WEBVTT 1 00:01:33.860 --> 00:01:36.640 [indecipherable background conversation] 2 00:02:01.500 --> 00:02:07.640 Martha Matsuoka: Why don't we start. I first want to start by welcoming everyone to the Presidio. I know people 3 00:02:07.760 --> 00:02:12.280 had to deal with public transit, rain and traffic and all that, so I'm glad everyone's here. 4 00:02:12.280 --> 00:02:17.780 Before we even start talking about the substance, I wanted to thank 5 00:02:18.400 --> 00:02:25.880 the director of publications here to explain why all the decorations in this room. 6 00:02:26.560 --> 00:02:34.640 Well we thought this was a very interesting meeting and that it was about time we started documenting what we're doing a little better. 7 00:02:34.820 --> 00:02:39.260 So we we decided to shoot some footage of this meeting and I hope it isn't too intrusive. 8 00:02:39.500 --> 00:02:46.140 And at the minimum it will be something to document what Urban Habitat does and at the best it will be part of 9 00:02:46.140 --> 00:02:51.299 our kind of work we're doing to make training materials for GIS communities, 10 00:02:51.299 --> 00:02:55.769 just starting to investigate using GIS and some of the content of this meeting 11 00:02:55.769 --> 00:03:01.069 seems really important for that. So I have a little form that would let you [video jump cut] 12 00:03:01.069 --> 00:03:07.100 you would also get a little copy of whatever we do. So, I hope you will all [indecipherable]. 13 00:03:07.600 --> 00:03:12.080 I'm going to just pass it around. And thanks very much and I hope it doesn't bother you too much, 14 00:03:12.160 --> 00:03:17.420 and if it does why don't you say "I hate this" or "You've gotta get out of my face" or whatever. 15 00:03:24.940 --> 00:03:34.320 For us, being here at the Presidio is a very important place to be. Fortunately it's not close to anything, 16 00:03:34.400 --> 00:03:37.560 but it doesn't take the importance away at all I think. 17 00:03:37.560 --> 00:03:41.760 This is part of the largest Urban National Park in the country and our mission, 18 00:03:41.760 --> 00:03:44.609 as an organization has always been to sort of secure those 19 00:03:44.609 --> 00:03:48.090 public resources for communities that have always been not at the table to 20 00:03:48.090 --> 00:03:51.720 make the decisions that impact them, so this for us is a very strategic move. 21 00:03:52.109 --> 00:03:57.060 Just thought many, I know most of you and some point will go around the room 22 00:03:57.060 --> 00:04:00.000 and have everyone introduce themselves, but I just want to put this in a little 23 00:04:00.000 --> 00:04:04.650 bit of historical context because about a year ago we convened a group of folks 24 00:04:04.650 --> 00:04:09.269 that we work closely with who do mapping in the Bay Area, on people who 25 00:04:09.269 --> 00:04:13.500 use all different kinds of techniques of mapping. You know could be just sketching, 26 00:04:13.500 --> 00:04:16.530 you know the kids drawing on pieces of paper, showing where they live and where 27 00:04:16.530 --> 00:04:21.000 they go to school and, as well as more of the technical and the 28 00:04:21.000 --> 00:04:26.540 computer assisted mapping. So we got together about, it's been about a year ago, 29 00:04:26.540 --> 00:04:30.260 and had people just talk about how they used GIS and it was a really informative 30 00:04:30.260 --> 00:04:33.190 session I thought. People are using GIS 31 00:04:33.190 --> 00:04:36.920 tools for a number of different things and mapping is organizing, 32 00:04:36.920 --> 00:04:42.100 is for advocacy for public policy, analysis and other things. And so when we had an 33 00:04:42.100 --> 00:04:47.230 opportunity to actually hear about a model from New York, we thought it'd be 34 00:04:47.230 --> 00:04:51.070 great to reconvene that group and then add some other people to it, to really share 35 00:04:51.070 --> 00:04:55.240 what we think is an interesting model of how GIS is being used in another part of 36 00:04:55.240 --> 00:05:00.420 the country to look at issues of land use in public health and the environment. 37 00:05:00.420 --> 00:05:05.000 So I'm really pleased that Reiniero Hernandez is with us today and we'll introduce him 38 00:05:05.000 --> 00:05:12.070 a little bit later. But I wanted to also have Carl talk a little bit about 39 00:05:12.070 --> 00:05:16.390 sort of Urban Habitat strategy that some of our regional approach to some of 40 00:05:16.390 --> 00:05:18.520 these issues that really go faceless. 41 00:05:18.520 --> 00:05:21.100 Carl Anthony: Thank you Martha and I really appreciate, 42 00:05:21.100 --> 00:05:25.390 we really appreciate your coming to our new home here at the Presidio and as 43 00:05:25.390 --> 00:05:31.930 Martha said, we think that the significance of our making of our home 44 00:05:31.930 --> 00:05:35.540 here is very important for the Bay Area and also for the nation. 45 00:05:35.540 --> 00:05:41.200 This was, as everyone knows a national, that was part of the Defense Department it was 46 00:05:41.200 --> 00:05:46.750 conveyed to the National Park Service a while back and now in this last 47 00:05:46.750 --> 00:05:53.410 congressional session, Congress authorized the President to appoint the 48 00:05:53.410 --> 00:05:58.870 trust of seven people who will take over the responsibility for doing the 49 00:05:58.870 --> 00:06:03.820 planning and development of the 800 or so buildings here at the Presidio. 50 00:06:03.820 --> 00:06:09.790 And our hope, of course, is that to the extent that this development goes forward that 51 00:06:09.790 --> 00:06:13.750 it will reflect the interest in the needs of a full range of communities in 52 00:06:13.750 --> 00:06:17.080 the Bay Area, but particularly those communities that have been not very 53 00:06:17.080 --> 00:06:21.100 often had an opportunity to be at the table. So that's one of the reasons we 54 00:06:21.100 --> 00:06:24.640 have decided to move our office here to see what we could do to secure those 55 00:06:24.640 --> 00:06:30.280 benefits for our communities. A very important part of the Urban Habitat's 56 00:06:30.280 --> 00:06:35.790 strategy is to help advocates of environmental justice and 57 00:06:35.790 --> 00:06:39.860 community-based organizing and community-based environmental issues, 58 00:06:39.860 --> 00:06:45.740 to link together their perspectives at a Metropolitan Regional Scale. 59 00:06:46.180 --> 00:06:51.559 We've had over the last generation, a great deal of organizing at 60 00:06:51.559 --> 00:06:59.419 the neighborhood level and quite a bit at the municipal level, but we have 61 00:06:59.419 --> 00:07:04.369 not had within advocates of social justice, the level of organizing at the 62 00:07:04.369 --> 00:07:08.809 Metropolitan Scale. That we think is really important and I won't go into the 63 00:07:08.809 --> 00:07:14.509 political reasons why this is necessary, but and that means that people 64 00:07:14.509 --> 00:07:18.139 who live in the cities are really affected very much by decisions that are 65 00:07:18.139 --> 00:07:22.610 made around the suburban ring, around the issues around the Greenbelt for example, 66 00:07:22.610 --> 00:07:27.139 development of a suburban ring produces problems of inner city 67 00:07:27.139 --> 00:07:31.219 abandonment, loss of jobs, creation of brownfield sites and we've been doing a 68 00:07:31.219 --> 00:07:35.839 lot of work on that. So, the main point that I would like to make is that we 69 00:07:35.839 --> 00:07:41.119 see the geographic information systems as a tool to link the work that people 70 00:07:41.119 --> 00:07:44.629 are doing in their neighborhoods directly with the issues that they face 71 00:07:44.629 --> 00:07:48.469 on a day to day basis. With works of other communities in other 72 00:07:48.469 --> 00:07:52.309 neighborhoods within a larger kind of metropolitan context linking up to 73 00:07:52.309 --> 00:07:57.830 organizations such as Save the Bay or Greenbelt Alliance, who are working to protect the open 74 00:07:57.830 --> 00:08:05.649 space and environmental resources at the regional scale. Our work in this field began as 75 00:08:05.649 --> 00:08:13.369 directly with our work on defense conversion and Martha Matsuoka 76 00:08:13.369 --> 00:08:18.409 did a study, led a study for us called Reintegrating the Flatlands. 77 00:08:18.409 --> 00:08:23.629 And the study used geographic information systems as a way to really look at the impacts 78 00:08:23.629 --> 00:08:29.209 of defense conversion in which we faced in this area, some ten military bases 79 00:08:29.209 --> 00:08:35.149 that we're closing at a regional scale. And so we're really very happy to have 80 00:08:35.149 --> 00:08:41.149 an opportunity to revisit some of those tools in this particular context. 81 00:08:41.149 --> 00:08:43.899 Maybe what we could do is very briefly go around the room and have people 82 00:08:43.899 --> 00:08:47.000 introduce themselves and say just a sentence or two because, we obviously 83 00:08:47.000 --> 00:08:50.720 have a lot of people here and maybe if we could just keep it to a sentence or 84 00:08:50.720 --> 00:08:55.940 two and say who you are and what your interest in GIS might be. 85 00:08:57.140 --> 00:09:00.620 Should we go, which way should we go? This way I guess. 86 00:09:04.520 --> 00:09:09.680 Speaker 1: My name is Amy Hoffman and I'm with Career Pro, it's a program at the San Francisco Urban Institute at 87 00:09:09.680 --> 00:09:15.340 State University and we've been working on base closure issues for the past three years in the 88 00:09:15.340 --> 00:09:21.820 Bay Area and also around the country. And we are moving into the Brownfields area 89 00:09:21.829 --> 00:09:27.290 as well doing a lot of the similar work, because we find that a lot of lessons 90 00:09:27.290 --> 00:09:32.560 that we learned in base cleanup and base conversion are transferable into the 91 00:09:32.560 --> 00:09:37.490 Brownfields arena. And so instead of trying to reinvent the wheel we're 92 00:09:37.490 --> 00:09:46.699 trying to take those lessons and apply them. And our interest in mapping is kind 93 00:09:46.699 --> 00:09:50.389 of contextual and also in a very large picture sort of what Carl and Martha 94 00:09:50.389 --> 00:09:56.089 have talked about, how you can link up communities and give them the tools to 95 00:09:56.089 --> 00:09:59.160 utilize this within their own neighborhoods. 96 00:10:01.040 --> 00:10:04.320 Speaker 2: I'm Bobby Kahn. I'm with the Environmental Protection Agency, 97 00:10:04.320 --> 00:10:09.149 Brownfields team. And our interest is on Brownfields a lot of the cities have 98 00:10:09.149 --> 00:10:12.630 gotten Brownfields grants and they will be using some of the money to develop 99 00:10:12.630 --> 00:10:19.350 GIS systems. And also in the regional office, we have an environmental justice 100 00:10:19.350 --> 00:10:24.630 team in the cross-media division and they have an ongoing project looking at 101 00:10:24.630 --> 00:10:31.080 GIS and trying to map out the demographics of the regional office 102 00:10:31.080 --> 00:10:34.980 which is a larger region in the Bay Area, and also trying to line that up 103 00:10:34.980 --> 00:10:42.149 with a lot of the environmental permits for those same areas - for all the media, 104 00:10:42.149 --> 00:10:48.170 air, water, waste, and the other media and to try to see what the impacts are on 105 00:10:48.170 --> 00:10:51.560 communities of color and areas of concern. 106 00:10:52.540 --> 00:10:56.680 Speaker 3: I'm Martha Walters. I'm with the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency and one of my hats is the 107 00:10:56.680 --> 00:11:02.380 Brownfields Project Manager to the South Bayshore area, and I'm trying to figure out how we 108 00:11:02.399 --> 00:11:06.930 can integrate the use of the GIS system into that whole evaluation board, just in 109 00:11:06.930 --> 00:11:10.820 the beginning stages of what we're doing for the Brownfields Project. 110 00:11:12.020 --> 00:11:17.460 Speaker 4: I'm George Brewster with the California Center for Land Recycling. A new organization 111 00:11:17.800 --> 00:11:27.480 that is under the agents of the Trust for Public Land devoted to Brownfields redevelopment, in the sense 112 00:11:27.580 --> 00:11:35.740 of finding ways to encourage Brownfields redevelopment and urban infill 113 00:11:35.960 --> 00:11:43.850 development and to remove the barriers to that, both to preserve the health of 114 00:11:43.850 --> 00:11:48.900 inner-city neighborhoods and to prevent the growth of sprawl at the urban fringe. 115 00:11:49.360 --> 00:11:58.900 My interest in GIS is in the many many ways that it could be applied to to our task 116 00:11:58.910 --> 00:12:05.779 and I think the number of uses will continue to expand as we get more 117 00:12:05.780 --> 00:12:08.080 into it and learn more about it. 118 00:12:09.480 --> 00:12:14.740 Speaker 5: Hi, I'm Allen Edson and I'm with the African-American Development Association. We've been doing a lot of 119 00:12:15.000 --> 00:12:21.520 environmental justice work over in the Oakland area. We've just kind of shifted gears and now 120 00:12:21.529 --> 00:12:26.810 looking at some Brownfield redevelopment, and we're working on developing a 121 00:12:26.810 --> 00:12:34.279 project as a neighborhood information resource base in West Oakland. 122 00:12:34.280 --> 00:12:38.180 And I'd like to see how GIS might be applied to that particular project. 123 00:12:39.200 --> 00:12:44.620 Speaker 6: Good morning, my name is Olin Webb and I'm from Bayview Hunters Point. I worked with Bayview 124 00:12:44.620 --> 00:12:50.320 Hunters Point Contract Association and also the South Bayshore CDC. 125 00:12:52.120 --> 00:12:57.860 My main interest is trying to see what I can find out for my contracting association, 126 00:12:58.040 --> 00:13:03.580 how GIS can help it and how I can get to contractors in the neighborhood behind 127 00:13:03.580 --> 00:13:06.300 Brownfields and see what we can do with it. 128 00:13:07.920 --> 00:13:14.140 Speaker 7: My name is Steve Simononic. I'm with EPA Region 9, recently joined the Brownfields 129 00:13:14.150 --> 00:13:20.089 team here in San Francisco. Previously though I've used GIS extensively in a 130 00:13:20.089 --> 00:13:24.920 Superfund Enforcement kind of context, where we're trying to equate site 131 00:13:24.920 --> 00:13:30.260 conditions and identify potential responsible parties. But now I see that 132 00:13:30.260 --> 00:13:35.360 the GIS application is gonna be a very powerful tool in the Brownfields program as well . 133 00:13:35.960 --> 00:13:39.040 Speaker 8: I'm Larry Orman, I'm the director of GreenInfo Network, 134 00:13:39.040 --> 00:13:42.080 which is a technology support organization that was created about a 135 00:13:42.090 --> 00:13:45.810 year ago to work with public health social service and environmental 136 00:13:45.810 --> 00:13:50.700 nonprofits who want to use GIS. We don't have an independent policy focus. 137 00:13:50.700 --> 00:13:55.260 We're really an enabling body to give people the technology tools they need to use 138 00:13:55.260 --> 00:13:57.980 GIS for whatever purpose that they're going to put it to. 139 00:13:58.100 --> 00:14:02.320 There's two information kits here and there's simpler versions of them for anybody who would like them. 140 00:14:02.320 --> 00:14:06.820 These are the fancy ones and if you want to take a look at them, you're more than welcome to. 141 00:14:07.760 --> 00:14:12.080 Speaker 9: I'm Sabrina Mazzoni and I work with Larry and my voice is not 142 00:14:12.080 --> 00:14:16.060 here so, he's already done the talking for the organization. 143 00:14:16.480 --> 00:14:20.240 I should say we're also a project of Green Built Alliance, administratively. 144 00:14:24.420 --> 00:14:28.380 He's gonna get a real introduction. Why don't we go back there? 145 00:14:31.720 --> 00:14:39.920 I'm a post grad student of Self Anthropology at University of Oslo, 146 00:14:40.360 --> 00:14:44.480 and I'm here to study urban habitats actually. 147 00:14:49.600 --> 00:14:55.780 Speaker 10: I'm Peggy Saika, I work with the Asian Pacific Environmental Network and we're really here to learn on 148 00:14:55.920 --> 00:15:01.400 here about what they're doing in the Bronx, because we're an organization that's 149 00:15:01.410 --> 00:15:05.550 really trying to straddle these different areas. We're really trying to 150 00:15:05.550 --> 00:15:12.120 link a community need and kind of technical expertise and what's the kind 151 00:15:12.120 --> 00:15:17.160 of balance of community organizations being able to develop internal capacity around 152 00:15:17.160 --> 00:15:21.240 being able to do a lot of this versus really partnering and collaborating more 153 00:15:21.240 --> 00:15:26.440 with organizations who already have that expertise and capacity. 154 00:15:26.440 --> 00:15:29.700 So we're here to learn today. 155 00:15:36.660 --> 00:15:41.440 Speaker 11: I'm Cameron Yee. I work in the Transportation Project at the Urban Habitat Program. 156 00:15:43.820 --> 00:15:47.040 Speaker 12: I'm Yunsun Park and I work for a collaborative of five 157 00:15:47.050 --> 00:15:51.670 organizations including Urban Habitat Program, looking at future workforce 158 00:15:51.670 --> 00:15:58.209 issues and sustainability in the Bay Area. And, although I'm not going to be 159 00:15:58.209 --> 00:16:02.920 doing an GIS mapping for this particular project, I'm sitting in to learn about 160 00:16:02.920 --> 00:16:05.820 how it affects our communities in the Bay Area. 161 00:16:06.660 --> 00:16:11.800 Speaker 13: My name is Annie Ing. I'm involved with some program development work for Urban Habitat, 162 00:16:12.680 --> 00:16:17.780 focusing on marine education. I spend most of my week working at Golden 163 00:16:17.799 --> 00:16:21.910 Gate Law School as a clinical teacher. We have an in-house Environmental Justice 164 00:16:21.910 --> 00:16:27.080 Clinic and I also serve on San Francisco's Environmental Commission. 165 00:16:27.780 --> 00:16:33.300 I've done work with Bayview Hunters Point residents in mapping out toxics in the 166 00:16:33.309 --> 00:16:41.049 community, took advantage of a city GIS mapping product to help support 167 00:16:41.049 --> 00:16:42.780 community organizing efforts. 168 00:16:44.680 --> 00:16:51.960 Speaker 14: My name is Jung Oh Yang and I work for Asian Pacific Environmental Network and we've been using GIS to 169 00:16:51.960 --> 00:16:55.620 help in our organizing work in the Laotian community and West County. 170 00:16:55.720 --> 00:16:58.840 And like Peggy said, we're here to learn more so. 171 00:16:59.780 --> 00:17:04.200 Speaker 15: Hi my name is Audrey Chang and I also work at the Asian Pacific 172 00:17:04.209 --> 00:17:11.529 Environmental Network, and yes, we're here basically to learn more about GIS and 173 00:17:11.529 --> 00:17:19.589 how we can create an environmental risk profile around California, 174 00:17:19.589 --> 00:17:22.840 specific to Asian Pacific Islander communities. 175 00:17:24.300 --> 00:17:29.020 Speaker 16: My name is Brett Moxley. I'm presently with the California Center for Land Recycling and I'm on loan there 176 00:17:29.020 --> 00:17:31.760 from EPA Region 9's Brownsville team. 177 00:17:33.340 --> 00:17:40.920 Speaker 17: I'm Jesse Blout. I'm with the Urban Strategies Council in Oakland. And desktop mapping has been an integral 178 00:17:40.930 --> 00:17:45.760 part of our work for the past several years and policy and planning and 179 00:17:45.760 --> 00:17:51.550 advocacy. And currently, we're involved in a national project called the National 180 00:17:51.550 --> 00:17:55.300 Neighborhood Indicators Project, which is being headed up by the Urban Institute 181 00:17:55.300 --> 00:18:01.360 and we're one of eight, I think eight other agencies nationally that's involved at 182 00:18:01.360 --> 00:18:06.370 looking at the role of data at the neighborhood level, and how we can 183 00:18:06.370 --> 00:18:11.530 expand that role, and what good data is at the neighborhood level, how to 184 00:18:11.530 --> 00:18:16.540 use it. And mapping is a key component of that initiative, 185 00:18:16.540 --> 00:18:20.580 so I'll be glad to hear more about what the Bronx is doing. 186 00:18:22.020 --> 00:18:27.540 Speaker 18: My name is Ed Wyatt. I work with the Association of Bay Area Governments in Oakland. 187 00:18:27.700 --> 00:18:33.620 I'm in the Environmental Planning Department. We've used GIS is there for about 20 years and 188 00:18:33.630 --> 00:18:39.580 we've mapped originally land-use planning for the nine county region and 189 00:18:39.580 --> 00:18:43.170 we've expanded that in recent years to cover environmental problems, 190 00:18:43.170 --> 00:18:48.200 pre-earthquake planning, that sort of thing. So we're interested in expanding our GSI work. 191 00:18:49.860 --> 00:18:53.660 Speaker 19: And I'm Rimmel Pasquale with the Urban Habitat Program, 192 00:18:53.660 --> 00:18:56.720 particularly focusing on Brownfield redevelopment. 193 00:19:00.080 --> 00:19:04.980 Matsouka: Thanks and Rimmel, you might want to also just talk a little bit about what we're doing 194 00:19:04.990 --> 00:19:08.020 specifically in a more technical way around some our mapping. 195 00:19:08.020 --> 00:19:14.550 And then I think this whole issue about Brownfields is really for us a real 196 00:19:14.550 --> 00:19:19.380 pivotal place to start talking about these inner cities and sprawl 197 00:19:19.380 --> 00:19:20.940 in a very concrete way. 198 00:19:23.460 --> 00:19:29.110 Pasquale: I think, as Martha mentioned earlier when we convened the last mapping meeting, 199 00:19:29.110 --> 00:19:34.120 was that we learned that there are various uses to GIS. You know we learned that 200 00:19:34.120 --> 00:19:38.790 APAD is working on a strategic planning exercise and needs assessment and 201 00:19:38.790 --> 00:19:43.450 organizing efforts and how GIS could influence that. We heard how the Urban 202 00:19:43.450 --> 00:19:50.230 Strategies Council is using GIS to inform school reform and poverty policy 203 00:19:50.230 --> 00:19:56.800 issues in Oakland. We heard SAEJ the Southeast Alliance for Environmental Justice, 204 00:19:56.800 --> 00:20:02.050 mapping toxics and using that mapping exercise to inform its residents 205 00:20:02.050 --> 00:20:08.230 around these issues of toxicity in their communities. And we all know of Greenbelt 206 00:20:08.230 --> 00:20:12.550 Alliance's work. Their very publicized work around open space and suburban 207 00:20:12.550 --> 00:20:16.630 development and urban disinvestment issues. But what we learned from that 208 00:20:16.630 --> 00:20:22.679 meeting was that we shared, we all shared these similar philosophies around 209 00:20:22.679 --> 00:20:27.970 environmental justice, community development and social justice. And in our work in 210 00:20:27.970 --> 00:20:34.210 Urban Habitat we recognized how GIS can be used to inform our efforts to build, 211 00:20:34.210 --> 00:20:38.710 as Carl mentioned, multicultural environmental leadership in 212 00:20:38.710 --> 00:20:43.210 the Bay Area. Particularly focused in the flat land neighborhoods, which is this 213 00:20:43.210 --> 00:20:48.540 map back here which is the flat land communities of the nine Bay Area counties. 214 00:20:48.920 --> 00:20:54.300 And our work has been to focus on developing this common language 215 00:20:54.309 --> 00:21:01.450 and around issues of urban development, urban revitalization and how patterns of 216 00:21:01.450 --> 00:21:05.860 suburban development affects these communities in the flatlands, from an 217 00:21:05.860 --> 00:21:12.010 environmental, political and fiscal perspective. Now, a subset of that 218 00:21:12.010 --> 00:21:15.550 bigger analysis of the Metropolitan Scale is our work with Brownfields and 219 00:21:15.550 --> 00:21:19.260 transportation. What we're trying to do 220 00:21:19.260 --> 00:21:24.360 is figure out a way in which GIS can best be used to inform our constituencies 221 00:21:24.360 --> 00:21:28.290 about the relationships between Brownfields redevelopment and the 222 00:21:28.290 --> 00:21:33.120 abandonment of these sites, as well as with transportation investments - how 223 00:21:33.120 --> 00:21:38.059 transportation infrastructure affects the abandonment of these sites. And 224 00:21:38.059 --> 00:21:42.809 we're in the process of mapping not only the Brownfield sites in the region, 225 00:21:42.809 --> 00:21:47.669 but also mapping transportation investments and overlaying that with much of the 226 00:21:47.669 --> 00:21:53.940 socio-economic data and some other data. Not only environmental data, 227 00:21:53.940 --> 00:22:01.140 but perhaps some economic fiscal data. And hopefully, we're hoping that this 228 00:22:01.140 --> 00:22:05.180 presentation by Renario will help inform us better to carry out our work. 229 00:22:07.100 --> 00:22:11.340 Matouka: Given all that, I think 230 00:22:11.340 --> 00:22:15.480 what we're gonna hear today is a really exciting model. [video jump cut] 231 00:22:15.720 --> 00:22:23.100 In September, where he made a similar presentation. We'd show this presentation here in the Bay Area 232 00:22:23.100 --> 00:22:27.660 because the lessons that might give to us in terms of how you 233 00:22:27.660 --> 00:22:32.520 put databases together, why you put them together, how do you use them and 234 00:22:32.520 --> 00:22:38.400 what the overall goal of the whole GIS system was. Rae is currently 235 00:22:38.400 --> 00:22:42.419 the Director of the Center for Sustainable Urban Environment at the 236 00:22:42.419 --> 00:22:47.790 City University of New York and Hostos Community College. He's formerly the 237 00:22:47.790 --> 00:22:50.880 Director of the Office of Environmental Quality at the New York State Department 238 00:22:50.880 --> 00:22:55.250 of the Environment. And I think he has a tremendous amount of 239 00:22:55.250 --> 00:22:56.990 experience now in the environmental field. 240 00:22:56.990 --> 00:23:00.620 He's helped put together community environmental assessment programs. 241 00:23:00.620 --> 00:23:05.540 He's put together just overall environmental monitoring systems. He's developed 242 00:23:05.540 --> 00:23:10.160 environmental health and education programs. And I think we'll have a lot to 243 00:23:10.160 --> 00:23:13.850 say about how now to use GIS. He warned me before this session though that he's 244 00:23:13.850 --> 00:23:21.220 not a technical person so. But I think he has overseen a staff of 15 or, 245 00:23:21.220 --> 00:23:24.020 5 currently, who are responsible for doing that. 246 00:23:24.160 --> 00:23:30.020 But I think we also have come to this technical table with kind of this value 247 00:23:30.020 --> 00:23:35.510 in having this bigger picture, because technical buttons are all simple and 248 00:23:35.510 --> 00:23:38.210 once you know how to push the buttons it's one thing. I think it's knowing 249 00:23:38.210 --> 00:23:41.660 what the bigger picture is and what the overall strategy is. That's probably the 250 00:23:41.660 --> 00:23:42.740 most important thing. 251 00:23:45.600 --> 00:23:50.800 Ranier is a planner by training, an Urban Planner, and actually went to Berkeley and this 252 00:23:50.800 --> 00:23:54.400 is how I know Ray. I know at least three of us other people in this room 253 00:23:54.410 --> 00:23:58.370 actually came out of the same Department of Ranerio and at least I know two of us 254 00:23:58.370 --> 00:24:02.780 were partly his work, that's partly responsible for our getting into school, 255 00:24:02.780 --> 00:24:07.190 and becoming planners. And it's so funny to me that after ten years, 256 00:24:07.190 --> 00:24:13.850 we've come full circle and we're still doing this work. But I'm pleased to present 257 00:24:13.850 --> 00:24:18.860 Ray Hernandez and we won't go into the description of the center so much, 258 00:24:18.860 --> 00:24:22.340 and we'll let Ray do that. But maybe what we might do is have you present the 259 00:24:22.340 --> 00:24:26.360 work of the center and your work with the GIS system and then we'll follow up with 260 00:24:26.360 --> 00:24:30.290 some questions and discussion and questions answers and next steps. 261 00:24:30.860 --> 00:24:38.100 Hernandez: Okay, thank you. Wow. You guys did a fabulous job. 262 00:24:38.280 --> 00:24:43.480 It's an honor to be here, you know with people that really do good work in the 263 00:24:43.490 --> 00:24:48.770 Bay Area and it's essential that everyone work in partnership, that 264 00:24:48.770 --> 00:24:54.230 there's communication, because a lot of work can be done as a group instead of 265 00:24:54.230 --> 00:24:58.130 little single entities. And that's definitely what I've learned 266 00:24:58.130 --> 00:25:00.509 throughout my years of community organizing and 267 00:25:00.509 --> 00:25:06.089 that's what I consider my work as a community organizer still. But first of 268 00:25:06.089 --> 00:25:10.829 all, I want to thank Carl, I want to thank Martha. I want to let everyone know 269 00:25:10.829 --> 00:25:15.340 here that your N Center is very well-known in New York City. 270 00:25:15.520 --> 00:25:23.600 It's very well respected and and it's an honor to be here and thank you very much. 271 00:25:24.540 --> 00:25:30.640 Well let me start by giving a little preface to this discussion and that'll 272 00:25:30.640 --> 00:25:35.600 follow up on what Martha said. I'm not a "technical" guru here. 273 00:25:35.740 --> 00:25:41.840 My background is as an Urban Planner. While you pretend to learn some technical 274 00:25:41.840 --> 00:25:49.080 stuff in urban planning, I'm not an engineer. I'm not a GIS tech whiz. 275 00:25:49.080 --> 00:25:55.739 I'm not an environmental scientist. But what I think I've managed to do is to pull a 276 00:25:55.739 --> 00:26:01.289 little bit from each of the different fields and integrated into my 277 00:26:01.289 --> 00:26:07.199 philosophies of community empowerment. A little bit of background before I get 278 00:26:07.199 --> 00:26:11.549 into this GIS, is a little bit about the work that I did at the city, because that 279 00:26:11.549 --> 00:26:16.529 really lays the foundation for this GIS. I was an Assistant Commissioner 280 00:26:16.529 --> 00:26:21.209 under the Dinkins Administration in the New York City Department of 281 00:26:21.209 --> 00:26:28.979 Environmental Protection. And I supervised a team of 15 professionals or 282 00:26:28.979 --> 00:26:31.949 people with advanced professional degrees. 283 00:26:31.949 --> 00:26:36.239 There were like six Phd's from different areas. And what we were sort of 284 00:26:36.239 --> 00:26:42.659 working as was a think-tank, of changing DEP. They deal with water issues and 285 00:26:42.659 --> 00:26:47.579 with waste issues. And they're the last people that want any type of sub system 286 00:26:47.579 --> 00:26:53.039 change of how the agency was done. So what we did is we came up with a whole 287 00:26:53.039 --> 00:26:58.289 series of pilot projects, which really took like two years to implement almost 288 00:26:58.289 --> 00:27:03.149 each one because of the internal lobbying within the agency. It's an agency 289 00:27:03.149 --> 00:27:08.159 of 7,500 employees, so it is quite quite large. One of the projects that we 290 00:27:08.159 --> 00:27:12.770 did then, I heard so many people talk about multi media enforcement. 291 00:27:12.770 --> 00:27:17.299 The agency DEP has six different enforcement divisions. Each of these 292 00:27:17.299 --> 00:27:22.130 divisions are single media enforcement. You have an Air Inspector, you have a Hazmat Inspector, 293 00:27:22.130 --> 00:27:26.360 Asbestos Inspector, Industrial Treatment and basically 294 00:27:26.360 --> 00:27:30.080 they don't talk to each other. They're not cross trained. Their different 295 00:27:30.080 --> 00:27:33.710 databases are totally antiquated that they cannot communicate with each other, 296 00:27:33.710 --> 00:27:37.279 and they might say hello over lunch or over coffee and stuff like that but 297 00:27:37.279 --> 00:27:42.890 that's about it. So what we instituted was a pilot multimedia program where we 298 00:27:42.890 --> 00:27:49.240 actually brought in teams from the different divisions and went out and did 299 00:27:49.240 --> 00:27:54.980 basically proactive inspections instead of reactive inspections. And then the 300 00:27:54.980 --> 00:27:59.149 intent was eventually to integrate all inspectors into one division and to 301 00:27:59.149 --> 00:28:03.500 cross train all the inspectors. And a classic case for this was, for example, 302 00:28:03.500 --> 00:28:10.200 someone in in this particular community in Brooklyn called DEP for an air complaint. 303 00:28:10.200 --> 00:28:14.059 Say, oh this factory right next door to me you know is it stinks up the 304 00:28:14.060 --> 00:28:17.560 whole place, the whole community. It's really toxic and this and that. 305 00:28:17.560 --> 00:28:25.880 And when the inspector came out, by say a month later, what happened was that the 306 00:28:25.880 --> 00:28:35.299 company had put a vent that condensed the air of pollutants 307 00:28:35.299 --> 00:28:40.250 and into a solid format and it collected in a bucket. Then the bucket spilled into 308 00:28:40.250 --> 00:28:46.440 the neighbor's property and right along the walls and stuff like that. 309 00:28:46.440 --> 00:28:49.840 So by the time the inspector got out there, says look you know that's not me, I'm an 310 00:28:49.850 --> 00:28:55.309 air inspector. You you want hazmat, you know. So they had to physically, 311 00:28:55.309 --> 00:28:59.090 get another three weeks or four weeks before a Hazmat Inspector came out there. 312 00:28:59.090 --> 00:29:04.640 By that time, it was all cleaned up. They had cleaned up the whole wall, they had changed it. 313 00:29:04.640 --> 00:29:06.660 So these are some of the problems of 314 00:29:06.669 --> 00:29:12.799 inspections at the regulatory agencies. And so that was one program. 315 00:29:12.799 --> 00:29:19.820 Another program that we did is out of a consent decree. The city was sued 316 00:29:19.820 --> 00:29:25.280 by the state as part of the Clean Water Act. There was a sewage treatment plant; 317 00:29:25.280 --> 00:29:28.880 the largest sewage treatment plant in the East Coast United States was not in compliance. 318 00:29:28.880 --> 00:29:33.010 So they were fined by the state as the regulatory oversight entity 319 00:29:33.010 --> 00:29:38.300 and the state of the city had to pay a fine of $850,000. We lobbied over a 320 00:29:38.300 --> 00:29:42.100 six-month period, our unit. Both the state and the commission of DEP said, 321 00:29:42.100 --> 00:29:46.040 look keep this money in the community. They're the ones that have been screwed by 322 00:29:46.040 --> 00:29:50.210 this sewage treatment plant. Let's use it as a basis to develop innovative 323 00:29:50.210 --> 00:29:55.070 environmental programs for the community and we were successful. Then from that money, 324 00:29:55.070 --> 00:29:59.020 we use that to spurn a whole bunch of pilot initiatives in that one 325 00:29:59.020 --> 00:30:03.200 community, which is a community in Brooklyn, Greenpoint/Williamsburg, 326 00:30:03.200 --> 00:30:06.400 and I'll show you some examples of what we did. What we did is we hired a full-time 327 00:30:06.400 --> 00:30:10.940 environmental person called the Environmental Watch Person Project. 328 00:30:10.940 --> 00:30:15.960 We funded this person for two and a half years. We gave it our office in the community. 329 00:30:15.960 --> 00:30:19.700 We developed this GIS, this pilot GIS which I'm going to talk a 330 00:30:19.700 --> 00:30:25.520 little bit about in a second. And so this person now basically they have a Board 331 00:30:25.520 --> 00:30:30.740 of Directors made up of community leaders, environmental leaders 332 00:30:30.740 --> 00:30:34.550 and land use leaders. People like yourselves would be the 333 00:30:34.550 --> 00:30:40.880 oversight board for this. And now they are a 501(c)(3) and they received independent 334 00:30:40.880 --> 00:30:47.210 funding to sustain themselves. We also spent close to $250,000 335 00:30:47.210 --> 00:30:50.180 on environmental education. And instead of 336 00:30:50.180 --> 00:30:53.000 developing new curriculums, there's tons of environmental 337 00:30:53.000 --> 00:30:58.490 curriculums out there - what we did is we felt was the best thing was to 338 00:30:58.490 --> 00:31:02.870 institutionalize these programs. So what we did is we hired half time teachers 339 00:31:02.870 --> 00:31:07.550 for three schools: a high school level, a junior high school level, and at a 340 00:31:07.550 --> 00:31:11.460 grammar school level. And then these people in turn would be a train-the-trainer. 341 00:31:11.460 --> 00:31:15.380 They in turn would train the other teachers throughout the school 342 00:31:15.380 --> 00:31:20.150 district on environmental curriculums. And these are people with 343 00:31:20.150 --> 00:31:23.330 backgrounds in environmental curriculum development; that was one component. 344 00:31:23.330 --> 00:31:28.560 Another component is we've got the three major local development corporations. 345 00:31:28.560 --> 00:31:33.800 One that had dealt with Hispanics and African-Americans, another one they have 346 00:31:33.800 --> 00:31:37.800 a large Hasidic community there that dealt with the Hasidic Jewish community, 347 00:31:37.800 --> 00:31:39.680 and then there's also a large Polish community 348 00:31:39.680 --> 00:31:43.400 in there and that was the Polish and Slovak Center. And we funded a half-time 349 00:31:43.400 --> 00:31:46.310 person to basically to do train-the-trainer 350 00:31:46.310 --> 00:31:51.950 of all the community groups that that entity works with. So then after the 351 00:31:51.950 --> 00:31:55.970 funding was terminated after a year, we would somehow have these curriculums 352 00:31:55.970 --> 00:31:59.440 develop and all these programs institutionalized to carry this forward. 353 00:31:59.440 --> 00:32:04.060 We also did for the first time ever, that I think I know in the U.S., 354 00:32:04.070 --> 00:32:09.500 Accumulative Environmental Impact Assessment. We worked for two years with 355 00:32:09.500 --> 00:32:12.620 a whole bunch of technical people, the best minds in New York City, to develop 356 00:32:12.620 --> 00:32:17.600 this methodology. And I'm leaving a copy with Martha of a proposal that we 357 00:32:17.600 --> 00:32:22.420 submitted to do the same methodology for the South Bronx. 358 00:32:22.420 --> 00:32:29.870 Fortunately, we came out 12 out of 10 awardees nationally. So we're gonna try 359 00:32:29.870 --> 00:32:33.650 to resubmit it again. But this is the methodology to do cumulative environmental 360 00:32:33.650 --> 00:32:37.730 impacts. And there's a lot of problems being able to do that because the 361 00:32:37.730 --> 00:32:40.260 information is not there, the technology's there. With a GIS, 362 00:32:40.260 --> 00:32:47.140 you're able to be able to do that. And this was a model of a Dutch methodology and 363 00:32:47.140 --> 00:32:52.280 several different EPA methodologies from DC, from the Office of Research and Development. 364 00:32:54.220 --> 00:32:58.340 We also funded an Epidemiology Assessment of that 365 00:32:58.340 --> 00:33:02.810 community and we came out with two reports. We looked at about six different 366 00:33:02.810 --> 00:33:07.850 types of cancers in the community - birth defects, asthma, childhood lead poisoning, 367 00:33:07.850 --> 00:33:13.370 and we mapped all of this out. And we gave all the the descriptive 368 00:33:13.370 --> 00:33:20.210 statistics on how the whole process works for the different registries 369 00:33:20.210 --> 00:33:23.330 for all of this data and all this information. So the community has a very 370 00:33:23.330 --> 00:33:26.630 good idea of what is the state and condition of health in the communities. 371 00:33:26.630 --> 00:33:29.810 And what it showed was that in certain areas that had pockets of certain types 372 00:33:29.810 --> 00:33:34.490 of environmental cancers. And then using this study, we managed to get more 373 00:33:34.490 --> 00:33:37.670 additional funding from the Federal government to do more in-depth surveys 374 00:33:37.670 --> 00:33:42.580 to follow up on certain types of cancers. So this was a key and fundamental. 375 00:33:42.580 --> 00:33:48.860 In addition to that, we did a year-long study. We looked at how DEP does 376 00:33:48.860 --> 00:33:51.680 enforcement in this one community. No one has ever done that, 377 00:33:51.680 --> 00:33:55.480 to actually look at how a regulatory agency actually does enforcement. And we looked 378 00:33:55.490 --> 00:34:06.290 at data over a year's time - looking at older complaints, catch basins, asbestos, 379 00:34:06.290 --> 00:34:11.340 hazard materials, etc. And so many interesting findings came out of the study. 380 00:34:11.340 --> 00:34:16.550 We did bar graphs, we then did pie charts, we did maps, we mapped 381 00:34:16.550 --> 00:34:22.060 out the different complaint areas, response times with the time lines as well. 382 00:34:22.060 --> 00:34:27.650 And one very interesting phenomenon was that on the average, an Air Inspector 383 00:34:27.650 --> 00:34:33.040 took 28 days to go out on a response time. So you would call up say, 384 00:34:33.040 --> 00:34:38.680 look I got this, I can't even breathe. You know my house is on fire. You know this 385 00:34:38.690 --> 00:34:42.740 company right across the street, right? And community have been complaining 386 00:34:42.740 --> 00:34:46.370 about DEP for years. Now we have, you know, the proof is in the pudding, right? 387 00:34:46.370 --> 00:34:50.750 There's the numbers: it's 28 days and DEP had a protocol that they would come out 388 00:34:50.750 --> 00:34:54.800 within four or five days to a response. 389 00:34:54.800 --> 00:34:58.850 And the same thing for the other divisions. They were a little 390 00:34:58.850 --> 00:35:02.540 bit better, two weeks. But it gave the 391 00:35:02.540 --> 00:35:06.020 community ammunition to throw at DEP's face. You're doing all 392 00:35:06.020 --> 00:35:11.090 these cutbacks. Your priorities are not there. 393 00:35:11.090 --> 00:35:15.410 We need you to retool how DEP does enforcement, instead of this 394 00:35:15.410 --> 00:35:19.860 single media enforcement mentality; that sucker is not working. 395 00:35:22.380 --> 00:35:26.540 We also mapped out the different TRI facilities. We did a whole mapping 396 00:35:26.540 --> 00:35:29.750 scheme where we mapped it out relationship to the schools, 397 00:35:29.750 --> 00:35:35.540 playgrounds and things of that sort. And we talked about the whole TR I processed into the air. 398 00:35:37.040 --> 00:35:40.340 I mean there's a whole bunch of other stuff that we spent funding on; 399 00:35:40.340 --> 00:35:45.260 I'm not gonna bore you. Oh, pollution prevention, we spent $250,000. 400 00:35:45.260 --> 00:35:49.700 We hired a full-time Chemical Engineer, Industrial Engineer that had pollution 401 00:35:49.700 --> 00:35:54.470 prevention experience. They went out and did 50 audits of companies in that 402 00:35:54.470 --> 00:35:58.010 community, pollution prevention audits. They would go in there and say, look your using that 403 00:35:58.010 --> 00:36:01.010 type of machinery. You know that's crazy. You can get a tax 404 00:36:01.010 --> 00:36:03.830 write-off through this program, switch to this other type of machinery. 405 00:36:03.830 --> 00:36:08.570 You're using these type of expensive chemicals. First of all, you'll save money switching 406 00:36:08.570 --> 00:36:11.840 over to these other chemicals or even soap, using soap water. 407 00:36:11.840 --> 00:36:17.359 Less toxic. And they were extremely successful. And now that pilot 408 00:36:17.359 --> 00:36:22.820 has been launched internally at DEP. We also started a program to streamline the 409 00:36:22.820 --> 00:36:27.680 regulatory process at DEP. And I basically did this as a jumpstart to any type of 410 00:36:27.680 --> 00:36:34.360 reactionary backlash, because usually a lot of conservatives do that from just elimination. 411 00:36:34.360 --> 00:36:37.460 What we try to do is to make things more efficiently, 412 00:36:37.460 --> 00:36:41.150 to have a place where businesses. You're a businessman, right? You want to 413 00:36:41.150 --> 00:36:44.570 open up a certain factory, right? In New York City, you're gonna have to literally 414 00:36:44.570 --> 00:36:48.590 call 200 different places. And each time you call, you get different 415 00:36:48.590 --> 00:36:52.609 information. It's gonna take you like five years in order for you to get 416 00:36:52.609 --> 00:36:56.930 all your permits to open up a particular business. And to me that was like, 417 00:36:56.930 --> 00:37:01.220 it's ludicrous. No wonder all manufacturing 418 00:37:01.220 --> 00:37:04.940 businesses leave and go elsewhere. We needed a place 419 00:37:04.940 --> 00:37:10.040 where the business community can go and and to have one place they can get all 420 00:37:10.040 --> 00:37:16.120 of their at least environmental permits. So I put together a proposal for - 421 00:37:16.120 --> 00:37:19.780 oh basically, I didn't tell you that the Dinkins Administration, basically Dinkins lost the 422 00:37:19.790 --> 00:37:23.180 Administration. Giuliani, who's a Republican, took over New York City. 423 00:37:23.180 --> 00:37:26.420 So the new commissioner basically had no idea what environmental issues was; 424 00:37:26.420 --> 00:37:29.900 she was just a political appointee and so I made this presentation to her. 425 00:37:29.900 --> 00:37:33.800 And she loved that idea. So I said good, my pre-emptive 426 00:37:33.800 --> 00:37:37.820 strategy is working, right? So she loved that idea so much, of having a 427 00:37:37.820 --> 00:37:42.440 separate unit you know for the business community that she totally dismantled 428 00:37:42.440 --> 00:37:47.390 all of my staff, all of my unit, and she eliminated the whole mission that we had, 429 00:37:47.390 --> 00:37:52.190 and put almost all of my staff to this new business development unit. 430 00:37:52.190 --> 00:37:56.300 So what they did is they gave me the option of continuing as the Interim 431 00:37:56.300 --> 00:38:00.349 Director of this unit. The Interim Director until 432 00:38:00.349 --> 00:38:03.619 some type of political appointee would get the job. 433 00:38:03.619 --> 00:38:07.790 So I would do all the work, set this thing up so some political 434 00:38:07.790 --> 00:38:11.200 hack would come in and take over the department, right? I said thanks, but no thanks. 435 00:38:11.200 --> 00:38:13.840 So they delegated me to a little corner office, a little cubicle. 436 00:38:13.849 --> 00:38:16.930 This is the Dinkins Democrat. 437 00:38:16.930 --> 00:38:24.130 Put them out in the corner, the pasture. So what had happened was that 438 00:38:24.130 --> 00:38:29.259 I had been working basically pro bono for about three years with the Bronx 439 00:38:29.259 --> 00:38:33.970 community, because I was lobbying and turning at DEP to set up these pilot 440 00:38:33.970 --> 00:38:40.060 programs that I had done throughout the whole city, in really toxic communities. 441 00:38:40.060 --> 00:38:44.279 And I had been working with the South Bronx community. And so this 442 00:38:44.279 --> 00:38:49.119 proposal from EPA came up, a community University partnership grant, and I wrote 443 00:38:49.119 --> 00:38:54.460 the proposal on behalf of the community college. And it was to do, I'll go in a 444 00:38:54.460 --> 00:38:58.029 second with what we're gonna be doing, and they got the grant. 445 00:38:58.029 --> 00:39:01.509 And then the Dean and the President of the school then were lobbying me for 446 00:39:01.509 --> 00:39:04.020 three months to come and be the Director of their program. 447 00:39:04.400 --> 00:39:09.660 And I was going to law school part-time, so it's pretty tough to for you to 448 00:39:09.660 --> 00:39:14.890 to start up a whole project and go to law school. And plus I had a Civil 449 00:39:14.890 --> 00:39:18.880 Service position at the city, so I didn't want to lose that either. 450 00:39:18.880 --> 00:39:23.800 So I gave that up because this work was so important, so fundamental. 451 00:39:24.840 --> 00:39:29.300 And let me go into a little bit about what I'm going to be doing. 452 00:39:29.309 --> 00:39:34.869 Every other person here is working on GIS related issues. They're working, 453 00:39:34.869 --> 00:39:42.460 they already had GIS whether it be MapInfo or ArcView or ArcInfo or Maptitude or 454 00:39:42.460 --> 00:39:47.890 Atlas GIS or whatever. And all of you are using different databases for your 455 00:39:47.890 --> 00:39:52.210 own different needs, but there's so much overlap. Imagine all the cost 456 00:39:52.210 --> 00:39:55.299 efficiencies, right? If, for example, acquiring census 457 00:39:55.299 --> 00:39:58.539 information and cleaning it up, which everyone here is doing, if you could have 458 00:39:58.539 --> 00:40:01.180 one place that would do that, that everyone be comfortable that the data 459 00:40:01.180 --> 00:40:05.380 was done right. Imagine the money you would save. Imagine if you, 460 00:40:05.380 --> 00:40:08.289 instead of having for your little niche, for your little housing niche 461 00:40:08.289 --> 00:40:13.480 or economic development niche or whatever, you would have a whole huge niche. 462 00:40:13.900 --> 00:40:19.080 All the health data, all of the land use, all of the environmental data, etc., 463 00:40:19.089 --> 00:40:23.559 in a user-friendly format. It would be much more cost-effective. 464 00:40:23.559 --> 00:40:28.029 It would be much more effective in the long run and you'll be able to have people 465 00:40:28.029 --> 00:40:33.100 working together in partnerships. And that's the goal that I want out of this meeting. 466 00:40:33.100 --> 00:40:37.140 That after this meeting, a strategy can be developed where as a 467 00:40:37.150 --> 00:40:41.619 group, you guys can approach a major foundation, say we want to fund a 468 00:40:41.619 --> 00:40:46.660 year-long seeding project that would be the development of a strategic 469 00:40:46.660 --> 00:40:52.930 implementation plan for a Bay Area YGIS. And for the strategic implementation 470 00:40:52.930 --> 00:40:56.440 process we're going to have all of the major stakeholders that should be a 471 00:40:56.440 --> 00:41:01.230 part of this process. The municipal governments, the different 472 00:41:01.230 --> 00:41:06.700 nongovernmental organizations and the community-based organizations as joint 473 00:41:06.700 --> 00:41:12.430 partners in this initiative, and because all this money the foundations are 474 00:41:12.430 --> 00:41:16.630 giving out anyways. It's just they're giving out piecemeal and 475 00:41:16.630 --> 00:41:24.400 and it's not really as efficient as it can be. 476 00:41:25.380 --> 00:41:32.700 So basically first of all, for this presentation I want to apologize because 477 00:41:32.720 --> 00:41:39.720 you know too much technology here. The the resolution was not as good as yesterday. 478 00:41:46.960 --> 00:41:49.120 See, I told you I'm not a tech person. 479 00:41:57.460 --> 00:42:05.500 The name of our center is the Center for a Sustainable 480 00:42:05.500 --> 00:42:12.820 Urban Environment, and I have a card which has my number. You could pass it 481 00:42:12.820 --> 00:42:16.460 around and I have brochures that could give out to people later on. 482 00:42:16.900 --> 00:42:21.760 But basically, we are part of the City University of New York, but we're 483 00:42:21.760 --> 00:42:30.160 actually headquarters in a community college in the South Bronx. Okay, what I'm 484 00:42:30.160 --> 00:42:33.490 basically going to talk about is this first component up here of our missions. 485 00:42:33.490 --> 00:42:37.330 The technical and information tools. What we're also 486 00:42:37.330 --> 00:42:41.260 developing is a two-year Associate's Degree in Environmental Studies. 487 00:42:41.260 --> 00:42:44.740 It's going to be the first program in the City University System to have an 488 00:42:44.740 --> 00:42:50.770 Associate's Degree in Environmental Studies. And we expect that program to 489 00:42:50.770 --> 00:43:00.280 start in a year and a half, in the fall of '98. We are, as I said, we also have a 490 00:43:00.280 --> 00:43:03.730 Library at our center, an Environmental Library for the community to use and 491 00:43:03.730 --> 00:43:11.130 obviously besides our GIS as well. We have four full-time staff members. 492 00:43:11.130 --> 00:43:18.790 Besides myself, to do GIS, you really need people who know GIS. You just can't 493 00:43:18.790 --> 00:43:23.710 have someone trained on a laptop to do it at the level that we're doing it. 494 00:43:23.710 --> 00:43:27.910 All these three people have Master's degrees in Environmental Geography. All of these 495 00:43:27.910 --> 00:43:30.480 three people have been trained in ArcInfo 496 00:43:30.480 --> 00:43:36.790 and know GIS exceptionally well. Julie also has another Master's degree in 497 00:43:36.790 --> 00:43:40.180 Urban Planning and is finishing up her PhD in Environmental Geography. 498 00:43:40.740 --> 00:43:50.060 And she has 20 years of land use experience for different urban planning groups and agencies. 499 00:43:50.060 --> 00:43:54.340 And I lured her from DEP; she was the Assistant Director of the 500 00:43:54.340 --> 00:43:57.900 Planning Unit at the New York City Department of Environment Protection. 501 00:43:57.900 --> 00:44:03.520 Linda also has that Master's degree in GIS and Geography and I lured her from EPA. 502 00:44:03.520 --> 00:44:10.640 She was a GIS Analyst at the EPA regional office. 503 00:44:10.650 --> 00:44:15.820 And Giovanni, I lured him from the Department of City Planning; he was in their GIS 504 00:44:15.820 --> 00:44:20.860 division at City Planning. So basically, you need the right horses to pull this 505 00:44:20.860 --> 00:44:25.860 wagon train, and we got really good people for this. 506 00:44:25.860 --> 00:44:33.180 Just a little flavor of the Bronx, the GIS that we developed. The GIS that we developed is 507 00:44:33.190 --> 00:44:41.250 for Bronx County. The Bronx is roughly 42 square miles; it's 1.2 million people. 508 00:44:41.250 --> 00:44:47.350 So it's very dense community. And just to give you a little bit of the 509 00:44:47.350 --> 00:44:52.990 flavor, this is the location of it. If you can see the 510 00:44:52.990 --> 00:44:57.500 northern tip area and that's the size of the borough. And this is Manhattan right in here. 511 00:45:00.340 --> 00:45:03.280 Sorry again about the colors because I need to work on the pixels here. 512 00:45:03.280 --> 00:45:08.020 But basically, the population change between 1980 and 1990, there has been a tremendous white flight. 513 00:45:08.020 --> 00:45:13.960 Roughly 150,000 white residents left the Bronx versus 150,000 514 00:45:13.960 --> 00:45:18.580 Hispanic residents entered the community and roughly maybe 20,000 515 00:45:18.580 --> 00:45:25.710 African-Americans enter. But since 1990, there's been a tremendous explosion of 516 00:45:25.710 --> 00:45:30.300 more white flight and more Hispanic residents coming into the Bronx. 517 00:45:34.220 --> 00:45:37.980 The population basically at that time 1990 - and this is the undercount, 518 00:45:37.990 --> 00:45:41.530 we all know about the undercounting problems - roughly 44% of the population was 519 00:45:41.530 --> 00:45:49.480 Hispanic, 30% was African American, Whites were roughly 23%, Asian Americans 520 00:45:49.480 --> 00:45:54.510 interestingly are now close to 5% of the Bronx. Big growth of basically Southeast 521 00:45:54.510 --> 00:46:01.300 Asian community in parts of the Bronx. Again compared to all the 522 00:46:01.300 --> 00:46:06.670 different boroughs - boroughs of the counties in New York City - the Bronx has 523 00:46:06.670 --> 00:46:12.490 the worst of all the stats. Percent female-headed households. It has 524 00:46:12.490 --> 00:46:18.460 the highest percent of all the borough's. Median household income. It has the 525 00:46:18.460 --> 00:46:20.520 lowest median household income of all the boroughs. 526 00:46:20.720 --> 00:46:25.800 And again, by far. Percent person below the poverty level. 527 00:46:25.800 --> 00:46:31.860 Again, the highest percent. High school graduates. It has the lowest percent of high 528 00:46:31.860 --> 00:46:37.290 school graduates of all the boroughs. A person is unemployed. And again, 529 00:46:37.290 --> 00:46:41.190 this statistic is so screwed up because I would say roughly 1/4 of the 530 00:46:41.190 --> 00:46:46.440 Bronx community doesn't even qualify to be in this employment category here the 531 00:46:46.440 --> 00:46:52.250 way that the feds dictate unemployment rates. The GIS that we developed, 532 00:46:52.250 --> 00:46:56.670 basically we would develop that of EPA funding. So the present information I'm 533 00:46:56.670 --> 00:47:01.140 gonna be relating to everyone here, we're focusing on the presentation to 534 00:47:01.140 --> 00:47:04.470 environmental data. Just a little bit about environmental problems of Bronx. 535 00:47:04.470 --> 00:47:09.119 It has 67 waste transfer stations. It handles more solid waste than the entire New 536 00:47:09.119 --> 00:47:14.400 York City Department of Sanitation. Let me repeat that again, or shouldn't I? 537 00:47:14.400 --> 00:47:18.390 It has New York City's, and the whole metropolitan areas I should say, only 538 00:47:18.390 --> 00:47:22.800 medical waste incinerator. It burns 48 tons of medical waste within 539 00:47:22.800 --> 00:47:28.619 two blocks of schools and public housing. Has the Northeast's largest 540 00:47:28.619 --> 00:47:32.609 sludge pelletization plant. Basically what that is is we all know what sludge is. 541 00:47:32.609 --> 00:47:36.600 Basically is the the crap that comes out of your house. 542 00:47:36.600 --> 00:47:40.619 And in New York City, has the sewer system too of the catch basins 543 00:47:40.619 --> 00:47:45.960 when it rains and all the junk goes in there, right? What that does is there's 17 544 00:47:45.960 --> 00:47:50.130 sewage treatment plants in New York City. 70% of that sludge, basically after they 545 00:47:50.130 --> 00:47:52.620 take out all the water and throw it out and dump it into the river. 546 00:47:53.140 --> 00:47:59.940 What's left there, all that crap gets, literally, get shipped to the South Bronx. Okay? 547 00:47:59.940 --> 00:48:02.750 Now, what the hell are they gonna do with that in the South Bronx? They burn it. 548 00:48:02.750 --> 00:48:08.760 They burn it, okay? And then all the water basically and all those chemicals 549 00:48:08.760 --> 00:48:12.950 that are in - because New York City gets a lot of the sludge from 550 00:48:12.950 --> 00:48:17.400 manufacturing catch basins. So there's a lot of illegal discharges right into the 551 00:48:17.400 --> 00:48:21.660 catch basins, and so, there's tons of heavy metals in that sludge. 552 00:48:22.320 --> 00:48:29.060 So basically, that community has to deal with that stench and that odor continuously. 553 00:48:29.060 --> 00:48:33.200 And there was no EIS done, because environmental impact studies, 554 00:48:33.200 --> 00:48:37.180 because it was a pseudo city-owned facility. 555 00:48:37.860 --> 00:48:43.540 It has the second highest concentration of TRI facilities outside of this Brooklyn community. 556 00:48:43.540 --> 00:48:46.940 Toxic Release Inventory. Those are facilities which have permits to 557 00:48:46.950 --> 00:48:52.260 emit, I think was a 10,000 pounds of toxins a year. And also are companies 558 00:48:52.260 --> 00:48:55.319 that are 10 or more employees. But the problem with that is these are self 559 00:48:55.319 --> 00:49:02.430 reporting databases. Also it's been found to have the highest rate of 560 00:49:02.430 --> 00:49:07.260 asthma in all of New York City, all of New York State. And to compare asthma 561 00:49:07.260 --> 00:49:10.710 rates nationally, it's very difficult to do. But basically, people say it has 562 00:49:10.710 --> 00:49:16.440 probably the worst asthma rate of any community in the country. 563 00:49:16.440 --> 00:49:20.680 And also has an outrageous rate of childhood lead poisoning. 564 00:49:22.880 --> 00:49:29.720 So it's really, it's a toxic dumping ground. Just look at asthma in general. 565 00:49:30.340 --> 00:49:35.460 This is the Bronx relative to the other boroughs. And this is Mott Haven, 566 00:49:35.460 --> 00:49:41.369 which is the out of all those community areas, it's the toxic dump yard. And this is one 567 00:49:41.369 --> 00:49:44.240 particular school which is surrounded by a whole bunch of toxic facilities. 568 00:49:44.680 --> 00:49:49.619 For example, that sludge plant and and like six of these TRI facilities. 569 00:49:49.619 --> 00:49:53.359 This school is like almost around it, surrounding these facilities. 570 00:49:53.359 --> 00:50:00.000 Basically those are the different hospitalization rates. Now let me talk 571 00:50:00.000 --> 00:50:04.769 about some of the funding. We've gotten funding from the US EPA, 572 00:50:04.769 --> 00:50:12.569 the Office of Environmental Justice, to fund this GIS initiative. And the first thing that I 573 00:50:12.569 --> 00:50:16.980 did is that, we're not a technical group that's gonna be just doing what the hell 574 00:50:16.980 --> 00:50:21.539 we want to do. This was done in coordination with the community. 575 00:50:21.539 --> 00:50:26.190 So we have a Community Advisory Board of 40 community-based organizations. We have an 576 00:50:26.190 --> 00:50:31.079 Executive Committee of 11 individuals which are representative from these 40 577 00:50:31.080 --> 00:50:36.180 community-based organizations. They are actually our steering committee for our center. 578 00:50:38.220 --> 00:50:42.940 We initiated three technical advisory committees. 579 00:50:42.940 --> 00:50:46.160 Basically, this is a who's who of the GIS people in New York City. 580 00:50:48.200 --> 00:50:53.900 The Chairperson of that is actually the head of GIS at EPA Region 2, Harvey Simon. 581 00:50:53.900 --> 00:50:59.880 And everybody then working in GIS in New York City has attended our 582 00:50:59.880 --> 00:51:03.960 Technical Advisory Committee meetings. We also formed a Health Information System 583 00:51:03.960 --> 00:51:06.960 Technical Advisor Committee meeting. And this is key, because one of the things 584 00:51:06.960 --> 00:51:11.970 that we want to do is we want to get as much as of the health data in the Bronx 585 00:51:11.970 --> 00:51:16.800 County into our GIS. So we got individuals from the State Department of 586 00:51:16.800 --> 00:51:20.940 Health, from the City Department of Health, from all of the major hospitals in Bronx 587 00:51:20.940 --> 00:51:25.320 County and all the people that basically do health research on Bronx County. 588 00:51:25.740 --> 00:51:30.800 This was a historic meeting that we had. It was roughly 40 people that were at that 589 00:51:30.810 --> 00:51:36.180 meeting. And basically the state agreed to have us make a presentation to their 590 00:51:36.180 --> 00:51:39.330 commission and all their assistant commissioners, of how we can acquire all 591 00:51:39.330 --> 00:51:42.780 the state health data and the city health data. And this is unprecedented, 592 00:51:42.780 --> 00:51:45.150 because they normally do not give this information out because of 593 00:51:45.150 --> 00:51:48.720 confidentiality issues. But people that work in GIS there's different ways of, 594 00:51:48.720 --> 00:51:51.150 for example, you have an address: 26 Maple Street.. 595 00:51:51.150 --> 00:51:54.900 You can geocode and I'll explain a little bit what that means, 596 00:51:54.900 --> 00:52:00.930 basically that address and give it a block number. So you'll be able to map it out at the 597 00:52:00.930 --> 00:52:06.680 block level, not at the specific address where that's located or even worse than that. 598 00:52:06.680 --> 00:52:08.700 If that's even a problem, you could map it at the zip code level, 599 00:52:08.700 --> 00:52:12.460 for example, but at least you'll be able to have some data to play with. 600 00:52:13.660 --> 00:52:20.520 But certainly at the block level you can definitely address confidentiality issues. 601 00:52:20.800 --> 00:52:24.740 And so, it was a historic meeting. Everyone said definitely, 602 00:52:24.750 --> 00:52:29.100 we're gonna work as a team, as a partner and that's key. To work towards that common 603 00:52:29.100 --> 00:52:33.420 goal because everyone there had problems with health data. Every time you 604 00:52:33.420 --> 00:52:38.940 had to do foil request, or you had to buy a box of candies, or some flowers, 605 00:52:38.940 --> 00:52:42.600 or some type of underneath payment or something to get data, 606 00:52:42.600 --> 00:52:46.920 you from people and it took you a year to get the stuff in. And it's a hassle to 607 00:52:46.920 --> 00:52:51.420 work with with health data. So everyone was there as 608 00:52:51.420 --> 00:52:57.220 as a partner with the same vision. The last one - Environmental Public Policy TAC. 609 00:52:57.680 --> 00:53:04.780 We organized, I won't say progressive but I would say, innovative land-use, 610 00:53:07.240 --> 00:53:12.440 people working on environmental and land-use issues in New York City. And we formed a task force to 611 00:53:12.450 --> 00:53:16.350 come up with recommendations to how to change the language decision-making 612 00:53:16.350 --> 00:53:20.850 process in New York City. And we're going to be publishing that document in the 613 00:53:20.850 --> 00:53:25.320 late spring of next year. And these are, we didn't invent the wheel, 614 00:53:25.320 --> 00:53:28.710 what we took was basically great ideas that people have been working for years 615 00:53:28.710 --> 00:53:32.780 as little single entities. And as a team, we're putting it together in one packet. 616 00:53:33.520 --> 00:53:39.660 And I'll say it in front of the camera. What we have is the Environmental 617 00:53:39.660 --> 00:53:43.980 Representative from all the Democratic candidates; they're running for mayor 618 00:53:43.980 --> 00:53:52.140 next year. You could slice that, edit that. So basically, whoever is going to 619 00:53:52.140 --> 00:53:57.240 get the Democratic nomination next year, that environmental person will be 620 00:53:57.240 --> 00:54:01.950 an integral person in this process. So their recommendations will be part of 621 00:54:01.950 --> 00:54:05.640 their platform as an environmental platform. In the past, the Democratic 622 00:54:05.640 --> 00:54:10.680 candidates have not had a system-wide comprehensive environmental platforms. 623 00:54:10.680 --> 00:54:15.450 They had certain policy positions. Oh we're for you know filtration, we're for this or 624 00:54:15.450 --> 00:54:19.380 we're for that. You know this is a whole strategy to change land-use in New York 625 00:54:19.380 --> 00:54:21.560 City, right from the get-go. 626 00:54:36.300 --> 00:54:42.580 In terms of project components, we did not get funding from EPA to do an actual GIS. 627 00:54:43.080 --> 00:54:47.900 What we did get funding for was, I'll do it very quickly, a series of Right to Act workshops. 628 00:54:47.900 --> 00:54:50.680 And for example, one workshop we had was on asthma. 629 00:54:51.390 --> 00:54:56.000 We had eight medical doctors. We had the Head of Emergency Medicine from Lincoln 630 00:54:56.010 --> 00:54:59.610 Hospital, which is a huge institution in the South Bronx. They had 16,000 631 00:54:59.610 --> 00:55:03.840 individuals hospitalized for asthma last year. 632 00:55:05.000 --> 00:55:12.200 16,000 individuals. So basically, these are like the top 633 00:55:12.210 --> 00:55:15.820 people on asthma research dialoguing with community folks, 634 00:55:15.820 --> 00:55:18.910 general people who don't know anything about asthma. 635 00:55:18.910 --> 00:55:23.420 We didn't have presentations and rhetorical discussions. No. 636 00:55:23.420 --> 00:55:25.450 What is asthma? How do I get it? How can I avoid it? 637 00:55:25.450 --> 00:55:28.960 Plain stuff. And it was hard for these people to put 638 00:55:28.960 --> 00:55:32.590 these discussions at that level, but it was as essential 639 00:55:32.590 --> 00:55:35.830 because no one is doing it. And we videotaped this stuff so then we 640 00:55:35.830 --> 00:55:39.460 could have it as a resource later on. I mean this common sense stuff, 641 00:55:39.460 --> 00:55:43.260 but nobody does this stuff. And it was great; we had 250 people there. 642 00:55:44.110 --> 00:55:48.960 We had it in an auditorium in Hunts Point, that toxic, heavy toxic community in a Junior 643 00:55:48.970 --> 00:55:52.990 High School. It was wonderful. We had a Right to Act workshop on the Clean 644 00:55:52.990 --> 00:56:01.090 Air Act, how citizens can be involved in the whole permitting of companies. 645 00:56:01.090 --> 00:56:05.680 Under the Clean Air Act, now there's these new regulations for the 189 646 00:56:05.680 --> 00:56:09.400 hazardous pollutants. That stuff is still being developed, the implementation 647 00:56:09.400 --> 00:56:12.490 plan at EPA and at the state level. We're teaching residents 648 00:56:12.490 --> 00:56:17.410 right now how you can work with the companies in your area and identify what 649 00:56:17.410 --> 00:56:20.530 type of technologies they already have, what they're gonna be putting in. 650 00:56:20.530 --> 00:56:26.200 How are you able to address the air pollution quality issues. We had also 651 00:56:26.200 --> 00:56:32.020 presentations on land use planning, land use policy. We also had a presentation on 652 00:56:32.020 --> 00:56:35.520 OSHA issues. We had a regulatory workshop on OSHA. How it works, 653 00:56:36.020 --> 00:56:41.080 the whole process and like five other ones that I'm not gonna go into, 654 00:56:41.080 --> 00:56:46.330 but that's one component. The other component is we did an Asthma Train the 655 00:56:46.330 --> 00:56:51.160 Trainer program. We developed this big thick book; I wasn't gonna carry it, it was too heavy. 656 00:56:51.160 --> 00:56:55.840 But anyways like a Bible of what is asthma and how do you get it, 657 00:56:55.840 --> 00:56:59.770 how do you treat it, all for the layperson. We got it from like 50 different 658 00:56:59.770 --> 00:57:03.820 sources, little articles, and bilingual some of the stuff. 659 00:57:03.820 --> 00:57:07.540 Some were for kids, for little kids to read you know for asthma. 660 00:57:08.380 --> 00:57:11.760 Resource: where do you go for asthma? Tons of stuff. 661 00:57:11.770 --> 00:57:18.340 And then we developed a manual, a teacher training manual which was filled 662 00:57:18.340 --> 00:57:21.730 up with experiences of the Bronx, of the community. So it would have, example for 663 00:57:21.730 --> 00:57:25.780 you are in PS 48 in Hunts Point. You have this type of facility 664 00:57:25.780 --> 00:57:29.140 across the street from you. What do you if you...? 665 00:57:29.140 --> 00:57:33.480 So it's very specific information on their community. 666 00:57:33.480 --> 00:57:37.860 What we did is we took 30 individuals representing 30 different 667 00:57:37.869 --> 00:57:43.119 community-based organizations from all of Bronx County. Over a 40-day period, 668 00:57:43.119 --> 00:57:54.550 they received 30 hours of training on asthma. And they in turn were then 669 00:57:54.550 --> 00:57:59.200 responsible for having 5 train-the-trainer sessions where they in 670 00:57:59.200 --> 00:58:03.880 turn train other people of at least 10 people each. So like 50 people, 671 00:58:03.880 --> 00:58:09.609 each of them are responsible for training. And they kept that beautiful book and 672 00:58:09.609 --> 00:58:15.070 the training manual. So what this does is that this institutionalizes asthma 673 00:58:15.070 --> 00:58:20.140 education at the community-based level. So now it's not like you have 674 00:58:20.140 --> 00:58:23.880 some crazy person say, oh that company is giving me asthma. It's that one! That's the one! 675 00:58:23.880 --> 00:58:25.900 It's a much more complicated phenomenon. 676 00:58:26.880 --> 00:58:30.640 And it really is it's an empowering 677 00:58:30.640 --> 00:58:35.300 tool and process for the community. So that was this initiative. 678 00:58:35.580 --> 00:58:39.100 Then the other part is that we said to EPA, we're gonna do two reports. 679 00:58:39.280 --> 00:58:43.140 One report was we're going to be doing the same complaints report that we did in 680 00:58:43.150 --> 00:58:46.270 Brooklyn that I talked a second about. We're gonna do that for all the Bronx, 681 00:58:46.270 --> 00:58:48.010 except that we're gonna use 2 years worth of data. 682 00:58:48.010 --> 00:58:52.540 The second stuff is we're going to be analyzing the TRI, Toxic Release Inventory, 683 00:58:52.540 --> 00:58:57.400 facilities and mapping that out. But what that does is by doing that 684 00:58:57.400 --> 00:59:03.970 it gives us the impetus to develop the GIS. Okay, so let me go quickly if I can get a 685 00:59:03.970 --> 00:59:08.420 show hands, how many people here do not know what a GIS is or how a GIS 686 00:59:08.420 --> 00:59:13.760 functions and some of the basic terminologies? Okay. All right. 687 00:59:15.420 --> 00:59:20.780 Every time I show this presentation here to the GIS gurus that 688 00:59:20.780 --> 00:59:23.080 work with me they say, Ray, GIS is more than that. 689 00:59:23.080 --> 00:59:27.800 But basically this is conceptually to get an understanding. 690 00:59:27.940 --> 00:59:32.380 Basically, if you could think of 3 different pieces to a GIS, even though it has more. 691 00:59:32.380 --> 00:59:37.450 One is that it's a database system, like the normal d-base 692 00:59:37.450 --> 00:59:41.140 programs where you store huge amounts of data. 693 00:59:41.600 --> 00:59:45.950 Another component is a mapping component, that you can actually get that data and 694 00:59:45.950 --> 00:59:51.020 make beautiful maps like you saw. Those wonderful maps that were circulating around. 695 00:59:51.020 --> 00:59:55.420 Please take a look at those maps. Those are great. And then the other stuff 696 00:59:55.430 --> 01:00:00.650 is that you could do statistical analyses and also spatial analyses. 697 01:00:00.650 --> 01:00:04.580 Like for example, you could do air dispersion modeling, you could do water plumes, 698 01:00:04.580 --> 01:00:13.260 soil plume dispersions. And so it's a tremendous powerful tool. 699 01:00:14.100 --> 01:00:18.320 The system, to get an idea of how a GIS works, maybe this kind of 700 01:00:18.320 --> 01:00:21.200 redundant for some of you, but basically you can layer different 701 01:00:21.200 --> 01:00:26.390 types of maps - one on top of each other. For example: hydrology, topography, 702 01:00:26.390 --> 01:00:31.760 land use, utilities, soil, streets, districts, parcels and all your data sets would 703 01:00:31.760 --> 01:00:35.660 come from these different types of categories that you would associate to 704 01:00:35.660 --> 01:00:38.780 the different maps. Let me explain to that in a second, 705 01:00:38.780 --> 01:00:42.560 how all of that would work. The system that we've done, 706 01:00:42.560 --> 01:00:46.360 that we utilize to develop this system, first of all as I said earlier, it's at the whole 707 01:00:46.360 --> 01:00:51.670 county level. The base map that we utilized assuming, let me go into the software, 708 01:00:51.670 --> 01:00:59.180 we're using ArcInfo. ArchInfo is a UNIX based software and not 709 01:00:59.180 --> 01:01:03.080 anyone off the street can go and use that. You have to 710 01:01:03.080 --> 01:01:06.360 have a lot of rigorous training in using the system. It's a programming language. 711 01:01:06.840 --> 01:01:11.840 It's extremely powerful. It's the most powerful GIS software that's 712 01:01:11.840 --> 01:01:16.730 been developed. And Esri who manufactures that is the number one GIS company in the 713 01:01:16.730 --> 01:01:21.380 world, my understanding by far. And in order to 714 01:01:21.380 --> 01:01:25.670 do this type of system, you can't do it at the PC level. You have to do it 715 01:01:25.670 --> 01:01:29.000 at this UNIX based level and then download that information. 716 01:01:29.920 --> 01:01:33.920 The software that we're using at the community level is called ArcView which 717 01:01:33.920 --> 01:01:35.840 is the Windows version of... [sound cuts off]