Oakland is the largest city in Alameda County, with a population of about 400,000 people; it is a vital port center: the Port of Oakland is an essential facility that transports cargo on a daily basis. However, it causes inevitable damage to the environment and people who live in the neighborhood downwind. Freeways, rail lines, and the port surround its residents and affects their health. Due to the toxic fuel ships use, the rate of such diseases as heart disease, asthma, cancer, obesity, or other forms of chronic lungs disease are overwhelmingly concentrated in these areas.
In West and East Oakland, the main population to bear the burden of a polluted environment is the poor people and people of color. Life expectancy in East and West Oakland is much shorter than the more affluent residents in the city’s northern area. In addition, the West part of the city has no full-scale grocery stores, they lack healthy food, and the vast majority of products there are junk food, alcohol, or poor-quality food. This factor also affects people’s health, does not let them improve it, increases the level of obesity, and worsens the situation.
However, there are people and organizations which are taking action and currently improving Oakland people’s lives. For instance, “Mandela Market, a small cooperative grocery store owned by its employees, brings much-needed healthy food into West Oakland” (Alexander Street 2011). Many products are received from farmers with who they have developed a relationship over the years. In addition, such solutions to the pollution as some alternative source of power, turning off the engines and plugging the ship into the shore, or capturing the emissions and treating them are already applied. Fortunately, gradually, the situation becomes better and better, and new methods are being applied to save the environment and people.
Detroit is the largest city in Michigan State, and it is famous for being rich, extensive, and powerful due to the automobile industry. However, Detroit people suffer from a high level of pollution due to the work of active factories and emissions from goods movement. In addition to that, there is a considerable amount of car traffic going across the city. Also, there is a problem with food access: “Detroit has been classified as a food desert” (Alexander Street 2011). There is no fresh food there, and people have to buy poor-quality products at gas stations.
Furthermore, due to the bad access to fresh, healthy, and decent food, over 50% of Detroit’s population is overweight, which attributes to high blood pressure, diabetes, and high cholesterol (Alexander Street 2011). One more problem of this city is poverty and an enormous amount of abandoned houses and factories. Many citizens miss the old Detroit, and they take action immediately to help their beloved city and the population.
To solve the problem of abandoned buildings, many residents actively repair neighborhoods and participate in their social life. Urban Farming has built a large garden for citizens where all the food is entirely free for people suffering from starvation and food insecurity. It feeds people and, in addition, outreaches the community so that they can then start talking about such relevant themes as entrepreneurship, money management, and food nutrition (Alexander Street 2011). In addition, people start such small projects as urban organic farms right in the city. Detroit citizens strive to make their city a better place; everyone contributes to its improvement, and they reckon that everything starts with small steps and depends on them.
Reference
“Social Policy in Concrete.”, directed by Dale Bell, and Harry Wiland, produced by Beverly Baroff. Media Policy Center, 2011. Alexander Street. Web.