AVillage and the Radix Center have been advocating for the residents of Ezra Prentice Homes, a public housing project adjacent to the Port of Albany, for nearly two years. We employ residents to reach out to their neighbors and determine health issues, we connect residents in need with health information and providers, and we demand an end to the oil trains, the noisy rail yards and the heavy diesel truck traffic.
Our successes to date include a visit from the federal Environmental Protection Administration, a commitment by the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation to conduct a year-long air quality study for the immediate vicinity of Ezra Prentice and the larger South End, and two traffic studies of the heavy diesel truck traffic on South Pearl, which dissects this 179 unit residential complex with more than 150 children under the age of 14.
Our health survey of more than 100 families at Ezra Prentice reveals extremely high levels of asthma and other respiratory diseases, and also high levels of hypertension and cardio vascular diseases. We are now entering into the second phase — training residents to reach out to residents who have reported health problems, and working with CDPHP and other providers to insure they get the best information and treatment possible. Very soon, this outreach model that we pioneered will be extend to the rest of the South End.
AVillage is not content to study the problem.. We have held countless community meetings at Ezra Prentice to keep residents informed and organized events to protest and agitate the powers that be. Most recently, we have been holding periodic actions on South Pearl Street to educate truckers and other drivers of the environmental impact of their passage through this residential neighborhood. We have received overwhelming public support for our stand, including good feedback from truck drivers who are sympathetic to the situation.
Our work will not be done here until public policy changes and the residents of Ezra Prentice Homes can live with the assurance that they and their children are not being poisoned by the air they breath, or have their lives disrupted and threatened by the oil tankers and other rail cars parked in their back yard.
Your contribution will help us carry on this important work by supporting our health survey and outreach, communicating important information to the residents of Ezra Prentice and nearby South End communities, continuing to provide youth programs at Ezra Prentice, and organizing to affect changes in public policy.
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