To see the rest of the letter click on the link below, but first: The RTP/SCS planning effort -- to show how SoCal is going to meet the targets for reducing GHG emissions through land use policy and transportation investment -- is underway now, with a workshop scheduled for SOUTH LA TOMORROW. What will the impact be on low-income communities along the 710 freeway, for example, and along the freight corridors that travel north from the ports and east through San Bernardino County -- a corridor where diesel emissions have long been a problem?

SCAG is a powerhouse of data and analysis and could monitor the impact of the plan and its proposed investments, much like the Bay Area Metropolitan Transportation Commission does with its "Communities of Concern" project. SCAG could look at the disparities between investments in these communities and in the rest of the region -- by analyzing the availability of opportunities for active transportation and any safety concerns, the jobs-housing balance/imbalance, the degree of accessibility to the places people need to go, whether there's displacement of poor people, performance targets, rural concerns, air quality health impacts along freeways, whether plans are in place for climate adaptation and resilience.

SCAG is responsible for doing an environmental justice analysis, has already held 3 workshops, and is organizing focus groups to gather more input on what kind of an EJ analysis it should do. READ THE LETTER HERE.