation to improve food access in California.  (The bill is inspired by the Fresh Food Financing Initiative, a Pennsylvania program that recently won the Environmental Protection Agency’s 2006 National Award for Smart Growth Achievement.) 

In Washington, Representative Nydia Velázquez (D-New York) introduced the Bodegas as a Catalyst for Healthy Living Act before the 109th Congress. The legislation, said to be the first federal attempt to address the food access in underserved communities, would provide Small Business Administration grants for community-based organizations and bodegas to expand their produce inventory, and advocates are hopeful that growing awareness of neighborhood health disparities and “grocery gaps” will help advance this bill and others like it in 2007. 

As 2006 comes to a close, PolicyLink reflects on the past year’s Gulf Coast rebuilding efforts with new and updated website content, including legislative updates; analyses from PolicyLink staff and partners; and data and maps of housing and development trends in New Orleans.

Visit http://www.policylink.org/Communities/Louisiana/default.html to learn more about the ongoing work to promote equitable rebuilding in Louisiana and the Gulf Coast.  

Median home prices in the Baltimore region rose 99 percent between 2000 and 2004, while wages rose only 19 percent, according to “At Home in Baltimore:  A Plan for an Inclusive City of Neighborhoods,” the July 2006 final report of the Baltimore City Task Force on Inclusionary Zoning and Housing.  The report described “a regional housing market that is increasingly like a car dealership with only Hummers and Cadillacs, and no mid-price sedan, or a grocery store that only sells filet mignon, but no macaroni and cheese.” 

In early December, City Councilman Bernard C. “Jack” Young introduced an inclusionary housing proposal that would require developers receiving subsidies or zoning variances to set aside up to 20 percent of their units for affordable housing (10 percent for unsubsidized developments) and would also allocate 20 percent of the city’s transfer taxes and recordation fees to an inclusionary housing trust that was approved by voters on November’s ballot.  Young’s proposal is supported by a broad coalition of faith leaders; housing, antipoverty, and community advocacy organizations; and labor unions—though city planning, housing, and finance officials have expressed concern that the legislation in its current form is too sweeping and not feasible. 

There is consensus among advocates and city agencies, however, that affordable housing is a growing problem in the city.  One of five “older core cities” originally highlighted in Shared Prosperity, Stronger Regions:  An Agenda for Rebuilding America’s Older Core Cities, Baltimore experienced an 11.5 percent population loss between the 1990 and 2000 Census (and has continued to lose residents since), and still struggles with crime, poverty, and distressed neighborhoods.  Yet marketing campaigns are seeking to draw professionals from the suburbs and Washington, DC, and certain city neighborhoods (particularly surrounding downtown, the waterfront, and Johns Hopkins University) are experiencing a development boom, with new retail and entertainment, condominium conversions, and high-end housing construction—making it more critical than ever to create and preserve affordable housing and promote equitable development that benefits all residents.  Supporters of Councilman Young’s bill vow to keep the need for a strong, comprehensive inclusionary housing plan front and center as the legislation makes its way through the council. 

For more information on affordable housing in Baltimore, see Baltimore Sun coverage of the council debate, online resources and action alerts from Citizens Planning and Housing Association, and regional equity data gathered as part of the PolicyLink Core Cities Initiative.

Creating vibrant, healthy communities requires active involvement from local and state government.  Working in partnership with advocates in the nonprofit and private sectors, local and state government officials turn principles into policy.  In November, the Environmental Protection Agency recognized public leadership in sustainable planning and policymaking with its annual National Award for Smart Growth Achievement in five categories. 

The Chicago Department of Planning and Development received the EPA's newly-created Equitable Development award for their role in building and funding the Bethel Center, a transit oriented development in Chicago’s West Garfield Park neighborhood.  Ten years ago, when transportation officials proposed the closure of the community’s Green Line station (due to economic disinvestment in the area), faith-based nonprofit Bethel New Life collaborated with local residents, community leaders, local organizations, and public officials to conceive and develop the two-story, 23,000 square foot center that would serve as the heart of a revitalized, walkable community.  Bethel Center, which was built on a former brownfield and opened in May 2005, offers services like job counseling, retail space, child care, and a technology center.  Because the development is built around the Green Line station, Bethel Center also preserves local residents’ access to public transportation that connects with employment, education, and entertainment opportunities throughout the region.  Bethel New Life has also developed 50 affordable homes within walking distance of the transit stop, with additional affordable housing planned for the future.

Other EPA Smart Growth awardees include:  the Massachusetts Office for Commonwealth Development in the category of Overall Excellence in Smart Growth; the city of Wichita, Kansas in the category of Built Projects; the city of Winooski, Vermont in the Small Communities category; and the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development, which won the Policies and Regulations award for the state’s Fresh Food Financing Initiative. 

Both the Bethel Center and the Fresh Food Financing Initiative have also been highlighted by PolicyLink as equitable development success stories.  The Fresh Food Financing Initiative was featured in the PolicyLink report Healthy Food, Healthy Communities:  Improving Access and Opportunities Through Food Retailing; and the Bethel Center was cited as a model of community-oriented revitalization in Shared Prosperity, Stronger Regions:  An Agenda for Rebuilding America’s Older Core Cities.