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Let’s Go! San Diego Announces that Regional Transportation
Ballot Measure Has Officially Qualified for November 2024 Ballot

January 5, 2024

The Let’s Go! San Diego Coalition is excited to announce that the campaign’s recent signature drive has successfully qualified the regional transportation measure with more than 125,000 projected valid signatures from San Diego County residents. The coalition received official notice from the Registrar of Voters yesterday (attached) and the campaign to push for passage on November 5, 2024 is already in full swing. 

If approved by voters, Let’s Go! San Diego will fund much-needed repairs and updates to transportation infrastructure throughout all of San Diego County, including fixing roads and potholes; adding carpool lanes; expanding bus and rail services; fixing the crumbling coastal rail line; adding an airport rail connection; making safety improvements to bridges, sidewalks, and bike lanes; and ensuring transit passes are affordable for seniors, youth, and the disabled. These investments will also create thousands of good, local union jobs in construction and transit operations.     

“After more than two years of organizing, Environmental Health Coalition, transit riders, and community advocates are proud the transit measure will be on the 2024 ballot. We worked hard for this moment,” said Carolina Martinez, Climate Justice Campaign Director. “Currently, 70% of jobs are not reachable by public transit. This forces San Diegans into congested streets and highways which are leading contributors to climate change and air pollution in the San Diego region. By increasing service, frequency, and access, the measure will help build our economy, clean our air, and achieve our climate goals.” 

“As a recent college graduate, I rely on walking, biking, and public transit to get to school, restaurants, and work,” said Emma Rodriguez, a campaign coordinator with SanDiego350 “Let’s Go! San Diego will help me, and all San Diegans by increasing transportation options, relieving traffic, delivering cleaner air, and improving road safety.” 

The growing list of supporters and endorsements can be viewed at https://www.letsgosd.org/endorsements/.  

Contact:  

Gretchen Newsom, Campaign Spokesperson 

(619) 208-4853, gretchen_newsom@ibew.org 

As an act of decolonization, the Environmental Health Coalition (EHC) chooses to celebrate ‘First Nation’s Day of Resilience’ (FNDOR) instead of ‘Thanksgiving’. This Thursday, November 23, 2023, we invite you to join us in honoring our native ancestors, their descendants, and Indigenous peoples living today. We celebrate their strength, resilience, and perseverance against all odds!

What does it mean to decolonize?

It means learning and uncovering the negative effects of colonialism, which involve exploitation, domination, violence, and erasure of one group by another. It is also reflecting on how we uphold colonial structures, and what we can do to break these structures down.  Decolonization is about working towards cultural, psychological, and economic freedom for indigenous people, and towards the return of indigenous land to the original people.

What does it mean to return indigenous lands?

It is called the Land Back movement. According to the Community-Based Global Learning Collaborative, the Land Back movement advocates for a transfer of decision-making power over territories that are guaranteed under treaties and have been illegally taken by federal, state, county, or individuals. It also calls for acknowledging that these lands were not empty before being colonized and for respecting sacred sites and biodiversity. Below are links to articles that can provide a deeper understanding.

Land Back: The Indigenous Fight to Reclaim Stolen Lands

Here are 3 places to watch the Land Back movement unfold in 2023

Decolonizing is NOT just a hashtag:

#DecolonizeBeauty #DecolonizeTherapy #DecolonizeYourDiet #DecolonizeYourSoul #DecolonizeFitness #DecolonizeParenting #DecolonizeLove

You may have seen this social media trend, however, let’s unpack what REAL action we can take to decolonize and be intentional about how we are connecting with indigenous communities. These social media hashtags can be a distraction when we should be focusing on the actual culprits: greedy institutions and corporations, billionaire web platforms dictating what is on our screens, and governments pretending to be progressive. 

How can we practice decolonizing in our day to day?

1: Challenge colonial narratives:

In the US public schools system, from a young age, we are taught from the very narrow white colonial perspective- idolizing only historical figures like Christopher Columbus and Andrew Jackson. Upholding the narrative that people native to the land are somehow inferior. Oftentimes, the stories and lived experiences of Indigenous, Black, and People of Color are ignored and deemed as lesser than.

To practice decolonizing, we can push back, question, and challenge euro-centric history to be aware of a more accurate representation of Indigenous people’s history and their resilience in the face of oppression. The key to this is actively supporting the movement to integrate an Ethnic Studies curriculum that accurately reflects people’s history as a tangible way to engage in decolonial work. You can learn more at www.ethnicstudiesnow.com.

2: Support indigenous communities

Where we choose to spend our money says what is important to us! When we spend our money supporting corporations that exploit their workers or corporations that gentrify communities, we enable those colonial practices.

Instead, we can seek out and support Native and people of color-owned businesses, individuals, and organizations. By eating their food, attending their events, and donating, we can contribute to their economic well-being, amplify their efforts as well as learn more about a culture unfamiliar to our own! Below are some organizations and businesses you can support.

Native Like Water

The Sogorea Te Land Trust

Rincon Reservation Road Brewery

Gathered: A Native Made Marketplace

Urban Native Era

Hua Ho` āla

Yaquis of Southern California

Indigenous Peoples Movement 

Indigenous Climate Action

3: Unlearn, relearn, and self-reflect

The traditional U.S. education system reinforces colonial principles by misrepresenting indigenous peoples, suppressing language, failing to acknowledge land’s original inhabitants, limited representation in leadership, and more.

We have the power to challenge and question the things we have been ingrained and educate ourselves on a more diverse, accurate, and critical analysis of colonial history, its impacts, and ongoing legacies to better understand the complexities of colonialism. Follow some native-run social media pages; listen to indigenous elders’ first-hand accounts, listen to podcasts and read books by indigenous people and people of color, etc. Check this reading list by the First Nations Development Institute: www.firstnations.org/knowledge-center/books.

4: Take Action – Hold people in positions of power accountable

We must identify who holds positions of power within our society- like government, media, corporations, educational institutions, etc. This also involves actively challenging their roles in promoting colonial legacies.

While it can sometimes feel daunting or bleak- as if our voice does not matter. When we band together with a goal in mind, we can change colonial systems of oppression. This can include violation of human rights, racism, sexual harassment, or violence. You can do so by joining social justice organizations like EHC that actively fight against social injustices! It helps to find a cause you are passionate about and start there instead of trying to tackle all the problems and spread yourself thin or burn out.

5: It’s not a ‘one-size-fits-all’ formula!

The idea of decolonizing can be complex but ultimately, it begins with the actions we take in our day-to-day lives, what we consume- (products/media), who we align ourselves with, and who we support. Even creating awareness in your immediate circles like our home, our workplace, and our friends can be an act of emancipation from colonial oppression.

It is the practice of freedom and equality. How do we free and get free?

Environmental Health Coalition joins social justice activists, humanitarian organizations, religious and world leaders in publicly calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza to protect the mostly women and children trapped there. Children make up almost half of Gaza’s population, and are 40% of the casualties.

Hamas massacred 1,400 civilians, and took roughly 240 hostages during their terrible Oct 7th attack on Israel. We strongly condemn this attack. Our hearts break for the lives lost, the hostages, injured civilians, and their families. We call for an immediate release of all hostages. While we mourn this tragedy, we must take action to protect the living and prevent more death. The horrific attack on Israel, does not justify the mass and indiscriminate killing of Palestinian people in Gaza.

More than 10,000 people have been killed in Gaza in just four weeks – the majority of them women and children. Whole families are gone, and many, many more are in jeopardy. 2.2 million Palestinians have been cut off from food, water, medicine, electricity, and fuel.

We know words are not enough. That is why we are asking you to take action! Email your U.S. representative demanding they sign onto the Ceasefire Now resolution H.Res. 786, which calls for an immediate ceasefire, and humanitarian aid to Gaza.

This Latinx Heritage Month we are excited to shine a light on one of EHC’s longest serving staff members, Leticia Ayala – or as her colleague and the community fondly know her, Letty.

With roots in Gomez Palacio, Durango, Mexico, Letty was born and raised in Los Angeles, California. She earned her Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration from Loyola Marymount University. A true Sagittarius, Letty is exuberant and energetic, a proud mom. Her hobbies include Feng Shui, Space Clearing, angels and archangels, Yoga, Numerology, stargazing, and meditation.

A veteran of the environmental justice movement, Letty first joined EHC in 1995. During her tenure, Letty was key in helping to pass the “No Lead in Candy Law”, the first law in California to ban the sale of lead-contaminated candies in 2005. Then, in 2008, she led the campaign to pass the “Children’s Right to Lead Safe Housing Ordinance” in San Diego.

In her current role as the Health Kids Campaign Director and Leadership Development Director, Letty works with community members to protect children’s health by eliminating the risks of childhood lead poisoning and other housing hazards in National City and San Diego. Together with staff and community leaders, she co-creates SALTA leadership development trainings to deepen community knowledge of environmental health and justice, build skills to empower community leaders to speak for themselves, give voice to their proposed solutions, and be a force for people power.

What led to your work in environmental justice?

When I moved to San Diego at the end of 1994 and drove under the Chicano Park Murals I said “I want to work here.”  A few months later, the universe conspired and got me to EHC.  The job ad in a community newspaper in 1995 did not say it was an environmental justice organization, it only said it was non-profit.  Yes, if you are counting, that means I have been here for 28 years. Back then, I was only applying to non-profits.

Once I started working at EHC, I connected the dots and figured out that my dad was sick due to all of the chemicals he was exposed to as a metal polisher for 20+ years.  Sadly, he died prematurely as many of our gente do in Logan and National City.

Is the Latinx community and other communities of color unfairly impacted by air pollution and other health hazards in their homes?

Even though all San Diegans look up to clear blue skies, this does not mean that the air is clean.  We know from CalEnviroScreen that our communities (primarily people of color) are the hardest hit by pollution sources. We also know that our communities suffer from asthma hospitalization visits and respiratory illnesses two to three times more than other residential neighborhoods like La Jolla.  They don’t put nasty polluting factories next to schools and daycare centers in La Jolla, do they?  And, we know that most of the schools that suffer from chronic absenteeism are in the 92113 zip code.  Why do kids miss so much school?  Because they cannot breathe – shouldn’t breathing be a human right for us all? Our communities are the hardest hit by environmental racism.

As a Latina, what do you feel you bring to the environmental justice movement?

My culture, my language, my story.

How do you empower Latinx and all people to stay positive and keep fighting for environmental justice when things can sometimes seem bleak or out of reach?

Sadly, in our communities, we do not have any respite from the toxic pollution. It is 24/7, even at night.  It is hard on the body as people get sick. It is hard financially, who pays for the medical bills? It is hard on the soul, why us? 

But, we have seen time and time again during EHC’s 43-year-old history that if people get involved, we win. Our wins do take time, it’s not done overnight. With every battle won, there is a huge sense of accomplishment not just because we are winning a better quality of life but because we also built more people power.

It’s via the SALTA trainings that we can build confidence and skills so that folks can be effective organizers, advocates, and spokespeople. It’s hearing their live testimonies at the various decision-making tables that brings chills to me as they engage and fight for their health.  We are inviting the community to join our upcoming Clean Air Congreso and tap into their internal luchador. Come learn how you can be a part of a movement to bring down polluters, fight for environmental justice, and get clean air for our children and families. Let’s flex our muscles and use our power. Because just like muscles, if we do not use them, we lose them. 

Who is your Latinx role model and why?

My mother. She is my greatest teacher, a master of living life like a Buddhist, in total peace no matter what. She is unshakable.

What 3 words would you use to describe yourself?

Spiritual

Happy

Humanitarian

What words of advice do you have for Latinx people who want to make a change in their communities?

We cannot afford to continue to play it safe, stay quiet, and let others do the talking. Life is a big puzzle.  Some bring big parts and many of us bring smaller parts. But, just like a puzzle, all parts are needed. So, don’t ever think that your voice doesn’t matter. In fact, it is deeply needed. I invite each of you reading this to start thinking about ourselves more as a collective and less individualistic. We need all of us to go within, find the fire that lights us up inside, get involved, and share our power.