Transportation Justice and Housing Program
Action Alert: Support Transit Operations!
Please ask your Congressperson to co-sponsor H.R. 2746 (Rep. Carnahan – MO)
This bill would help avert service cuts and fare hikes by transit operators by restoring federal funding for transit operations in larger cities. The measure also provides incentives for states like California to restore the funding for transit operations that was recently eliminated because of state budget deficits.
Talking Points Below (Feel free to cut and paste into an email.)
AC Transit considers deep service cuts
Dateline:
06/25/2009Source:
San Francisco Chronicle AC Transit, which already is set to raise fares July 1, now is looking at slashing service by nearly 15 percent to help balance the books.
The proposed service cuts include eliminating some lines, truncating the routes of others and running some buses less frequently. The plan also calls for expanding some routes to fill in where other lines were dropped.
In all, the plan calls for cutting 905 hours of operations on weekdays and 458 on weekends. One bus running for one hour equals one hour of operation. The district now operates 6,700 hours of service on weekdays and 3,400 hours on weekends.
Attorney General joins in suit to invalidate Pleasanton's 29,000-unit housing cap law
Dateline:
06/25/2009Source:
Pleasanton Weekly News
City Council vows to fight legal attack on measure voters approved in 1996
Brown Sues Pleasanton Over Housing Limit
Dateline:
06/24/2009Source:
San Francisco Chronicle Wednesday, June 24, 2009
(06-24) 18:14 PDT PLEASANTON -- State Attorney General Jerry Brown joined a
legal challenge Wednesday to Pleasanton's 13-year-old limit on housing
construction, arguing that the East Bay community is defying state housing
laws and adding to urban sprawl, vehicle use and greenhouse gas emissions.
"Pleasanton's draconian and illegal limit on new housing forces people to
commute long distances, adding to the bumper-to-bumper traffic along
(Interstates) 580 and 680 and increasing dangerous air pollution," Brown
Federal Transportation Bill Reauthorization Campaigns
Transit Riders for Public Transportation
Urban Habitat has joined civil rights and environmental justice groups across the country to support the launch of a national campaign to ensure that the 2009 Congressional re-authorization of the $500 billion Federal Surface Transportation Act (FSTA) funds prioritizes the needs of transit riders in low-income communities of color, which form the backbone of urban transit ridership. This effort, called Transit Riders for Public Transit (TRPT), is being organized and led by the Labor/ Community Strategy Center.
Related items:
Action Alert: Help Stop the Wasteful Oakland Airport Connector
Give back the $70 million in Federal Stimulus funds to desperate transit operators so they can provide for our everyday transportation needs!
What: BART Board Meeting
When:Thursday May 14th, 9am
Where: BART's Board Room: 344 20th Street, 3rd floor (at corner of Webster Street) in Downtown Oakland in building w/ Longs called the: Kaiser Center Mall
Don’t waste half a billion dollars of our taxes on a project we can’t afford
At a time when AC Transit, Muni, and BART are all so broke they are talking about raising fares and cutting service to pay their bills, BART wants to build an extension to the Oakland Airport so expensive to construct that it will cost $12 on top of BART fare to get to the airport. This extension would further divide up East Oakland, without providing residents with transportation (it would only stop at BART and the Airport) or long term jobs.
Community Groups Hold AC Board to It’s Promise: Youth, Senior and Disabled Monthly Passes Will Not Be Raised
On Wednesday March 11th, dozens of East Bay bus riders, community leaders, and transit advocates waited through a four-hour AC Transit meeting to urge the Board to keep its promise to voters that the price for discounted monthly passes for youth, seniors and the disabled would stay at their current cost for at least 2 years if Measure VV passed. VV was overwhelmingly approved last November.
In spite of the Board’s pledge, AC’s staff had proposed that the AC Transit Board back-out on its promise and nearly double the youth monthly pass from $15/month to $28/month and the senior/disabled monthly pass from $20/month to $28/month to help cover AC’s growing budget shortfall.
After over an hour long debate by the Board about just how bad AC Transit’s finances are (the deficit over the next two years could be anywhere between $35 million and $60 million), the Board unanimously rejected the staff recommendation to raise the youth, senior and disabled monthly discounted passes, citing the promise they had made to voters and bus riders last Fall. They also recognized that raising these passes would create incredible hardship for the riders least able to afford any increase at this time and that it would raise very little additional revenue for AC. (And because of the budget situation, the Board did vote to raise the adult cash fare from $1.75 to $2.00 and the youth/sr/disabled cash fare from $.85 to $1.00.)
ACTION ALERT: Prevent Massive Fare Hikes, Service Cuts and Lay-offs!
ACTION ALERT! ACTION ALERT! ACTION ALERT!
Prevent Massive Fare Hikes, Service Cuts and Lay-offs at AC Transit,
MUNI, BART and all of the Transit Operators
Tell MTC – Don’t Make Another Racist and Classist Funding Decision,
Don’t Gut Funding for Transit
MUNI, BART and all of the Transit Operators
Tell MTC – Don’t Make Another Racist and Classist Funding Decision,
Don’t Gut Funding for Transit
WHEN: Wednesday, February 25th, 9:30 AM – 11:30AM
WHERE: MTC Offices at 101 8th St. Oakland, CA (Across the street from the Lake Merritt Bart Station)
Yes on V-V Letter to the Editor
Yes on VV
MAYBE YOU'VE HEARD the expression "Half the battle is showing up." We all know it's true, especially for school success, and public transportation plays a key role in San Leandro students' academic achievement.
Yes on the Measure VV Event
Dateline:
10/15/2008Source:
KPFA
Over 50 students, parents, bus riders, and people
representing community and faith organizations gathered at the busiest bus hub
in 
y to bus riders.
If passed by voters in November, Measure VV will fill the gap in AC Transit’s operating budget – preventing service hikes and major budget cuts. If Measure VV doesn’t pass, then the consequences could be devastating to AC Transit’s over 200,000 daily riders- many of whom have no other transportation option and include youth, seniors, working people, and people with disabilities.
Listen to KPFA Wendall Harper's report on the event click Here or listen to KCBS' Bob Melrose click Here
