Ivy City deserves some environmental justice

The DC neighborhood of Ivy City is small, poor and wedged between three major transportation arteries. The community feels worlds away from the leafy, charmed streets of many DC neighborhoods.

Residents of Ivy City believe that the economic success of recent decades has passed them by, and in a way it has, quite literally: Those who drive in and out of the District on New York Avenue NE zoom past the neighborhood. All that car and truck traffic leaves pollution in its wake, contributing to serious health issues for many of Ivy City’s residents.

In the latest insult, the District has proposed parking tour buses in the neighborhood. The buses do need a place to park, as the alternative is for them to circle around for hours. But must the buses — and their exhaust fumes — be sent to Ivy City?

The imperative not to concentrate things with negative public health effects, such as power plants or major highways, in poor neighborhoods is known as “environmental justice.”

Continue reading my latest op-ed in the Washington Post.