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The South Central Farm (SCF) in Los Angeles was a 14-acre urban farm in one of the highest concentrations of impoverished residents in the county. It was destroyed in July 2006. This article analyzes its epic as a landscape of resistance to discriminatory legal and planning practices. It then presents its creation and maintenance as an issue of environmental justice, and argues that there was a substantive rationale on the basis of environmental justice and planning ethics that should have provided sufficient grounds for the city to prevent its dismantling. Based on qualitative case study methodology, the study contributes to the formulation of creation and preservation rationales for community gardens and other “commons” threatened by eventual dismantlement in capitalist societies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores how cities around the world are governing issues related to climate change. It relates the efforts of the city government of London in England and Los Angeles in California to examine climate change policies and actions to respond to climate change in their area. Also, it discusses the significant role of law in mitigating problems on climate change.

Worldwide people are exposed to toxic ultrafine particles (UFP, with diameters (dp) less than 100 nm) and nanoparticles (NP, dp < 50 nm) under a variety of circumstances. To date, very limited information is available on human exposure to freshly emitted UFP and NP while traveling on major roads and freeways. We report in-cabin and outdoor measurements of particle number concentration and size distributions while driving three vehicles on Los Angeles freeways. Particle number concentrations and size distributions were measured under different vehicle ventilation settings. When the circulation fan was set to on, with substantial external air intake, outside changes in particle counts caused corresponding in-cabin changes approximately 30–60 s later, indicating an maximal air exchange rate of about 120–60 h-1. Maximum in-cabin protection (∼85%) was obtained when both fan and recirculation were on. In-cabin and outdoor particle size distributions in the 7.9–217 nm range were observed to be mostly bimodal, with the primary peak occurring at 10–30 nm and the secondary at 50–70 nm. The vehicle's manufacture-installed particle filter offered an in-cabin protection of about 50% for particles in the 7–40 nm size range and 20–30% for particles in the 40 to ∼200 nm size range. For an hour daily commute exposure, the in-vehicle microenvironment contributes approximately 10–50% of people's daily exposure to UFP from traffic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents the results of a comparative study of environmental policy making in Toronto and Los Angeles. The study was intended to explain how social formations at the urban scale play an increasingly important role in constructing environmental policy and practice as articulated in documents, rhetoric and political actions. It is suggested that environmental policy is embedded in broader and more long-term political goals, and that ecological discourse is not only about the environment but also brings together various social projects under the environmental protection flag. The four case studies— in Toronto, contaminated soil and the Don River were examined, and in Los Angeles air pollution and the Los Angeles River—revealed considerable variation but all reflected an agenda of ecological modernisation. In particular it was found that demands for maintaining or improving environmental integrity and coherence have lost legitimacy to concerns for efficiency, competitiveness, marketability, flexibility and development. Similarly, market driven regulation and an openness to civil society have played a major role in transforming policy making apparatuses. In contrast, the cases revealed that relationships between nature and society go beyond those expected in ecological modernisation theory and include both social ecology and urban ecology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective. Although previous environmental justice research has focused on analysis of the disproportionate burden of environmental hazards on minority residents, few studies have examined demographic inequities in health risks among children. This article evaluates the demographic distribution of potentially hazardous facilities and health risks associated with ambient air toxics exposures among public schoolchildren in the Los Angeles Unified School District. Methods. We combine Geographic Information System analysis with multivariate statistics to compare enrollment and demographic information for students who attend district schools with the spatial pattern of land use, locations of toxic emissions and facilities, and calculated indices of estimated lifetime cancer risk and respiratory hazards associated with exposures to toxic air emissions. Results. District schools are more likely to be located in census tracts containing potentially hazardous facilities; however, these tracts actually have slightly lower cancer and respiratory health risks associated with air toxics when compared to other tracts in the district. Demographic comparisons among school sites indicate that minority students, especially Latinos, are more likely to attend schools near hazardous facilities and face higher health risks associated with outdoor air toxics exposure. Conclusions. These patterns of hazard exposure and health risk should be considered both in the process of siting new schools to house the rapidly growing regional student population and in remediation efforts at existing schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines the political obstacles that affected the implementation of the REgional CLean AIr Market (RECLAIM) in Los Angeles, California. History of the RECLAIM emission program; Analysis of the decisions concerning RECLAIM; Political barriers presented by consumer groups.

Investigates the effect of emissions control strategies on the size and composition distribution of urban aerosol in Los Angeles, California. Presentation of the changes in the size and composition distribution of airborne particles; Emissions inventory summary; Specific emissions control measures for primary particulate matter.

Indicates how science and social science can be combined to assess the range and effectiveness of policy alternatives available to environmental decision-makers. Cost-effective regulatory alternatives to the Los Angeles, California particulate sulfate problem; Application of both sciences to the relationship of emissions to pollution levels and environmental quality; Rejection of notion that a simple reduction in emissions leads to a commensurate reduction in pollution levels; Problem of applying licenses and emissions.

Discusses the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) need to focus on population growth in solving environmental problems in the Los Angeles Basin in California. Suit filed by environmental groups against the EPA to force it to produce a Federal Implementation Plan (FIP) for California; Group Against Smog Pollution (GASP); Control of population growth from illegal immigration.

The article offers information on the first issue of the twenty-sixth annual volume of the "UCLA Journal of Environmental Law and Policy." The issue is entitled "Coping With Global Warming," which is the product of the 2007 Symposium of the Evan Frankel Environmental Law and Policy Program organized by the Sean Hecht. The issue offers analysis and tackles important topics on governance and regulation in environmental policy. The authors also acknowledge the continuous support of several people at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) School of Law, including Summer Rose, Michael Schill and Elizabeth Cheadle.