Neighbors Spotlight: April Clisura
April Clisura is a longtime resident of Pittsburgh’s Greenfield neighborhood. Over the past year, April has become a leader of the Southwest PA Neighbors for Clean Air initiative by organizing residents of the Greenfield neighborhood around air quality concerns. Although her group started with only a few members, they have completed the 9-month Neighbors curriculum and are continuing to meet and advocate for cleaner air in their neighborhood and in all of Allegheny County. Group members have written letters to county officials, attended rallies and events, canvassed with Clean Air Council, and had letters to the editor published in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette calling for action on a number of air quality issues.
To better get to know April and the Neighbors program, we asked her a few questions:
How did you get involved with the Southwest PA Neighbors for Clean Air?
“In the summer or 2017, I began to notice a horrible smell day after day coming in my open windows. At first I thought it must be coming from my next door neighbor’s house because they had just cleaned out their basement and put out a lot of junk in the yard. Soon I realized it was coming on the wind and I could smell it in various places around the neighborhood. I made my first complaint phone call to ACHD. Coincidentally, I saw a flier in my church for an educational presentation about “local sources of pollution in the Squirrel Hill area” that piqued my interest. Soon after, Imade my connection with Clean Air Council.”
Were you concerned about air quality prior to Southwest PA Neighbors for Clean Air or are you new to air quality activism?
“I would call myself a newbie. Prior to 2017, I had awareness of environmental justice issues and the anti-fracking campaigns through my general work in nonprofit management and community development. But I did not realize how much fracking would come to affect my county or its connection with the petrochemical industry. I also did not realize how the poor air quality of Allegheny County is connected to rather flagrant violations of the permits and regulations governing the major industrial facilities.”
How did you build your Southwest PA Neighbors for Clean Air group?
“I was lucky that several people were posting comments on Nextdoor.com about the same smells in the air that I was noticing. I was able to message those people and invite them. Starting with only 3 of us at the first meeting, we continue to form the core of the Greenfield Neighbors for Clean Air one year into the process. We have had 3 additional people regularly join us and 3 or 4 other people have attended one meeting. Some came from word of mouth referrals. We continue to experiment with communication and meeting formats that will bring people to meet up instead of being inactive on our email list. At the same time, myself and some of my group members have engaged in really constructive dialogues with our neighbors on Nextdoor.com. I feel like a lot of education is happening there.”
What are your hopes going forward in the Neighbors initiative?
“From what we have seen on our neighborhood social media, there are dozens of people, who after moving to Pittsburgh, are noticing the smell of the air or are experiencing chronic allergies or respiratory irritation for the first time in their lives. Getting people from angry to action is a challenge. Hopefully more and more people will learn that they can take a simple action, like calling the health department or reporting on the SmellPGH app. I also want to see a paradigm shift where we end the too-heavy reliance on weather patterns to disperse pollutants in the air and finally stop pollution at the source. Polluters need to pay the true cost of doing business. Another paradigm shift would be to align trade and industrial unions with public health advocates and climate change watchdogs to refocus economic development on clean jobs and to pressure dirty facilities to pollute much less.”
If you are interested in learning more about the Southwest PA Neighbors for Clean Air, contact Dave Smith (412-954-8494, dsmith@cleanair.org), Kelly Yagatich (412-723-7055, kyagatich@cleanair.org) or Jay Walker (412-532-9194, jwalker@cleanair.org).
