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Indybay Feature

Environmental Racism in West Fresno

by Mike Rhodes (mikerhodes [at] comcast.net)
In West Fresno there are residential neighborhoods right next to animal rendering plants, parks built over the top of dumps, and the police tried to take over a community center. This article is an overview of environmental racism in West Fresno and the residents successful effort to stop at least one business that was destroying their community.
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Environmental Racism in West Fresno
By Mike Rhodes

Is it environmental racism, bad planning, or a crude attempt at a new form of apartheid that keeps the residents of West Fresno separate and unequal from the rest of the community? The railroad tracks, a freeway, and totally different zoning rules combine to separate this African American and Latino community in Fresno, just as surely as if there was a 20 foot high concrete wall cutting them off from clean air, economic development, and jobs.

Robert Mitchell, a West Fresno resident, says his community has become a magnet for environmentally dangerous operations that would never be allowed in other parts of the city. Standing next to Cottonwood Creek LLC, a processing plant of dairy waste products, Mitchell said, “if you think the smell is bad now, you ought to come back when the plant is in full operation and it is 100 degrees outside.” Mitchell and a group of West Side residents were in front of the Cottonwood plant, holding a press conference two days before a meeting before the Planning Commission which would decide the plant’s future.

Mitchell said that a bus drops off school age children less than 100 yards down the street from Cottonwood. Right around the corner from Cottonwood is Darling International, an animal rendering plant and nearby is Hyde Park, which was originally a dump. Nearby are residential neighborhoods that are constantly affected by the odor from the animal rendering plant and Cottonwood. The children in the area play at Hyde Park.

Mitchell continues, “at West and Jensen we have another dump that has been covered over. You drive another mile and a half from here and you have another rendering plant at North and Martin Luther King. There is a recycling center on Elm just south of Jensen. They are proposing to make that a household hazardous waste facility for the entire County of Fresno, bringing that (the hazardous waste) into West Fresno.”

Asked why he thought the City of Fresno has allowed these types of businesses to proliferate in West Fresno, Mitchell said “for far too long it has been ‘anything goes’ for what has been allowed to operate in the West Fresno community. As you know, the West Fresno Community is identified by the Brookings Institute as one of the most impoverished places in the state of California. We have not had the assistance and the help of the City of Fresno in resolving it because it provides a lucrative tax base to the city, the operation of the whey water plant (Cottonwood) is on city property, it is being leased by the city, so again it is about money and we in the community suffer. It is about political power and we are trying to get our community to become aware, to become educated, and to begin to stand and fight for its rights, its human rights.”

Recently the City of Fresno tried to take over the Frank Ball community center in West Fresno and turn it into a Police Activities League facility. The neighbors who live near Frank Ball organized and came together and demanded that the community center remain under their control. They also got the city to provide needed repairs, upgrades, and a computer center for an after school program.

On December 17 the Planning Commission listened to four hours of testimony about Cottonwood Creek LLC. They agreed with the residents and voted to keep the factory closed. Now, if the West Fresno community could get Darling International to move, they could catch a breath of fresh air, just like everyone in North Fresno takes for granted.
§Robert Mitchell
by Mike Rhodes
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Robert Mitchell said “No one should have to suffer and be exposed to possible health hazards so that someone else can reap a profit.”
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