Land Recycling News

 Hear from EPA Region 9 (Pacific Southwest) staff, as well as EPA-funded grantees, on how they have utilized EPA’s Brownfield grants and learn about EPA’s upcoming grant solicitation for the Brownfields Area Wide Planning grant, which will be posted in Spring 2016. 

Fundamentally, the ability to move safely and without fear through the built environment is an issue of equity.  Equity takes many forms, and this is one of them. Too many discussions about sexual violence blame women instead of asking why attackers believe they can commit these heinous acts with impunity. San Leandro is transforming itself and writing a new narrative for a new century with the development of the transit-oriented San Leandro Tech Campus (SLTC). The first phase of SLTC will open in October, and developer Westlake Urban, in collaboration with the City, is seeking to attract socially oriented companies that provide opportunities for all employees, especially groups who are severely underrepresented in the technology sector, like women. Nothing exemplifies the writing of this new narrative for a new century more than Marco Cochrane’s 55-foot tall statue, Truth is Beauty. Through his art, Marco hopes to inspire people to take action to end violence against women. Displayed in her final form at Burning Man in 2013, Truth is Beauty will be on display at the new San Leandro Tech Campus, challenging viewers with the inscribed question “What would the world be like if women were safe?”

Last month the California Supreme Court ruled unanimously that the environmental impact review (EIR) of a project under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) must focus on a project’s impact on the environment “and not the environment’s impact on the project,” ruling that such reverse CEQA analyses would “impermissibly expand the scope of CEQA.”

The CUES-Sustainable Jersey Brownfields Task Force, with financial support form the Center for Creative Land Recycling has produced a informational video designed to outline the role of Liscenced Site Remediation Professionals (LSRPs) in brownfield cleanup projects in the State of New Jersey.

CCLR responds to Pacific Standard article "Mental Maps and the Neuroscience behind Neighborhood Blight" -

Whether or not we realize it, city blocks, districts and neighborhoods are not concretely articulated land areas in an urban fabric — people interact with and define the boundaries of places differently, and use varying metrics to identify them. All these facets we associate with places and spaces — how we draw our “mental maps” — have proven to be extremely revealing in understanding why some neighborhoods prosper, and others continue to be magnets for socio-economic decline and blight. CCLR posits, that among the numerous other socio-economic development tactics we use to revitalize and redevelop the neighborhoods, main streets and downtowns of our declining cities, we also need to “hack the mental map” and reverse the “psychological branding” of blighted communities.

CCLR was privileged to host Jackie Ochoa as our summer intern this year. Jackie joined CCLR through the Achieve Program, a fantastic organization with which CCLR has had a long and productive partnership. She conducted interviews, gave an interview, completed several research projects, and helped put CCLR on Twitter (follow us @LandRecycling) and Instagram (find us at landrecycling). We learned so much from working with Jackie, and we’re glad that she learned many things during her time at CCLR, as well. Jackie is heading off to Lawrence University next month, and we wish her the best in all her future endeavors and look forward to seeing how she decides to apply her many talents. Below is a blog post with some parting thoughts from Jackie about humans’ relationship with the planet, the environmental impacts of industrial waste, and the significance of her summer with CCLR.

The Loma Prieta Earthquake, which shook the city at magnitude 6.9 for just 15 seconds on October 17th, 1989, tragically killed 67 people, 42 of whom were on the Embarcadero Freeway when a portion of it collapsed. The removal of the freeway reshaped San Francisco’s waterfront, and as we listened to Jackie reflect on her newly acquired knowledge about this piece of recent history, we thought that her words (and her thoughts on transportation and sustainability) were worth sharing. Following is an interview between Jackie and CCLR staff.

In order to better meet the Agency’s responsibilities related to the protection of public health and the environment, EPA has developed a new environmental justice (EJ) mapping and screening tool called EJSCREEN. It is based on nationally consistent data and an approach that combines environmental and demographic indicators in maps and reports.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced today the selection of 243 new grant investments totaling $54.3 million to 147 communities across the U.S. This investment will provide communities with funding necessary to assess, clean up and redevelop contaminated properties, boost local economies and leverage jobs while protecting public health and the environment. Recipients will each receive approximately $200,000 - $600,000 in funding toward EPA cooperative agreements.

This September, join thousands of brownfields experts and practitioners in Chicago for three full days of practical and innovative training and education, business networking, and information sharing. Cosponsored by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and International City/ County Management Association (ICMA), Brownfields 2015 is the place where decision makers from all stakeholder categories gather to hear about the strategies and tools for beneficially reusing abandoned and underutilized properties and creating more sustainable, livable, and economically vibrant communities.