Dr. Pavel is an environmental and social justice activist, founder of the Earth House Center in Oakland, California and editor of the forthcoming book Building Sustainable Metropolitan Communities? Breakthrough Stories. Earth House was founded in 1990 by Dr. Pavel and currently conducts local, national and international projects in a variety of print and visual media including Journey to South Africa? Metropolitan Communities Leaders Reflect on the World Summit, a monograph; Voices from the
Community? Smart Growth and Social Equity, a video; and Sustainable Solutions? Building Assets for Empowerment and Sustainable Development, a web-based video project of community-based projects around the globe). Earth House is both an environmental and social justice center in an urban setting. The group has worked supporting organizations working on issues of health, justice, education, legal services and metropolitan development with a series of environmental sustainability groups in the Pacific Rim, including Cambodia and Japan, and in the US. Earth House media projects link communication, technology and social advocacy. Dr. Pavelâs educational background includes graduate study at Harvard University and the London School of Economics.
As a child Dr. Pavel volunteered in Mexican orphanages, while her father offered free surgery in the clinics of Tijuana. This early awareness of border-crossings and all that it implies about class, race and nations has guided her work in both the environmental and social justice movements. In this interview she discusses issues of urban development and projects that stand at the intersection of these two critical. Where are the borders that need to be considered and crossed between nations, communities and within each individual? One example she uses to illuminate her work is the issue she calls âspatial apartheidâ in which the development of a park/greenbelt in Oakland, became both an environmental and racial issue between two ethnically different communities. Other important topics discussed include âinclusionary vs. exclusionaryâ zoning, smart growth and social justice. Dr. Pavel concludes by discussing real life âbreakthrough storiesâ of urban communities who took planning and the sustainable development of their neighborhoods into their own hands and the amazing, multi-faceted benefits that have been created.
This is an uplifting interview that doesnât shy away from difficult truths, but also provides real life examples of successful, inspiring urban renewal and community development.
Recorded in San Francisco, April, 2008 at the Ecocities World Summit.
Link? http://www.earthhousecenter.org
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Sue Suprianos Steppin Out of Babylon is a radio interview series covering a broad range of important issues in todays world: peace and war, human and civil rights, communication, the media, the environment, food security, racism, globalization, immigration and matters of the spirit.
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