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Essay Subject: Examines interrelationships between urban policies affecting transportation and various Latino communities in Southern California.... More...

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Paper Abstract: Examines interrelationships between urban policies affecting transportation and various Latino communities in Southern California. Environmental public policy in U.S. Role of Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Public interest vs. industrial interests. Transport access problem. Impact on Hispanic population. Political issues. Public & private transportation. Lawsuits. Statistics & demographics. 1 Chart. Paper Introduction: This research examines the interrelationship between urban policies affecting transportation and various Chicano/Chicana (also Hispanic, Latino) communities of Southern California. The research will set forth the context in which transportation issues have achieved resonance with Hispanic demographic groups in Southern California and then discuss means by which interest-group advocacy and conflict have organized around these issues in an effort to influence the course of public policy. A trenchant examination of environmental public policy in the United States during the early years of the scandal-ridden Environmental Protection Agency of the Reagan administration criticizes the way Reagan's first-term EPA offered covert "sweetheart deals" to long-term industrial polluters, even as it presented a facade of negotiation, committees, and compromise. The t Text of the Paper: The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper. But the record of varioustransportation programs and policies in Southern California indicates thatattention to the needs of a growing and growingly vocal ethnic constituencyhas been far more limited than either prudent or advisable. Los Angeles Times Orange County Edition, B-3. Washington, Congressional Quarterly. (1986).Policies and institutions: An assessment of the resource base that supportsthe global economy. Stark cites the comment of aresident of a gated community in Thousand Oaks, Calif., who advocates thegate because of "aimless wanderers who have nothing better to do than divethough other people's neighborhoods. After the movement: Environmental activism in the199 s. Even for Latinos who are able to drive their own cars, equal access tosocial benefits may be at issue. (2 1, April 1). Rabin, J.L. Hicks, J. Fighting forequality in public transit: Labor Community Strategy Center v. The emergenceof the term environmental racism in the 199 s can be seen as theculmination of decades of advocacy on behalf of those who havedisproportionately borne the costs of development--often uninterrogateddevelopment--while being disproportionately marginalized where the benefitsof economic development are concerned. Public transportation has been a civil rights issue inmany cities around the country (Kelley, 1996), the residue of racial/ethnicbattles that were first organized in the mid-195 s. Journal of Urban Affairs, 5, 81-94. In the El Sereno case, Caltrans credibility was called into questionwhen it was revealed that since the 197 s the state has been quietly buyingup property and houses along the proposed route, allowing some to fall intodisrepair and converting others to Caltrans houses, instead of renting outthe houses as previously promised (Winton, 2 1). Thus a month-longstrike by drivers at MTA in 2 was disproportionately felt among peopleof color in Los Angeles. In Santa Ana, county seat of Orange County,California, controversy surrounds evidence of disparate distribution ofpublic-transportation benefits. Retrieved from the World Wide Web 28September 2 1, athttp://www.washingtonpeacecenter.org/articles/enviroracism.html. In mid-2 1, the MTAdescribed freeway-extension plans in generally favorable terms, though thepractical effect was nil because federal highway subsidies have alreadybeen diverted to other transportation plans. Martin, H. (2 1, April 22). Wilson Quarterly, 22, 58-79. Focus groups interviewed for the mid-199 s ITS study led to theconclusion that social equity, appropriate land use, and sustainability ofenvironmental quality were of paramount importance to historicallymarginalized groups (Horan, Hempel, Jordan, & Alm, 1996, p. (2 1, August 14). Los Angeles Times, Orange County Edition,B-1. (1984). (2 ). HispanicBusiness, 15, 6, 8. International Institute for Environment and Development. Protection from environmental harm hampered.Architecture, 9 , 33. Pressman, J.L., & Wildavsky, A. The research will set forth thecontext in which transportation issues have achieved resonance withHispanic demographic groups in Southern California and then discuss meansby which interest-group advocacy and conflict have organized around theseissues in an effort to influence the course of public policy. Los Angeles MTA Approves Light-Rail Study.Los Angeles Times, B-3). Los Angeles Times Orange County Edition, B-1. Bus lines serving WilshireBoulevard and Vermont Avenue in Los Angeles each carry 5 , passengersevery day, 3 percent of all rush-hour trips to downtown Los Angeles, and25 percent of all trips to East Los Angeles and vicinity (STPP, 2 ). All policy formation and implementation, as well as useful evaluation,are bound to encounter problems, whatever the level of commitment andintegrity of principals and either in spite of or because of competingagendas where public policy is concerned. But more informative is the fact that two of the threecommunities affected by the extension were being treated differently thanthe third. (1994). Becerra, H. 33).Complicating the complaint, however, as Harrison notes, is that plaintiffsin cases like these must prove that the discrimination was intentional. Culturalexplanations have been offered to account for the low rate of seatbelt useamong the Hispanic population (Cholo, 2 1). Orange County illegal cabs both boon and banelaw: They save time and money for many in Santa Ana but undercut legalrivals and may be unsafe. The discrepancy of treatment on the freeway extension can be comparedto discrepancies in other infrastructure projects. (2 1, March 23). Harrison, D. That studyalso cited research showing that "the poor currently pay a disproportionateshare of transportation taxes in California. When MTA acted in late 2 , BRU leader CiriloJuarez said that the consent decree cited by the MTA specifically calledfor "increase[d bus] service, not modif[ied] service, not cut service. Vig &M.E. El Sereno highlights a more general feature of the so-called "newenvironmentalism," which is that its advocates tend to work from bottom-up,not elite-down dynamics. businesses owned by Hispanicstop 1 million. To cope with new difficulties, weneed resilience, the capacity to bounce back and do better under existingcircumstances" (Pressman & Wildavsky, 1984 p. In 2 ,Orange County increased the all-day bus fare from $2 to $2.5 , and at thesame time it rerouted many bus routes. She walked2.25 hours, though in pain and despite 8 -degree temperatures, to get to aclinic near downtown Los Angeles--where 5 percent of all appointments werebeing cancelled due to the strike (STPP, 2 ). Los Angeles Times, A-1. (1996, pp. ITS and theenvironment: Issues and Recommendations for ITS deployment in California.California PATH Research Report UCB-ITS-PRR-96-18. Mendosa, R. Issuesarise in all areas of transportation: public, private, the placement offreeways, the relationship of highways and other public facilities toLatino residential neighborhoods.Public Transportation Adequate access to public transportation that provides mobility tomarginalized populations that is as meaningful and equitable as themobility of mainstream populations has fostered multiple concerns amongLatinos in Southern California. But developmentdid not often follow demolition. In the 196 s, urbanrenewal was a buzzword of policy planners, a method of saving decliningcities "by demolishing pre-existing structures-homes, businesses, schools-to clear land for new construction" (Stamatopolous, 1999). Non-Hispanic white households in thatposition came in at 16.1% of the entire population (US Census, Ethnic,2 ). The policy can indirectly be said to haveincreased area recourse to raiteros. Transportation, race and employment: Inpursuit of the elusive triad. (1996, February 5). (2 1, August 3 ). Implementation and publicpolicy. Another view (Gray, 1989) is that there are disadvantages to"pluralistic" solutions to environmental disputes. In an affluent non-Latino neighborhood ofOrange County, residents complained of overwhelming traffic noise becauseof 4, cars daily cutting through residential streets to get to theboulevards. B-1). (2 1, May 25). To that extent, the transportationexperience of Southern California Hispanics tracks with the thesis of Coleand Foster (2 ) that people of color and low-income communities bear adisproportionate burden of environmental hazards and disproportionatelylack access to environmental/economic benefits such as ordinary mobility,particularly in urban areas where mass-transit decisions have historicallybeen driven by supply-side rather than demand-side responses. (2 ). The relevance of environmental and economic issue fronts on one handand on the other the presence of multiple stakeholding constituencies tothe present research is that they frame the context for understanding theimpact of transportation issues, on Southern California's Hispanicpopulation. (1993, August). million persons and 31 percent of the Hispanic population in theU.S., with one million of the Hispanics in California of Mexican descent.In some parts of California Hispanics comprise a significant majoritypopulation. Los Angeles Times, B-1. The raiteros of Orange County represent a hybrid response of Latinocommunities in Southern California to the relative lack of automobileownership among Latinos vis-à-vis non-Latinos and the difficulty of accessto public transportation. Transportation issues in California have been identified with ahost of environmental and economic-development issues, notably air quality;land use; social equity; sustainability, or long-term impact ofenvironmental change; environmental regulation; public/private roles intransportation policy; and congestion pricing, or use of toll roads, ridesharing, and the like (Horan, Hempel, Jordan, & Alm, 1996). LosAngeles Times, B-1. The enormous growth in the Hispanic population of California has beenaccompanied by some high-profile political moves that appear intended tohighlight Hispanic access to political and social benefits. Have and have-not issues also play into the concept of "congestionpricing" schemes, which are opposed by those who recognize that theybenefit those who already have multiple transportation options. But six years later Alatorre's tenure was marked byscandal and his guilty plea to MTA influence peddling. Implementation: The OaklandProject. The fact that there are limits on the reach of influence ontransportation by the Hispanic population of Southern California has beensuggested in a variety of ways. Retrieved from the World Wide Web 28 September 2 1, athttp://www.census.gov/population/socdemo/hispanic/cps98/98gifshow/tsld 26.htm. (1999, July-August). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers. Horan, et al. Meanwhile, many technology-driven transportations, including toll-road options and "on-board trafficinformation," are likely to have the affluent as beneficiaries (p. Retrieved from the World Wide Web 28September 2 1, at http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/2 1/cb 1-53.html. They are cutting and canceling and for what--to go build their rail"(Rabin, 2 , p. This extension,measuring between 4.5 and 6.2 miles, depending on the route beingdiscussed, and crossing South Pasadena, Pasadena, and El Sereno, was firstproposed in the 197 s, and it was first opposed at that time as well. Environmental dispute resolution.New York: Plenum Press. (2 1, April 1 ). ix, xi). (1989). On the inside track to power: How willRichard Alatorre wield his influence as L.A.'s transit czar? . For example, in East Los Angeles, Calif., 97 percent of allresidents were Hispanic as of 2 . But they have been put at a much lower priority thanwhite suburban neighborhoods. Other opponentshave claimed that the construction would destroy trees, 1 -year-old homesand historic charm of the area (Martin, 2 1). Berkeley: Institute ofTransportation Studies, University of California. 139), then this lawsuit vividlydemonstrates the tensions inherent in carrying out policy articulations.The allegation in the lawsuit was that MTA operated separate and unequalbus and rail systems, discriminating against the poor minority bus ridersof Los Angeles. Orange County Register,2B. Orange County's bus-transportation system experienced a financialshortfall in FY 2 1 for reasons having to do with the impact of top-down,supply-side access decisions on the largely Latino ridership. Last hurrah for freeway builders. The Orange County phenomenon tends toreinforce this criticism of inequitable distribution of transportationbenefits. The text authors (Bacow & Wheeler, 1984) advocate publicnegotiations, where competing interests may collide for all to see. (2 , November 19). (1993, Spring). By and large, the evidence of existingpublic-transportation infrastructure is that it privileges whites anddiscriminates against Latinos: Each morning Ron Zion and Rafael Rueda wake up at different ends of Orange County, pull on their work clothes and head for the bus stop-- where their morning commutes take dramatically different directions. Smith,Ahmed, and Sink summarize the transformation of Southern California'sHispanic demographics as follows:|Rank |Area |199 |1999 |Numeric |Percent|| | |Population|Population|Change |Change ||1 |LA, |3,351,238 |4,141,317 |79 , 79 |23.6 || |Riverside-Oran| | | | || |ge County | | | | ||5 |Orange County |564,843 |8 1,797 |236,954 |42. For example, in Orange County, Calif.,where the Hispanic population increased by more than 4 percent between199 and 1999, the California Legislature proposed legislativeredistricting that would provide additional districts of representation inpredominantly Latino parts of Orange, Los Angeles, and Riverside Counties.But the redrawing of boundaries posed specific transportation problems bycombining in new districts residents with vastly different transportationneeds and priorities: Assemblyman Ken Maddox (R-Garden Grove), whose 68th District was strengthened, said that, if elected, Spitzer will have a district that includes transportation opposites: "You have people in Rancho Santa Margarita who don't want a roadway through their city and people in Corona who do" (Reyes, 2 1, p. Incertain cases, they suggest, judicial review of procedures and policies maybe necessary. 54-5), cite the strongly held viewthat "Caltrans must address the perception that it is incapable ofintegrating environmental and social goals into its ITS program." It is tothis pass, finally, that the public-policy implications of SouthernCalifornia Hispanics' relationship to transportation issues has come. (2 , October). America, the gated? (2 ). (2 1, April 24). The BRUmaintains that the consent degree obliges upgrade of bus services toprecede light-rail construction and that failure to comply with suchprovisions could lead to litigation based on Title VI of the Civil RightsAct, which has been used to argue for environmental justice if governmenttransportation policy has a discriminatory impact.Private Transportation Public transportation or walking are the only options available tothose in Los Angeles who do not have their own cars. B-3). Rueda takes two crowded, often standing-room-only buses on surface streets from his Anaheim home to a factory job in Fullerton. Zion boards a 17-seat commuter shuttle at a Laguna Hills Park and Ride lot, settles into a padded seat and--after a half-hour, 11-mile trip up the San Diego (I-4 5) Freeway--arrives at his job at an electronics firm in Irvine. Kelley, R.D.G. The focus groups revealed a palpable skepticism among many participants about the ability of Caltrans to adequately address environmental social issues as part of its ITS program (Horan, Hempel, Jordan, & Alm, 1996, pp. Pluralism impliesinequality, inasmuch as some groups have more resources and carry moreweight than others. (2 1, July 2). (LDF) against Los Angeles County MTA under Title VI of the CivilRights Act, which prohibits racial/ethnic discrimination in use of federalfunds, such as for public transportation or highway construction, by statesand municipalities. Washington Peace Letter, 36. The Latino community of Los Angeles was not uniformin its opposition to public rail (as opposed to bus) transportation.Residents of East Los Angeles, nearly 1 -percent Latino, "badly want arail connection to downtown Los Angeles" (Shuit, 2 1, p. Thus the route would be expected to reduce noise, air pollution,visual blight, and community dislocation: But the segment that cuts through El Sereno, a lower-middle-class Latino neighborhood, will be built almost entirely at grade level or elevated up to 3 feet. Bacow, L.S., and Wheeler, M. Environmental racism stalksShaw. New York: NewYork University Press. In the predominantly white areas of Pasadena and South Pasadena,the freeway was planned to be sunk below grade or in tunnels for most ofits route. . Itis curious that the mid-199 s ITS study in California could have viewedwith some surprise the decisive role of stakeholders or constituencies inthe successful implementation of transportation policy. Mazmanian, D.A., & Sabatier, P.A. Those who commuted by car--mainly non-Hispanic--felt the impact of the MTA much less strongly. Smith, A.S., Ahmed, B., & Sink, L. TheNation, 262, 18-21. The emergence of so-called bandit cabs, or raiteros (ride men),serving a mainly Latino clientele, has been another source of controversy.These cabs are unlicensed, uninspected, and often uninsured taxis that takepassengers to destinations for a fraction of licensed livery-service fees.While licensed taxi drivers, who may make up to about $4 per day onstandard fares and who may rent their vehicles for $52 per week, complainabout the undercutting of their businesses, the raiteros appear to fill aneed, not least because they operate in immigrant-heavy areas: The bandit cabbies are an integral part of a community where many people do not own cars, public transportation is limited and fares on licensed cabs are beyond many people's wallets (Mena, 2 1, p. U.S. Collaborating: Finding common ground for multipartyproblems. First of all, theextension was to be federally subsidized, which immediately raises Title VIequity issues. World Resources, 183-2 1. NAACP Legal Defense Fund Western Regional Office. For the same reason, such persons may alsohold their children in laps rather than strap them in as the law requires. Reyes, D. LosAngeles Times, B-1. . Analysis of stateand county population changes by characteristics: 199 -1999. About 4 percent of all of those firms earn less than$1 , annually and 2 percent earning more than $1 million annually, withthe median earnings at $155,2 ; the median income for all US firms is$41 ,6 (US Census, 2 1). Surface Transportation Policy Project. If it is the case, asMazmanian and Sabatier assert, that desegregation as a matter of publicpolicy "highlights the tug-of-war between the judicial, executive andlegislative branches of government that can take place in theimplementation of any important and controversial social program"(Mazmanian & Sabatier, 1989, p. Neighbors protest Caltrans' use ofhouses as temporary offices. Washington,DC: US Census Bureau. (2 1, May 22). Washington, DC: U.S.Census Bureau. Consider California'srequirement that drivers and front-seat passengers use seat belts and thatchildren weighing less than 4 pounds must use special restraints. Thehomeowner neighborhood voted in the barriers; the apartment-dwelling Latinoneighborhood got no such vote. The question is not the technologies themselves; the key question is how the are going to be applied." . Similar rerouting plans undertaken in Los Angeles County in late 2 resulted in mass protests by the Bus Riders Union, aka "Sindicato dePasajeros," a grass-roots advocacy group serving a mainly Hispanicconstituency. Los Angeles Times, B-3. New lines show O.C. What this comes down to is that crowded bus lines unserved bypark-and-ride lots dominate Latino areas of Orange County, when theproblems of overcrowding in inner-city and immigrant neighborhoods are mostin need of addressing. Cholo, A.B. B-1). Transportation gap. Extension of Long Beach freeway takes backseat. References Alexis, M. 72). Lanham, Md.: University Press of America. 23 ). Alatorre formally enters guilty plea onincome tax evasion. B-1). For example, in1993, Richard Alatorre was appointed to head the MTA in Los Angeles, and itwas widely anticipated that he would herald Hispanics' "track" to politicalpower (Mendosa, 1993). MTA.Retrieved from the World Wide Web 28 September 2 1, athttp://www.ldfla.org/framest.htm. The position of the Bus RidersUnion was that bus service was being eliminated in order to pay forincreased rail-transit services. Shuit, D.A. TheCaltrans view, that the physical geography of El Sereno mandated above-ground land use in that neighborhood, tends to suggest that nodiscrimination was intended. Winton, R. The source of conflict was a 1996 Consent Decree settling a civilrights class action filed by the NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund,Inc. This led to more than 1,2 complaints from riders who said the new routes meant longer rides and moretransfers (Hicks, 2 1). Nationwide, the percentage of Hispanichouseholds earning $5 , or more annually was 6% in 1998, the last yearfor which figures are available. Environmental Policy in the 199 s: Toward a New Agenda. Berkeley: University of California Press. Bosso (1994, pp. Retrieved from the World Wide Web 28 September 2 1,at http://www.transact.org/Ca/publications_oct2 .htm. Los Angeles Times, B-5. That general picture was made abundantly clear in the 199 s, asCalifornia's Transportation Department and its Business, Transportation,and Housing Agency conducted a study of so-called IntelligentTransportation Systems (ITS) technologies and the applicability of ITS toenvironmental and economic concerns in the state. Retrieved from the World Wide Web 28 September 2 1,athttp://www.census.gov/population/www/documentation/twps 45/twps 45.html. (2 1, July). Combine these issue fronts with the fact that between 199 and 2 ,the Hispanic population in the United States increased by 58 percent, from22.4 million to 35.3 million, and that Hispanics in California accountedfor 11. The rise of gated communities in SouthernCalifornia tends to enable the more affluent, usually white, to withdrawfrom the messy arenas of multiculturalism. Nothing could be further from the truth.The issue of extending the Long Beach Freeway, which cuts through theeastern part of Los Angeles County, in order to connect the Long BeachFreeway, which ends in the community of Alhambra, with the FoothillFreeway, which is in Pasadena, is a case in point. (1984). N.J. Californiatransportation report. Stark, A. (1998, Winter). ||7 |San Diego |51 ,785 |746,931 |236,146 |46.2 || |County | | | | ||8 |Riverside |3 7,516 |518, 73 |21 ,557 |68.5 || |County | | | | ||9 |San Bernardino|378,576 |572,287 |193,711 |51.2 || |County | | | | | According to the 2 census, Hispanics own 13.1 percent of all firmsin California. By and large, the recent history of transportation policy in SouthernCalifornia can be viewed through a prism of socioeconomic and ethnicdifferences among resident constituencies whose transportation prioritiesand needs are dramatically different. Just across the boulevard from the neighborhood was a mainlyLatino working-class district comprising multiple apartment buildings. Building on the thesis that public-policy implementation at its bestentails the willingness to learn from and adapt to mistakes, Pressman andWildavsky point out that no matter how much policy makers and implementersplan, the unanticipated is bound to happen: "Unfortunately, wishing awaythe difficulties does not avoid them. Hispanics who are recentimmigrants may be unaware of the laws, not being used to using seat beltsin their country of origin, or they may be unable to afford newer vehicles,which have seatbelts installed. Los AngelesTimes, B-3. There is also theissue of whether government authority would be exercised on behalf of thepublic interest or on behalf of sectarian or industrial interests--each ofwhich may have unequal standing or influence on outcomes. Press release. Riders walk out of MTA hearing on buslines transit. U.S. .. Gray, B. Efforts to accommodate schools and historic housing are largely limited to the predominantly white areas (NAACP, 2 ). Hispanic population in 1998. Theexperience of Ana Margarita Lucero-Garcia of Los Angeles was typical of theproblems raised by lack of access to private transportation. Bus ridership low, defying state trend. Santa Ana's French Park tries to blockentry to cut-through cars. US Census Bureau, Population Division, Ethnic & Hispanic StatisticsBranch. Horan, T.A., Hempel, L.C., Jordan, D.R., & Alm, E.A. Housing woulddisproportionately impact Latinos in El Sereno, who complained that theywould "disproportionately bear the environmental and housing burdens thatwill be imposed by the proposed freeway" (Harrison, 2 1, p. Thus statisticsabout income and population patterns of Hispanics in Southern Californiadramatically illustrate the relative economic strength, and by extensionthe potential for economic or public-policy influence, of the Hispaniccommunity. Kraft (Eds.). B-1). Proponents say the closurs will reduce traffic; foes say they're an attempt to separate haves and have nots (Becerra, 2 1, p. 31-5 . (2 1, April 27). The barrier closures revealed that most suchinitiatives are not solely about traffic: Members of the French Park neighborhood association won the right to have three streets closed to traffic beginning this month. Though Zion and Rueda each pay $1 for the bus ride, the Orange County Transportation Authority spends six times more subsidizing Zion's commute than it does Rueda's (Hinch, 2 1).Alexis (1993) forcefully argues that access to adequate transportation tojobs, whether public or private, is heavily weighted toward whites,including non-Hispanic whites. Mena, J. Competition can also lead to stalemate, with resolutionthereof possibly coming from governmental authority. Almost half (47 percent) of the entirepopulation of Los Angeles was Hispanic (Smith, Ahmed & Sink, 2 ). However, opposition to theextension stemmed from Title VI considerations because of the manner inwhich the extension was meant to be implemented. Shuit, D.P. Cole, L.W., & Foster, S.R. 43-4) says that connecting socialand environmental issues occurs often through an "immense and inchoate"collection of nontraditional groups that are marked not least "by anlingering suspicion that they are pitted against institutions and forcesmostly beyond their control." Evidence of attempts by the MTA and Caltransto circumvent process in favor of policy efficiency tends to confirm theaccuracy of such suspicions, a fact aggravated by the ethnic aspects oftheir activism. In Southern California Hispanicsbelong for the most part to the latter rather than the former demographicgroup. MTA had attempted to raise the regular fare and eliminatemonthly passes, "which would have prevented poor minority bus riders fromreaching jobs, doctors, schools, food stores, loved ones, and other basicneeds of life (NAACP, 2 1). B-3). Latinos' strengthpolitics: The Assembly's blueprint for district bounds also raises totalseats in the county to 9, from 7. (1989). (2 1, September 2 ). As a transportation consultant argued, "The key public policy issue is what kind of framework should [transportation policy] exist in. US Census Bureau. Hinch, J. The ill will engendered bysuch activities helps confirm what is the status of El Sereno in late 2 1,that "the Long Beach Freeway project is likely to be tied up in legalproblems for years" (Shuit, 2 1, p. Meyer, J. Stamatopoulos, P.A. i). Proponents of the extension cite the dramatic improvement in trafficjams and air quality, plus a dramatic increase in the reach of MTAcrosstown service (Shuit, Extension, 2 1). A core finding of focus-group and other research was "the need to mainstream environmentalstakeholder groups into the ITS decision-making process" (Horan, Hempel,Jordan, & Alm, 1996, p. His 5- mile trip takes nearly an hour. From the ground up : Environmentalracism and the rise of the environmental justice movement. This research examines the interrelationship between urban policiesaffecting transportation and various Chicano/Chicana (also Hispanic,Latino) communities of Southern California. Freedom riders (the sequel). A trenchant examination of environmental public policy in the UnitedStates during the early years of the scandal-ridden EnvironmentalProtection Agency of the Reagan administration criticizes the way Reagan'sfirst-term EPA offered covert "sweetheart deals" to long-term industrialpolluters, even as it presented a facade of negotiation, committees, andcompromise. Residents of run-down neighborhoods hadbeen relocated, but they were not a part of a pattern LDF filed a suit, titled El Sereno Neighborhood Action Committee v.Caliornia Transportation Commission, suing the state of California andCaltrans for equitable treatment of all three communities. (1996). That is the kind of thinkingthat leads to a perception of social inequity in transportation options.Freeways and Highways With Latinos' relatively limited access to private transportation afeature of life in Southern California, it might be concluded thatplacement of freeways and highways have no relevance to the Latinopopulation of Southern California. 7). Forexample, ride sharing, park-and-ride facilities, and the like tend topresume car ownership from the outset (Horan, Hempel, Jordan, & Alm, 1996).It is difficult to read the minds policy makers, but it is conceivable thata similar presumption could well have influenced Orange County planners notto put a park-and-ride lot next to a Latino neighborhood's crowded busstop: They don't have cars anyway. Immigrant Latinos are representative of theimpact of transportation laws in this arena. 'There are always oddball peoplecoming in'" (Stark, 1998, p. (2 , November). Bosso, C. Why bother? Los Angeles's Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) took theposition that it was following a federal court judgment mandating theelimination of overlapping bus services. Findings such as these came about not least because of a series ofgrass-roots protests and lawsuits aimed at granting Hispanics, who as agroup fall within the lower socioeconomic tiers and neighborhoods ofSouthern California, access to adequate, time-efficient, and cost-effectivetransportation on one hand and relief from the burdens of transportation-related benefits to be received by non-Hispanic groups on the other. Seat-belt drive targets Latinos. vi). 3rd ed. Two-thirds of L.A.'s transit users make less than $15, a year. If this paper is not what you are looking for, you can search again: Search for: or Click here to request an essay written just for you.