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Supervisor Chen highlights environmental justice struggles in District 11 at Climate Action Day
Summary
San Francisco Supervisor Cheyenne Chen used Community Climate Action Day to call attention to pollution, contaminated land and high vulnerability in District 11 neighborhoods and urged local climate action and immigrant protections.
Supervisor Cheyenne Chen told volunteers at McLaren Park that climate action and environmental justice are central concerns for District 11, which she said includes neighborhoods facing high pollution and socioeconomic burdens.
"Climate action, it's care to our community. Climate, it is an environmental climate action, It's environmental justice," Chen said. She listed neighborhoods in and near the park'including Excelsior, Outer Mission, Visitacion Valley and Bayview Hunters Point'and described multiple local vulnerabilities.
Chen told attendees that District 11 residents "are some of the highest environmental and socio economic burdens in San Francisco" and said many families live near major highways and contaminated sites. She also tied the remarks to recent law-enforcement actions she described as affecting immigrants, saying community protection and climate protection are linked.
The supervisor's comments supplied local context for the volunteer event: organizers framed planting and stewardship work as also serving environmental justice objectives in neighborhoods that participants said face higher pollution levels and greater heat and health risks. Chen emphasized intergenerational stakes: "I'm fighting for my children when we talk about climate actions," she said.
The discussion at the event was advocacy-oriented rather than a formal policy debate; no formal board vote or ordinance was proposed during the remarks. Chen urged volunteers and officials to maintain focus on affected residents while implementing volunteer projects and city programs.
Clarifying details provided at the event included Chen's statement that District 11 "actually has the highest numbers of seniors and children 14" (as stated at the event) and that several neighborhoods experience high air pollution and proximity to highways, which she described as increasing vulnerability to climate impacts and health harms.
Speakers and organizers encouraged volunteers to consider equity in plantings and outreach; the Climate Action Corps fellow who spoke later described outreach in multiple languages and working through trusted neighborhood organizations to reach impacted residents.
The event combined community mobilization with repeated calls for policy and program attention to local environmental burdens; Chen's remarks aimed to center equity in the relaunch of volunteer climate activities.
