Bay Area Region
Battered BART working on its image
Muni and other Bay Area transit agencies aren't reveling in the Federal Transit Administration's rejection of $70 in stimulus funding for BART's Oakland Airport Connector project, but it's good news for the 19 struggling districts that get to split up the funds.
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MTC Pledges $10 Million for New Affordable Housing Fund
OAKLAND, Calif.-- It makes good sense to place compact, affordable housing at transit hubs, and now the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) is giving a substantial financial boost to the cause. MTC today approved a commitment of up to $10 million through its Transportation for Livable Communities program to help establish a new revolving loan fund to finance land acquisition for affordable housing development in select locations near rail and bus lines throughout the Bay Area.
Discuss Options for Setting Bay Area's Target For Curbing Greenhouse Gases
03/10/2010 - 2:00pm
03/10/2010 - 4:00pm
What: A public meeting to learn about and comment on options for setting a "target" or goal for reducing greenhouse gas emissions from cars and light trucks for the San Francisco Bay Area.
Who: The Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) and the Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG) are hosting the workshop in conjunction with the California Air Resources Board (CARB), the Bay Area Air Quality Management District and the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission.
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SEC Summer Quarterly Meeting - Civil Rights Claims and Federal Investment
06/11/2010 - 9:30am
06/11/2010 - 12:00pm
Civil Rights Claims and Federal Investment: Opportunities for Low-Income Communities and Communities of Color
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SEC Quarterly Meeting - The Foreclosure Crisis: Opportunities for a New Economy
03/12/2010 - 9:30am
03/12/2010 - 12:00pm
The Foreclosure Crisis: Opportunities for a New Economy
For our next Social Equity Caucus quarterly meeting, we will be broadening our understanding of the foreclosure crisis to illuminate strategies by which community groups and the public sector can work together to move from reaction to action, seizing the moment to make concrete gains in economic equity for the most burdened communities in the Bay Area.
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Obama Administration Denies BART $70M in Stimulus Funds Citing Civil Rights Failures
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 12, 2010
Obama Administration Denies BART $70M in Stimulus Funds, Citing Civil Rights Failures Funds Shift to Bay Area Transit Operations
Federal Transit Administration Chief Peter Rogoff today [February 12] sent a letter to BART and MTC rejecting BART’s corrective action plan to address Title VI violations found in an investigation prompted by a complaint from civil rights, transportation and environmental advocates. Due to action taken by MTC at its January meeting, the funding will now be reallocated to transit projects across the Bay Area, where it is desperately needed to preserve jobs and transit service.
In the first action of its kind, the Obama Administration has pulled $70 million in federal stimulus funds from a proposed Oakland Airport Connector (OAC) project due to multiple civil rights violations by the Bay Area Rapid Transit district (BART). The strong action underscores a recent promise made in the President’s State of the Union address to continue “prosecuting civil rights violations.”
A paper trail to BART
How the deal fell through: An annotated guide to the Oakland Airport connector
November 2000 – Alameda County voters approve a sales tax for a list of possible transportation improvements. A new link from the Coliseum BART station to the Oakland International Airport is included in this list. TransForm and other nonprofits begin working with BART on the project.
July 2001 – BART completes a draft of the Environmental Impact Statement on a new link from the Coliseum BART station to the Oakland International Airport. BART Proposes a train which would cost $200 million to build, and then $7.3 million annually to operate (by 2020). For comparison, the existing bus service would cost around $2 million to operate annually.
March 2002 – BART completes the final Environmental Impact Report. It finds that a train on it’s own dedicated track is the preferred option. The BART board votes to build it.
FTA Kills Plan to Use Stimulus Funds for Oakland Airport Connector
$70 million will be redistributed for operating funds at cash-strapped local agencies; fate of $422 million more also committed to the project is unclear.
One clear outcome of the distribution of stimulus funds to transit agencies across the country was a marked preference for using the money to increase capital spending, rather than a ramp up of operations. Even as cities from New York to Denver have invested hundreds of millions of federal dollars in renovations and new line construction, they have cut spending on existing services. This has led to a peculiar situation in which transit agencies seem to be willing to trade bus drivers for construction workers.
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On Eve of Stimulus Anniversary, Obama Administration Denies Funds Due to Civil Rights Failures
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 16, 2010
Contact: Wynn Hausser, 650-619-1032
On Eve of Stimulus Anniversary, Obama Administration Denies Funds Due to Civil Rights Failures $70M taken from BART project, Distributed among Bay Area Transit Agencies
San Francisco, CA – In the first action of its kind, the Obama Administration has
pulled $70 million in federal stimulus funds from a proposed Oakland Airport
Connector (OAC) project due to multiple civil rights violations by the Bay Area
Rapid Transit district (BART). The strong action underscores a recent promise
made in the President’s State of the Union address to continue “prosecuting civil
rights violations.”
Related stories:
U.S. Blocks $70 Million for Rail Line in Bay Area
SAN FRANCISCO — The Federal Transit Administration pulled $70 million in stimulus money from a planned expansion of the commuter rail service here Tuesday after it found that the local rail agency had not appropriately studied the project’s impact on low-income and minority residents.
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