There Goes the Neighborhood |
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| Authors: | Mark Atlas |
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| Institution: | Mark Atlas;is a principal at Chambers Associates, a consulting firm in Washington, D.C., specializing in environmental policy and toxic tort issues. Previously he was an environmental attorney in private practice, in consulting firms assisting the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and taught environmental policy in academia. The views expressed in this article are his and do not necessarily reflect those of his employer. |
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| Abstract: | Many research studies have examined if hazardous waste treatment, storage, or disposal facilities (TSDFs) tend to be located where people are disproportionately minority, low-income, and politically inactive. This article focuses on whether variables representing potential neighborhood activism were related to where new TSDFs located during the 1990s. My analyses demonstrated that there is no consistent, substantial evidence that the demographic characteristics of neighborhoods around new TSDFs affected their location decisions. The overall composition of these neighborhoods indicates that there are disproportionately high concentrations of minority and low-income people around these TSDFs and disproportionately fewer people who were more likely to be politically active and concerned about new TSDFs. The shew towards more minorities was overwhelmingly due, however, to a relatively small number of TSDFs in heavily populated neighborhoods with high minority proportions. |
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