RAMP hosts periodic convenings to inform, learn, build relationships, and collaborate on complex environmental health issues in the region. In recent years, RAMP hosted convenings on diesel pollution, housing, and land-use. These convenings brought asthma advocates together with others working on public health, environmental and social justice, and equity in the region with the goal to build the capacity and partnerships necessary to effectively address environmental health concerns.

June 15^th meeting on Smart Growth

On June 15^th, at the State Building in downtown Oakland, RAMP hosted a half-day forum entitled “Is Smart Growth Really Smart? And for Whom?” to learn, build relationships, and collaborate on complex environmental health issues as it pertains to California’s Sustainable Community Strategy. These Strategies are one of the key components to the implementation of SB 375, a bill passed several years ago that requires each region within California to reduce vehicle miles traveled (and thus greenhouse gases) through better community and regional planning. The half-day discussion of the June 15^th event was designed to focus on how transit oriented development impacts existing communities from a public health perspective.

Attendees included professionals from Bay Area Air Quality Management District, San Francisco Department of Public Health, TransForm, The Nonprofit Housing Association of Northern California, City of Oakland Planning Department, Alameda County of Public Health, West Oakland Environmental Indicators Project, Pacific Institute, and others.   These participants engaged in discussions about the technical issues involved in planning transit oriented development and the public health and equity implications for environmental justice communities. The forum served as a model for similar discussions to support communities that have also begun to incorporate public health considerations into their Sustainable Community Strategies.

RAMP is proud to have co-sponsored this event with the Social Equity Caucus, Pacific Institute, and the Ditching Dirty Diesel Collaborative.

To review more detailed notes about the convening, click here.

For a background document covering Housing Proximity to Freeways and Health Concerns, click here.  (Thanks to Diane Bailey and Cooper Hanning at the Natural Resources Defense Council for this document.) You may also be interested in this Q&A summary of City of Oakland policy on air quality and housing.

To watch videos and PowerPoint of the six presentations from the half-day forum, see the various links below.

For more information about the June 15^th convening, contact RAMP’s Policy Associate Azibuike Akaba at azibuike(at)rampasthma(dot)org.

• Public Health
  • Tom Rivard, Health Hazard Assessment Group, San Francisco Department of Public Health

• Affordable Housing
  • Evelyn Stivers, The Nonprofit Housing Association of Northern California

• California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) Guidelines
  • Dave Vintze, Air Quality Planning Manager, Bay Area Air Quality Management District

• Transportation Synopsis
  • Stuart Cohen, TransForm

• Environmental Justice
  • Margaret Gordon, West Oakland Environmental Indicators Project

• Community Mapping
  • Catalina Garzon, Pacific Institute

March 15^th convening on the public health implications of SB 375

In March RAMP hosted another convening focusing on the primary public health implications of SB 375.  To learn more about that convening, click here.

Convenings:
Clinical, Schools, Environment, Community Health Outreach Workers, Community Action to Fight Asthma