Reaction to Presentations 12/5

Throughout our in class presentations a common theme emerged over the course of the two classes in which we presented. This theme was a lack of adequate public transportation which served only a select few. This inadequate public transportation system led to two major problems which were brought up in almost all of our presentations. The first was the neglect of lower income, mostly minority neighborhoods. These people can't afford personal transportation and since they live far from public transportation it creates a major inconvenience in their lives. On the flip side of this, the richer mostly white communities also didn't have access to public transportation but were able to afford personal transportation. However, with everyone having a car they would clog up the freeways and create tons of pollution that would adversely affect their health and the health of their city. Along with this another common theme was environmental racism. This was clear in my presentation about Atlanta, where the airport was located in a majority African American community and the airport polluted and displaced this community almost at will. Unfortunately, my own city was far from the only city practicing environmental racism.