José Rea, a long-time resident of the Madison Park neighborhood in Santa Ana, awoke to another sunny morning in 2017. But for Rea, and for many families in his community, Orange County is not the oasis of fresh ocean breezes and verdant expanses it’s often portrayed as.
On this particular day, another metal-plating business was moving in nearby, bringing the total to 42 industrial companies along what Rea calls the “industrial corridor.” This stretch of manufacturing is located near Rea’s home, two elementary schools, and the local high school.
Companies in the corridor emit tiny, often invisible pollutants. These little supervillains are out to conquer the lungs of parents and children who work, live and play nearby. Concerned about the health of schoolchildren, who would spend years breathing in this polluted air, Rea looked up life-expectancies for Santa Ana residents. He was shocked to find that members of his mostly working-class community live shorter lives than those in surrounding cities.
“Your zip code shouldn’t determine how many years you will be living. When we compared our zip code, 92707, to something just south of us, which is Irvine, you can see this huge discrepancy in the years of life expectancy,” Rea says.
Rea – who retired from UC Irvine in 2016 and now is the current treasurer of Madison Park Neighborhood Association (MPNA) and the executive director of their associated non-profit, MPNA-GREEN (Getting Residents Engaged in Exercise and Nutrition) – is now getting his whole community involved in finding solutions to air pollution.
Initially, the mission of MPNA-GREEN was to support educational opportunities for youth, family health and wellness, and safe and clean environments for Santa Ana residents. Rea argued the importance of including air quality in this mission. Specifically, he wanted to determine 1) the cumulative effect of breathing in air from the industrial companies and 2) how to improve the situation.
To build momentum, Rea and MPNA forged strong relationships with other organizations. They collaborate with researchers at UC Irvine, who determine pediatric asthma rates in Santa Ana and help navigate advocacy with the city. MPNA also started a community air monitoring project with support from the California Air Resources Board, South Coast Air Quality Management District and NASA Citizen Science. Although external groups are involved, a main priority is keeping knowledge and decision-making in the hands of the residents. Rea stresses the importance of including residents as “full partners,” because they live in the area and “know what it is like.”
MPNA recently received air monitors that measure dangerous pollution called particulate matter, which is prominent in the corridor. The next step is distribution; residents will place air monitors near their homes and schools to track particulate matter.
Community air monitoring is not new. As technology has become more accessible over the last decade, more communities have gotten on board. But, unlike MPNA, these projects historically keep the science under the command of an elite few rather than involving the locals. Previous projects in California included a school flag program with real-time air quality data that residents collect to let schoolchildren know whether the air is clean enough for them to play outside. These schools place a flag on their building to show the daily air quality severity: green for good, purple for bad, with yellow, orange and red in between. Involving the residents in the process of collecting and sharing their own data, rather than doing it for them, lets them be the experts.
Rea hoped to empower Southeast Santa Ana residents to eventually collect and share their own data with Santa Ana. But first, he needed to get people involved.
“We couldn’t move forward without residents being engaged. Early on, we decided to create a training, and then we talked to different schools and different folks about the issues. Then, we invited them to come and participate,” Rea says.
They received an even larger turnout than they hoped. Now, MPNA-GREEN has 12 youth and more than 20 adults who are actively engaged in learning more about their air quality. They call themselves Comunidad Unida, Aire Limpio (CUAL), or United Communities, Clean Air. CUAL members meet monthly to participate in scientific workshops, discuss data, and learn about air pollution. This community involvement makes MPNA-GREEN unique.
“This is something that is worthwhile simply because we have been able to engage the youth and the adults. That’s important to build capacity within the neighborhood,” Rea maintains.
Slowly, yet consistently, MPNA has experienced success. With their collaborators, they recently persuaded policymakers to delay the enactment of Santa Ana’s General Plan, which proposed the city’s future development, zoning, and other activities for the next twenty-five years.
MPNA argued that the plan did not adequately include Santa Ana residents in the decision-making process regarding air quality and the disproportionate amount of the pollution to which they are exposed. This was a big victory for MPNA and MPNA-GREEN.
“People are surprised that we have a loud voice and that we demand attention, simply because communities like ours are not supposed to do that,” Rea says.
Although there are proud moments of celebration, Rea points out that the process was not always easy, especially for a community of working-class people with little time to participate.
“It’s challenging because you have no resources. How do you organize? How do you introduce yourself? How do you create space to meet with policymakers? It’s full of challenges; it’s a lot of work,” says Rea.
But the opportunities for learning and community involvement are worth it. Rea was particularly inspired by the real-world knowledge of the CUAL high school students, who are learning air chemistry, public policy, and how their city works. What’s more, MPNA-GREEN has given a voice to Santa Ana residents to learn more about their air quality, and it has given them a platform to share that voice with the rest of the city. By standing up against pollution, families can enjoy cleaner air regardless of how much money they make or what their zip code is.
Says Rea: “Perhaps one of the things that we are proud of is that we are developing leadership for the youth and the adults… This is real life… And I think this is like, wow, pretty impressive.”
