A Community Voice is one of 226 Organizations that signed onto a letter to EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt urging the Administrator to preserve funding for vital EPA programs to prevent lead poisoning.
Stop the Expansion of the Industrial Canal, Move it to an Unpopulated Area in St. Bernard Parish
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Vanessa Gueringer, Secretary, A Community Voice and Debra Campbell, Chairperson Upper 9th Ward A Community Voice 504-941-2852 and day of event: 504-710-2844
Stop the Expansion of the Industrial Canal, Move it to an Unpopulated Area in St. Bernard Parish
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A Community Voice Members to Meet With Elected Officials at Trinity Lutheran Church March 24, 5234 N Claiborne
6:00 p.m, Friday, March 24
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Also: Info on Fighting the Florida Ave Freeway
NEW ORLEANS — While the Corps of Engineers’ reinvigorated plan to expand the Industrial Canal was most recently resurrected, members of A Community Voice who reside in the upper and lower 9th wards began organizing to fight it. Fresh on their minds, is the recent mistake by Corps’ with the design and execution of walls at the Industrial Canal that resulted in the subsequent flooding of the city. The Corps cannot be sued for anything there. Also, at issue are many other issues: problems from 13 years of heavy construction, pile-driving, dust, traffic issues, relentless noise, safety problems from simultaneously having both bridges up (no access by police, fire, ambulances, etc.), to delays for workers and parents.
Members of A Community Voice, will be on hand to urge Councilman at Large Jason Williams to ensure that the City of New Orleans take an interest in the potential problems associated with the expansion, including Resolutions to Congress and the state of Louisiana. State Rep. Jimmy Harris and others will be on hand to work with the community group.
For more on the Expansion of the Industrial Canal.
A Community Voice members in the Upper and Lower 9th ward are working with others from St. Bernard Parish to gain support for moving the toxins from the Industrial Canal, and its main operations to an unpopulated area in St. Bernard Parish.
Please join us Friday, at 6:00 p.m, at 5234 N Claiborne to fight for the neighborhoods in the 9th ward.
Vanessa Gueringer
Vice President
A Community Voice
and
Chairperson Lower 9th Ward A Community Voice
Debra Campbell
Secretary
A Community Voice
and Chairperson
Upper 9th Ward A Community Voice
504-941-2852 office
504-617-6215 fax
Comments Due to Army Corps of Engineers by March 14th on Industrial Canal Expansion
Join ACV in fighting against the Industrial Canal Expansion.
Comments may be submitted to:
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (PDC-CEC)
c/o Mark Lahare
P.O. Box 60267
New Orleans, LA 70160-0267
Fax: (504) 862-2088
E-mail: Mark.h.lahare@usace.army.mil
This contains some of our comments to the Corps.
As you know, the history of the expansion of the Industrial Canal includes the uniform opposition by those neighborhood members and groups who line the canal. At present, there are many issues with the expansion that has led most of us to conclude that the canal needs to be moved to an un-populated area of St. Bernard Parish. We are working with elected officials from St. Bernard who are for this move, as well. Most folks recognize that the future of the Industrial Canal will continue to be against other expansion efforts, why not just move it to a place where the future won’t guarantee a fight?
The current basis for the log-ramming effort to expand at its existing location is based on out of date information. At the very least, a new Traffic Study should be conducted to give you the data that this site is out of date, past info suggesting anything positive about this site is out of date and that a new paradigm is needed since the largest ships cannot even navigate the Mississippi River, but a downriver site would be much closer for them.
As we requested at the meeting this week in the lower 9th ward, another hearing is necessary for the upper 9th ward side, which would also require an extension of the comment period to April.
As the near sole beneficiary of this log-ramming effort, post the Trump inauguration is his major fundraiser Boysie Bollinger, it is time for our Congressional delegation to request a GAO investigation into the misuse of federal funds on this project.
Of course, the St. Claude bridge needs work, a bikeway and pedestrian upgrade, and local residents should enjoy the benefit of jobs on this section of the canal.
This project should be moved away from urban areas and to where large barges towing hazardous cargoes could negotiate the river, away from the treacherous bends, and currents around New Orleans in the busiest and most dangerous section of the Mississippi River.
This project will not benefit the 9th Ward: in fact it will do much damage. Thousands of pilings will be driven that will damage historic structures in neighborhoods bordering the canal. Further construction dust, noise, vibration, exposure, disruption, devastation, are accompanied with guaranteed uncompensated risk, as the Corps’ arbitrary decisions are immune from lawsuit.
The 13-year construction project will create a bottleneck for transportation- and problems for residents, businesses, and all forms of transit that would paralyze this area. The demand that residents move from their homes is inhumane.
Fabricating studies, ruining wetlands, risking communities, and a lack of accountability to citizens and nation, along with the Corps’ history instructs that this project should be moved to an unpopulated area.
It is dangerous to disturb toxins in the canal bottoms and expose the community to further danger from their transportation and disposal. The environmental hazards to both our communities and anywhere they decide to dump these toxins is unknowable and potentially illegal.
All of these points constitute Environmental Racism.
We look forward to your response and to working with you to achieve a fair and impartial just solution for this project. Please accept this letter as our deep opposition to this project as it is currently proposed.
Candidate Forum set for Saturday March 4th 1pm Allen P August Multi-Purpose Center Lake Charles
A Community Voice (ACV) is pleased to announce that we are hosting a public candidate forum on:
Saturday March 4th 1pm
Allen P August Multi-Purpose Center
2001 Moeling Street.
This forum will introduce the public to candidates running for Mayor and City Council District A, B, C, F and inform as many people as possible the positions of each candidate. Some of the main issues of concern are affordable housing, economic development and jobs, as well as health care.
Mayoral candidates will go first at 1pm, followed by City Council candidates at 2pm. Candidates will be allowed brief introductions, following with a question and answer sessions. The audience will have an opportunity to submit questions in writing. The moderator for this candidate forum will be Crystal Stevenson from the American Press.
Everyone is invited to attend. Please contact A Community Voice at 337-707-1517 or email at info@acommunityvoice.com for questions or additional information.
Press Release for ACV Candidate Forum March 4th
Stop Environmental Racism in the 9th Ward
Fight the Industrial Canal Expansion
- There are NO Jobs or Benefits for Impacted Communities
- It Only Benefits Trump Mega-Fundraiser Bollinger Shipyards
- Waste of 1 Billion of Taxpayer dollars
- Barge Traffic carrying toxins is Dangerous for the large bordering neighborhoods
- Damage from pile driving near homes will lower property values and the Corps is protected from liability.
- This Project calls for a 2nd Canal to be dug in the Lower 9, which will leave homes more vulnerable to flooding.
- Construction will disturb heavy metals, contaminate the canal, and pollute the entire City.
- Impede traffic flow, including those driving into St. Bernard, and threaten the community during hurricane season.
- Existing canal has been improperly maintained, due to nonunion work.
- Mitigation money should be used to pay reparations to the community for past damages
Problems with the New Freeway
Through the 8th & 9th Wards
- Benefits only St. Bernard Parish & no benefits to Orleans Parish
- Trucks can easily use Paris Rd. in St. Bernard to get to I-10
- 100 Affordable Housing units will be TORN DOWN in Lower 9
- New Bridges & Bike Paths can be built without this Freeway
What You can Do NOW to . . .
Please Make Phone Calls & Send a Note to the Army Corps
Are You Against the Expansion of the Industrial Canal?
Mayor Landrieu mayor@nola.gov 504-658-4000
Councilmembers
Jason Williams jasonwilliams@nola.gov 504-658-1070
Stacy Head shead@nola.gov 504-658-1060
Susan Guidry sgguidry@nola.gov 504-658-1010
Latoya Cantrell lcantrell@nola.gov 504-658-1020
Nadine Ramsey districtc@nola.gov 504-658-1030
Jared Brossett councildistrictd@nola.gov 504-658-1040
James Gray jagray@nola.gov 504-658-1050
Governor John Bel Edwards 866-366-1121
Congressman Cedric Richmond 504-288-3777
Comments in Writing only to Army Corps of Engineers
By March 1st
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, New Orleans District
c/o Mark Lahare
CEMVN-PDC-CEC
7400 Leake Ave.
New Orleans, LA 70118
Are you against a new freeway through the 8th & 9th Wards?
Please Make Calls & Leave this Message
- No to the Louisiana State DOTD Florida Project that puts a freeway through New Orleans Black Neighborhoods
- Yes to new bridges that have bike/walk access at Florida and Claiborne and a new bike/walk bridge at St. Claude.
Governor John Bel Edwards 866-366-1121
Congressman Cedric Richmond 504-288-3777
Rep. Jimmy Harris harrisj@legis.la.gov 504-243-1960
Rep. Joseph Bouie bouiej@legis.la.gov 504-286-1033
Rep. Neil Abramson abramson@legis.la.gov 504-275-8051
Rep. Walt Leger legerw@legis.la.gov 504-556-9970
Rep. John Bagneris bagnerisj@legis.la.gov 504-243-7783
Rep. Helena Moreno morenoh@legis.la.gov 504-568-2740
State Sen. Troy Carter cartert@legis.la.gov 504-302-3682
State Sen. JP Morrell morrelljp@legis.la.gov 504-284-4794
State Sen. Karen Carter-Peterson 504-568-8346
State Sen. Wesley Bishop bishopw@legis.la.gov 504-284-4794
Mayor Landrieu mayor@nola.gov 504-658-4000
Councilmembers
Jason Williams jasonwilliams@nola.gov 504-658-1070
Stacy Head shead@nola.gov 504-658-1060
Susan Guidry sgguidry@nola.gov 504-658-1010
Latoya Cantrell lcantrell@nola.gov 504-658-1020
Nadine Ramsey districtc@nola.gov 504-658-1030
Jared Brossett councildistrictd@nola.gov 504-658-1040
James Gray jagray@nola.gov 504-658-1050
ACV Fights to Stop the Expansion of the Industrial Canal in the Lower 9th Ward
Sign the A Community Voice Petition Against the Expansion of the Industrial Canal
Copy of the Petition to take to your church, school or workplace. Industrial canal expansion petition
To: Louisiana Elected Officials and the Army Corps of Engineers, Mark H. Lahare
Fr: A Community Voice, a membership based, nonprofit in New Orleans, LA, with over 3,000 membership families in the 9th ward.
Re: Jeopardizing the 9th Ward with the Expansion of the Industrial Canal
1. The affected communities in New Orleans have always opposed the expansion of the Industrial Canal because there are no community benefits from this project but many devastating consequences. There are no jobs and no dbe requirements. This is the Corps’ gift to our 300 year old city? No thank you.
2. The project primarily benefits Trump fundraiser Boysie Bollinger’s shipyards on the Industrial Canal and was re-prioritized for that payoff.
3. This is a waste of nearly one billion tax payers that we have paid for government services, and not for the proposed subsidies to the chemical/oil/gas industry. Reparations should be paid to the families in the 9th ward, who lost or had damage to lives and their homes due to neglect by the Corps.
4. The existing barge traffic is dangerous and needs to be moved to a location with reduced residential population. Move the Industrial Canal to a safer, unpopulated location.
5. The damaging effects of pile-driving on historic residential homes cannot be under-estimated, particularly since redress to the usual channels in the courts is removed by the immunity of the Corps from litigation. The noise will cause additional stress on community residents, from senior citizens to babies who will be hurt by this project. The dust and construction debris and intrusions are further health issues that will hurt the population. Property values will plummet. Making the 9th ward an Industrial work area with toxins coming through daily is wrong and racist.
6. Another dubious and dangerous part of the proposal is a “temporary canal” that would be dug on the eastern side of the original canal that will endanger especially the lower 9th ward. IT turns out that they plan to keep this 2nd canal, and turn the lower 9th ward into an Industrial toxic dump. Again, there’s no problem for the Corps, since they have immunity, and now, a track record for us all to see. Flooding the lower 9th ward is part of that legacy and this project must be stopped for all of these reasons.
7. The plan, to disturb the heavy metals and contaminants in the canal and to send them to local landfills is basically against all known and legal procedures for disposal of hazardous material. Why these toxins have to be pumped into the wetland based New Orleans landfills is outrageous and antithetical to common sense. Further, people in the community use the canal for fishing, boating and recreation. We don’t need to be exposed to these toxins.
8. The threat to the community will be increased during hurricane seasons in by the actual construction process that will impede traffic flow over the canal.
9. Who are you asking us to trust with no accountability mechanisms at all to a local population, and that it has already extremely victimized with its independent decisions that can’t be challenged in court? It was its own original plan to assist the chemical/oil/gas industry by building a basically unnecessary Mississippi River Gulf Outlet that created a superhighway for Hurricane Katrina. That single court case, was allowed by the Judge due to the fact that the Army Corps of Engineers dreamed up a brand new project MRGO, one that didn’t have to do with existing canals and levees. It has been ruled by the court system, and by their own admission, as the primary reason for the flooding of New Orleans. Further their poorly designed and executed levee system failed and killed thousands of innocent people, who were not even warned about the impending failure of the levees, even though the Army Corps of Engineers knew well in advance of the storm that the levees would fail, and did nothing to prevent the horror of the end of those lives. They further traumatized an entire population that didn’t immediately die and never apologized to anyone.
10. This project is “old school” in a world that is rapidly changing, including with new delivery systems that utilize drones. Furthermore, scientists encourage us to conserve and shrink, which electric cars and bullet trains are some examples, not this Corps project.
11. Ironically, and you can’t make this up, the Corps cites their own incompetence at selection of non-union contracts that have failed to properly repair and maintain the canal, as to why the traffic on the canal is so slow. These higher maintenance problems should not be born on the backs of the 9th ward. The GAO needs to evaluate this situation and get it under control instead of blowing up the neighborhoods with this unfeasible plan. The Industrial Canal needs to be moved to a truly industrial area.
12. The remnants to be spent, of the original $56 million on “mitigation” is another bogus carrot to hang before the community, as if there is any purchase that would restore to the community the losses from this hugely dangerous and damaging This should be spent on reparations to the community.
A Community Voice – 2221 St. Claude Ave., New Orleans, LA 70117
Stop the Industrial Canal Expansion
Help by reaching out to your church/organization/small business & get them to join the fight!
What Can You Do?
- Contact the Electeds who haven’t signed with us to fight these issues: Governor John Bel Edwards 225-342-0991; Congressman Steve Scalise 504-837-1259; Congressman Cedric Richmond 504-288-3777; Council District E James Gray 504-658-1053 jagray@nola.gov; Council at Large Stacy Head 504-658-1060 shead@nola.gov; Council District D Jared Brossett
- Bernard Parish Residents! President Guy McInnis presidentmcInnis@sb.pg.net or call 504-278-4227. Ask him to tell Congressman Steve Scalise no Industrial Canal Expansion.
- Come to the Candidate Forum on Monday June 26th at Christian Unity Church at 1700 Conti (at N. Claiborne) from 4:45pm to 7pm to meet the candidates who are running this fall for Mayor, City Council, etc Call or write to get info: 800-239-7379; info@acommunityvoice.com; FREE Dinner
- Put a sign at your home naming electeds who are for the community on these issues: (Call or write for your sign: 800-239-7379; info@acommunityvoice.com).
Join us at the Early Candidate Forum with Justice & Beyond on Monday June 26th for 445pm at Christian Unity 1700 Conti & N. Claiborne.
The Facts
- Residents will have to relocate.
- You can’t sue the Corps of Engineers
- Affects three parishes as two bridges will be up at the same time.
- Move it to unpopulated parts of St Bernard Parish & work with their residents.
- The noise, dust and construction debris and intrusions will impact health, property values will fall. 13+ years of pile-driving will irreversibly damage property.
- The threat to three parishes will be increased during hurricane seasons because the actual construction process that will impede traffic flow over the canal & open flood walls.
- Bernard Parish recently learned that the Corps had, yet again, allowed a contractor to put in a below standard quality and uncoated infrastructure in their flood walls!
- The affected communities in New Orleans have always opposed the expansion of the Industrial Canal because there are no community benefits from this project but many devastating consequences. It’s called Environmental Racism.
Join us for the Umbrella Protest to Stop the Industrial Canal Expansion. Saturday April 29th, 10am at the Corner of St. Claude & Forstall (just across the bridge).
Sign the A Community Voice Petition Against the Expansion of the Industrial Canal
Copy of the Petition to take to your church, school or workplace. Industrial canal expansion petition
To: Louisiana Elected Officials and the Army Corps of Engineers, Mark H. Lahare
Fr: A Community Voice, a membership based, nonprofit in New Orleans, LA, with over 3,000 membership families in the 9th ward.
Re: Jeopardizing the 9th Ward with the Expansion of the Industrial Canal
1. The affected communities in New Orleans have always opposed the expansion of the Industrial Canal because there are no community benefits from this project but many devastating consequences. There are no jobs and no dbe requirements. This is the Corps’ gift to our 300 year old city? No thank you.
2. The project primarily benefits Trump fundraiser Boysie Bollinger’s shipyards on the Industrial Canal and was re-prioritized for that payoff.
3. This is a waste of nearly one billion tax payers that we have paid for government services, and not for the proposed subsidies to the chemical/oil/gas industry. Reparations should be paid to the families in the 9th ward, who lost or had damage to lives and their homes due to neglect by the Corps.
4. The existing barge traffic is dangerous and needs to be moved to a location with reduced residential population. Move the Industrial Canal to a safer, unpopulated location.
5. The damaging effects of pile-driving on historic residential homes cannot be under-estimated, particularly since redress to the usual channels in the courts is removed by the immunity of the Corps from litigation. The noise will cause additional stress on community residents, from senior citizens to babies who will be hurt by this project. The dust and construction debris and intrusions are further health issues that will hurt the population. Property values will plummet. Making the 9th ward an Industrial work area with toxins coming through daily is wrong and racist.
6. Another dubious and dangerous part of the proposal is a “temporary canal” that would be dug on the eastern side of the original canal that will endanger especially the lower 9th ward. IT turns out that they plan to keep this 2nd canal, and turn the lower 9th ward into an Industrial toxic dump. Again, there’s no problem for the Corps, since they have immunity, and now, a track record for us all to see. Flooding the lower 9th ward is part of that legacy and this project must be stopped for all of these reasons.
7. The plan, to disturb the heavy metals and contaminants in the canal and to send them to local landfills is basically against all known and legal procedures for disposal of hazardous material. Why these toxins have to be pumped into the wetland based New Orleans landfills is outrageous and antithetical to common sense. Further, people in the community use the canal for fishing, boating and recreation. We don’t need to be exposed to these toxins.
8. The threat to the community will be increased during hurricane seasons in by the actual construction process that will impede traffic flow over the canal.
9. Who are you asking us to trust with no accountability mechanisms at all to a local population, and that it has already extremely victimized with its independent decisions that can’t be challenged in court? It was its own original plan to assist the chemical/oil/gas industry by building a basically unnecessary Mississippi River Gulf Outlet that created a superhighway for Hurricane Katrina. That single court case, was allowed by the Judge due to the fact that the Army Corps of Engineers dreamed up a brand new project MRGO, one that didn’t have to do with existing canals and levees. It has been ruled by the court system, and by their own admission, as the primary reason for the flooding of New Orleans. Further their poorly designed and executed levee system failed and killed thousands of innocent people, who were not even warned about the impending failure of the levees, even though the Army Corps of Engineers knew well in advance of the storm that the levees would fail, and did nothing to prevent the horror of the end of those lives. They further traumatized an entire population that didn’t immediately die and never apologized to anyone.
10. This project is “old school” in a world that is rapidly changing, including with new delivery systems that utilize drones. Furthermore, scientists encourage us to conserve and shrink, which electric cars and bullet trains are some examples, not this Corps project.
11. Ironically, and you can’t make this up, the Corps cites their own incompetence at selection of non-union contracts that have failed to properly repair and maintain the canal, as to why the traffic on the canal is so slow. These higher maintenance problems should not be born on the backs of the 9th ward. The GAO needs to evaluate this situation and get it under control instead of blowing up the neighborhoods with this unfeasible plan. The Industrial Canal needs to be moved to a truly industrial area.
12. The remnants to be spent, of the original $56 million on “mitigation” is another bogus carrot to hang before the community, as if there is any purchase that would restore to the community the losses from this hugely dangerous and damaging This should be spent on reparations to the community.
10 things we learned from meeting with the Army Corps of Engineers
St Bernard Parish Voice Article
A Community Voice – 2221 St. Claude Ave., New Orleans, LA 70117
Join the Group to Fight the Florida Avenue Freeway!
Article from the Louisiana Weekly
Position Paper by A Community Voice
The Florida Ave Project – State Project H005720.
Members of A Community Voice and the residents affected communities in Orleans Parish we have met with, including over 150 who have signed petitions, do not want a limited access high speed roadway here. It creates pollution that affects health, including the heart, degrades property values and creates an industrial wall in the lower 9th ward where there is new access to Bayou Bienvenue.
Ministers have signed against the Florida Project, and the list is growing:
Rev. Fred Luter – Franklin Ave. Bapt. Ch.
Rev. Dr. Ernest Marcell, Jr. Prayer Tower COGIC
Rev. Jim VanderWeele – Community Unitarian Church
Rev. Johnny Hughes, Sr. – Assoc. Min. Greater Mount Carmel Bapt. Ch
Rev. Deanna Vandiver – First Unitarian Church and Director CELSJR
Rev. D.M. Haywood – New Israel Bapt Ch.
Fr. Oswald Pierre-Jules – St. David’s Catholic Church
Pastor Daniel m. Perkins — Revelation Baptist Church
Rev. William Barnwell — Episcopal Diocese
Eric Dorsey, Sr. – Battleground Bapt Ch.
Rev. Dwight Webster – Christian Unity Bapt. Ch.
Rev. Joel Tyler – Second Rose of Sharon MBC
1. The St Bernard Port truck traffic can easily be routed northward to the interstate, utilizing Paris Road, so that it will not damage complex 8th and 9th ward African American neighborhoods.
The community is for new bridges at the Industrial Canal and for an improved Paris Rd in Chalmette as the direct route for heavy trucks to access I-10. There is no viable reason for the trucks to come through Orleans Parish. That is true, as well, for the ones that use St. Claude and Claiborne today. All of the St. Bernard Parish trucks needs to routed up Paris Rd. in St. Bernard Parish
3. It substantially benefits white owned businesses that use the St. Bernard Port, and degrades African American neighborhoods. This constitutes Environmental Racism.
4. In 1984, the same neighborhoods in the upper 9th and 8th wards area were impacted by previous policies that moved the toxic train cars and Railroad switching yard from the French Quarter to the 9th ward and thus prevented risk of exposure to tourists of a toxic accident. But then, put African-American communities at risk in the 8th and 9th wards.
5. Some residents have been led to believe that the freeway will help St Bernard and Lower 9 residents leave the area in a storm situation. However, there are other ways out of the parishes and less population, so no real problem there. Some are confused and believe that Port means Port Street and St Bernard means St Bernard Ave. The lack of information on the project persists.
6. The state seems to be mistakenly telling the public that if we want a new bridge at Florida Ave. (we do), we must accept the entire project, which is untrue. They are funded separately. In a recent victory, information is now available on the Paris Road alternative.
7. Bridge work could be funded by this project, with a new bridge at Florida and Claiborne, with a foot/bike bridge added at St Claude. Paris Road could be upgraded with an overhead freeway for truck traffic, noise and pollution controls and other amenities for St. Bernard Parish.8. It is time to prevent all heavy trucks from utilizing Orleans Parish as their first choice to access the I-10/610. They unnecessarily and currently create dangerous situations on St Claude and N Claiborne.
9. The process for involvement of the public in this issue needs to include transparency and open dialogue rather than the single out method used in the only hearing held in the lower 9th ward. Current input from the public needs to be examined for disinformation that they have received.
10. 85 homes that are part of the city’s precious shrinking Affordable Housing stock may be removed. We do not want any homes removed, we need Affordable Housing in New Orleans.
There must be much more informative information than was presented at the recent meeting in the 9th Ward. The drawings shown were not detailed enough for the person viewing them to be able to make an informed decision.
This project as proposed is good for only one thing getting more trucks to the St. Bernard Port at the cost of the quality of life of the neighborhoods.
Other info: In the upcoming year we will be asked to pass another regressive tax that will disproportionately hurt poor people more than rich people, to fund the $1 billion deficit caused by Gov Jindal.
Air pollutants from cars, trucks and other motor vehicles are found in higher concentrations near major roads. People who live, work or attend school near major roads appear to have an increased incidence and severity of health problems associated with air pollution exposures related to roadway traffic including higher rates of asthma onset and aggravation, cardiovascular disease, impaired lung development in children, pre-term and low-birthweight infants, childhood leukemia, and premature death.
Traffic-related air pollution is a main contributor to unhealthy ambient air quality, particularly in urban areas with high traffic volume. Within urban areas, traffic is a major source of local variability in air pollution levels, with the highest concentrations and risk of exposure occurring near roads. Motor vehicle emissions represent a complex mixture of criteria air pollutants, including carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen oxides (NOx), and particulate matter (PM), as well as hydrocarbons that react with NOx and sunlight to form ground-level ozone. Individually, each of these pollutants is a known or suspected cause of adverse health effects (1–4). Taking into consideration the entire body of evidence on primary traffic emissions, a recent review determined that there is sufficient evidence of a causal association between exposure to traffic-related air pollution and asthma exacerbation and suggestive evidence of a causal association for onset of childhood asthma, non-asthma respiratory symptoms, impaired lung function, all-cause mortality, cardiovascular mortality, and cardiovascular morbidity (5).
Department of Transportation Project Info Page
Join us. Sign our petition
Print out fact sheets for your church or organization.
no-florida-avenue-freeway-fact-sheet
Have your church or organization join the fight.
No Florida Avenue Freeway: Save Our Homes & Community Health
Fact Sheet
The “Florida Project” is a joint federal and state funded proposal to expand Florida Avenue and create a new freeway through the 8th and 9th Wards on Florida, for heavy trucks that are in transit from the St. Bernard Port.
Currently, there are problems associated with Florida Avenue in the Upper 9th Ward, such as the truck traffic that diverts from there down Pauline and damages the homes of senior citizens and long time residents of the area.
A further expansion of Florida Blvd will create an unnecessary freeway for heavy trucks to come through Orleans Parish to reach Elysian Fields and then gain access to the interstate. The option to have the trucks take Paris Rd. in St Bernard is by far the cheaper and more expedient option for the trucks and state. Frankly, imposing a freeway on African American communities is simply environmental racism.
Elected officials are telling residents that a new Florida Avenue Bridge is completely contingent on the whole Florida “freeway” project. This is not true, as funding for this bridge has to be a separate item.
A freeway through our community would create noise, congestion, pollution, and access points for heavy trucks to cut through the neighborhoods. It is particularly mind-boggling that they would attempt to put this truck traffic onto Elysian Fields at I-610 where there is currently so much congestion and an existing danger from the current heavy traffic.
A Community Voice supports:
- A new Florida bridge
- Replacement of the Claiborne/Judge Seeber bridge
- An additional bike and pedestrian bridge at St. Claude
- All St. Bernard Parish truck traffic needs to stay in St. Bernard Parish, and use Paris Rd. to get to the interstate
Join us. Sign our petition
Print out fact sheets for your church or organization.
no-florida-avenue-freeway-fact-sheet
Have your church or organization join the fight.
Stop the Florida Avenue Freeway!
Copies of Petition for you to circulate to your church, workplace or school. florida-avenue-petition
Sign the online version