B.isk Atwlytis, l/ol. 17, No. 2, 1997 Neighborhood Quality, Environmental Hazards, Personality Traits, and Resident Actions Michael Greenbergr and Dona Schneidert R?cci\ed Mut 16, 1996: rcvised Dece,nbet )0, 1996 A survey of 798 New Jersey residents examined relationships among residents' neighborhood activities, perceptions of neighborhood quality, trust of experts, support for rebuilding cities and equal rights, and degree of optimism. Neighborhood activities increased with lack of trust and optimism. These personality characteristic measures were folded into multidimensional constructs that included Iocal environmental hazards, respondents' ratings of their previous neighborhoods, and some demographic variables. Pessimism and valu€s that support equal rights and rebuilding cities were weakly associated with poor quality neighborhood ratings. KEY WORDS: Neighborhood activism; neighborhood quality; optimism; trustl values; hazards 1. INTRODUCTION Brown, Edelstein, Freudenberg, and others have written with great sensitivity and insight about local leaders who have fought to redress local environmental problems.(r.6 ') We have leamed a great deal about activ- ists' anger, resolve, and techniques. But detailed por- traits of participants, no matter how well composed, are not a substitute for a more systematic analysis of factors linking people to their immediate environments. We need to compare participants in neighborhood protection to nonparticipants in order to be able to generalize about the distinguishing characteristics of activists. The purpose of this paper is to repot the results of field studies that examined the association of resident actions to protect their local neighborhoods and assess- ments of their neighborhood qualiry with indicators of optimism, trust, and values, We had two research ques- tions: L Are indicators of personality, such as trust in experts and scientists, values that suppoft govemment intewention to rebuild cities and protect equal rights, and dispositional optimism associated with an indivi- dual's propensity to take action in their own neighbor- hood and their evaluation of neighborhood quality? 2. If trust, values, and optimism are associated with neighborhood actions and quality ratings, are they also Nongovemmental organizations, such as the United Church of Christ's Commission for Racial Justice, the Citizen's Clearinghouse for Hazardous Waste, the Na- tional Toxics Campaign, and Enyironmental Action, have become a powerful moral symbol, a source of tech- nical support, and a growing legal force for grassroots environmental actions in the United States.('i) National organizations, however, cannot possibly address all the environmental hazard problems that exist in neighbor- hoods densely packed with factories, transportation, and people.tsr Given the all but elimination of meaningful urban policies in the United States, recent changes to the federal welfare and health care programs, devolution of power from the federal to the state and local levels, and growth of income disparities in the United States, urban neighborhoods need more than ever to deyelop their own leaders who can protect the local public health and en- vlronment 'Bloustein School of Planning and Policy and New Jersey Craduate Program in Public Health, Rutgcrs University New Brunswick, New Jersey 08901- 1958. M 169 0212'11J2t91t0400-01695t2,50/l O lttT Socicry for Risk Analysk