Congratulations, Houston!
You’ve had a problem, and now you’ve been formally recognized for it:
HOUSTON — Houston has joined Los Angeles to become the second place in the nation classified as having a severe smog problem, the Environmental Protection Agency said Thursday.
The EPA reclassified the smog problem in the eight-county Houston area from moderate so that the region has an extra nine years to meet federal health standards set in 1997. The state was supposed to meet the requirements in 2010 but now has until 2019.
The EPA no longer considers the 1997 standard safe for public health, but agency spokeswoman Catherine Milbourn said progress toward it will protect the public and bring regions closer to meeting stricter requirements.
I’ve traveled around the U.S., and even made pit-stops in Houston and L.A., our fourth and second largest U.S. cities, respectively. I can say this without any exaggeration that the two places in America which I have heard bad-mouthed the most are Houston and Los Angeles. They are clear favorites for haters, with Houston probably having a small edge, despite it’s smaller size.
When people talk about these cities, their faces get all mashed up and eyebrows furrowed and they sometimes can’t even get the words out of their mouths. And this is over years of just talking to other regular folks – long before I was ever a bicycle nut. During my recent stint in Austin, I talked about heading (back) to Houston because I had a potential job opportunity down there, and folks would say, “No!” and “F**k that.” Or, “Sorry, man. We can not let you go there.”
I’d spent a few days there a few years ago and that was pretty much my initial impression, so I can’t say I was surprised to hear this stuff. It kind of reminded me of Atlanta, but take away all the greenery, and put down strip malls and asphalt for as far as the eye could see.
I rode my bike through parts of L.A. one time, heading north to south, and it reminded me of scenes from Mad Max. Again, even before I was a bike nut, I could tell that something was very wrong with that place. I almost fell off my bike when I noticed big oil rigs off the coast. Unbelievable.
I feel bad for all the good people of Houston who have been trying to do the right thing for years, only to have their attempts thwarted by the Houston oil people and the politicians in the relatively-clean-aired Texas capital of Austin. It’s not fair.
It’s not fair to the bike people. It’s not fair to all the kids and adults suffering miserably from asthma. It’s not fair to all the kids who are getting sick and dying early from unnatural diseases brought about by unhealthy, car-dominated lifestyles. It’s not fair to the children who have yet to be born, who will suffer miserably from toxic air quality for the first twenty years of their lives—probably just long enough to give them cancer that won’t show up until they’re in the prime of their lives. The scale of the tragedy is almost incomprehensible. And Gov. Rick Perry, the EPA, the Houston business community, and plenty of others share the blame.
But it’s not time to give up. Places like Houston and Los Angeles, which are so car-dominated that its residents can barely breathe, need our help. Even if it’s an email or a phone call to the people most responsible for suffocating those cities.
And advocates and activists in those cities need not lose heart—you can bet that if you were not there doing your work, things would be even worse. All you can do is keep fighting.
