Demanding Justice; GRID Alternatives Brownbag Next Week

Black Lives Matter
Urban Environmentalists postponed our June 1 meeting with SoCal allies to allow space for the urgent conversations on racial justice that are happening (stay tuned for a reschedule). We also signed onto the YIMBY Action statement Demanding Justice: Black Lives Matter.
We stand with the protestors demanding justice across the country. The murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, Ahmaud Arbery, and many others — so many that the simple demand to say their names is now a rallying call for justice — have rocked communities across the country. People are righteously enraged about decades of racism in policing, in healthcare, in housing, in schooling, in every aspect of human life.

We recognize the tight linkages between the fights for racial justice and those for housing justice, environmental justice, and climate justice. Our platform calls for Equity and Environmental Justice. We note that racial inequity and the failure to equitably share urban and public space makes mitigating climate change and air pollution harder, reduces adaptive capacity to cope with their impacts, and concentrates these impacts - from asthma to flooding to heat stroke - on Black and other vulnerable communities.
At the same time, we take this moment to closely reflect on our own responsibilities, to embrace humility and learn from our allies, and to elevate the voices of people of color both inside and outside our organization when advocating for change. We will make more of an effort going forward to highlight Black voices in our event planning. We also look forward to hearing from you on how we can do better.

GRID Alternatives Brownbag: 12-1pm on Tue, June 16
Please join Urban Environmentalists and the Women’s Environmental Network (WEN) for a brownbag conversation and Q&A with Dani Mahrer, GRID Alternatives' Bay Area Partnerships and Communications Officer. We’ll hear about GRID's groundbreaking programs in sustainable multifamily housing, community solar, shared clean mobility, tribal energy sovereignty, diverse workforce development, and more. RSVP here. This event will take place via Zoom. All registered attendees will receive a link approximately 15 minutes prior to the start of the event.

Upcoming Events:
We are finalizing plans, but stay tuned for the following events:

• Conversation with urbanist and Berkeley City Council candidate Terry Taplin later this month.*
• Our next monthly meeting is on the evening of Mon, Jul 6, potentially a reschedule of our SF Bay x SoCal Happy Hour.
• We are in contact with Transportation for America about a potential discussion of the US House's new transportation bill.
• Sustainability, Resilience, and Social Justice on the Waterfront. We and the Association of Women in Water, Energy & Environment will co-host an event in the second half of July with Diane Oshima, Planning & Environment Deputy Director at the Port of SF. Diane manages the Waterfront Plan Update and Waterfront Resilience Program.

*Note that Urban Environmentalists holds events with and provides information on candidates for local elections but does not make endorsements; we refer to endorsements from regional members of the YIMBY Action Network and allies.

Today's Action
Today we're asking you to consider supporting allied groups and groups on the front lines seeking racial justice. We are impressed by the work of our allies at Greenlining and encourage you to support them. We have seen compilations of national and local Black community groups, nonprofits, and businesses, such as this list put together by SF YIMBY member Mike Chen. Other local allies have suggested the ACLU, Black Futures Lab, Equal Justice Society,
United Playaz, Movement for Black Lives, Black Lives Matter, San Jose/Silicon Valley NAACP, National Bail Fund Network, & Silicon Valley De-Bug.

A note about Facebook
We are troubled by the failure of Facebook to take a stronger stand against the use of its platform for hate speech and for sharing disinformation and misinformation, sparking protests within the company. For this reason, we are suspending use of the platform to share our news and events. You can continue to follow us on our other platforms.