110 Tons of Dangerous Air

pstrongMirant Corporation attempts to double production and further polute a low income community of San Francisco/strong/p pDIV align="left" TABLE cellpadding="5"TR VALIGN="TOP"TDIMG SRC= "../sites/default/files/arch_img/378/photo_1_feature.jpg" //td/trTR VALIGN="TOP"TD/td/trTR VALIGN="TOP"TDTR VALIGN="TOP"TD pby Dee Gray/p pi"I can't breathe here…"/i/p pThey were the largest cement squares inside of a sidewalk I had ever seen./p pMy mother and I were stranded on one... holding on to each other for dear life. I was eleven years old. We were in downtown Los Angeles - the Rampart district, which is on the edge of the Crenshaw area, known for its gang activity, drive-by shootings and opaque landscapes filled with giant alabaster apartment buildings that droop over the immense streets and sidewalks. /p p"I can't take that job….I can't breathe here……br / …..I've got to get out of here," her words came out in tense clumps./p pI could not stop focusing on the sheer depth of each concrete square, and as she spoke, the squares got larger and the thick concrete foundation at the base of the apartment building in front of us seemed to stretch and bend until it curled around us. After several minutes I only heard parts of her words, and then it was just the consonants rubbing and twisting together, jumping up and down in the atmosphere, smashing into my ears, fighting to get in./p p"But couldn't you just try it for one week,” I begged nonchalantly, my desperation dangling in the silent white-brown afternoon air. I looked up to find some sky, some indication of blue, or tip of cloud - some sound, wind or ray of sun, but was only met with the same diffused-almost air and the omnipresent glare, a sky color specific to Los Angeles, which was generated by reflections off of windshields, chrome bumpers, sunglasses, apartment windows, billboards and the bottom of planes./p pI went on, "…You need this job, it might be the last one you get......," while she pondered momentarily. Parts of my stomach that were drowning in an admixture of adrenaline and acid came up for air. "We' re not going to make it without that job- we have no savings, what about the rent?" Desperation was seeping into my voice./p p"But you know I can't breathe in this smog.... I just don't know what to do.........."/p pMy whole body waited for something else to say, knowing so securely, so perfectly clearly that if she did not take this job, if she did not get out of the house NOW and get back to normalcy immediately, life would change forever. Not partially or for awhile, but completely, irreversibly, and forever. Excerpt from uCriminal of Poverty/u by Lisa Gray-Garcia /p pLow income people suffer abuses of many kinds – most of the time they are not obvious – abuses such as environmental racism and classism. When we were living in Hollywood, California, at first we weren’t sure that the increasing asthma I was suffering from was because of the smog of the LA Basin. When we finally figured it out, it was almost too late- my mother’s lungs were permanently damaged – and our only option, to leave LA, was too difficult financially, like moving, relocating, or leaving is for most poor people. We finally managed to move to Venice Beach , thinking the air would better near the ocean. However, because of oil drilling off the coast of Venice, the air was just as bad as in Hollywood, making it necessary for us to leave once again./p pIn low income, predominantly African-American communities of San Francisco there has been a well-documented history of environmental racism and classism against the residents. The most recent example of this is the attempt by the Mirant Corporation, owner of the existing power plant at the foot of Potrero Hill, which wants to more than double its production./p pThis expansion would further pollute the Bayview/Hunters Point community, which is already among the most polluted sections of San Francisco./p pThe following is a partial list of the environmental impact of this expansion compiled by the Communities for A Better Environment:/p p1) There are 1000 children at 3 Potrero Hill schools within a mile and abr / half of the power plant./p p2 ) Almost 2 out of every 10 children in Bayview/ Hunters Point schoolsbr / have asthma./p p3 ) Over 80,000 people live within a 3 mile-radius of the power plant. Sanbr / Francisco’s Planning Department concluded our area had the greatestbr / increase in new housing in the city./p p4 ) The plant expansion would add 110 tons of dangerous air emissionsbr / each year for the next 40 years. Our community already has two existingbr / power plants and suffers from high levels of pollution from nearbybr / industries, diesel trucks, buses, and freeways./p p5 ) With the expansion, the Potrero Power Plant would have a peak capacitybr / of 900 megawatts. The City has concluded that, in terms of power plantbr / size and proximity to dense urban population, the State has no directlybr / comparable power plants./p p6 ) Mirant Corporation is being sued by the City and the State for unfairbr / business practices./p pPlease join PoorNewsNetwork staff in the effort to stop this expansion!/p pTuesday, June 19, 6:30 pm: Public Comments on State preliminary assessment at the Potrero Hill Neighborhood House at 953 DeHaro St. Hear and be heard!/p pFor more information, please contact Mike Thomas with Communities for a Better Environment at (415) 642-1091/p p/p/td/tr/td/tr/table/div/p