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Our Bandit Future? Cities, Shantytowns, And Climate Change Governance, Colin Crawford Jan 2009

Our Bandit Future? Cities, Shantytowns, And Climate Change Governance, Colin Crawford

Fordham Urban Law Journal

This Article seeks to begin to define a role for cities and their inhabitants in climate change governance. Part I argues that if there is a failure to take into account global urbanization and its defining characteristics, namely extreme squalor and associated social ills, as a central feature of climate change policy, we face a future where cities will experience sustained and perhaps intractable urban violence and social disintegration, a development that can only hasten the separate but related harms caused by climate change on the world’s human and biological populations. Part II explores some of the consequences of the …


Public Interest Litigation: Insights From Theory And Practice, Scott L. Cummings, Deborah L. Rhode Jan 2009

Public Interest Litigation: Insights From Theory And Practice, Scott L. Cummings, Deborah L. Rhode

Fordham Urban Law Journal

If public interest litigation has not always delivered all that we desire, it has surely provided no lack of experience. Our challenge now is to integrate these lessons from practice with insights from allied disciplines. Taken together, they remind us of the need to coordinate litigation with broader mobilizing efforts, to think strategically about effectiveness, and to create adequate systems of evaluation and accountability.


Brownfields At 20: A Critical Reevaluation, Joel B. Eisen Jan 2007

Brownfields At 20: A Critical Reevaluation, Joel B. Eisen

Fordham Urban Law Journal

This Articles looks at brownfields policies in one state, New Jersey, and suggests how to make the approach of brownfields revitalization more development-centered and less developer-centered. Following a basic description of the New Jersey Program, this Article discusses two specific developments, the BDA initiative and the recent "Grace Period Rule," that changed some aspects of the program.


The Fordham Law Drug Policy Reform Project: America's Oldest War: The Efficacy Of United States Drug Policy, John Nicholas Iannuzzi, Graham Boyd, Asa Hutchinson Jan 2003

The Fordham Law Drug Policy Reform Project: America's Oldest War: The Efficacy Of United States Drug Policy, John Nicholas Iannuzzi, Graham Boyd, Asa Hutchinson

Fordham Urban Law Journal

The Fordham Law Drug Policy Reform Project planned and executed the debate, "America's Oldest War: The Efficacy of United States Drug Policy," on April 23, 2002 at the end of the organization's first year. The goal of the debate was to bring to one forum the leading voices at both ends of the drug policy spectrum. Professor John Nicholas Iannuzzi moderated, giving each speaker three minutes to answer each question from the floor. Over one hundred and twenty professionals, students, and community members attended the debate.


The Fordham Urban Law Journal: A New Millennium, Constantine N. Katsoris Jan 2003

The Fordham Urban Law Journal: A New Millennium, Constantine N. Katsoris

Fordham Urban Law Journal

A general overview of the journal's progress and publications.


Healthy Children, Healthy Communities: Schools, Parks, Recreation, And Sustainable Regional Planning, Robert Garcia, Erica S. Flores, Sophia Mei-Ling Jan 2003

Healthy Children, Healthy Communities: Schools, Parks, Recreation, And Sustainable Regional Planning, Robert Garcia, Erica S. Flores, Sophia Mei-Ling

Fordham Urban Law Journal

Obesity and inactivity have become a troubling crisis for today’s youth. Low-income communities and communities of color are disproportionately affected by these conditions, due to a denial of the benefits of safe open spaces for physical activity and opportunities to be active. The article describes the epidemic of obesity and unfitness in the United States and the statistics associated with inactivity, as well as the health impacts associated with being overweight and obese and the importance of physical activity. Along with the health implications, the trend in obesity is primed to carry huge direct and indirect financial costs. This health …


Addressing Urban Transportation Equity In The United States , Robert D. Bullard Jan 2003

Addressing Urban Transportation Equity In The United States , Robert D. Bullard

Fordham Urban Law Journal

Transportation touches almost every aspect of our lives and plays a pivotal role in shaping human interactions, economic mobility, and sustainability. Transportation provides access to opportunity and serves as a key component in addressing poverty, unemployment, and equal opportunity goals. This article examines the inequity that exists in the United States when it comes to transit, as the benefits from transportation advancements and investments are not distributed equally among communities, making transportation equity an issue of civil rights and social justice. This article frames transportation issues as a continuation of the civil rights movement and the wrestling with differential treatment …


The International Significance Of An Instance Of Urban Environmental Inequity In Tijauna, Mexico , Tseming Yang Jan 2003

The International Significance Of An Instance Of Urban Environmental Inequity In Tijauna, Mexico , Tseming Yang

Fordham Urban Law Journal

Environmental equity problems are not exclusive to any one nation. With a lack of regulations, communities of color and poor, and the prevalence of social marginalization, issues of environmental inequality may occur even more vividly in countries with this climate. In Tijuana, Mexico, Metales y Derivados, an abandoned lead smelter, left its surrounding community, Colonia Cilpancingo, with a litany of health related issues and a hunt for justice from its failure to act with appropriate environmental stewardship. Having gained attention in the international news and exposing a failure of regulatory policies and transnational exploitation, Metales is an example of the …


The Fordham Urban Law Journal: A New Millennium, Constantine N. Katsoris Jan 2003

The Fordham Urban Law Journal: A New Millennium, Constantine N. Katsoris

Fordham Urban Law Journal

A general overview of the journal's progress and publications.


Contractual Welfare: Non-Accountability And Diminished Democracy In Local Government Contracts For Welfare-To-Work Services, Barbara L. Bezdek Jan 2001

Contractual Welfare: Non-Accountability And Diminished Democracy In Local Government Contracts For Welfare-To-Work Services, Barbara L. Bezdek

Fordham Urban Law Journal

The Welfare State of the mid-twentieth century has been supplanted by the rise of the Contractual State, miring welfare reform in the United States in this worldwide reinvention of government. Moving people from welfare to work became a primary goal of federal welfare policy with the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996, and the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program it created. This new structure expressly permits states to devolve welfare policy and operations further still, to the county and city levels, and even to private vendors. As a result of this change, new issues of accountability …


Lawyering For Poor Communities In The Twenty-First Century, Matthew Diller Jan 1998

Lawyering For Poor Communities In The Twenty-First Century, Matthew Diller

Fordham Urban Law Journal

This Symposium focuses on a renewed focus on community lawyering. Finding new ways to work with and engage poor communities is among the most important pieces of any new agenda for poverty law. By focusing on the goal of building community institutions and organizations, poverty lawyers can help poor communities in a number of vital ways. First, they can help communities create structures for the provision of services that government has failed to provide. Thus, poverty lawyers can provide much needed legal representation in the establishment of community-based housing, health care, day care and other programs that meet vital needs. …


A New Sword To Slay The Dragon: Using New York Law To Combat Environmental Racism, Kimberlianne Podlas Jan 1996

A New Sword To Slay The Dragon: Using New York Law To Combat Environmental Racism, Kimberlianne Podlas

Fordham Urban Law Journal

In this article, the author explores legal strategies available to New York plaintiffs seeking to raise an environmental racism claim. In Part I, the article provides a brief overview of the problem of environmental racism. Part II highlights the interplay between state and federal law, explaining the superiority of state laws in developing strategies for novel legal claims. This is surprising because no plaintiff has filed such a claim under state law in New York. The author concludes with the substantive areas of New York state law-both statutory and constitutional- available to plaintiffs making an environmental racism claim and also …


Separate And Unequal: A Comment On The Urban Development Aspect Of Brownfields Programs, Georgette C. Poindexter Jan 1996

Separate And Unequal: A Comment On The Urban Development Aspect Of Brownfields Programs, Georgette C. Poindexter

Fordham Urban Law Journal

Several states and the federal government have proposed and enacted what are termed "Brownfields Programs." These initia- tives have two goals: 1) creation of employment in economically distressed areas surrounded by urban "brownfields" (contami- nated properties); and 2) preservation of "greenfields" (pristine land) from development. This Article discusses the efficacy of the urban development aspect of these initiatives. Specifically it argues that while cities (notably those in the northeast and northcentral United States) may have suffered the impact of deindustrialization disproportionately to their respective suburbs,these programs create a duality of environmental protection that will consign the cities to permanent second …


The Worst Of Times . . . And The Best Of Times: Lawyering For Poor Clients Today, Louise G. Trubek Jan 1995

The Worst Of Times . . . And The Best Of Times: Lawyering For Poor Clients Today, Louise G. Trubek

Fordham Urban Law Journal

This Essay describes three areas in which advocates have developed new models of practice and new forms of advocacy. It examines ways that lawyers and clients are collaborating to create more effective advocacy for battered women, low-income entrepreneurs and nonprofit community-based organizations that serve the poor. It describes how, why and where the new practices operate and analyzes the roots of the new approaches, showing that they can be traced to changes in lawyering theory and new visions of the lawyer-client relationship. The Essay assesses whether these models can be sustained and generalized, concluding that although the new approaches are …


Communities Of Color And Hazardous Waste Cleanup: Expanding Public Participation In The Federal Superfund Program, Deeohn Ferri Jan 1994

Communities Of Color And Hazardous Waste Cleanup: Expanding Public Participation In The Federal Superfund Program, Deeohn Ferri

Fordham Urban Law Journal

Superfund is the nation's program to clean up the most dangerous hazardous waste sites. The Superfund law mandates that parties responsible for hazardous waste sites (i.e., waste generators, site owners, site operators, and waste transporters) shall be financially liable for cleaning them. If responsible parties cannot be located, are unable to perform cleanups, or refuse to do so, EPA can conduct the cleanup action and seek recovery of associated costs from these delinquent parties. As the Superfund reauthorization effort ensues, it is clear that few unequivocally applaud past Superfund performance. Collectively, communities, industry, and government are critical about whether the …


Planning, Power And Politics: A Case Study Of The Land Use And Siting History Of The North River Water Pollution Control Plant, Vernice D. Miller Jan 1994

Planning, Power And Politics: A Case Study Of The Land Use And Siting History Of The North River Water Pollution Control Plant, Vernice D. Miller

Fordham Urban Law Journal

This Essay discusses one example of environmental racism in New York City – the planning and construction of the North River Water Pollution Control Plant in West Harlem. This case study of the West Harlem community depicts how race-based land use planning and environmental policy-making transformed West Harlem, one of this city’s most beautiful communities, into a giant dumping ground. Since 1968, the North River Water Pollution Control Plant has irritated the residents of West Harlem. Initially, countless public hearings and community meetings were held to address why this facility was being built in this community. After the Plant was …


City Versus Countryside: Environmental Equity In Context, A. Dan Tarlock Jan 1994

City Versus Countryside: Environmental Equity In Context, A. Dan Tarlock

Fordham Urban Law Journal

This Article takes an approach to the problem of environmental equity that is different from the remedies advocated by the leaders of the environmental equity movement. The plea that the benefits of environmental protection be extended to all groups in society is, of course, a legitimate one, but the movement is too narrowly focused and its aims are too modest. I dissent from the two central premises held by environmental equity advocates. First, the movement assumes that judicially recognized and enforced rights will lead to improved public health. Second, the movement asserts that disadvantaged communities should adopt a “Not in …


Balancing The Scales Of Environmental Justice, Charles J. Mcdermott Jan 1994

Balancing The Scales Of Environmental Justice, Charles J. Mcdermott

Fordham Urban Law Journal

This Essay discusses various ways to weave principles of justice and equity into solving the problem of environmental racism. This Essay also demonstrates the enormous potential of the waste management industry to act as an agent for environmental equity. Part I identifies problems that have led to accusations of environmental racism and conditions that have contributed to the definition of environmental racism. Part II discusses issues of the actual and perceived risks posed by waste treatment facilities, and the need for an understanding of these risks. The Essay next considers the issues raised in siting facilities, and the importance of …


The Visible Spectrum, Nancy E. Anderson, Ph.D Jan 1994

The Visible Spectrum, Nancy E. Anderson, Ph.D

Fordham Urban Law Journal

Today, the national environmental movement is entering a new phase, led by new players, just as the still young environmental protection movement is becoming more politically influential at the local level. The political power of the environmental justice and equity movement and its links with racial and social justice organizations makes its potential impact reach far beyond “NIMBY” (not-in-my-backyard) protests. NIMBY was the first wave of quasi-organized local environmental protests, usually rooted in a single issue. Environmental justice is the next wave, drawing in a broader range of concerns. The focus of this analysis is on how environmental issues are …


Compensated Siting Proposals: Is It Time To Pay Attention?, Vicki Been Jan 1994

Compensated Siting Proposals: Is It Time To Pay Attention?, Vicki Been

Fordham Urban Law Journal

Many proposals to overcome the difficulty of siting locally undesirable land uses (“LULUs”) fairly and efficiently suggest that the problem could be resolved if victims of the siting were adequately compensated for the burdens the LULU imposes. This Article seeks to spur greater attention to the difficult moral and political issues compensation proposals raise by showing that compensation programs are widespread in actual siting practice. It argues that the success of compensation programs, while limited, has been sufficient to ensure that such proposals will continue to be a significant feature of siting programs. It urges those interested in environmental justice …


Environmental Justice And Sustainability: Is There A Critical Nexus In The Case Of Waste Disposal Or Treatment Facility Siting?, Kent E. Portney Jan 1994

Environmental Justice And Sustainability: Is There A Critical Nexus In The Case Of Waste Disposal Or Treatment Facility Siting?, Kent E. Portney

Fordham Urban Law Journal

Over the past ten years, two environmental "movements," have evolved and gained rapidly in both stature and import. One of these, the environmental justice or equity movement, has sensitized Americans to its contention that minority populations and people of lower socio-economic status have disproportionately borne the risks of environmentally impacting events. The other movement, advocating sustainability, focuses on fostering behavior and policies that contribute to economic growth in environmentally responsible ways. In actuality, as will be elaborated later, sustainability has several meaning, which can be categorized in at least three distinct and sometimes even contradictory ways. Any connection between the …


The Meaning Of Urban Environmental Justice, Michel Gelobter, Ph.D. Jan 1994

The Meaning Of Urban Environmental Justice, Michel Gelobter, Ph.D.

Fordham Urban Law Journal

Environmental justice is redress for the structures and situations arising from environmental discrimination and, particularly, environmental racism. Environmental discrimination is actions and practices, arising from both individual ideologies and social structures that preserve and reinforce domination of subordinate groups with respect to the environment, while such discrimination with respect to race is environmental racism. Part I of this Essay discusses how environmental injustice is a three-dimensional nexus of economic injustice, social injustice and an unjust incidence of environmental quality, all of which overwhelmingly assures the continued oppression of communities of color and low-income communities on environmental matters. Part II of …


Foreword, Bruce A. Green Jan 1994

Foreword, Bruce A. Green

Fordham Urban Law Journal

The "Urban Environmental Justice" symposium took place at Fordham University School of Law, and explored how low-income communities and communities of color in our nation’s cities may have been disproportionately burdened by various environmental harms. It considered what should be done about this problem, from the perspectives of civic and citizens’ groups, the government at the federal, state, and city levels, public interest lawyers, corporations, and others. The participants in the March 3rd program represented a variety of backgrounds and experiences. The keynote speaker, Gerald Torres, Counsel to the United States Attorney General, had only weeks earlier been designated to …


The Victims Of Nimby, Michael B. Gerrar Jan 1994

The Victims Of Nimby, Michael B. Gerrar

Fordham Urban Law Journal

Not In My Back Yard, or NIMBY, in its various forms, has three principal types of targets. The first is waste disposal facilities, primarily landfills and incinerators. The second is low-income housing. The third is social service facilities, group homes and shelters for individuals such as the mentally ill, AIDS patients, and the homeless. This Article addresses the issue of the victims of NIMBY, with special reference to the effects of project opposition on racial minorities. Because the effect of facility opposition varies widely with the type of project involved, Part II arrays the types of relevant projects and shows …


Environmental Burdens And Democratic Justice, Gerald Torres Jan 1994

Environmental Burdens And Democratic Justice, Gerald Torres

Fordham Urban Law Journal

To date, however, there has been relatively little academic discussion about how EPA and other federal agencies can achieve environmental justice. In addition, most legal academic literature has focused either on simply identifying the legal issues associated with race and environmental law or on developing a litigation strategy for remedying “environmental racism.” None of the legal academic literature has focused on the benefits of using an administrative framework to define or develop sustainable solutions to the distributional inequities of environmental laws. The purpose of this Article is to explain the benefits of pursuing an administrative model for change. Unlike other …


Environmental Justice Litigation: Another Stone In David’S Sling, Luke W. Cole Jan 1994

Environmental Justice Litigation: Another Stone In David’S Sling, Luke W. Cole

Fordham Urban Law Journal

This Article attempts to synthesize some of the lessons environmental justice lawyers have learned, in order to offer a practitioner’s perspective on environmental justice cases. The author’s ambition in setting out these lessons is to allow community groups and attorneys entering the struggle to learn from mistakes, emulate successes, and avoid re-inventing the wheel. Without addressing the strategic and tactical drawbacks of litigation, this Article assumes that a community group has decided to pursue litigation. This Article will only discuss siting cases, as siting disputes have been the primary context for environmental justice litigation thus far. The Article proposes a …


The Question Of Risk: Incorporating Community Perceptions Into Environmental Risk Assessments, James S. Freeman, Rachel D. Godsil Jan 1994

The Question Of Risk: Incorporating Community Perceptions Into Environmental Risk Assessments, James S. Freeman, Rachel D. Godsil

Fordham Urban Law Journal

The environmental justice movement has seen some successes. After years of neglect, the federal government and several states are directing legislative and executive efforts towards reforming siting processes and remedying discriminatory enforcement of environmental regulations. Community opposition in general has proved to be quite powerful in some instances. Since the passage of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act in 1976, there has been only one new siting of a hazardous waste landfill and few new sitings of hazardous waste incinerators. To a lesser extent, municipal solid waste and medical waste incinerators have also been successfully blocked or delayed. However, certain …


Achieving Environmental Justice: The Role Of Occupational Health, George Friedman-Jiménez, M.D. Jan 1994

Achieving Environmental Justice: The Role Of Occupational Health, George Friedman-Jiménez, M.D.

Fordham Urban Law Journal

The current rapidly growing interest in environmental justice is both timely and important. Occupational health is an integral part of assuring environmental justice. Concrete examples of environmental inequity leading directly to unequal health status can be found in occupational health literature and among the patients of occupational health clinics which serve populations that include low wage workers and workers of color. The toxic properties and health effects of many environmental contaminants were originally discovered in workplace settings where workers were repeatedly exposed to high doses of such contaminants. In the future, clinical occupational medicine, occupational epidemiology, occupational toxicology, and occupational …


Issues Of Classification In Environmental Equity: How We Manage Is How We Measure, Rae Zimmerman Jan 1994

Issues Of Classification In Environmental Equity: How We Manage Is How We Measure, Rae Zimmerman

Fordham Urban Law Journal

This Article addresses how concepts of race and ethnicity have been operationalized as a basis for defining and locating subpopulations (either explicitly or implicitly) for the purpose of analyzing environmental equity issues, and recommends some future directions. Part II focuses on how subpopulations are currently defined and on some problems encountered to date. The implications of these inconsistencies on the accuracy of health and environmental risk measures for a given subpopulation are addressed. Part III focuses on how spatial areas have been defined to aggregate these subpopulations within confined geographic boundaries.


Race, Gender, Age, And Disproportionate Impact: What Can We Do About The Failure To Protect The Most Vulnerable?, Samara F. Swanston Jan 1994

Race, Gender, Age, And Disproportionate Impact: What Can We Do About The Failure To Protect The Most Vulnerable?, Samara F. Swanston

Fordham Urban Law Journal

Hard economic times and social conditions are driving a reordering of environmental protection priorities that threatens to sacrifice the most vulnerable groups. Environmental regulatory agencies acknowledge that vulnerable populations face the greatest risk of harm from environmental insult and that these groups are not adequately protected. Although a risk-based prioritization of resources benefits the greatest number of people, such allocation would disadvantage minority communities, which contain disproportionate numbers of sensitive subgroups. Our regulatory bodies must therefore develop new strategies to adequately protect sensitive subgroups identified in minority communities. Part II of this Article looks at some of the considerations that …