Sources

Regional Existing Conditions Analysis
This EJ Element model language document was informed by findings from SBCTA/SBCOG’s regional existing conditions analysis in 2022, which included both a qualitative stakeholder engagement process and a quantitative data regression analysis. Below are brief summaries of the findings. For more information on the SB 1000 Toolkit, please see the SB 1000 Toolkit website.

Stakeholder Engagement Process
In May through July of 2022, National Community Renaissance (National CORE) and staff from SBCTA/SBCOG conducted a series of focus group meetings with community-based organizations, government agencies, and other stakeholders interested in promoting favorable health, equity, and/or environmental justice outcomes in communities across San Bernardino County.
All participants were asked to identify the most pressing environmental justice and equity issues facing communities across San Bernardino County. Based on responses, three broad areas of concern emerged:

1. Built environment and public health: Participants were primarily concerned with air pollution and negative noise and traffic impacts emerging from the logistics and distribution industry. A lack of access to healthy foods and to high-quality transit were also identified as core environmental justice challenges related to the built environment.
2. Local community capacity building: A second area of concern centered around the public decision-making process and the need for community capacity and civic engagement resources. Participants pointed to language barriers, “codeswitching,” and complex public systems as factors that discourage public participation and limit the impacts of public outreach.
3. Wealth building opportunities: A third area of concern focused on limited jobs and access to high growth and high pay industries, posing barriers to economic mobility for many San Bernardino County residents. Participants described the phenomenon of “brain drain” as a detrimental impact to the county’s employment market – there are limited, local opportunities for young and educated residents, forcing them to leave the region for areas with better, higher-paying jobs.

Data Analysis
In 2022, the Center for Social Innovation at the University of California, Riverside conducted a Regional Equity Study that was commissioned by SBCTA/SBCOG. The intent of this quantitative regression analysis was to identify barriers to equity within the built environment faced by Priority Equity Communities, from both a county-wide as well as at the sub-regional level. The analysis assessed a wide variety of socioeconomic factors that influence health and equity outcomes including the following: housing cost burden, food access, childhood poverty, and proximity to warehouses and freight truck routes.
The Regional Equity Study found that the southwest corner of the county (i.e., West Valley) had the most environmental disadvantages across the board. Specifically, four census tracts in San Bernardino, Muscoy, and Victorville were found to have the greatest disadvantage. The regression analysis also identified the following key indicators relevant to housing cost burden: household income, life expectancy, CalEnviroScreen 4.0 score, asthma rate, poverty rate, linguistic isolation, and educational attainment. Finally, food access was found to be a significant concern in both urban and rural areas.