What is a good neighbor?<\/p>\n
After he was cross-examined by the attorneys, the community members granted party status questioned Santora \u2014 and challenged his repeated assertion that he was a good neighbor.<\/p>\n
T.L. and Crystal Lucky are professors at Villanova University and pastors at Sword of the Spirit Church, which has been located on Union Avenue since 2003. The church is next door to Santora\u2019s property.<\/p>\n
Though they commended Santora for the improvements he has made to the property, they warned him about the optics of his proposal.<\/p>\n
\u201cTypically, communities of color bear the brunt of these types of facilities,\u201d T.L. Lucky said.<\/p>\n
Crystal Lucky confronted Santora about his intentions.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know you don\u2019t know who we are because, as you were talking earlier, you don\u2019t even know our names,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Though Santora was apologetic, their next exchange, when she asked if he would want a facility like this in his neighborhood, made him defensive.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t buy a house in an industrial center. No, I would not want it. And I wouldn\u2019t buy a house in an industrial center,\u201d Santora said.<\/p>\n
Paul James, a senior pastor at the CareView Community Church across the street from both the property and the Luckys\u2019 church, echoed the sentiment of the other pastors.<\/p>\n
James said something like this would not happen in Upper Darby\u2019s whiter neighborhoods, like Drexel Hill.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are just some places that white folks know that they can\u2019t do certain things,\u201d James said.<\/p>\n
As the meeting reached its conclusion, state Rep. Margo Davidson, who represents the area, spoke out against the application, saying that Santora has been using Upper Darby as a dump site. She urged the zoning board to deny the application.<\/p>\n
After the hearing, WHYY News reached out to several of the parties involved. Robinson, Santora\u2019s attorney, declined to comment.<\/p>\n
Gibbs, who is representing Yeadon, talked about his client\u2019s environmental justice concerns.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeadon is a predominantly African American community. Historically, what has happened is that these types of industrial polluters are situated incredibly close to predominantly African American communities,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd I think that science will bear out that there\u2019s some correlation between the proximity of industrial sites and some of the comorbidities that exist in the African American community.\u201d<\/p>\n
The legacy of environmental racism<\/p>\n
Environmental racism is not rare across the United States, research shows. A 2018 study<\/a> shows that toxic waste sites, for example, are not evenly distributed throughout communities and that Black communities are usually the ones faced with hosting them.<\/p>\n