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Researchers Find that to Achieve Long-term Sustainability, Urban Systems Must Tackle Social Justice and Equity
Inclusivity and understanding past policies and their effects on underserved and marginalized communities must be part of urban planning, design, and public policy efforts for cities.
Joe F. Bozeman III, the lead author and an assistant professor in Georgia Tech’s School of Civil and Environmental Engineering. He is also the director of Tech’s Social Equity & Environmental Engineering Lab.
« Researchers Find that to Achieve Long-term Sustainability, Urban Systems Must Tackle Social Justice and Equity
Newswise — Inclusivity and understanding past policies and their effects on underserved and marginalized communities must be part of urban planning, design, and public policy efforts for cities.
An international coalition of researchers — led by Georgia Tech — have determined that advancements and innovations in urban research and design must incorporate serious analysis and collaborations with scientists, public policy experts, local leaders, and citizens. To address environmental issues and infrastructure challenges cities face, the coalition identified three core focus areas with research priorities for long-term urban sustainability and viability. Those focus areas should be components of any urban planning, design, and sustainability initiative.
The researchers found that the core focus areas included social justice and equity, circularity, and a concept called “digital twins.” The team — which consists of 13 co-authors and scholars based in the U.S., Asia, and Europe — also provided guidance and future research directions for how to address these focus areas. They detailed their findings in the Journal of Industrial Ecology, published in January 2023.
“Climate change has certainly increased the amount and intensity of extreme weather events and because of that, it makes our decision making today critical to the manner in which our economy and our day to day lives can operate,” said Joe F. Bozeman III, the lead author and an assistant professor in Georgia Tech’s School of Civil and Environmental Engineering. He is also the director of Tech’s Social Equity & Environmental Engineering Lab. “Our quality of life can be negatively affected if we don’t make good decisions today.”
Three core areas of focus to achieve urban sustainability
The researchers’ first core focus area, justice and equity, addresses innovations and trends that disproportionately benefit middle and high-income communities. Trends like IoT, “smart cities,” and the urban “green movement” are part of a broader push by cities to become more sustainable and resilient. But communities of color and low-income neighborhoods — the same areas often home to environmental contaminations, infrastructure challenges, and other hazards — have often been overlooked.
The researchers’ findings showed a consistent trend with marginalized communities across several countries, including Canada, the Netherlands, India, and South Africa. They call for mandatory equity analyses which incorporate the experiences and perspectives of these marginalized communities, and, more importantly, ensure members of those communities are actively engaged in decision-making processes.
“Planning, professional, and community stakeholders,” the researchers write in the paper, “should recognize that working together gets cities closer to harmonizing the technological and social dimensions of sustainability.”
The second focus area, circularity, addresses resource consumption of staple commodities including food, water, and energy; the waste and emissions they generate; and the opportunities to increase conservation of those resources by boosting efficiencies.
“What we mean by circularity is basic reuse, remanufacturing, and recycling efforts across the entire urban system — which not only includes cities and under resourced areas within those cities — but also rural communities that supply and take resources from those city hubs,” Bozeman said. The idea is aligned with the circular economy concept which addresses the need to move away from the resource-wasteful and unsustainable cycle of taking, making, and throwing away.
Instead, the researchers argue, cities should look for ways to improve efficiency and maximize local resource use. That has potential benefits not only for urban areas, but rural communities, too. One example, Bozeman said, is the Lifecycle Building Center in Atlanta. It takes old building supplies and sells them locally for reuse.
“By doing that, they’re at the beginning stages of creating an economic system, a regional engine where we share resources between cities and rural areas,” he said. “We can start creating an economic framework, not only where both sides can make money and get what they need, but something that can actually turn into a sustainable economic engine without having to rely on another state or another country’s import or export economic pressures.”
To strengthen circularity and make it more robust, the researchers call for more expansive metrics beyond measuring recycling rates and zero waste efforts, to include other parts of the supply chain that may yield new ideas and solutions.
The third focus area, digital twins, addresses the development of automated technologies in smart buildings and infrastructure, such as traffic lights to respond to weather and other environmental factors.
“Let’s say there’s a heavy rain event and that the rainwater is being stored into retainment,” said Bozeman. “An automated system can open another valve where we can store that water into a secondary support system, so there’s less flooding, and that can happen automatically, if we utilize the concept of digital twins.”
Creating a new urban planning model
The research came about as part of the mission of the Sustainable Urban Systems Section of the International Society for Industrial Ecology, which aims to be a conduit for scientists, engineers, policymakers, and others who want to marry environmental concerns and economic activity. Bozeman is a board member of the Sustainable Urban Systems Section.
“In that role, part of we do is set a vision and foundation for how other researchers should operate within the city and urban system space,” he said.
For urban sustainability, engineers and policy makers must come to the table and make collective decisions around social justice and equity, circularity, and the digital twins concepts.
“I think we’re at a really critical decision point when it comes to engineers and others being able to do work that is forward looking and human sensitive,” said Bozeman. “Good decision making involves addressing social justice and equity and understanding its root causes, which will enable cities to create solutions that integrate cultural dynamics.”
CITATION: Joe F. Bozeman III, Shauhrat S. Chopra, Philip James, Sajjad Muhammad, Hua Cai, Kangkang Tong, Maya Carrasquillo, Harold Rickenbacker, Destenie Nock, Weslynne Ashton, Oliver Heidrich, Sybil Derrible, Melissa Bilec. “Three research priorities for just and sustainable urban systems: Now is the time to refocus.” (Journal of Industrial Ecology, January 2023)
About Georgia Institute of Technology
The Georgia Institute of Technology, or Georgia Tech, is a public research university developing leaders who advance technology and improve the human condition. The Institute offers business, computing, design, engineering, liberal arts, and sciences degrees. Its nearly 44,000 students representing 50 states and 149 countries, study at the main campus in Atlanta, at campuses in France and China, and through distance and online learning. As a leading technological university, Georgia Tech is an engine of economic development for Georgia, the Southeast, and the nation, conducting more than $1 billion in research annually for government, industry, and society.
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Caitlin Clark, Christine Brennan and how racial stereotypes persist in the media’s WNBA coverage
The “Caitlin Clark effect” has driven record growth in the WNBA, yet Clark’s rookie season ended prematurely, revealing racial tensions and media biases impacting Black athletes’ representation and coverage.
Molly Yanity, University of Rhode Island
The “Caitlin Clark effect,” or the impact on women’s basketball from a ponytailed rookie phenomenon from America’s heartland, is real: The 2024 WNBA season shattered viewership, attendance and merchandise sales records.
Clark, however, didn’t get a chance to compete for a league title.
The Connecticut Sun eliminated Clark’s team, the Indiana Fever, in the first round of the playoffs with a two-game sweep, ending her record rookie-of-the-year campaign.
And it may be just the latest chapter in a complicated saga steeped in race.
During the first game of the series, the fingers of Sun guard DiJonai Carrington hit Clark in the eye as Carrington followed through on a block attempt of a Clark shot.
During the next day’s media availability, USA Today columnist Christine Brennan recorded and posted an exchange between herself and Carrington.
In the brief clip, the veteran sports writer asks Carrington, who is Black, if she purposely hit Clark in the eye during the previous night’s game. Though Carrington insisted she didn’t intentionally hit Clark, Brennan persisted, asking the guard if she and a teammate had laughed about the incident. The questions sparked social media outrage, statements from the players union and the league, media personalities weighing in and more.
Hit the pause button here.
As a longtime sports writer who has covered the WNBA – and as a journalism scholar who studies women’s sports and fandom – I’ll concede that Brennan’s line of questioning seems, on its face, like business as usual in sports journalism.
After all, haven’t most baseball fans seen a scribe ask a pitcher if he intentionally beaned a batter?
But Brennan’s questions were not asked in a vacuum. The emergence of a young, white superstar from the heartland has caused many new WNBA fans to pick sides that fall along racial lines. Brennan’s critics claim she was pushing a line of questioning that has dogged Black athletes for decades: that they are aggressive and undisciplined.
Because of that, her defense of her questions – and her unwillingness to acknowledge the complexities – has left this professor disappointed in one of her journalistic heroes.
Brennan and much of the mainstream sports media, particularly those who cover professional women’s basketball, still seem to have a racial blind spot.
The emergence of a Black, queer league
When the WNBA launched in 1997 in the wake of the success of the 1996 Olympic gold-medal-winning U.S. women’s basketball team, it did so under the watch of the NBA.
The NBA set out to market its new product, in part, to a white, heterosexual fan base.
The plan didn’t take hold.
While the league experienced fits and starts in attendance and TV ratings over its lifetime, the demographic makeup of its players is undeniable: The WNBA is, by and large, a Black, queer league.
In 2020, the Women’s National Basketball Players Association reported that 83% of its members were people of color, with 67% self-reporting as “Black/African-American.” While gender and sexual identity hasn’t been officially reported, a “substantial proportion,” the WNBPA reported, identify as LBGTQ+.
In 2020, the league’s diversity was celebrated as players competed in a “bubble” in Bradenton, Florida, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. They protested racial injustice, helped unseat a U.S. senator who also owned Atlanta’s WNBA franchise, and urged voters to oust former President Donald Trump from the White House.
Racial tensions bubble to the surface
In the middle of it all, the WNBA has more eyeballs on it than ever before. And, without mincing words, the fan base has “gotten whiter” since Clark’s debut this past summer, as The Wall Street Journal pointed out in July. Those white viewers of college women’s basketball have emphatically turned their attention to the pro game, in large part due to Clark’s popularity at the University of Iowa.
Money is also pouring into the league through a lucrative media rights deal and new sponsorship partners.
While the rising tide following Clark’s transition to the WNBA is certainly lifting all boats, it is also bringing detritus to the surface in the form of racist jeers from the stands and on social media.
After the Sun dispatched the Fever, All-WNBA forward Alyssa Thomas, who seldom speaks beyond soundbites, said in a postgame news conference: “I think in my 11-year career I’ve never experienced the racial comments from the Indiana Fever fan base. … I’ve never been called the things that I’ve been called on social media, and there’s no place for it.”
Echoes of Bird and Magic
In “Manufacturing Consent,” a seminal work about the U.S. news business, Edward Herman and Noam Chomsky argued that media in capitalist environments do not exist to impartially report the news, but to reinforce dominant narratives of the time, even if they are false. Most journalists, they theorized, work to support the status quo.
In sports, you sometimes see that come to light through what media scholars call “the stereotypical narrative” – a style of reporting and writing that relies on old tropes.
Scholars who study sports media have found that reporters routinely fall back on racial stereotypes. For example, coverage of Black quarterbacks in the NFL as less intelligent and more innately gifted would go on to hinder the progress of Black quarterbacks.
In Brennan’s coverage of the Carrington-Clark incident, there appear to be echoes of the way the media covered Los Angeles Lakers point guard Magic Johnson and Boston Celtics forward Larry Bird in the 1980s.
The battles between two of the sport’s greatest players – one Black, the other white – was a windfall for the NBA, lifting the league into financial sustainability.
But to many reporters who leaned on the dominant narrative of the time, the two stars also served as stand-ins for the racial tensions of the post-civil rights era. During the 1980s, Bird and Magic didn’t simply hoop; they were the “embodiments of their races and living symbols of how blacks and whites lived in America,” as scholars Patrick Ferrucci and Earnest Perry wrote.
The media gatekeepers of the Magic-Bird era often relied on racial stereotypes that ultimately distorted both athletes.
For example, early in their careers, Bird and Johnson received different journalistic treatment. In Ferrucci and Perry’s article, they explain how coverage of Bird “fit the dominant narrative of the time perfectly … exhibiting a hardworking and intelligent game that succeeded despite a lack of athletic prowess.” When the “flashy” Lakers and Johnson won, they wrote, it was because of “superior skill.”
When they lost to Bird’s Celtics, they were “outworked.”
Framing matters
Let’s go back to Brennan.
Few have done more for young women in the sports media industry than Brennan. In time, energy and money, she has mentored and supported young women trying to break into the field. She has used her platform to expand the coverage of women’s sports.
Brennan defended herself in a lengthy interview on the podcast “Good Game with Sarah Spain”:
“I think [critics are] missing the fact of what I’m trying to do, what I am doing, what I understand clearly as a journalist, asking questions and putting things out there so that athletes can then have an opportunity to answer issues that are being discussed or out there.”
I don’t think Brennan asking Carrington about the foul was problematic. Persisting with the narrative was.
Leaning into racial stereotypes is not simply about the language used anymore. Brennan’s video of her persistent line of questioning pitted Carrington against Clark. It could be argued that it used the stereotype of the overly physical, aggressive Black athlete, as well.
At best, Brennan has a blind spot to the strain racism is putting on Black athletes today – particularly in the WNBA. At worst, she is digging in on that tired trope.
A blind spot can be addressed and seen. An unacknowledged racist narrative, however, will persist.
Molly Yanity, Professor and Director of Sports media and Communication, University of Rhode Island
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
The Bridge is a section of the STM Daily News Blog meant for diversity, offering real news stories about bona fide community efforts to perpetuate a greater good. The purpose of The Bridge is to connect the divides that separate us, fostering understanding and empathy among different groups. By highlighting positive initiatives and inspirational actions, The Bridge aims to create a sense of unity and shared purpose. This section brings to light stories of individuals and organizations working tirelessly to promote inclusivity, equality, and mutual respect. Through these narratives, readers are encouraged to appreciate the richness of diverse perspectives and to participate actively in building stronger, more cohesive communities.
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Dozens of cyclists and pedestrians are killed each year in Philly − an injury epidemiologist explains how to better protect bike lanes, slow drivers down and reduce collisions
D. Alex Quistberg, Drexel University
Over 60 pedestrians and cyclists have been killed each year in Philadelphia in recent years.
Compared with other big cities, Philadelphia’s death rate for both pedestrians and cyclists is higher than New York and Chicago but lower than Los Angeles and Houston.
Across the U.S., more pedestrians and bicyclists are killed or seriously injured today than any time over the past 40 years. Over 7,500 pedestrians and over 1,100 bicyclists died in traffic collisions in 2022, the most recent year with available data, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
As an injury epidemiologist in Philadelphia who studies pedestrian and bicyclist injuries in the U.S. and Latin America, I want to share several evidence-based ways that Philadelphia can make walking, biking and getting around the city safer for everyone.
Protect bike lanes
Protected bike lanes have physical barriers that prevent drivers from entering the bike lane to park or pass other drivers.
They are particularly useful on high-volume cycling corridors and offer cyclists much more protection than lanes that are merely painted but have no physical barriers or lanes with flexible posts that can be driven over.
Flexible posts, for example, were unable to block the collision that killed Barbara Friedes, chief pediatric resident at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, in Center City in July 2024 when a drunk driver sped through the bike lane where Friedes was bicycling.
Research suggests protected bike lanes can improve safety for pedestrians and drivers too. This is likely because they tend to cause drivers to slow down.
The Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia and other local bike safety advocacy groups have called for the city to replace unprotected lanes with protected lanes and also add protected bike lanes to more roadways that currently don’t have any.
In October 2024, the city announced it will install concrete barriers to protect the bike lanes on Spruce and Pine streets in Center City, including where Friedes was killed. That same month, the City Council unanimously passed a “Get Out the Bike Lane” bill that increases the fines for drivers who stop or park in a bike lane.
Slow drivers down
Traffic-calming measures are engineering and road design strategies that slow vehicles down, make pedestrians more visible to motorists and provide safer crossing areas.
They include speed humps, curb extensions and protected intersections, as well as 20 mph speed zones.
Automated speed enforcement, which involves cameras that capture the license plates of drivers who are speeding, has led to major reductions in speeding and serious collisions on Roosevelt Boulevard. The street, which runs through North and northeast Philadelphia, has been named one of most dangerous roads in the country in various analyses by news and transportation organizations. Due to this success, the city plans to expand automated speed enforcement to Broad Street in 2025 and potentially other locations in the future.
Traffic-calming measures can benefit all road users by reducing traffic congestion so drivers and public transit riders face fewer delays. They can also boost nearby businesses by increasing foot traffic and making business corridors more pleasant for shoppers.
Encourage fewer cars on the road
Philadelphia can adopt more policies that promote walking or biking over driving. These include open streets or ciclovías, where streets are closed down to motor vehicle traffic and opened to cyclists and pedestrians. Philadelphia occasionally does this on stretches of 18th Street and Walnut Street in Center City.
Increasing parking fees can also reduce traffic congestion. Parking fees generally do not reflect the true cost of driving in cities, which includes maintaining parking spaces and infrastructure. The low cost of parking is essentially a subsidy to drivers. While there are fears that reduced parking hurts business owners, substantial evidence indicates businesses benefit from increased foot and bicycle traffic.
The city could also reduce the number of parking spaces and implement congestion pricing, which involves charging fees to drive in certain areas of a city to reduce traffic congestion.
This may be a challenge, considering the recent experience of New York City, which spent decades preparing for congestion pricing only to have it blocked by the governor, though it seems it now has a chance of being implemented. How much success New York has with congestion pricing will likely determine the feasibility in Philadelphia and other U.S. cities.
Improve public transportation
Expanding public transportation and lowering or eliminating fares can also help protect pedestrians and cyclists by reducing car use. I believe these measures could help ensure the other policies mentioned above are effective.
However, Philadelphia’s public transportation is currently in a critical state. Facing funding shortfalls due to years of declining ridership, the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority has proposed service cuts and significant fare increases beginning Jan. 1, 2025. Gov. Josh Shapiro has spared the system from these cuts for now by flexing federal highway funds, but long-term solutions are needed to ensure the survival and revival of public transportation in Philadelphia.
Addressing gun violence, drug use and other crimes may also make public transportation in Philadelphia safer and more attractive. While violent crimes on Philadelphia’s public transportation have dropped dramatically in 2024, four people have lost their lives on SEPTA vehicles so far this year.
Collect better data
Considering the increase in road traffic deaths in Philly since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, substantial efforts are needed to reach the city’s Vision Zero goal of reducing road traffic deaths to zero by 2030.
In my view, this includes better data on transportation use and which interventions and policies are working and which are not.
Road safety surveillance could be improved in Philadelphia and across Pennsylvania by linking crash records to other data, such as hospital and clinical data of crash victims, as well as insurance costs to better understand the burden of road traffic injuries on the city and the state.
Data is also key to ensuring public policies are implemented equitably. The Vision Zero plan includes a focus on lower-income neighborhoods and those with higher proportions of racial and ethnic minorities. Those areas have three times as many serious injuries and deaths as other neighborhoods, and road traffic injury and deaths rates are 30% higher among people of color compared with white residents.
D. Alex Quistberg, Associate Research Professor, Urban Health Collaborative, Drexel University
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
The Bridge is a section of the STM Daily News Blog meant for diversity, offering real news stories about bona fide community efforts to perpetuate a greater good. The purpose of The Bridge is to connect the divides that separate us, fostering understanding and empathy among different groups. By highlighting positive initiatives and inspirational actions, The Bridge aims to create a sense of unity and shared purpose. This section brings to light stories of individuals and organizations working tirelessly to promote inclusivity, equality, and mutual respect. Through these narratives, readers are encouraged to appreciate the richness of diverse perspectives and to participate actively in building stronger, more cohesive communities.
https://stmdailynews.com/the-bridge
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Diana Gregory Receives Lifetime Achievement Award from AmeriCorps on Behalf of President Biden
Honoring Diana Gregory
In a moment that truly embodies the essence of service and community care, Diana Gregory, the visionary founder of Diana Gregory Outreach Services, has been honored with the esteemed Lifetime Achievement Award from AmeriCorps. This award, presented on behalf of President Joe Biden, took place during a heartfelt ceremony at the VA Health Care System in Phoenix, Arizona, organized by the dedicated leadership of The Order of St. George.
Diana’s selection for this distinguished accolade highlights her extraordinary commitment to fostering positive change and improving the lives of those in her community. Over the past decade, she has passionately addressed critical issues like food insecurity and health awareness, focusing on supporting seniors and veterans. Through her organization, Diana Gregory Outreach Services, she has distributed fresh, nutritious produce to thousands, ensuring that those in need have access to healthy food options.
But Diana’s contributions extend far beyond food distribution; she has also implemented vital health education programs that empower individuals and families, helping them to embrace wellness and make informed choices about their health. This holistic approach has created a transformative impact on underserved communities, reinforcing the importance of access to both nutrition and education.
The Lifetime Achievement Award is an honorable recognition reserved for individuals who have dedicated over 4,000 hours of volunteer service. This milestone is a testament to Diana’s proactive engagement and relentless advocacy for those she serves. Her award serves not only as recognition of her achievements but also as an inspiration for others to follow in her footsteps and contribute to their communities.
The Order of St. George, a respected non-profit organization dedicated to providing humanitarian assistance to refugees, veterans, and the Boy Scouts of America, proudly presented the award. Their involvement signifies the collaborative spirit of various organizations working together to uplift and empower individuals in need, underscoring how interconnected our communities truly are.
As we celebrate Diana Gregory’s well-deserved honor, we recognize the countless lives she has touched and the paths she has paved for a brighter, healthier future. Her remarkable efforts highlight the immense power of community service and the difference every individual can make when they dedicate their time and passion to helping others.
To learn more about Diana Gregory Outreach Services and how you can get involved in her inspiring mission, please visit dianagregory.com. Together, let’s continue the legacy of compassion and service that Diana has so beautifully embodied.
Congratulations, Diana Gregory, on this remarkable achievement! Your dedication is a shining example of what it means to be a true leader and advocate for community well-being. Your work inspires us all to be better, do better, and serve better.
To learn more about Diana Gregory, visit https://dianagregory.com/
Related Link (Original Press Release):
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/177DijAbdG
The Bridge is a section of the STM Daily News Blog meant for diversity, offering real news stories about bona fide community efforts to perpetuate a greater good. The purpose of The Bridge is to connect the divides that separate us, fostering understanding and empathy among different groups. By highlighting positive initiatives and inspirational actions, The Bridge aims to create a sense of unity and shared purpose. This section brings to light stories of individuals and organizations working tirelessly to promote inclusivity, equality, and mutual respect. Through these narratives, readers are encouraged to appreciate the richness of diverse perspectives and to participate actively in building stronger, more cohesive communities.
https://stmdailynews.com/the-bridge
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