Overview:
- Southwest Detroit residents gathered to discuss air quality, health protection, and advocacy at an "Air Quality 101" series by the Trucks Off Our Streets Table.
- The event aimed to unite communities around a city-wide truck ordinance, as 690 deaths in Wayne County are linked to air pollution annually.
- City Council Member Gabriela Santiago-Romero urged residents to participate in the City Council Budget Hearings in March and join her training on engaging in the city's budget process.
Southwest Detroit resident Vada Avila has lived next to the Ambassador Bridge for more than 15 years in Hubbard Richard.
Avila, 73, has developed asthma since moving into her home. So have her children. She and over 50 community members at the Kemeny Recreation Center in Southwest gathered last week to learn about air quality, how to protect their health and how to take action on Thursday evening.
The ‘Air Quality 101’ event series was organized by the Trucks Off Our Streets Table that is working on the Southwest Detroit Truck Study. Concurrent meetings happened on Detroit’s Eastside and in Dearborn.
One concerning statistics that Avila learned was that 690 deaths in Wayne County are linked to air pollution every year.
“That worries me because my husband is older and I am older too,” Avila said in Spanish. “The responsibility is of everyone, we can all use our grain of sand to help our environment. We have to work hard and ask the politicians who represent us for help.”
Detroit air pollution and trucks
Raquel Garcia, executive director of Southwest Detroit Environmental Vision, said air pollution and truck issues impact the entire city, not just Southwest Detroit. The event was hosted in multiple locations in efforts to educate the public and unite communities around a city-wide truck ordinance.
“We know we can’t pass things alone. This is an effort to demonstrate that people are concerned in different locations in the city, not just Southwest,” Garcia said.
The 2021 Southwest Detroit Truck Route Study completed by the planning and engineering firm Giffels Webster for the city of Detroit offered several recommendations that echoed residents’ requests. But city officials cited a need for a city-wide study of trucks before a route ordinance could be made in a particular neighborhood.
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Southwest Detroiters want a truck route ordinance now; city officials tell them to wait on ‘another study’
Residents say the clock is ticking to make changes to zoning rules or pass a truck route ordinance.
Today, the city of Detroit and Council Member Gabriela Santiago-Romero are collecting Southwest residents’ input on the 2024 study – residents can take the survey here. Once the study is completed, the city will suggest recommendations for truck routes, Santiago-Romero told the crowd.
“We have one year. With this administration, the mayor has said he will support a truck route ordinance,” she said. “It’s going to take funding, it’s going to take us calling asking for those resources.”
She encouraged residents to call into the City Council Budget Hearings in March and sign up for her training on how to engage in the city’s budget process.
Residents should speak about air quality issues to City Council, Santiago-Romero said, by calling (313) 244-3443 or visiting in person: Monday at 10 a.m. for the committee on public health and safety; Tuesday at 2 p.m. in front of formal session to speak to all of council; or at one of seven at-large evening community meetings through city council. Check the online calendar for more information.
Santiago-Romero hopes the public will utilize these opportunities to help demonstrate a desire for action.
“We can all ask for the same thing, or to be pushing for a resource that we need,” she said. “We do need the resources to make those things happen.”