What's at stake?
Seven years ago, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) selected south Fresno as a priority area to clean up its air and address decades of environmental racism.
A major part of that effort was discussed on Thursday by the Fresno City Council.
When it comes to environmental justice, the City of Fresno’s eyes appear to be bigger than its stomach.
Despite commissioning a damning UC Merced report that linked the city’s decades of truck-heavy planning decisions in south Fresno to elevated rates of infant mortality and asthma hospitalizations, the City Council appears to have little appetite to address the issue head-on.
According to the UC health assessment, released last month, south Fresno residents find themselves living in much closer proximity to truck routes compared to the rest of the city, with an average distance of just 843 feet separating them from the constant rumble of heavy-duty vehicles.
Living 33% closer to pollution-laden truck routes than the rest of Fresno, south Fresno residents inhale twice the amount of toxic diesel fumes, according to findings by UC Merced professor Sandie Ha.
The study’s results apply to many of Fresno’s core neighborhoods, including the Tower District, southwest Fresno, Malaga, downtown, and the Roosevelt High area.
The consequences are dire, the UC Merced team found after poring over the city’s birth records between 2009 and 2019. South Fresno’s proximity to truck routes are linked to a staggering 44% increase in infant mortality risk for Fresno mothers and an 11% jump in preterm births. For infants living within 1,000 feet of a freeway – and south Fresno is intersected by three – the risk of dying before their first birthday soars by an alarming 23%.
When presented with the opportunity to take decisive action, the city has opted for what critics call a “band-aid” solution that barely scratches the surface of the problem. Instead of heeding the UC Merced report’s recommendation to take trucks off the streets where people live and breathe, the city’s plan, discussed by the City Council on Thursday, is heavy on cosmetic touches like sidewalks, crosswalks, and repainted road signs.
The plan eliminates four existing routes while adding five new ones on major streets such as Belmont, Brawley, and North Avenue. The study also recommends creating a new truck route on Cedar Avenue, in the middle of residential neighborhoods on all sides.
“I don’t foresee it will change a thing,” said Ivanka Saunders, a regional policy manager with Leadership Counsel for Justice and Accountability. “The bottom line is you have to stop putting industrial next to communities and residential streets.”
City officials on Thursday announced that a final decision on the $600,000 plan will be made in early August, with the City Council voting to throw $52,000 at three more meetings to try to sell the truck rerouting plan. But with details on time and place still up in the air, critics wonder what the money will accomplish.
The city’s previous neighborhood workshops were poorly attended, said Natalie Delgado, an organizer with Central California Environmental Justice Network.
“The workshops that were held were literally just held one week after the report was released – that wasn’t sufficient time for folks to review the report or for the public to get notice,” she said.
Miguel Arias, the councilmember who represents the truck rerouting area, was ambivalent about the additional meetings, saying the whole thing has been a big headache.
“I’ve been waiting for this for two years. I’m very hesitant to grant more time,” he said on Thursday. “We need to bring this to a closure.”
Trucks choke Fresno
The air quality in south Fresno is alarmingly poor. Just how bad is it? According to local air pollution data, the most polluted hours during the Fourth of July in Clovis, a more affluent neighborhood, are comparable to a typical winter day in south Fresno.
The consequences of this environmental crisis are severe and far-reaching.
South Fresno residents face a disproportionate burden when it comes to respiratory health. They are hospitalized due to asthma attacks at twice the rate of the rest of Fresno, the UC Merced report found, with emergency room visits for asthma being 67% more common in this area.
The report also sheds light on the devastating impact of air pollution on reproductive health. More than a quarter of women of reproductive age in south Fresno reported experiencing adverse pregnancy outcomes, including miscarriages (22%), stillbirths (3%), infant mortality (0.8%), and having children with congenital disorders (1.6%). Furthermore, 61% of residents struggled to rest due to air pollution, while nearly half were disrupted by the constant noise from traffic and trucks.
The UC Merced researchers urged the city to minimize the number of truck routes that place residents within 1,000 feet of heavy-duty vehicle traffic. According to the report’s statistical analysis, people living in these areas are more sensitive to the harmful effects of proximity to truck routes compared to the average population, underscoring the need for larger buffer zones between residential neighborhoods and transportation corridors frequented by trucks.
But the city’s plan merely takes trucks off a few streets, Saunders said, leaving the underlying issues of industrialization and land use practices untouched.
“The consultants tried to come up with a plan that rerouted truck routes while, at the same time, supporting the city’s goals of continued industrialization,” she said.
“Its failure to address the health outcomes is baked into the land use practices. If those practices aren’t changed, the rest is a band-aid approach. And it’s not going to stick for very long.”
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