Gearing Up for Action Training
Do you live close to a bus lot?
Do you have trucks that run their engines and speed in your neighborhood?
Are you worried about your kids playing close to a busy intersection or train tracks?
Do you kids and neighbors have asthma?
Upset about all the potholes in your neighborhood?
Join us for Gearing Up for Action!
Folks who sign up will:
- Meet others from across the city who are struggling with similar problems
- Identify the impacts of living in a neighborhood with trucks, trains and buses
- Identify the people who make decisions about transportation hubs
- Identify solutions and plan for ACTION!
The training is once a month from January till June from 5:30-7:30. The training dates are:
January 15th
February 19th
March 19th
April 16th
May 21st
June 18th
Graduation!
WHERE: Primeria Igelsia Unida Metodista 62 Virginia Street, Buffalo Children are welcome and snacks will be provided
Interested in Joining? Download an application or contact Natasha at 852-3813 or natasha@cacwny.org
Urgent Update on Tonawanda Coke
We are on the front page of the Buffalo News today because Tonawanda Coke is trying to bully us. But we will not be intimidated.
We recently received a subpoena demanding we turn over seven years’ worth of documents. They want every email and letter we’ve ever sent to anyone in the government, our air monitoring results, our educational materials, our documents on every other company we’ve ever spoken about in Erie and Niagara County, our Facebook posts, twitter messages and much, much more.
We refused to turn over these documents. And now the company is taking us to court and will try to force us to turn them over. This is no doubt an attempt by Tonawanda Coke to squash the only people who ever held them accountable.
Victory at Tonawanda Coke
We began as just a few people sitting around a kitchen table in Tonawanda. We knocked on doors, tested the air, met with elected officials and rallied at the gates of the plant. We held the government’s feet to the fire and demanded they hold Tonawanda Coke accountable. And it worked. Tonawanda Coke was raided, a leader at the plant was indicted in federal court, the company signed a consent order and benzene levels in the town have dropped by 86%.
We Must Continue the Fight!
The Clean Air Coalition is an important institution in our community that holds polluters accountable and makes Tonawanda a healthier place to live, work and play. We stand with ordinary residents who are sick of cleaning the soot off their windowsills, who close their windows from noxious odors, who worry about their kids’ exposure to toxic chemicals and who don’t want to give their tax dollars to companies that are poisoning workers and the community.
We are winning. We are winning despite the fact that Tonawanda Coke has deep pockets and the best attorneys’ money can buy. We need your help to ensure that the Clean Air Coalition can continue its important work. We’ve had your back. Now we need you to get ours.
WE NEED YOUR HELP NOW
We are powered by people! Support us today to ensure that peoples voices will always be heard!
Make your contribution of $20, $50, $100, or $200 here.
Lois Gibbs Fellowship 2013 Announced!
We are proud to to announce our third year of the Lois Gibbs Fellowship, a selective, 9-month program that provides a diverse set of emerging citizen leaders with the tools and training to build sustained political will to improve the environment and health in Western New York neighborhoods.
Over the course of one year, the Lois Gibbs Fellowship provides rich training opportunities in the following areas:
- Developing effective messages and media outreach
- Strategic campaign planning and power mapping
- How to build your base
- Holding elected officials accountable
- Grassroots lobbying
- New media
- Corporate and Government research
The program is named in honor of Lois Gibbs, a grassroots environmental justice advocate from Western New York. She is best known for her successful campaign to relocate families living on top of a toxic waste dump in Niagara Falls. Lois Gibbs is emblematic of the program’s philosophy: ordinary individuals can make an extraordinary difference when they organize.
Expect a new twist on this year’s fellowship. We’ve extended our program, which means more trainings and resources for social and environmental justice leaders! We are also excited to welcome back past graduates of the program, to share their experiences and offer expertise from their on the ground campaigns.
To download an application click on this link: Lois Gibbs 2013 Fellowship Application
Or call us at 852-3813 to have us mail you an application.
Applications are due January 15th. – DEADLINE EXTENDED UNTIL JANUARY 30th!
Questions? Visit our site, or call Rebecca at 852-3813.
Member Monday October 29th Canceled
Our member Monday this month has been canceled. Thanks to all of our members who have been generously donating their time to label envelopes, fold newsletters, make turn out callsand help with all the other important work! We will see you the last Monday in November!
Public Hearing on Amigone Crematory Move
| The smell from Amigone was so bad I would close all my windows and had to cover my face with a sheet- I still felt so sick I couldn’t sleep.” Werkley Ave. Resident |
On November 7th at 2pm at the Erie County Legislative Chambers, 4th Floor of Old County Hall, 92 Franklin St. Buffalo NY.
The Amigone Funeral Home and Crematory is currently located at 2600 Sheridan Dr. in Tonawanda.
Since the crematory began operation 20 years ago, residents living near the site filed numerous complaints to the Town and Attorney General about heavy smoke, odors, noise coming from the crematory – all which decreased their quality of life.
Due to these continuous complaints from residents regarding their quality of life, the Attorney General’s office issued an Interim Assurance of Discontinuance (AOD #12-072) to the facility on July 25th of this year, which ordered a 6 month shut down, and encouraged the relocation of the facility to a suitable site.
The Amigone family has petitioned Erie County to move the crematory to 55 Cooper Ave. directly behind families on Two Mile Creek Rd.
Crematories do not belong in neighborhoods. Join us on Nov. 7th to tell the Erie County Legislature to stand up for the quality of life for regular working families.
Call your Erie County representative to SOLVE the PROBLEM NOT MOVE the PROBLEM, and relocate Amigone crematory away from homes and families. Find out who your representative is, and their phone number here.
Public Meeting!
¡? Sabias que?!
El Departamento de Conservación Ambiental de Nueva York esta instilando monitores de aire para probar la calidad del aire en el West Side por el Peace Bridge.
El Departamento de Conservación Ambiental viene a nuestra próxima reunión para dar nos una presentación sobre como trabajar los monitores, que van a medir, y como van a informar la comunidad sobre las resultas. La reunión es el miércoles, 24 de octubre a las 6pm en el sótano de la librería Niagara.
Si tienes preguntas, llame a Natasha al 716-852-3813.
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Did you hear?!
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation is installing 2 Air Monitors on Buffalo’s West Side in order to measure the neighborhood’s air quality impacted by the Peace Bridge.
After 6 months of hard work, and one rally involving two neighborhoods, the DEC announced that it will place two air monitors on Buffalo’s West Side.
Join us on Wednesday, October 24th at 6pm in the basement of the Niagara Branch Library for a presentation from the DEC on how the air monitors will work, what they will measure, and how the information will be made available to the public.
!Y hablamos espanol!
Wine & Chocolate Tasting at Choco-Logo
Wine & Chocolate Tasting at Choco-Logo, 141 Broadway
Wednesday, October 17th 5:30 pm $25
Experience downtown Buffalo’s only chocolate factory and shop after hours!
Take a private tour of the working factory with handmade chocolate samples along the way. Learn about chocolate making techniques and trends. Enjoy premium confections carefully paired with red and white wines. A memorable and delicious evening for a good cause.
Tonawanda PhotoVoice Exhibit Opens October 11th
Our community’s health doesn’t just depend on the choices we make as individuals, our health and well-being is affected by where we live, work and play. The Clean Air Coalition’s photography exhibit, Tonawanda Through Our Eyes captures the social and environmental determinants of health in Tonawanda.
The exhibition is the result of months of hard work by Tonawanda residents. The work began with a community mapping exercise where residents plotted where they lived, and identified locations that promote and harm public health. The group identified similarities and differences between each neighborhood. Residents then headed into their community to capture images of Tonawanda, both t
he good and the bad, that community members live day after day.
The exhibition will be used to educate the public about the connections between the environment and public health. It will also be used as a forum to call on elected officials to implement policies to reduce pollution in neighborhoods. Tonawanda Through Our Eyes is part of the Clean Air Coalition’s PhotoVoice Program, an innovative participatory photography and storytelling method that allows communities to represent themselves and crate tools for advocacy to achieve positive social change. PhotoVoice was initiated by the Coalition last year by residents on Buffalo’s West Side.
The gallery opening is Thursday, October 11th at 6PM at the Brighton Library, 999 Brighton Road Tonawanda. To RSVP call 852-3813 or email Danielle@cacwny.org.
The exhibition is sponsored by the Environmental Protection Agency’s CARE Program, a broad based partnership to reduce toxins in Tonawanda.
Brown Bag Lunch Series
Join us for lunch! Each month we’re chowing down with the leaders who are running incredible campaigns to make their communities healthier – and you’re invited!
PLEASE NOTE SEPTEMBER’S LUNCH HAS BEEN DELAYED AND WILL NOT TAKE PLACE ON SEPTEMBER 11TH.
Clean Air Coalition Applauds Attorney General Schneiderman for Action Against Amigone
The Clean Air Coalition of Western New York applauds Attorney General Eric Schiderman for defending Tonawanda resident’s rights to breathe clean air.
“Today marks a significant turning point in the fight against the Amigone Crematory,” said Rebecca Newberry of the Clean Air Coalition, “Eric Schneiderman and the Attorney General’s team have taken decisive action to ensure our communities are healthy and safe.”
The Coalition and area residents requested the Amigones shut down the crematory in May due to overwhelming odor and noise complaints, but the Amigone family denied the request. As a result, the Coalition called on the NYS Attorney General to take legal action against the crematory. Residents collected over 300 postcards from neighbors to Schneiderman requesting action and held a press conference on July 9th that drew over 50 neighbors.
“We will finally be able to enjoy our property, hold picnics, family gatherings, and open our windows and breathe fresh, clean air.” Ron Labuda, Werkley Resident
The Coalition backed residents because of the quality of life issues and potential negative health impacts of the crematory. The EPA has stated that: “the incineration of bodies, body parts, infections and chemotherapeutic wastes collectively represent the second largest know source of dioxin and mercury pollution in the US”.
Read the Attorney Generals official statement here.