Project Economic Refugee

This on the heels of Project Economic Refugee’s post on how ICE’s “Secure Communities Program” might be misrepresenting in Santa Barbara County CA, here comes a report from PBS on what is going on elsewhere:

Watch the full episode. See more Need To Know.

Far from the U.S.-Mexico border, local police arrest thousands of illegal immigrants. Congress wants to make sure these people are deported. To get the job done, it’s relying on a program called Secure Communities. But there’s a hitch: Despite its name, the program may actually hurt public safety.

[...]

Because of the program’s failure to focus on high-level offenders, critics say it’s causing fewer immigrants to share information with police that can help solve cases or prevent future crimes.

“This is creating a huge distrust, a huge void in our community-police relations,” said Cesar Espinosa, who works for the Central American Resource Center in Houston. Both the city and the county here are enrolled in Secure Communities. “We have a lot of folks who ask us, if I report a crime, will I be asked for my paperwork?”

Among those most in danger are undocumented women in abusive relationships. They fear being arrested if police respond to their domestic violence calls, and having to leave their children behind.

Read the rest of the report here.

So what do you think?  Is the “Secure Communities Program” actually making us unsafe?

It never ceases to amaze me how the wealthy West Side interests in Los Angeles have been able to hinder if not right out block the completion of a light rail line that could ease L.A.’s horrendous traffic. Some West Siders have voiced concerns about “safety”, which as I have explained before in this previous post of mine, other cities with very similar conditions as L.A. simply do not seem to have. The L.A. Times recently reported this:

Though we sympathize with the residents — few people would want a train running past their backyards– the impacts of the line would actually be minor, and its benefits would be great. Planners expect the Expo Line to carry about 64,000 riders a day by 2030, relieving traffic, boosting the economy and cutting pollution. The agency is building sound walls to reduce noise, grade separations to lessen traffic delays, and parking facilities. That’s not enough for residents, who are demanding unnecessary additional grade separations that would cost hundreds of millions of dollars and make the project financially unfeasible. The board must politely turn them down.

Frankly, I am just glad that the County of Board of Supervisors has more sense than to listen to the elitist and short-sighted demands coming from some West Side residents: the Supervisors just voted 6-0 to certify the “Phase II” of the final environmental report to move the process forward.  This prompted the Expo Line Board of Directors to move towards the hiring of a design-build contractor.  The Expo Light Rail Line Facebook page explains:

This action represents the first step toward hiring a design-build contractor to construct the long-awaited light rail extension to Santa Monica. Upon completion of successful negotiations, PE contracts will be awarded to both firms and PE work will continue for six months. In November 2010, the Authority will select one of these PE firms as the design-build contractor to complete the design work and construct this vital mass transit link, which is scheduled to be completed in 2015.

Construction of the future site of an Expo Light Rail stop at Colorado Avenue and Fourth Street is still years away, but in recent days bulldozers have been rolling at the train stop’s planned home, as workers continue to demolish the structure that once housed a Sears Auto Center.

The location is the planned end-point for a rail project transportation officials say will link Santa Monica to Downtown Los Angeles by 2015.

Do you live in Southern California?  Looking for ways to support your community?  If you happen to live in L.A. County, check out this piece that ABC Channel 7 put together that featured the top 7 good cause organizations to volunteer for in SoCal.  I disagree somewhat with the ranking though: I think Heal the Bay ought to be listed at least as No. 3 or No. 4 but hey that’s just my bias Anyway, check out the video below of the report on the Top 7:

How about your list?  Do you live in L.A. or in other parts of Southern California and have a favorite organization you like to volunteer for that was “snubbed” in the ABC Top 7 list?  Why do you like to volunteer for said organization?  What makes it special … the people that manage the organization, the work it does, its popularity, its influence?  What about those organizations that you would not like to volunteer for? Why? …and, if you’re wondering: yes, I’m looking for gossip; after all, what would life be without it?

This will be the 3rd annual event that the Heal the Bay staff will have pulled off in L.A. County.  I remember my first “A Day Without A Bag” event like it was yesterday, being assigned to an El Monte site.  I was interviewed by the L.A. Times in 2007 and again in 2008 by La Opinion; my most recent interview with them was about Heal the Bay’s Summer Beach Report Card 2009; of course, this time around I hope that both press outlets will show up for this year’s event to cover the story unfolding at the Downtown L.A. giveaway site in 7th Street & Figueroa Shopping Center.

This year is going to have a pretty cool event: Heal the Bay staff will be doing three live segments with Gayle Anderson (7:50, 8:30 and 9:10) on the Day Without a Bag hoopla on Thursday morning on the KTLA Morning News; for the press release in Spanish, visit this site here.  This year, Heal the Bay will be proud to feature four of its South L.A. community partners as part of its brand-new Healthy Communities Initiative to put the issue of protecting the environment against cronic toxic pollution front-and-center at four different giveaway locations:

Youth Opportunities High’s at 1PM

(Superior Super Warehouse) Superior Super Warehouse 10211 Avalon Blvd. Watts, 90003.

Washington Elementary School’s starting at 9AM

1421 N. Wilmington AVE, Compton 90222.

Wisdom Academy for Young Scientists’s starting at 9AM

706 E. Manchester AVE, Los Angeles, CA 90001.

A.C.U.S.L.A.’s at 9AM (Association of Communities United for South L.A.)

(Numero Uno Market) 9127 S. Figueroa St., Los Angeles, CA 90044.

Personally, I will be going to the Downtown L.A. event just to watch the Thriller Dancers in action … what about you? (well, besides going to the South L.A. events):

Update: for a recap of the day, please visit Heal the Bay’s President’s Mark Gold’s blog here.  To view the video of the “Thriller Dancers” performing at the actual A Day Without A Bag press conference, click here.

Inner city L.A. (specially downtown), is undergoing a transition, no question about it.  Some may call it “gentrification“, others may call it “revitalizing development”, others may simply call it “making it look nicer”, and others will say that it’s kicking low-income families out of their homes.  The reality, as with anything else in the world, is not materializing in absolutes but is rather falling somewhere in between: all those things are taking place, and for better or for worse, they will continue.  The neighborhoods are undergoing a deep change: where before you would not even see people walking around at night, there is now a burgeoning art scene taking place, spearheaded by the Downtown L.A. Artwalk but more often than not driven by underground-like art exhibition events plopped in the middle of old warehouses.  I have been to these underground art exhibit events and not-so-underground ones but nevertheless cool and hip (like last year’s Festival De La Gente) and what strikes you sometimes are the vestiges of a past in L.A. that was more pedestrian-friendly.  As you walk through empty streets, sometimes you run into old abandoned rail lines that dead-end on random walls or are paved over in the streets and you can’t help but try to picture what L.A. used to look like once-upon-a-time (thanks in part to memories from the movie Who Framed Roger Rabbit). 

Nevertheless, Downtown L.A. has been showing signs of a resurgence in its pedestrian appeal and by extension, in building the feel of a cosmopolitan community that is uniquely L.A.-ish and will continue to do so in the coming years thanks to many innovative plans.  Perhaps one of the coolest revitalizing projects in the pipeline for downtown is the so-called “Figueroa Cap Park”, which would be a park on top of the 110 Freeway and would be developed by the CRA/LA (they currently have secured Prop 1C money for a feasbility study).  One of their publications describes the vision in detail:

Located along the Figueroa Corridor, this site offers a creative and visionary approach to generating 9.5 acres of new park space.  By “capping” the Harbor 110 Freeway, the Cap Park would include public pazas that will connect nearby St. Vincent’s church, Southern CA AAA, Mount St. Mary’s College, the Orthopedic Hospital and the Flower Street Expo Line rail station as well as active open space that will be bisected by pedestrian paths.  A large pedestrian path will connect the rail station to the corner of Figueroa Street and Adams Boulevard, facilitating pedestrian access to the station.

There are many other projects and tranformations taking shape in the surrounding communities of downtown.  For example, the neighborhood I just moved into is quite an interesting case.  It is considered to be a “Historic Preservation Overlay Zone“, mainly because of its grandiose Victorian houses.  As wikipedia explains, the area is currently undergoing redevelopment, in large part due to CRA/LA’s Pico Union Area 1 & Pico Union Area 2 plans and to other local community-based projects.  I say that this area has a “unique” identity because the appeal of downtown and neighboring communities lies precisely in its richness in immigrant culture.  From Latinos to Koreans to white and Indian young professionals to rising environmental activists of all shapes, colors, and ethnicities.  I put “white young professionals” in this category of immigrants because in a sense, they are also immigrants in this community as well: a lot of them come from either Northern California, Ventura County, or as far away as India (via USC and other nearby colleges and not-so-nearby ones like Santa Cruz).  This is particularly interesting because it is following a similar pattern that has already been going on for a longer period of time in communities such as Silver Lake and Echo Park that is starting to be seen in neighborhoods closer to downtown as well: (previously seen as) “outsiders” venturing out into the area, attracted by cheap rent (you can find $650.00/month single apartments with its own kitchen and bathroom, something unheard of in most of L.A., in old Victorian houses that have been converted to apartment complexes), cheap and easily accessible Latino food and/or Korean and other richly ethnic food, a centralized location, an ever-increasing system of public transportation, and drops in crime rates thanks to the LAPD’s efforts to become community partners rather than enemies. 

In fact, recently at a Halloween party in Pico/Union, I was discussing this very same topic with my fellow partiers regarding the phenomenon of “outsiders” coming into these communities and someone made a joke about how “in the past, if you saw a white guy in the neighborhood, you were suspicious because no white person would venture out into these neighborhoods unless they were running a major drug operation.”  Nowadays, it seems that hardly anybody raises an eyebrow at “newcomers” and it’s just become second-nature.  Not everything is “hip” and idyllic, though; sometimes these neighborhoods still look and feel a bit sketchy.  In fact, I got my car broken into just a month after I moved into the neighborhood.  Nothing was taken (that I could tell), but it was nevertheless a bummer.  However, after talking to others, I realized that this was not an uncommon experience.  I’m hoping this was a random act but I am definitely taking precautions.  I no longer park on that far-away isolated empty space (even though parking in this area is a major hassle but yet again what big city doesn’t have this problem) that I parked on that ill-fated night.  One of my environmentalist colleagues told me the other day “yeah I had my car broken into a few times; that’s why I no longer drive” … and he doesn’t, he actually gets around on his bike and public transporation with no problems (and the bike lane issue in this area is another topic of discussion, something that the L.A. Bike Coalition is trying to tackle).             

Yet, I can’t tell you how many times I still hear about how L.A. “doesn’t feel like a real city” from friends and acquaintances that just can’t help but to compare it to New York or Chicago.  The most obvious reason why L.A. doesn’t measure up to these and other cities is because “L.A.” is really more of a bunch of clustered urban centers spread out over massive freeways from the coast to the vallies and basins of Southern California.  Another major reason why L.A. is so disjointed and has an almost bipolar identity is our lack of subways and lightrail lines. Blame this on the myriad of social complexities and battling powerful special interests that make up L.A.: from the big auto industry to the bus riders union that opposed lightrail from even before the time Villaraigosa was mayor.   In the past, the bus riders union offered a particularly interesting position: arguing that lightrail would give inner city residents second-class transportation status and so instead the investment should go towards the creation of more bus-only street lanes (which I personally think would make L.A. traffic even worse than what it already is: in the long run, taking a lane away to use it for buses-only does not solve anything).  In addition, the union had been arguing that the construction of lightrail would favor business and suburban use rather than inner city residents, which in reality was an oversimplification of ridership patterns.  Ironically, the union did not realize that for the longest time, lightrail was also opposed by racist residents of more affluent neighborhoods, fearing that connecting communities through rail would facilitate an ease of transportation that might bring “undesirables” (meaning, the poor, black, and brown) to their “pristine” communities. Then there is the neverending short-sighted view of extremes where people will pit good projects against one another. Point in case is the recent debate that was reported on the L.A. Times over whether to have a high speed rail line built through L.A. or to “instead” have the revitalization of the Los Angeles River.  The state of the river, by the way, was recently lampooed by Conan O’Brien:

(2009) Riding down the Los Angeles River from Robert Ashe Jr. on Vimeo.

The O’Brien spoof video caused a furor in L.A. because it ignored the plans that are underway to beautify the river. 

Personally, I am rooting for the revitalizaton of the L.A. River but I am hoping that these should-we-have-Rail-OR-L.A.-River people consider that it would be best to actually aim to have both, not one over the other.  I am a big supporter of Transit Oriented Development, as I have argued in this previous blog post of mine because it helps connect communities.  Thankfully, there’s some people out there that have a more reasonable stance, such as Joe Linton, author of the blog LACreekFreak, who recognizes that the projects could compliment each other and in so doing, the integrity of the L.A. River would be left intact.  Even with all these ongoing short-sighted disputes, it seems that Downtown L.A. will continue to rise.  Recently, Mayor Villaraigosa recently announced that he wants the building of commuter rail lines on a fast-track and frankly, I can’t praise him enough.  Subway lines are currently being built as I type this, and the hope is that eventually L.A. will have a more widespread network of commuter rail lines that other cities already enjoy.  So will Downtown L.A. continue to rise from its 80′s ashes of decadence?  Sustainability is key here: ways to connect projects and events is paramount if we are to have a seven-day a week Downtown L.A. life, rather than isolated ones once every so often.

Update: I’m looking into forming a group of local activists based in this neighborhood as part of Project Economic Refugee.  If you live nearby, please shoot me an e-mail at economicrefugee@hotmail.com

Compton hosted its own "Coastal Cleanup Day '09" at Washington Elementary.

To learn more about “Coastal Cleanup Day”, please visit Heal the Bay’s website here.

Here‘s the link to INTERNATIONAL Coastal Cleanup Day (coordinated by the Ocean Conservancy).

So where were you on this year’s Coastal Cleanup Day?  Did you help out?

Here’s an article I wrote for Heal the Bay’s “Currents” magazine (intro based on previous work of Heal the Bay’s James Alamillo):

As part of Heal the Bay’s new Healthy Communities Initiative, we have been doing intensive community organizing work in South L.A. to empower residents to heal their environment for the sake of L.A. County’s coastline.  We are all interconnected, and this is especially true with our street trash, storm drains, rivers, watersheds, and ocean.  At Heal the Bay, we believe that a healthy community is one that embraces the belief that health is more than merely an absence of disease.  A healthy community is a product of a healthy environment; and as part of the feedback loop, a healthy environment enables a healthy community.  Most all human health issues witnessed in urban areas have at their root an environmental component. Whether it is air pollution and asthma, water pollution and infectious diseases, urban blight and psycho-social disorders, or poor planning (no parks and lots of junk food outlets) and obesity; there is a nexus between the built environment and human health.  So how can we even begin to heal our environment?  Four community groups from South L.A. have taken up the call to fight for a healthier future in L.A. They have partnered with Heal the Bay to develop several green community spaces in the hopes that these sites would serve as filters that will naturally catch and treat urban runoff before it reaches the storm drain system.    

St. Michael’s Church Community Group 

St. Michael's Catholic Church Community Leader Jose Estrada

Heal the Bay’s partnership with St. Michael’s community group (housed at 1016 W Manchester AVE) in the area has been a very inspirational one.  Through the leadership of a council of community leaders headed by Jose Javier Estrada, they have engaged in planning and developing much-needed green spaces and building neighborhood beautification projects.  Last year, they worked on building their so-called public “Living Rooms” in a couple of street corners and this year they are focusing on re-energizing their long-term “Vermont Avenue Median” project that would stretch from 89^th to 90^th ST.  Mr. Estrada explains: “this project has been a very positive experience because it has involved multiple sectors of the community: neighborhoods, colleges, churches, Bernard Parks’ staff, Southeast Neighborhood council, and others.”  In order to make sure that the project has the support of the local community, their group has embarked on a process of incorporation so they can function in a more independent manner and begin to have further name recognition.  For this purpose, they have recently elected their officers as the first step to become a nonprofit group so that they may better represent their constituents and move forward their goals and objectives in order to fight for better neighborhoods because as Mr. Estrada often declares, “everyone deserves a beautiful community.” 

Wisdom Academy for Young Scientists

Wisdom Academy students learn about marine animals.

The staff and parents at Wisdom Academy of 706 E. Manchester AVE have chosen a wonderful site for their WAYS Reading & Fitness Park, an outdoor classroom/community green space.  It is a median located behind their school, on the corner of McKinley AVE & 87^th ST.  Located in a residential area, their WAYS project is a great piece of land with great tall beautiful trees already in place; it is as if the site itself were calling for some attention.  Answering the call, Wisdom Academy Executive Director Krendra Okonkwo and Principal Alake Watson have formed an alliance with Wisdom’s PTA parent leaders Brandy Williams and Evelyn Aguirre to make sure that the project becomes a reality. The road ahead will not be easy, but the folks at Wisdom Academy remain steadfast in their resolution.  “I’m a big believer of reclaiming space for the community”, Executive Director Okonkwo has often said.  In addition, Principal Watson envisions that “The WAYS Reading and Fitness Park will be a driving force to unite the school and local community as we continue through the implementation process.   Local community members will be invited to partake in the building efforts and finishing design of the project.  WAYS proposes to make the implementation safe and fun for everyone by providing a series of educational workshops prior to the weekend of the build … We highly anticipate the participation of the office of our local councilwoman, Jan Perry.  We hope the WAYS Reading and Fitness Park will be the start of a powerful collaborative that extends beyond the border of our school walls and touches the lives of families in need of physical fitness as well as serves as a quiet reservoir where reading is literacy is nourished.”            

Youth Opportunities High

Principal (standing) Kianna Nesbit chats with parents at a Y.O.'s design workshop.

The Principal at Youth Opportunities High 1827 E. 103^rd ST in Watts, Kianna Nesbit, and her assistant Mayra Arroyo have been leading the charge to turn a portion of their school’s parking lot into a community space that would benefit the surrounding neighborhoods.  Principal Nesbit explains: “The Watts Community Garden Plaza will serve as a place where local residents, patrons, and students can commune, relax, and enjoy their community.  This plaza will provide people with a safe, pleasant space where they can partake in recreational activities (basketball and chess), learn about plant/fruit/vegetable life through participation in gardening activities, and/or just sit, converse and enjoy the scenery in our rendition of a serene space.  The Watts Community Garden Plaza will be located in the Robert Pitts Center, the Malfundi building.  This center was constructed in 1965 after the civil unrest.  The goal was to create a space where Watts’ community residents could participate in artistic and educational activities.  The Watts Community Garden Plaza will serve as an extension of this original objective, a viable, real, and tangible manifestation of that original goal.  This community beautification project will allow the original mission of the Mafundi building to be further felt and experienced by people in this community.”

Washington Elementary PTA

Parent members of the Washington Elementary PTA participate in a recent design workshop.

The parents at Washington Elementary 1421 N Wilmington AVE in Compton, under the leadership of School Administrator Ema Escobar and PTA President Martha Barajas, have chosen a piece of land in the front of their school.  Under the supervision of their Principal Ontrece Ellerbe, they have banded together to make sure that they are involved in the process of bringing about the construction of an outdoor classroom that would also serve as a green plaza for the enjoyment of the community at-large.  In order to carry out this project, they have also embarked on leadership development and so they have picked four main parent leaders: Maria Rodriguez, Blanca Rivera, Olga Palma, and Petra Luciano that will assist in getting the rest of the parents involved.  In the coming Fall, Washington Elementary students will join Heal the Bay and other schools (including Wisdom Academy’s) to celebrate our annual “Ed Day”: a day of fun, games, and learning to promote the annual county-wide “Costal Cleanup Day” event at Santa Monica Beach.  To learn more about and participate in Heal the Bay’s Coastal Cleanup Day activities, please visit: www.healthebay.org/ccd

Studies show that vegetation can help reduce crime!

As an environmentalist working in South Central L.A., I have often encountered the same misconceptions about trees, animals, and well, just nature in general over and over again.  “I know this area and if you build a park in this neighborhood it will just be a magnet for people doing drugs or attract more crime!” or “If you build this park near this school it will attract birds and other animals that will bring disease to the children!” or the classic “who’s going to provide security detail for this green space?!” are complaints all too familiar to my ears.  In fact, looks like I’m not the only one to be so stubborn in my refusal to just unquestioningly accept that trees are somehow inherently “bad”- just read the “Visions of a lush, green South L.A.” OpEd that was written by Toni Ann Johnson (a member of the Southwest L.A. neighborhood council) and that recently appeared on the Los Angeles Times.

Yet, I understand their concerns because of the experience they come from: most people’s perception of “green” or “natural” things has been negative because, just like anything else in South Central, parks have been associated with gang violence, crime, drug use, or worse.  When peole bring up these kinds of concerns during neighborhood design workshops (to open more green space in the area so the community at large can enjoy it), my usual course of action is to explain that aside from the multiple benefits of opening  more green space in an area as unjustly deprived of green healthy spaces as South Central is, the strategy to keep undesired activity away is an investment of community involvement and a constant flow of community activity (festivals, educational events, recreational competitions, etc.)  in the planning and building phases of these communal green spaces.  It’s all about community and that’s how it should be. 

Yet, the pesky lingering question of whether or not trees attract crime still bothered me.  Well, last month I had the fortune of attending a workshop at the Los Angeles Neighborhood Initiative‘s Annual Community Forum and was pleasantly surprised to hear from the Tree People, who quoted a study that actually argues that vegetation can and does function as a deterrent of crime. 

Just check this out:

In a 2001 study in one Chicago public housing development, there were dramatically fewer occurrences of crime against both people and property in apartment buildings surrounded by trees and greenery than in nearby identical apartments that were surrounded by barren land. In fact, compared with buildings that had little or no vegetation, buildings with high levels of greenery had 48 percent fewer property crimes and 56 percent fewer violent crimes. Even modest amounts of greenery were associated with lower crime rates. The greener the surroundings, the fewer the number of crimes that occurred.  

To review this study and others related to how vegetation can help better the overall health of a community visit: http://www.lhhl.uiuc.edu/

The following is the news-style story (in the 3rd person) that I put together as an exercise for a Communications class.  It’s about my trip to Portland, OR (which I previously wrote about):

On the morning of April 9th, a delegation of community activists from South Los Angeles traveled to Portland, Oregon to study the public transit system.

 “We live in a concrete jungle, plagued by never-ending traffic jams,” environmental activist Refugio “Reg” lamented on a recent trip he took to Portland, Oregon.  He was part of a delegation of community activists and agency representatives from South L.A. that the Los Angeles Department of City Planning flew out to Oregon.  The delegation was anxious to learn about a service that Portland uses to connect its communities, as well as reduce their impact on climate change and air pollution: a world-renown public transit system.  Upon arriving in Portland at the airport, they hopped onto a light-rail train that took them straight downtown, directly connecting them to their streetcar system.  Once there, the streetcar line took them through various major thoroughfares, stopping in front of major points of interest such as businesses, health centers, affordable housing complexes, and libraries. 

The South L.A. delegation was immediately struck with how integrated Portland’s rail system was into the street fabric of the city.  In Los Angeles, the rail lines have boarding stops that are often located on somewhat removed locations — on the edge of town, up some steps, across security fences.  In contrast, the streetcar system of Portland blended in, running through actual streets and stopping in front of actual entry ways — no steps required, quite a relief for the physically disabled.  More of a refreshing surprise was to hear how Portland functioned before it broke ground for its commuter rail line.  From the presentations that various city officials, college personnel, and business leaders gave to the South L.A. leaders, it was learned that Portland’s traffic and downtown area used to resemble Los Angeles’ as they function today.  What became immediately evident was that the key to Portland’s success was that people worked together: from the Portland Office of Transportation to the Portland University Transportation Coordinator to the Transition Homeless Projects Director.  Kick-starting the project, however, was challenging: they encountered institutional skepticism, public resistance to giving up parking lot spaces, and a limited pool of funds, among other hurdles. Presenters also made sure to note that their city is not the utopia that some visitors sometimes seem to think it is at first sight — for example, as of March ’09 Portland had an alarming 11% unemployment rate. 

Yet, their past and current challenges just made their accounts of success more relatable.  Los Angeles may seem like a collection of segregated communities, but it may soon take its first steps to fix that.  One first step that has the potential to revitalize and connect instead of gentrifying neighborhoods, thus laying the framework for further blending of space is the Revitalization of the Los Angeles River, which seeks to restore the L.A. River into its more natural-looking condition and connect communities through bike lanes and open communal recreational spaces along its path.  Another project that has the potential to promote unity in Los Angeles is the development of the Expo Line rail, which is slated to be completed within the next few years and will allow people to travel from Downtown L.A. all the way to Santa Monica beach.  Overall, the South L.A. “infiltration” of Portland served as an inspirational illustration of the inter-connectedness that can be achieved by the cooperation of communities. It also showed that what was achieved provided not merely a convenience but something of absolute necessity.  “The challenges may seem enormous to us Los Angelinos,” Reg cautioned, “but perhaps we should take it one step at a time and do what Portlanders did when they tackled their enormous problems: just start reconnecting.”

Here’s a rustic print ad I did with the help of my friend Saira who modeled for me-thank you Saira! (this was part of an assignment that I did for a Communications class I’m currently taking):

Paper AND plastic are BOTH bad choices for your health

These are the basic elements of the ad:

Attention grabber: bright colors in the fruit and vegetables

Appeal: fruit, healthy living, relatable to you (you could see yourself doing what Saira is doing).

Narrative: the ad asks the question that you often hear at the grocery store: “paper or plastic?” It then urges you to be different, to “step outside of the box” and to support and pick “the better choice”: reusable bags.

Call to action: it asks you to reject the use of paper AND plastic bags so you can instead use reusable bags; it also invites you to visit the site www.healthebay.org/store  so you can get your own reusable bag.  In the future, the site could change to something like healthebay.org/healthyfuture (Heal the Bay does not have a site that has such a name … yet) that could be a centralized online center for people to take action (like send letters of support to newspapers and legislators or the like) on various issues dealing with marine debris.  Ideally, the center would reinforce the idea that it’s going to take all of us to solve the problem of plastic bags polluting our environment, working together: 1) through legislation that taxes the use of plastic and paper bags to discourage usage, 2) cleanup efforts, and 3) reclycling campaigns; and that if you take one element out (because of pressure from powerful moneyed interests), the efforts will most likely fail to solve much. 

I’m also trying to frame the situation very clearly with this ad with some long-term messaging:

• Plastic AND paper bags = bad for your health (because it impacts your quality of life).
• Reusable bags = healthy living, promising future, protecting your children from pollution.

Sure, the ad is not commercial-quality, but I think it gets the point across very effectively nevertheless.

  PS Don’t forget to click on the picture of the print ad above: it takes you to a video that CurrentTV aired about the problem of plastic bag pollution in our rivers and ocean.