Our friend Amy Gahran has a great writeup about how The Toxic Tour pitch on Spot.Us recently received a national SPJ award.

Just one month ago we announced the City Budget Watchdog pitch, reporting on San Francisco’s half-billion-dollar hole.

A few things made this pitch unique.

• It was our first “beat pitch.” The deliverable here isn’t a single story – but to cover a topic for a period of time. If we reach our goal, then the bonus is that we will create a follow up pitch and continue covering that topic for an extended period of time.
• We had a gracious matching grant from Ruth Ann Harnisch. If we could raise $1,000 in the first month, our donations would be matched.

We raised $1,710!!!!

Adding the Harnisch Foundation‘s grant we are at $2,710 just over half way to our goal!

The Public Press has a post about it as well: “Evidence that the micro-funding paradigm works for journalism.”

While the Spot.Us team had been focusing on spreading the word and fundraising the Public Press has been doing the reporting. You can see their work on the Public Press project page: City Budget Watchdog. The most recent piece included this YouTube interview with city supervisor Chris Daly

So What Made this All Work?

A few things became clearer in the last moth with this pitch.

• Donating is social.

I have to thank George Kelly and Amy Gahran for demonstrating this point for us. In some respects we’ve known this all along on Spot.Us. The reason we list donors on a pitch is for both transparency but also to give those donors recognition. But we need to do more. We should find a way to let people easily share these donations with their own networks and even match them up. Kara Andrade calls it donor buddies.

• Every Pitch is a Campaign

Again this is something that we’ve known all along on Spot.Us but this pitch has been, perhaps, one of the better demonstrations. About one week into the month our team had raised some money, but not enough to hit our goal. So the Spot.Us and Public Press team had a brainstorm about how to market the project.

Our original title for this was: “City Budget Blues.”

It was agreed that while the alliteration was nice – we were sending the wrong message. This project wasn’t aimed at being a downer on the city budget (the fact that we are half-a-billion in debt is enough of a reality check), but rather to keep an eye on what is happening. Document and spread knowledge about how city officials are reacting and repositioning. The Public Press wants to be “the go to spot” for updates on the city budget. “Watchdog” kept coming up and we finally settled.

• Outreach is personal

In a dream world Spot.Us could send out 500 emails to San Francisco residents and the 1/9/90 percent rule would take action: Five people would donate, fifty would check out the site and maybe come back later to donate or comment and the other 450 wouldn’t do anything.

But emailing 500 people is a lot of work. Instead – we reached out to our core communities. People we’ve engaged with in various ways and asked them to donate or spread the word. In the end – we have to make an ask. It is something that many journalists find discomforting – but we live in an age of microphilanthropy. If the Sandler family has a right to give 30 million to ProPublica then the Smith family has a right to give $30. They just need a platform and to be engaged.

Spot.Us created a spreadsheet of possible contacts and started going down the list.

To the extent that it is a campaign – we will continue to be in touch with those that donate (email updates with our content) and we will follow up with those that didn’t. This isn’t an attempt to be rude, but to try and identify the potential 9 percent that might still donate and to serve the purpose of our project – to inform folks about what we find.

• What makes a good partnership?

We recently started a beta “media partners page” on our blog which will appear on the main site later. Spot.Us is built on the idea of collaboration. While we believe collaboration is queen we also know that collaboration is wet. So we are trying to figure out the necesities for succesful collaborations. The following are notes from Chuck Lewis.

What we look for in collaborations.

• Trust – we want to work with folks that we can trust and who trust us.
• The collaboration should be in the interest of all parties.
• “Buy in” with decision makers. They need to be on board otherwise it will hit the fan later.
• Key liaison – somebody from every party who is tasked to the project.
• Commitment of time/resources and/or money from both parties. It does not need to be all three.
• The story/project. We are looking for good stories – that has to be at the heart of it all.

Having worked with the Public Press (and in full disclosure being on their steering committee) we have all the above.

• Start reporting on day one.

Spot.Us’ job is to market reporters work to the public. Some reporters sit and wait on Spot.Us for the money to flow in. It doesn’t. They have to create material that we can show off on their behalf. That is why every pitch has a blog attached to it. We then collect the best of these posts for our main Spot.Us blog (blog.spot.us)

• One small refund

We got a donation from a city supervisor. It actually came as a shock. In fact, I’m still not sure how the city supervisor found out about the pitch. While his $20 donation was made in good spirit and would have been a negligible part of the money raised, we decided to refund this donation. On Spot.Us we have a rule that sources cannot donate and vice-versa. While this is a situation that some journalists will harp on and claim Spot.Us is ruining journalism ethics, I tend to shrug it off. This was one of the more minor moments in the last month. The city supervisor didn’t know our rule, made a small donation in good faith and when we became aware of it we said ever so Palin-esque “thanks, but no thanks.” The supervisor in question agreed to donate his refund towards another pitch that is not being produced by the Public Press.

So these are just some of the lessons learned in this immediate phase of the City Budget Watchdog beat pitch. I know this: The Public Press is excited and amped on reporting this to their fullest capabilities. And Spot.Us is going to support them in any way we can. We are still shy of our goal, but hopefully we can get there and the San Francisco city budget cuts won’t continue without a careful and critical eye.

Until then we must give incredibly hugs, thanks and kudos to our donors so far: Ruth Ann Harnisch, Full Circle Fund – Technology, Full Circle Fund – Environment, David Cohn, Lila LaHood, Megan Casey, Kara Andrade, Louise Yarnall, Neal Gorenflo, E.O. Stinson, Sylvain Foissac, Suzanne Yada, Ariel Vardi, Deepti Gottipati, Renata Ament, Mike McCarthy, Howard Rheingold, Andrea Genovese, Sara O., Michelle Fitzhugh-Craig, Amy Gahran, Lauren Rabaino, David Amann, Adele Fasick, Scott Rosenberg, Donica Mensing, George Kelly, Sarah Milstein, Joni Marshburn, donors through the Facebook Cause (names to come!), Tony Long, Rosa Lara-Fernandez and Eric Arbanovella.

This month we’re taking the “Bay Area Toxic Tour” over to San Francisco’s Bayview/Hunter’s Point to investigate the ongoing health issues these communities are facing. Unfortunately, just like West Oakland, residents of the South East portion of the city are facing some serious challenges to cleaning up their neighborhoods.

Here are a few recent articles that shed some light on what’s been happening.

• Environmental Justice Effort Triggers Bayview Hunters Point Federal Investigation
• Lennar’s shipyard: more toxic than you think
• Eliminating dissent: SFBG

This topic needs as many views and reporters to examine the issue as possible. Help support our work as we take what we’ve learned covering West Oakland and bring it to Hunters Point.

By Kwan Booth, edited by NewsDesk.org
Crowdfund this with Spot.Us
Part of the Bay Area Toxic Tour

Tuesday night saw the end of two years of negotiations between the Port of Oakland, environmentalists, truckers and West Oakland residents, with a vote to reduce toxic emissions from trucks serving the busy shipping center.

The Comprehensive Truck Management Plan aims to reduce the levels of diesel particulates in the air around the port, by banning diesel trucks built before 1994 — as well as newer trucks that lack air filters.

The plan also authorized a registration system for all trucks doing business with the port, and $3 million for independent truck who need to upgrade their vehicles.

However, a vote to implement findings from a study conducted by the consulting firm Beacon Economics was postponed until a later meeting. This includes a controversial recommendation that larger trucking firms hire contractors as employees, thereby making companies responsible for truck upgrades and maintenance.

During the meeting, both supporters and critics of the program appeared satisfied with its approval, although opinions were still divided on next steps and the best ways to implement findings from the Beacon Study.

Margaret Gordon, a port commissioner and co-director of the West Oakland Environmental Indicators Project, said that this is a victory for the clean air movement — and one step towards enacting tougher federal regulations.

“It’s happening in California and in Oakland because we’ve been giving them the most hell” Gordon said, adding that the ruling only came about after a long series of campaigns and intense discussions.

While it took time to agree on the details, Gordon said she is pleased that the ruling finally establishes firm guidelines that the port can use to regulate the trucking industry.

“You clean up your truck, or you’ll be out of business,” she said.

The Bay Area Toxic Tour continues!!!

We recently had an editorial call between Josh Wilson, the ever smiling Kim Komenich and the indefatigable Kwan Booth to discuss how things are going with the Bay Area Toxic Tour. We aren’t done by a long shot. The team has almost produced all the content for the first stop. Most likely the content below will continue to grow, but we thought it important to take stock in what we’ve produced.

One reason why is because we want you to…

Steal this content!

That’s right: The content below is yours for the taking and republishing. It cannot be altered without the creators permission (small styling changes are okay) and you must give credit to NewsDesk.org, Kim Komenich, Kwan Booth and Spot.Us for helping to produce the content. Aside from these small requests – we ask that you use this to inform more people about the situation of environmental hot spots and public health in the Bay Area which we will continue to explore with community support. We hope to provide more updates like these if we can continue to support the fine work of Kwan, Kim and Josh. So if you or your readers do find value in it, feel free to chip in a little – it could mean even more content for you to run.

Republished in PlanetSave (part of GreenOptions media), GroundReport, SF Bay View, iReport, Woman Make News and more.

94607: Oakland’s Childhood Asthma Hotspot

by Kim Komenich
Part of the Bay Area Toxic Tour

West Oakland is pinned between the Bay Area’s largest, busiest port and two major commuter freeways, and is home to decades of legacy pollution, making this marginalized but determined community a hotspot for childhood asthma and other illnesses.

(view as a soundslide at the bottom of this post)

Oakland: Port Vote Paves Way for Cleaner Trucks

Port of Oakland Truck Meeting Spins Wheels

by Kwan Booth, photos by Kim Komenich
Part of the Bay Area Toxic Tour

(Click inside the Flickr set for captions)

The long road leading to cleaner air in West Oakland was stretched just a little farther Tuesday night, as Port of Oakland commissioners postponed voting on a controversial new program to control diesel pollution from thousands of trucks serving the port.

West Oakland’s high rates of childhood asthma and lifelong illnesses, such as cancer, are linked to exhaust from truck and international ship traffic through the port.

Approximately 100 representatives from the trucking, environmentalist and West Oakland communities packed Tuesday’s meeting as the board considered adopting the Comprehensive Truck Management Plan, which aims to reduce diesel emmissions from the port by 85 percent by 2020.

The plan requires that all early-model trucks be fitted with new diesel filters by January 1st, 2010.

Opponents of the plan expressed cautious optimism at amendments to include a proposed truck registration system as well as a complete ban on pre-1994 trucks, as recommended by the study.

“This plan recognizes that you need to have a direct relationship with the trucking companies that operate on your property, and a mechanism to hold them accountable, that’s why we support the truck registry,” said Doug Bloch, Director of the Oakland Coalition for Clean & Safe Ports.

He also said that the ban on older trucks will lead to significant air quality improvements shortly after implementation.

While these amendments seemed to quell complaints, the last minute additions also pushed back voting on the project until June 16, when the board will also discuss whether to adopt more specific recommendations from a 2008 study by Beacon Environmental Services.

The most contested issue is whether trucking companies should be required to hire independent truckers as full time staff, thereby making companies responsible for any necessary upgrades.

Supporters of this motion, including Alexandra Desautels of the Alameda County Public Health Department, said it will give the port more leverage as future details of the plan are hashed out.

“[It] will set the board up to be able to move towards holding the shipping and trucking industries accountable once the laws are changed at the federal level,” she said.

Yet many truckers said they opposed losing their independent status, further complicating regulatory efforts.

In the next two weeks, some of these organizations are planning to meet and discuss issues before port commissioners reconvene for a vote on June 16.

Toxic Tour Blog: West Oakland Activist Shirley Burnell

Image and interview by Kim Komenich
Part of the Bay Area Toxic Tour

Interview for Toxic Tour of the Bay: Oakland Acorn by Kim Komenich

Toxic Tour Blog: Inside West Oakland’s ‘Breathmobile’

by Kwan Booth
Part of the Bay Area Toxic Tour

Talking to Dr. Washington Burns the other day I learned some pretty shocking information: 37 percent of the adults and 20 percent of the kids living in West Oakland have asthma and children living in this community are seven times more likely to be hospitalized for breathing related illness than any other children in California.

And Alameda County as a whole is no prize, with one of the highest overall hospitalization rates among 5-17 year old youth.

I learned this bit of info while sitting inside the Breathmobile, the new mobile asthma testing facility run by the Prescott Joseph Center, where Dr. Burns is executive director. And while the numbers are shocking on the first mention, it’s something West Oakland residents have been battling for a years.

For the last 14 years the Prescott Joseph Center has been somewhat of an oasis for west Oakland residents seeking information on a variety of health and wellness issues. The center, located only a short distance from the Port of Oakland, is home to the Asthma Education Center, the only place in the area where those without insurance (a large percentage of the residents) can receive care and instruction on breathing related illnesses. And while the education center has been around since 2001, the Breathmobile is a new solution to an old problem: access to quality health care in low income communities.

As I’ve been reporting over the last few weeks I’ve repeatedly heard residents express their frustration at how hard it was to see a qualified doctor. Many people I spoke with were working 2 and 3 jobs to support their families and taking time off for doctor’s visits usually just wasn’t an option. The goal of the Breathmobile is to take the hospital to the people, instead of the other way around. Beginning in July, the clinic will be traveling to area events to provide on the spot diagnoses and assistance.

But while providing quality care is one issue Dr. Burns and Mary Frazier, the Breathmobile’s RN, brought up another important point. Even if the resources are there, the people have to value and use them or they still won’t work.

Ms. Frazier talked about a series of informal surveys they conducted with various Prescott Joseph clients. When asked their most pressing concerns, most people listed lack of money and quality jobs as the main issue. After this was violence followed by a list of other concerns. Even with the abnormally high level of documented cases, asthma and breathing related illnesses ranked somewhere between 5-7th with most people. These estimates were echoed by the chairwoman of West Oakland Acorn Shirley Burnell, who we mentioned in the initial Newsdesk story. Ms. Burnell and her team asked similar questions and nearly identical answers.

How do you help people who, for whatever reason, aren’t inclined to receive the help?

As much as this story is focusing on the immediate dangers posed by the Port of Oakland and the diesel particulates produced by the trucks, it’s clear that there’s a much bigger and more complicated issue at hand. More soon.

Ship Pollution Escapes Oakland Diesel Debate

by Kwan Booth
Part of the Bay Area Toxic Tour

While much of the debate on reducing emissions from the Port of Oakland has revolved around trucks, diesel pollution from the trucks is estimated to make up only 4 percent of West Oakland’s overall toxic burden.

A much larger percentage has been attributed to the international shipping companies that rent the ports — yet attempts to impose fees to pay for pollution controls have been sidetracked by global trade regulations and opposition by the state of California and even special interest groups in Oakland and the Bay Area.

Fees targeting the shipping containers that pass through the Port of Oakland are usually opposed by the Oakland Chamber of Commerce, Alameda County Supervisors Scott Haggerty and Nate Miley, and the Waterfront Coalition — a Washington, D.C.-based group of importers, exporters, and shipping companies.

These parties have repeatedly expressed concern that any new fees would only encourage shipping companies to abandon the Port of Oakland in favor of cheaper competitor.

However, a 2006 study conducted by Energy and Environmental Research Associates, and funded by the Coalition for Clean Air and the Natural Resources Defense Council, found little evidence to support this theory.

In each of the ports included in the study — Los Angeles, Long Beach and Oakland — research shows that any proposed fees would have to reach $43 for each 20 feet of shipping-container capacity before the ports saw any significant reduction in international traffic.

Proposed fees for all three ports have been around $30 per 20 feet of shipping-container capacity.

Opponents also said that international ships are protected under the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution, and therefore fall under federal jurisdiction, making taxation by the port, or state government, impossible.

Despite this opposition, the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles both instituted new container fees in 2007 — and in May 2009, California Assemblyman Jerry Hill (D-San Mateo) introduced a bill to pressure the ports to speed up environmental efforts.

West Oakland Neighbors Tackle Toxic Legacy

by Kwan Booth
Part of the Bay Area Toxic Tour

Just about any long-term West Oakland resident can rattle off a list of health issues effecting their community: toxins from cargo ships docking at the nearby Port of Oakland, diesel smoke from Port-bound trucks, pollution from the two freeways that border the neighborhood, illegal dumping, and lack of accessible health care.

In fact, research funded by the Pacific Institute found that some of the area’s 403 toxic hot spots date back to post-World War II construction — and that nearly 82 percent of West Oakland residents live near one of these potentially contaminated sites.

A 2008 study by the California Air Resources Board indicates that West Oaklanders are exposed to diesel toxins at almost three times the levels of the rest of the city. As a result, children living in the 94607 zip code are seven times more likely than other California youth to be hospitalized for asthma and related issues.

“We’re still talking years”

Incremental changes have been made on both state and local levels, including the port’s current Comprehensive Truck Management Plan — yet many locals feel that significant improvements are still a long way off.

“There’s a lot of talk. People talk about how ‘this needs to be done, we’re going to do this’” said Shirley Burnell, a community activist and co-director of West Oakland Acorn, “but still things are being pushed out. Instead of doing something today or tomorrow or next week we’re still talking years.”

Disraeli Hives, 41, was born and raised in West Oakland, and has seen effects of poor air quality on three generations of her family. Both she and her mother have been diagnosed with asthma, as have 8 of her 10 children. The family is on a regular rotation of inhalers and respiratory pumps, and Ms. Hives only recently started breathing without the use of an oxygen tank.

Hives said that almost two-thirds of the children on her block have some form of respiratory illness, but that getting regular care has been an uphill battle, as many of her neighbors are dependent on public transportation.

“A lot of kids down here got asthma and their parents can’t afford to afford to buy a new car, or a used car for that matter,” Hives said, “so they’re on foot or catching buses and you know how long you got to sit at the AC Transit.”

Mary Frazier, a registered nurse with the Prescott Joseph Center — a nonprofit service agency and home to one of the only health clinics in the area — has seen how the dearth of accessible health care contributes to larger social issues.

“How long does it take for you to get to Kaiser from here or to the Children’s Hospital or Highland (by bus)” she asks. “It’s an all day outing, so you lose time at work, kids lose time at school, the kids don’t get good grades in school, you lose your job, so it’s part of this cycle of the diseases of poverty-like diabetes, obesity, asthma and respiratory problems.”

“Multiple factors”
This cyclical pattern is what inspired activists like Ms. Burnell to champion environmental causes, after initially focusing on other social concerns like job security.

“After I got involved I saw that it wasn’t just the jobs, it was the environment, and that needed to be cleaned up because so many people have asthma, so even if you do have jobs you’re sick all the time” Burnell said.

Dr. Washington Burns, Prescott Joseph’s Executive Director, said that low wages further complicate the issue, along with violence, drug use, lack of jobs and the general stress of day-to-day survival.

“In an area like here, in West Oakland,” he said, “the low economic status of the residents has a bearing … I’m not saying that air quality isn’t a factor, but there are multiple factors.”

To address these diverse problems, Dr. Burns’ organization hosts the West Oakland Asthma Coalition, a network of community groups that address health concerns at both the grassroots and policy levels.

These include the Breathmobile, a mobile home retrofitted as a “custom-built mobile pediatric asthma and allergy clinic” that brings health services directly to West Oakland residents in their communities.

Other initiatives include traditional research and policy programs by partners such as the Pacific Institute, as well as more experimental efforts — such as the Bamboo BioFilter, which plants fast-growing bamboo near truck facilities in the hopes of cleaning the air organically.

For residents such as Ms. Hives, improving the health of West Oakland will require community awareness, research, regulation — and patience.

“We’re a strong community” she said. “We been through a lot but we’re going to be here. We’re going to keep fighting.”

Port’s Diesel Pollution Stirs West Oakland Protest

By Kwan Booth (article) and Kim Komenich (photography, audio)

Can be viewed on Flickr.

West Oakland’s struggles over diesel pollution linked to high local rates of asthma and cancer brought a confrontational protest to a recent Port of Oakland meeting — the latest in a year-long clash between residents, port officials and the trucking industry.

Heads turned and presentations stopped mid sentence as approximately 50 community activists and union truck drivers stormed the meeting early on, equipped with protest signs, a bullhorn and calls for “good jobs, clean air.”

At issue is the proposed Comprehensive Truck Management Program, which would require new pollution controls for trucks serving the port.

Although the protesters said the plan wouldn’t be effective, many independent truckers said it would put them out of business due to added costs for pollution controls.

Emotions ran high, and one truck-company owner who attempted to speak was repeatedly shouted down by protesters.

West Oakland residents, such as long-time community activist Shirley Burnell, said their voices, and those of local children with asthma, have also been excluded from the discussion.

“West Oakland is the ones that’s being impacted by all of this,” Burnell said. “And they’re the people that are the least considered here.”

The proposal aims to lower diesel pollution 85 percent by 2020, in a community that has three times the exposure to diesel toxins — which greatly increases risk of asthma, cancer and other health problems — as the rest of Oakland.

A 2008 study by the California Air Resources Board found an annual rate among local children and adults of 290 local cases of asthma and other respiratory problems, and 18 premature death, as well as a lifetime potential cancer risk for residents of West Oakland — whose homes are bordered by the Port of Oakland, a rail yard, and three major freeways — of about 1,200 excess cancers per million people.

The study concluded that diesel trucks entering the port contributed 71 percent of the area’s toxins.

The proposed plan would require older trucks to be fitted with more effective air filters, at a cost to truck owners of up to $20,000.

Independent drivers, who say they are already burdened with high equipment, maintenance and trucking fees, feel they shouldn’t have to carry this added cost.

“I’m an independent truck driver, who’s been suffering the consequences of this dirty business, this broken, broken trucking business,” said Lorenzo Fernandez, who owns and operates his own truck — and who doesn’t think the port’s proposal is going to work.

“The bottom line is that this plan is going to continue killing kids with asthma,” he said.

Jabari Herbert, a truck-facility operator serving the port, blamed the shipping companies for most of the pollution, and said many truckers weren’t aware of new regulations.

Recently the Port of Oakland reinstated $5 million to assist in the retrofits, although several truckers claimed to have not been notified of the funding, or countered that it is still an insufficient amount.

Delphine Provost of the Port of Oakland said that another $5 million has been promised by the Bay Area Air Quality Management District, and is currently being dispersed.

The port’s final vote on the truck-management proposal is upcoming on June 2.

An interview with the reporting team.

Contribute to the Bay Area Toxic Tour!!

The following is part of our ongoing “Bay Area Toxic Tour” – it was published at NewsDesk the day after the controversial hearing.

By Kwan Booth
Crowdfund this with Spot.Us
Part of the Bay Area Toxic Tour

The long road leading to cleaner air in West Oakland was stretched just a little farther Tuesday night, as Port of Oakland commissioners postponed voting on a controversial new program to control diesel pollution from thousands of trucks serving the port.

West Oakland’s high rates of childhood asthma and lifelong illnesses, such as cancer, are linked to exhaust from truck and international ship traffic through the port.

Approximately 100 representatives from the trucking, environmentalist and West Oakland communities packed Tuesday’s meeting as the board considered adopting the Comprehensive Truck Management Plan, which aims to reduce diesel emmissions from the port by 85 percent by 2020.

The plan requires that all early-model trucks be fitted with new diesel filters by January 1st, 2010.

Opponents of the plan expressed cautious optimism at amendments to include a proposed truck registration system as well as a complete ban on pre-1994 trucks, as recommended by the study.

“This plan recognizes that you need to have a direct relationship with the trucking companies that operate on your property, and a mechanism to hold them accountable, that’s why we support the truck registry,” said Doug Bloch, Director of the Oakland Coalition for Clean & Safe Ports.

He also said that the ban on older trucks will lead to significant air quality improvements shortly after implementation.

While these amendments seemed to quell complaints, the last minute additions also pushed back voting on the project until June 16, when the board will also discuss whether to adopt more specific recommendations from a 2008 study by Beacon Environmental Services.

The most contested issue is whether trucking companies should be required to hire independent truckers as full time staff, thereby making companies responsible for any necessary upgrades.

Supporters of this motion, including Alexandra Desautels of the Alameda County Public Health Department, said it will give the port more leverage as future details of the plan are hashed out.

“[It] will set the board up to be able to move towards holding the shipping and trucking industries accountable once the laws are changed at the federal level,” she said.

Yet many truckers said they opposed losing their independent status, further complicating regulatory efforts.

In the next two weeks, some of these organizations are planning to meet and discuss issues before port commissioners reconvene for a vote on June 16.

Oakland Port Commissioner Kenneth Katzoff, left, makes a point as Commissioner Anthony Batarese, center, and Commission Second Vice President Margaret Gordon listen. Katzoff and Batarese voted against passage of the Port's Comprehensive Truck Management Plan because of uncertainty about the legality of a last minute amendment, while Gordon voted for the plan. (Photo by Kim Komenich)

Tuesday June 2 was a long day of reporting for the Toxic Tour of the Bay team. The group arrived at the scene of the Oakland Port Commission meeting around 3:30pm and didn’t leave until nearly 9, only to find that the official vote on the Comprehensive Truck Management Plan–intended to cut port pollution 85 percent by 2020–was postponed until the June 16 meeting. The delay was caused in part by a recent amendment to the plan, which would ban all pre-1994 trucks from the port due to their older designs which spew more diesel exhaust than the newer trucks. Because the new amendment would change the CTMP’s requirement to retrofit all trucks that go in and out of the port to only post-1994 trucks, while banning the older ones, the commission asked for more time for review.

It was a day of mixed emotions and frustrations for environmentalists, truck drivers, Oakland residents and port commissioners alike. But even after all of that, our dedicated Spot.us reporter Kwan Booth rushed home to give us a recap on the Spot.us BlogTalkRadio show.

Get the inside scoop from Kwan Booth himself:

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Check out the growing body of work on this subject by our three awesome reporters at newsdesk.org/archives/toxic-tour/.

Funding for this project is 78 percent complete! You know what that means, only 22 percent and $307 to go and only you can make it happen! Donate here to support our talented reporting team as they continue to enlighten us about the environmental injustice in West Oakland.

The first attempt at the “Bay Area Toxic Tour” is reaching its climax. Pulitzer prize winning photographer Kim Komenich, reporter Kwan Booth and editor Josh Wilson have been putting blood, sweat and tears into covering the impact of pollution on West Oakland community members and the political struggle over the ports of Oakland, which many people say is responsible for much of the pollution.

They will be following up the pieces below with followup on the port vote on new truck pollution measures which is happening Tuesday June 2nd at 4pm. We hope that in addition to learning from and appreciating their reporting – you help support it.You can see the small bits of reporting that have come in over time on the Spot.Us pitch blog.

But the more polished finished work is being packaged by NewsDesk.org/toxictour.

It should be noted that all this content is free to be republished but credit must be given to: Kim, Kwan, NewsDesk and Spot.Us.

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Chat and Give to Change West Oakland Toxic Woes

Spot.Us, a nonprofit pioneering community funded reporting, needs your help to publish an investigative news story on toxic “hotspots” in the Bay Area!

Children in West Oakland are seven times more likely to be hospitalized for asthma than the average child in the state of California. Nearly 82 percent of those who live in West Oakland are within 1/8 mile of an industrial area. Only 31 percent of area residents can afford the median rent on available housing units.

• WHEN: Saturday, May 30, 6 pm to 8 pm
• WHERE: 2825 A Myrtle Street, Oakland, CA 94608

$15 advance tickets by donating to the pitch directly (http://spot.us/pitches/181) or $20 at the door! Enjoy complimentary food! BYOB!

Funding for this story will help to educate the public about the environmental situation and to help the people of West Oakland to take necessary action in order to regain the clear air and water they deserve.

The following comes to us via Kim Komenich who is rocking the reporting for the Toxic Tour of the Bay. This reporting team is kicking MAJOR butt. You can see for yourself in the pitch’s blog (middle column). Show some love and help contribute to their funds.

This one is with a member of Oakland Acorn – a resident of Oakland most of her life the chair of West Oakland’s Acorn discusses the history behind air pollution and its impact on the community.

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