EJ4Boston

At A Glance

Location: 

Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts

Primary Issue Area:

  • Environmental Health
  • Land & Water

Active since:

2024

Our Purpose

To build a coalition of people and grassroots groups throughout Boston to actively advocate for environmental justice (EJ), a novel law on the books in Massachusetts that is not being actively promulgated. This vision stems from several smaller community-based solutions that are not gaining traction as individual efforts but when taken as a whole clearly outline the potential damage and opportunity for positive change. By connecting disparate but passionate local EJ causes together we can begin to move the needle.We are starting with Franklin Park as our ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE TRIANGLE of vulnerable Black and Brown families. After 75 years of racist redlining and public/private disinvestment, this 2024 "EJ" community and its 500-acre Olmsted legacy are being overrun by > $300 Million in current private, city and state funded environmental threats, including plans for White Stadium, Shattuck Hospital, Boston Animal Control, and Boston EMS projects. These projects popped up suddenly, back-to back, and have been driven by very powerful outsiders. Each is over-sized, fast-tracked and able to cause disproportionate and irreversible harm to surrounding EJ communities, of which Roxbury and Mattapan are amongst the most vulnerable. The lack of genuine community process violates an important Massachusetts law that requires significantly MORE (not significantly LESS) community input and decision making from the concept phase to the project's completion.