GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — People who live in Grand Rapids' 49507 zip code can now monitor the quality of the air they breathe in real time, right from their phones.
It's part of a relatively new program brought to the area by the company Just Air.
There are seven air quality monitors in the Grand Rapids 49507 zip code, and seven more in the downtown area.
“We’re really coming at this with an environmental justice lens. We want, especially in communities that have been overburdened with pollution and under-resourced with solutions, to be able to find the data they need to craft the breathing environment they need,” JustAir Project Manager Nate Rauh-Bieri said.
Rauh-Bieri installed the air quality monitors in gathering spaces as identified by community members in the 49507. Their locations range from the Burton and Division intersection to Martin Luther King Park.
A full map of the locations of the air monitors, as well as air-quality reports can be found here.
“Pollution has often been pushed to the same place people have also been pushed. People of color have been overburdened with pollution and underresourced with solutions. We’re trying to remediate that with JustAir, ” Rauh-Bieri said.
Ned Andree lives in the 49507, in the Boston Square neighborhood, and works with the Community Collaboration on Climate Change, which goes by the name "C4."
C4's entire mission is climate justice and representation in the BIPOC community.
“We want people to find out what air quality is, and then take air quality action. You get the information, so you can say, 'oh, today’s a day where we want to wear masks when we’re outside. Or maybe we stay indoors,'” Andree said.
He says the 49507 neighborhood is only the beginning.
“We’re trying to get air quality monitors all over the city of Grand Rapids," Andree said.
He explained to FOX 17 that the 49507 has more brownfields and fewer trees than other Grand Rapids neighborhoods, making it an essential community to monitor for air quality.
"We don’t have the tree canopy to reduce the heat and filter air,” Andree explained.
According to Andree and Rauh-Bieri, climate justice starts with acknowledging past wrongs, followed by efforts to make them right.
“All these intersectional justice issues come together in these historically redlined neighborhoods— Air quality, water quality and land quality. It’s all intersectional,” Andree said.
JustAir says they will collect data carefully for the next few months before identifying any trends to share with the community.
