Environmental justice is coming to New Jersey’s suburbs | Opinion
Updated 9:20 AM;
Today 9:20 AM
We like to think of our town as a model American community with tree-lined neighborhoods, good schools and local parks. But increasingly, these assets compete with a harsh reality: Piscataway has become a hot spot for warehouse sprawl along the I-287 corridor.
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By Laura Leibowitz, Atif Nazir and Leonard Hampton
Last year, we celebrated a hard-won victory when Gov. Phil Murphy signed the state’s landmark Environmental Justice law. Urban communities of color have long borne the burden of environmental racism, suffering disproportionate exposures to toxic hazards, air pollution, unsafe water and multiple health stressors. Importantly, the new law also recognizes that overburdened communities can exist anywhere that people of color, low-income and new immigrant populations are concentrated.
The Waukegan Park District is sponsoring a “card shower” through Monday honoring Benny, who rarely failed to mention his hometown of Waukegan, first during his radio show and then television program over a 33-year span ending in 1965.