Hurley Way is a 2.1 mile stretch of road that cuts through several diverse urban neighborhoods in the unincorporated Sacramento County community of Arden Arcade, just east of the City of Sacramento. The road is two-way and alternates between two and four lanes. Hurley Way is used by drivers, pedestrians and bicyclists as well as a number of people in wheelchairs and on scooters.  There are several public schools on and near Hurley Way and large numbers of children walk and bike along the road and surrounding streets. Motorists often use Hurley Way as a cut-through street on their way to or from home and work, and to shopping or other destinations. Hurley Way does not function well and is unsafe for all who must navigate it: wide traffic lanes encourage speeds more appropriate for a freeway; the lack of road-striping and poorly designed entrance and exit points create dangerous intersections and impede pedestrians’ ability to cross the street; and incomplete sidewalks and bike lanes combined with inadequate roadside drainage ditches that flood every winter force pedestrians and bicyclists into the middle of the street. The current state of this road is hazardous to the health of the people who live and work and attend school in the neighborhood. One of the intersections, Hurley Way and Fulton Avenue, has some of the highest incidences of automobiles hitting pedestrians of any intersection in Sacramento County.

The neighborhoods surrounding Hurley Way flow from commercial and retail land uses along the western portion to institutional and residential uses as one moves east. Other than a few blocks at the extreme western and eastern ends of Hurley Way, most of the surrounding neighborhoods are characterized by aging buildings and infrastructure that have seen little investment in recent years. There are high rates of poverty and disability among the people who live near Hurley Way. The 2000 Census reveals that nearly 50% of households in the immediate area earn less than $35,000 per year, with almost 14% of families and 19% of individuals living below the federal poverty level. Roughly four in ten residents are persons of color. Nearly a quarter of the people living in the area have a physical disability.

Hurley Way Revitalization Project, an effort spearheaded by the Environmental Council of Sacramento (ECOS), seeks to improve the functioning and safety of Hurley Way. The project is a grassroots effort to ameliorate the harmful effects of Hurley Way on neighborhood resident safety and health. From the outset, the Project’s framing and implementation drew on the foundational principles of the environmental justice movement including political self determination, public participation, and the equitable distribution of harms and benefits resultant from the built environment. The first phase of the project culminated in the creation of a Revitalization Plan containing recommended transportation improvements and land use guidelines. If implemented, the Revitalization Plan will make Hurley Way a safer and more functional street for all who use it and increase the safety and well-being of neighborhood residents and children. The Plan will also support the development of new mixed use projects, affordable housing, and enhancement of neighborhood infrastructure and amenities.

To ensure that the Plan reflects the actual needs and desires of the people most heavily impacted by the current lack of adequate infrastructure, ECOS has worked intensely to engage the community through dozens of focus groups, workshops and presentations. This participation component of the project has required a sustained multi-year commitment as area residents generally have limited time and energy to devote to such an endeavor. The difficulty of implementing the Project’s participatory planning component is not unique. Given the labyrinthine nature of California governmental planning processes and the day-to-day difficulties faced by people living in neighborhoods like those surrounding Hurley Way, meaningful public participation is virtually impossible absent a sustained multi-month, culturally competent participatory process. Unfortunately, such an approach is rarely implemented by local government entities. One result of this fact is that infrastructure investments are disproportionately directed outward at new suburban sprawl growth areas and at wealthier existing communities that least need new investment due to the fact that participatory processes are geared towards English speakers with adequate free time. Meanwhile, urban neighborhoods like those surrounding Hurley Way languish and deteriorate for decades. These phenomena become mutually reinforcing as the infrastructure falls further into disrepair; more and more of those with means move away, leaving behind those least able to participate in a planning process that fails to meet their needs.

“Public” input on infrastructure projects in poorer neighborhoods is often mere window dressing for plans that have been formulated without the input or involvement of the people who will most rely on and be most impacted by the projects. This lack of participation is, in almost every circumstance, traceable to inadequate design and implementation of planning processes. In the end, these planning processes effectively limit “public” participation to a very narrow set of interests and stakeholders — generally business and property-owners, many of whom do not even live in the neighborhood.  Hurley Way is just one little road in one neighborhood in one sprawling metropolitan region. But our nation is now characterized by seemingly endless similar roads and neighborhoods spreading all across the landscape. If we truly wish to build communities that are equitable and sustainable and well-functioning, we must commit to the revitalization of infrastructure such that all of us can access essential goods and services.  We also must open our planning processes such that the people who actually live and work and go to school in deteriorating neighborhoods are empowered to guide and shape the community development planning that is needed in their area. The work of rebuilding our low-income urban neighborhoods will take much more than stimulus spending, consultants, and planning departments. It will take a national commitment to the equitable distribution of infrastructure resources and local innovation in participatory democracy. It will also take communities and advocates committed to both participatory processes and inclusion of redevelopment and infrastructure improvement into the environmental justice movement.

Article authored by:
Graham Brownstein
Executive Director, Environmental Council of Sacramento (ECOS)