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ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE
Gateway City Legacy
After the heyday of Brockton’s industrial past, the manufacturing jobs that once anchored the regional economy and provided families with stable, middle-class incomes slowly left the city. Brockton, like other Gateway Cities, did not have access to the resources or capacity to rebuild and recruit new forms of economic investment and opportunity. As a result, the city has faced a number of social and economic challenges for the past few decades.
Today, according to the U.S. Census of 2020, Brockton is the sixth most-populated municipality in the state at 105,643 residents, and home to many populations of people that have historically faced environmental injustices.
WHAT IS ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE?
Environmental justice movements and organizations respond to the fact that communities of color, communities who speak primarily languages other than english, and communities with low incomes are “frequent targets for environmentally hazardous activities” (The Black Institute) and “bear unequal environmental and economic burdens like poor air and water quality, as well as unhealthy living conditions resulting from industrial, municipal, and commercial operations and/or federal, state, and local laws, regulations, and policies” (Detroiters Working for Environmental Justice).
Environmental justice “is made possible when all communities have access to information and decision-makers that enable them to take action and create positive change for themselves” (Detroiters Working for Environmental Justice).
Massachusetts Environmental Justice Population Data
Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs (EEA) publishes an interactive map of census blocks in the Commonwealth that are Environmental Justice Populations based on certain demographic criteria: income, English language isolation, selfidentified race, or race and median municipal income level. All of Brockton and Avon are made up of Environmental Justice Population Blocks, which means many Brockton residents are likely facing environmental issues.
The blocks immediately surrounding the park are identified as Environmental Justice Populations because of the percentage of people of color, percentage of people with low incomes, and percentage of people who primarily speak a language other than English who live there.
Seeking feedback and guidance from people who live directly around the park may be one way to incorporate environmental justice principles into the park revitalization process and make sure that changes made to the park have positive, desired impacts on surrounding communities.
