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Transportation funding is in crisis. The national Transportation Bill expires on September 30th, 2009. Because of the economy, local and state sources for transportation funding are drying up as well. Congress is gearing up to take a fresh look at transit. This time around, let’s make sure the bill has enough funding to build the mass transportation system we need for equitable, accessible, and sustainable transportation solutions. Join us in Urging Congress to pass a Surface Transportation Authorization Act (STAA) with more money for public transit, more accountability and more jobs for those who need them.

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DO YOU HAVE A VISION OF WHAT PUBLIC
TRANSPORTATION SHOULD BE?

ARE YOU A METRO RIDER?

VOICE-Buffalo has been asked to participate in a major
Transit Service Restructuring & Fare Study.

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East Metro Assembly, St. Paul Area; Great River Interfaith Partnership (GRIP) Assembly, St. Cloud Area; West Metro Assembly, Minneapolis Area

St. Paul, MN – More than 400 citizens from across Minnesota gathered Monday night at Mt. Olivet Baptist Church to send a message back to Washington with their members of congress.

“We need a public transit system that helps people get to where jobs actually are,” said East Side St. Paul Resident Junail Anderson. “I just want to work and ensure a better life for my children.”

In attendance to hear the moving testimony of concerned Minnesotans were Congressman Keith Ellison, and staff from the offices of Congressman Oberstar, Senator Klobuchar, Congressman Eric Paulsen, and Senator Al Franken.

“This is about providing equal access to jobs through efficient funding of public transit,” said Lisa Aaman, lead organizer with host organization ISAIAH.  “When we the people make a public investment in our transit system, we must make sure that the system is working for all residents – not just a few.”

Also released at the meeting were findings from a new report by ISAIAH, PolicyLink, and Organizing Apprenticeship Program that revealed:

• Gross underrepresentation of minorities and women in 2900 jobs created by newly funded transit programs.
• Not nearly enough dollars have been allocated for new public transit systems
• Lack of transparent reporting by MNDOT on the goals of achieving minority, and disadvantaged business participation.

This grassroots rally was one of many cosponsored by Transportation Equity Network (TEN) that are scheduled to take place across the country over the next month.  “The goal of these rallies is to ensure that there is equality in the transportation reauthorization bill,” said TEN Executive Director Laura Barrett.

Additional rallies are scheduled for Los Angeles, CA (9/23); and St Louis, MO (10/10).

MORE² (Metro Organization for Racial & Economic Equity), Kansas City Metro

MORE²’s public meeting (August 27) on transportation began and ended with a piper piping,  and everything that happened in between was something for the 325 in attendance to toot a horn about.

Working to improve transportation within the metropolitan Kansas City area was called a “sacred conversation,” by Rev. Michael Brooks.   Public transit was described as a “sacred space” and a “place to come together as a community” by Rev. Bobby Love.

Interspersed throughout the meeting were people telling  “truth spoken in the form of stories,” as Cynthia Jarrold put it.  These stories, told by the people who lived them, were the faces and the real life situations of  the transportation issue.

There was Deb, who is disabled and needs to be near a bus stop.  She pointed out the discrimination in job ads that require applicants to have “dependable forms of transportation.”   Employers, however, often do not seem to think public transportation fills that requirement.

Bill is a house cleaner whose car is out of commission.  He now uses a bike and the bus and has had to cut back on his workload.

Barbara is blind and now has to pay $17 each way to get to her job because of transportation cuts in bus service.

Rep. Emanuel Cleaver II (D-MO) spoke to the group about Kansas City’s new Green Impact Zone http://www.house.gov/cleaver/Cleaver Green/greenzone.html, a product of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and an unprecedented coalition of stakeholders, including local government, community agencies, neighborhood organizations, universities, private utility interests and small contractors.  This Green Impact Zone has been referred to as a Poster Child on steroids for the stimulus package.   Included in the Green Zone is a new nine-mile long bus rapid transit (BRT) line on Troost Avenue, which will provide better public transportation in the city’s densest corridor.

Representatives from Sen. Kip Bond’s (R-MO) and Rep. Dennis Moore’s (R-KS) offices made commitments in behalf of Bond and Moore to meet with MORE² representatives regarding the reauthorization of the transportation bill that is about to expire.

Jarrold ended the meeting by calling these efforts to improve transportation “worshipful work” and urging our public officials to “respond with integrity.”