Improving Public Participation to Achieve Environmental Justice: Applying Lessons from Freight's Frontline Communities

Abstract

Public participation, sometimes referred to as public involvement or engagement, is often a mandated process in agency-led environmental and land use planning with major implications for environmental justice. Theoretically and in practice, quantity and quality of these public participation activities remain variable in the United States. This article reports on residents' experiences in two distinct frontline communities, those living near the proposed New International Trade Crossing in Detroit, Michigan and the Port of Long Beach in Long Beach, California. Recent studies suggest that persons of color and low-income are disproportionately exposed to air and noise pollution from heavy-duty engines at freight gateways (e.g., ports, borders). Synthesizing findings from qualitative interviews with community members and leaders, content analysis of environmental assessments, and observations at public events, we describe recent freight land use deliberations, as well as public participation experiences, catalysts, and barriers during these deliberations in the two study communities. Drawing directly on perspectives of community members and leaders as public participants, we report how agency-led public participation opportunities, while extensive, may be experienced as confusing, perfunctory, discriminatory, and burdensome. Further, public participation generally entails intensive community organizing efforts and can become a source of chronic stress for active residents of frontline communities— many who have been historically and repeatedly marginalized during land use planning and by its outcomes. We conclude by reconsidering theoretical frameworks, and offering concrete strategies for decision makers in a variety of sectors, such as transportation, housing, planning, and public health, to improve procedural justice and promote environmental justice.