Introduction continued
Understanding the Impact of the Pandemic We started planning for this project in 2019, unaware that our inquiry would soon be caught up in an extraordinary period of upheaval and uncertainty that brought the urgency of community-engaged research and action to the fore. Soon after the global pandemic disrupted everyday life, the brutal murder of George Floyd sparked a sustained period of protest and long-overdue reckoning with the legacies of structural racism, on the Central Coast and across the globe. The wildfires ravaging California with escalating levels of destruction have become visceral reminders of the price we are paying and will continue to pay for climate inaction. Thus, what started as a study of the corrosive impact of inequality on economic growth expanded to include something more: a broader inquiry into the intersecting inequities that have shaped the Central Coast experience of this still-unfolding confluence of public health, systemic racism, and climate change-related crises, and that continue to make us vulnerable to their consequences. In this report, we focus on trends and data points that are indicators of long-standing inequities that required attention well before the time of pandemic. It combines an analysis of quantitative data from publicly available national sources, administrative data from local agencies, and knowledge and experiences from community members and leaders interviewed for this project. The data from national sources are from 2018 and so do not yet reflect the impacts of COVID-19; however, the data are updated periodically so that progress can be tracked over time and are available nationally so that the region can be compared to other regions, states, and the nation. What this confluence of crises has made evident is the urgent need to think expansively, and long-term, about moving toward the just and equitable region we seek to achieve. Action is needed to address the immediate health and well-being of people and communities disproportionately affected by the pandemic, systemic racism, and climate injustice. But new thinking is also needed to reshape the institutions, policies, and priorities that have taken us down a pathway towards widening divides and that now stand in the way of a much-needed change of course.
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TOWARDS A JUST AND EQUITABLE CENTRAL COAST
Action is needed to address the immediate health and well-being of people and communities disproportionately affected by the pandemic, systemic racism, and climate injustice.
