NCD980602163_20000301_Warren County PCB Landfill_SERB C_Progress - Strengthening the E in TEA-21-OCR

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Volume X, Number t
February-March, 2000
www.transact.org
www.tea2t.org
SURFACE TRANSPORTATION POLICY PROJECT
Strengthening the "E" in TEA-21
Transportation, Equity and Smart Growth
by Don Chen
Coordinator, National Smart Growth Coalition
During the Congressional debate over ISTEA reauthorization, much blood was spilled fighting for equity, specifically
funding equity between states. In the end, many lawmakers claimed that equity prevailed, shaping the final
outcome and name of the law, the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century.
Across the nation, many communities tackling transportation problems would also like to see equity prevail, in this case, to
increase opportunities and boost quality of life for low-income people and people of color. Looking back on the past decade,
we've certainly witnessed some progress. The public involvement requirements first introduced in ISTEA and reaffirmed in
TEA-21 have not only made many agencies more responsive to public needs, but they have also empowered community
groups who used to regard transportation decisions as important, but immutable, like the weather. New "jobs access" initiatives
at the U.S. Department of Transportation, Department of Housing and Urban Development, and Department of Labor have
provided greater transportation choices for low-income workers. And post-lSTEA planning requirements, coupled with the
Executive Order on Environmental Justice and the enforcement of civil rights, right-to-know and clean air laws, have also proven
to be promising tools for ensuring equitable decision making.
In spite of these gains, we still have a long way to go. The articles in this issue of Progress discuss the numerous ways in which
transportation decisions can harm communities of color and the tools to fight for transportation justice, including federal legis-
lation, organizing strategies, and new national coalitions. Each of these stories also invokes the pervasive influence of sprawl,
where transportation, land use, and growth intersect. The dilemma that sprawl poses to the pursuit of equity was deftly captured
by Angela Blackwell of Policylink, who recently observed that "When we finally gained access to better schools and hospitals,
the good schools and hospitals moved away. When we got a shot at decent housing and jobs, the good housing and jobs went
away."
Unless transportation policy contributes to a smart growth
agenda that reinvests in neglected communities, improve-
ments made in transit services, pedestrian safety, and ur-
ban air quality may contribute little to the lives of the nation's
poorest families, who even in this famously booming
economy, have seen their earnings decline over the past
two decades. Examples of the merging of environmental
and social equity goals within the smart growth movement
can already be seen. Last year, environmental groups joined
community development activists opposing the weakening
of the Community Reinvestment Act. This year, the National
Smart Growth Coalition is identifying a common agenda rang-
ing from open space preservation to affordable housing. For
those of us in the transportation field, this new framework for
smart growth and social equity can help us strengthen the
"E" in TEA-21 .
Transportation Revenue and Fund-
ing Grow in President's Budget
On 2/7, the Administration announced its
budget for fiscal year 2001 , proposing a record
$54.9 billion in transportation spending. If enacted, this
would be an increase of $4. 7 billion over the FY2000
level. It includes $30.4 billion for highway programs and
$6.3 billion for transit. Also included is $521 million for
Amtrak, in line with the company's plan for fiscal self-
sufficiency.
The biggest surprise was the proposed re-allocation of
about one-third of the estimated $3.058 billion in tax
revenues that are over and above the amount antici-
pated to flow to the Highway Trust Fund at the time
TEA-21 was enacted. These funds, known as Revenue
Aligned Budget Authority (RABA), are scheduled to go
to the state DOTs in the form of highway funds unless
some action is taken. The administration has proposed
to allocate the RABA funds to intercity passenger rail
and high-speed rail corridors; transportation improve-
ments in the Mississippi Delta region; the Federal Transit
Administration's Job Access Program, and other pro-
grams. For more information go to http://
www.dot.gov/affairs/index.htm
Transportation Conformity Bill
A controversial bill on transportation confer mity
authored by Sen. Kit Bond (R-MO) could move to
a vote in the Senate early in 2000. S.1053 would
STPP Announcements
STWSeeksAssistantDirectcr
STPP is seeking an Assistant Director for Policy and
Programs to manage a variety of activities for its Wash-
ington, DC office, including program management,
policy development and fundraising. Candidates should
have at least 8 years of professional experience in a
field related to transportation, the environment, com-
munity organizing and/or organizational management.
Interested persons should forward a cover letter, re-
sume, writing sample and salary history/requirements
to the address listed below. For more information, visit
http://www.transact.org.
Roy Kienitz, Executive Director
Surface Transportation Policy Project
1100 1 ?lh Street, NW, 10th Floor
Washington, DC 20036
Attention: Job Search
FAX: [phone]
substantially weaken the accountability of road builders
to Clean Air Act reviews, exempting billions in highway
spending from the air pollution limits imposed by state
air quality planning. This could delay for millions of
Americans the day when the air in their communities is
healthy to breathe and impose greater pollution clean up
costs on consumers, small business, and utilities. For
more details, see the 10/30/99 issue of Transfer at http:/
/www. transact.erg.
Legislation Advances For High-
Speed and Intercity Rail
Legislation introduced by Senators Frank Lautenberg
(D-NJ) and Jim Jeffords (R-VT) in October could
provide significant funding sources for high-speed rail
corridors. The High Speed Rail Investment Act would
let Amtrak sell $10 billion in bonds between fiscal 2001
and 2010, enabling the national passenger rail corpora-
tion to expedite completion of the Northeast Corridor
and bring high speed rail service to the Northeast,
Southeast, Midwest, Gulf Coast and West Coast.
The bill, S. 1900, currently has 31 co-sponsors and has
been referred to the Senate Finance Committee.
Meanwhile, support for S.1144 has grown to 35 co-
sponsors. The bill, which would allow states to spend
their federal transportation dollars on intercity passen-
ger rail, has been approved in committee and may head
for a floor vote as soon as this Spring.
Ne\NSTPP Regional Office
Trinh Nguyen has joined STPP's staff to head up local
outreach and campaign efforts in California's Central Val-
ley and Sierra Nevada regions. Trinh recently received a
Master's degree in Urban Planning from UCLA, and has a
strong community organizing background working for
neighborhood Green Corps in Sacramento and the San
Francisco League of Urban Gardeners. For more infor-
mation, contact:
Trinh Nguyen
Northern California Campaign Manager
Surface Transportation Policy Project
1414 K Street, Suite 315
Sacramento, CA 95814
phone: [phone]
fax: [phone]
e-mail: [e-mail].
-2-
l
1
What We Need to Do About the 'Burbs
by john powell, Executive Director, Insti-
tute on Race and Poverty
EDITORS NOTE: The following is excerpted from an interview
with john powell by the editor of ColorLines magazine Bob
Wing. It originally appeared in the Fall 1999 issue of ColorLines,
"a national magazine on race, culture and action." In the inter-
view, Mr. Powell describes why regionalism is the most impor-
tant issues facing the civil rights movement because of the
growing impacts that regional decisions have on low-income
communities of color. The full interview and other articles about
race and regionalism can be found at http://www.colorlines.com
Regionalism is the notion that you should think about,
fight for, and administer resources at a regional and
not just a city or federal level. The economy, the infra-
structure (transportation, utilities, etc.), and the labor mar-
ket all function on a regional level. Today, metropolitan
regions are divided racially and spatially into largely white
and affluent suburbs and largely non-white and poor ur-
ban centers.
Regional inequity has seriously undermined the efforts of
the civil rights movement. The doctrine of local autonomy
and municipal rights has been used to frustrate the rights
and economic hopes of blacks. As a result, whites have
been able to re-isolate minorities in the declining urban
core and older suburbs, away from jobs, growth centers,
a strong tax base, and other opportunities. This is aggra-
vated by the fact that today suburban voters outnumber
urban voters: the political center of regions throughout the
country has shifted to the suburbs, again isolating the ur-
ban core.
Reframing Regionalism
So far, regionalism, "smart growth," and anti-sprawl move-
ments have been mainly framed around the interests of
white suburbanites and environmentalists. Our challenge
is to reframe these issues from the standpoint and inter-
ests of people of color, who mainly live in the cities and
older, declining suburbs, but whose conditions are inextri-
cably connected to the newer, growing suburbs.
Half the people in the country living in concentrated pov-
erty are black. Another th ird are Latinos. Even though more
than half the impoverished people in the country are white,
most poor white people don't live in concentrated poverty.
So it's not just economics; concentrated poverty is sorted
by race. And this racial sorting takes place not just on a
neighborhood level now, but on a regional level: cities
versus suburbs, inner-ring suburbs versus outer-ring sub-
urbs, this side of the freeway versus that side of the free-
way, etc.
Regionalism and Urban Strategies
Unlike regionalism, urban strategies or so-called "in place
strategies" focus on specific neighborhoods; in many ways,
this may have been the wrong strategy. For example,
there are hundreds of community development corpora-
tions (CDCs) that fight for more low-income housing in
their neighborhoods. If you look at Minneapolis for ex-
ample, 85 percent of low-income houses are in a few
neighborhoods, often at the behest of community advo-
cates. The problem is that concentrating low-income public
housing also concentrates poor people away from oppor-
tunity and resources.
By contrast, Montgomery County, outside Washington
D.C., adopted a mixed-income housing plan. Their plan
requires that 15 percent of new housing has to be below
market rate and half of those need to be public housing.
They thus distribute public housing throughout the com-
munity rather than concentrating it in a few neighborhoods.
And the public housing is not some cheaply built high rise,
but normal commercial units that have been taken off the
market. It's a very popular plan that deserves consider-
ation elsewhere.
By regionalism I'm not suggesting a dispersal strategy,
but I am suggesting a comprehensive strategy. We need
a strategy that looks at what's going on in the region and
that links people of color with opportunities. This can be
done through new transportation lines. It can be done by
bringing some jobs and businesses to the community it-
self. But we also have to have the option of having people
move to where those opportunities currently exist outside
of the inner cities.
Regionalism and the Racial Justice Agenda
Many urban social activists are legitimately concerned that
regionalism will weaken the political and cultural ties of
minority communities that are centered in the cities. The
answer, however, is not to avoid participation in regional
discussions, but to participate in such a way that we pro-
tect those concerns. With or without us, regional develop-
ment is occurring and undermining our communities. The
corporations, developers, and suburban whites who drive
this regional development are not likely to put racial is-
sues on the table. If we don't come to the table, wealthy
and middle class whites will simply continue to set the
regional agenda according to their own interests, and we
will simply suffer the consequences. I think that bringing
issues of race into regionalism is crucial to a progressive
agenda that can cut away at racialized concentrated pov-
erty and inequities in education . In fact, I believe bringing
racial justice awareness to regionalism is the single most
important civil rights task facing us today.
-3-
Dismantling Transportation Apartheid through
Environmental Justice
by Robert D. Bullard, Director, Glenn S.
Johnson, Research Associate, and Angel
0. Torres, GISJTRI Training Specialist,
Clark Atlanta University's Environmen-
tal Justice Resource Center
The link between transportation and civil rights dates
back more than a century to when African Americans
struggled to end unequal treatment on buses and trains.
This form of apartheid, which clearly violated constitution-
ally guaranteed civil rights, was codified in 1896 by Plessy
v. Ferguson, a U.S. Supreme Court decision that upheld
Louisiana's segregated "white" and "colored" seating on
railroad cars. This decision ushered in the infamous doc-
trine of "separate but equal." Plessynot only codified apart-
heid in transportation facilities but also served as the le-
gal basis for racial segregation in education until it was
overturned in 1954 by Brown v. Board of Education of
Topeka.
The modern civil rights movement has its roots in trans-
portation. In 1953, nearly half a century after Plessy v.
Ferguson relegated blacks to the back of the bus, African
Americans in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, staged the nation's
first successful bus boycott. Two years later, on Decem-
ber 1, 1955, Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat at the
front of a Montgomery, Alabama, city bus to a white man.
Today, millions of Americans are fighting to get on the
bus. They are also struggling to get public transit systems
linked to job centers. After mounting scientific evidence
and growing pressure from grassroots people of color
groups, President Clinton, on February 11 , 1994, signed
Executive Order 12898, "Federal Actions to Address En-
vironmental Justice in Minority Populations and Low-In-
come Populations." Then, on April 15, 1997, the U.S.
Department of Transportation issued its Order on Envi-
ronmental Justice, requiring the U.S. DOT to comply with
the executive order within the framework of existing laws,
regulations, and guidance. In December 1998, the Fed-
eral Highway Administration issued an order requiring the
agency to incorporate environmental justice in all its pro-
grams, policies, and activities.
From New York City to Los Angeles, environmental jus-
tice groups are demanding a fair share of the benefits that
accrue from transportation investments. They are also
demanding an end to the kind of transit racism that killed
17-year-old Cynthia Wiggins of Buffalo, New York.
Wiggins, an African American, was crushed by a dump
truck while crossing a seven-lane highway because
Buffalo's Number Six bus, an inner-city bus used mostly
by African Americans, was not allowed to stop at the sub-
urban Walden Galleria Mall. The Wiggins family and other
members of the African American community sued the
mall owners, bus company, and trucking firm for using the
-4-
highway as a racial bar-
rier to exclude blacks.
The high-profile trial, ar-
gued by O.J. Simpson's
former attorney Johnnie
L. Cochran Jr., began on
November 8, 1999. The
lawsuit was settled 10
days later for $2.55 mil-
lion.
Lest anyone dismiss
transportation as a tan-
gential issue with regard
to race, consider that
Americans spend more
on transportation than
any other household ex-
pense except housing.
Los Angeles
Sr1t1..1l';.ATO CE PA$AJERQ$
Hr ~ RWER~ l \ m, •
The Bus Riders Union protesting for
transportation equity in front of the
Los Angeles City Hall.
In Los Angeles, for example, the Labor/Community Strat-
egy Center, Bus Riders Union, Southern Christian Lead-
ership Conference, Korean Immigrant Workers Advocates,
and individual bus riders led a successful frontal assault
on transit racism. The grassroots groups and their NAACP
Legal Defense and Education Fund lawyers challenged
the inequitable funding and operation of Los Angeles MT A
bus transportation used primarily by low-income residents
and people of color. ln1996, the citizen groups won an
historic out-of-court settlement that included major fare
and bus pass concessions. They also forced the MT A to
spend $89 million on 278 new buses that run on clean-
burning compressed natural gas.
Atlanta
Transportation apartheid is a major factor that has kept
the Atlanta region racially, economically, and spatially di-
vided. For years, 1-20 served as the racial line of demar-
cation in the region, with blacks located largely to the south
and whites to the north. The bulk of the region's job growth
in the 1990s occurred in the northern suburbs-areas
where public transit is virtually nonexistent. From 1990-
1997, Atlanta's northern suburbs added 272,915 jobs. This
accounted for 78.4 percent of all jobs added in the region.
However, Atlanta continues to lose ground to its suburbs.
The city captured about 40 percent of the region 's jobs in
1980. From 1990 to 1997, Atlanta's job share had slipped
from 28.3 percent to 19.08 percent.
The 10-county Atlanta metropolitan area has a regional
public transit system only in name. The Metropolitan At-
lanta Rapid Transit Authority or MARTA serves just two
counties, Fulton and DeKalb. Many suburbanites object
to MARTA for fear it would lower their property values,
increase crime, and bring "undesirable" elements into their
communities, parks, and shopping centers. For years,
MART A's acronym was jokingly referred to as "Moving
Africans Rapidly Through Atlanta."
At the same time, transportation continues to harm com-
munities of color through greater exposure to health risks
from region's poor air quality and pedestrian environment.
A 1994 CDC study showed that pediatric emergency vis-
its at an Atlanta hospital increased by one-third following
peak ozone levels. The study also found that the asthma
rate among African American children is 26 percent higher
than the asthma rate among whites.
In 1998, two separate coalitions of citizens groups chal-
lenged the Atlanta Regional Commission's highway-domi-
nated plan they felt would exacerbate air quality and dis-
proportionately and adversely affect the health and safety
of African Americans and other people of color. The law-
suit was settled in 1999 and will likely free up millions of
dollars for transportation alternatives that could improve
air quality and enhance mobility in the region.
Shortly after the settlement, the environmental justice coa-
lition entered into informal negotiations with the U.S. DOT,
state, regional, and local transportation agencies to begin
addressing important transportation equity and environ-
mental justice issues. Beyond seeking equal transporta-
tion opportunities, environmental justice advocates also
strive to improve public safety. SidFlwalks , for instance,
could greatly improve pedestrian safety. This is not a small
issue because people of color generally have higher pe-
destrian fatality rates than whites. People of color account
for less than a third of the Atlanta region's population and
nearly two thirds of all the pedestrian fatalities in the re-
gion. Rates for non-Hispanic blacks and Hispanics were
two and six times greater, respectively, than for non-His-
panic whites.
Past transportation policies have subsidized, reinforced,
and exacerbated residential segregation and economic
isolation while they have concentrated areas of poverty.
Citizens' groups have responded by challenging govern-
mental agencies to open up their planning processes, to
diversify their boards, and to begin addressing land use,
air quality, and equity issues that disproportionately and
adversely affect low-income communities and communi-
ties of color. Community leaders are also calling for trans-
portation agencies to identify and address inequitable dis-
tribution of transportation benefits and burdens.
For more information on transportation equity and environ-
mental justice see the Environmental Justice Resource
Center's web site at www.ejrc.cau.
Pedestrians in Atlanta, where a recent settlement has re-directed
transportation dollars from roads to sidewalks and transit.
A fter decades on the back burner of the nation's policy agenda, the fight for smart growth has finally hit
the big time. Since 1998, hundreds of ballot initiatives and land use decisions have been designed to curb the
costs of haphazard growth. Governors of all political stripes have announced anti-sprawl initiatives.
To establish a common agenda, a wide variety of advocacy groups have formed the National Smart Growth Coalition.
Through a range of media, public education, coalition building, and policy activities, the Coalition hopes to bring
environmental, community development, and other advocates together to promote growth in places that need new
development and already have some of the necessary infrastructure to support it. In particular, Coalition members
have been urging the improvement of abandoned properties, the rehabilitation of older neighborhoods and buildings,
the protection of farmland and open space, and the provision of affordable housing and transit services.
In recent months, the Coalition has developed a federal policy agenda which calls for funding for land conservation
and water quality protection, affordable housing, regional transportation and land use planning, private sector incen-
tives for investment in distressed communities, school rehabilitation, historic preservation, and several other mea-
sures. The Coalition is also developing a communications strategy to help the public make the connection between
the costs of sprawl and the benefits of community economic development.
For further information, contact Don Chen, Coordinator of the National Smart Growth Coalition, 1100 17th Street,
NW 10th Floor, Washington, DC 20036. Tel: [phone] ; Email : [e-mail].
-5-
The Long March to Transportation Justice in Macon
David G. O edel, Professor of Law, Mercer
University Law School
W hen General Sherman swept from Atlanta to the
sea in 1864, breaking the back if not the heart of
the Confederacy, Macon, Georgia, was one of the lone
places in Sherman's path that the rebels managed to pro-
tect. Today, still standing behind many of Macon's fabu-
lous intact mansions are rows of rickety shotgun shacks
where generations of former slaves, servants, laborers
and plain poor folk -almost all black -have lived and
died.
Today, Macon's tradition of disparity between rich and
poor, and white and black, is perhaps nowhere more evi-
dent than in transportation. In 1993, I released a study of
the starkly differing transportation realities for poor blacks
and most everyone else in Macon. Findings included that
nearly half of the black population is under-served by pri-
vate automobiles, and that more than a quarter of all black
households lacks any car at all. The study also compared
the rate of public subsidies for road infrastructure with
those for people without cars , and found that although very
poor blacks in Macon presumably have greater absolute
needs for public help, the people with cars were getting
hugely disproportionate public subsidies. Moreover, while
local government officials repeatedly snared federal fund-
ing for area roads, the transit authority's handlers have
refused more than $25 million from Congress since 1980
even though these funds would have helped the crippled
bus system better service the needs of its ridership. A
sometimes-explicit message coming from many of
Macon's white leaders was that the bus system was a
form of welfare for low-income blacks, and should be dis-
couraged. There was no corresponding sense of skepti-
cism about public subsidies for the transportation facili-
ties used by the well-heeled car-owning population.
The question of whether the transit authority should ac-
cept federal funds was the subject of considerable con-
troversy in the community, with advocates for the bus rid-
ers like Jack Ellis, Vice President of the local NAACP,
routinely protesting against the apparently racist illogic of
the refusal to accept the funds. Transportation subgroups
of existing civic organizations were formed, and a large
public hearing was held to discuss the condition of transit
in Macon.
lntermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991
and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits
racial disparities in federally funded programs. Macon's
metropolitan planning organization, along with the city and
county governments, were the principal targets of the com-
plaint.
In response, the Office of Civil Rights at the U.S. DOT
initially announced an investigation, but long delays oc-
curred in commencing the investigation. As months turned
into years, Macon activists decided against filing a law-
suit, and instead pressed for political reforms to bring about
change to the inequities of the regional transportation sys-
tem. For instance, in 1996 and 1997, the bus drivers'
union unsuccessfully attempted to be recognized by the
transit authority, which would have mooted one objection
to the receipt of federal funds. Also, Macon's City Council
narrowly passed a resolution inviting the transit authority
to accept federal funding for the buses.
The most important political development, however, oc-
curred in 1995 when Jack Ellis, the longstanding advo-
cate for transportation reform, ran for mayor. Although
Ellis lost the Democratic primary to Jim Marshall, Marshall
adopted Ellis' transportation equity platform and proceeded
to change the very nature of the transit authority board
during his four years as mayor. Unlike prior mayors,
Marshall selected board members who supported transit
and who were not union-phobic.
In 1998, shortly after a Marshall appointee was elected to
chair the transit authority's board, the transit authority voted
to apply for federal funds. About the same time, Rodney
Slater was appointed Secretary of Transportation, and the
U.S. DOT announced it would finally pursue an investiga-
tion of the Macon transportation complaint. These devel-
opments were further cemented in late 1999 when Jim
Marshall stepped aside to run for Congress and transpor-
tation equity advocate Jack Ellis emerged as the first Afri-
can-American mayor in Macon's history.
Macon's story is one that suggests the power of patience,
persistence and political resourcefulness in tackling the
polycentric, evolving problems posed by transportation
planning in local and regional communities. In some
American communities, it will be necessary to involve the
judicial branch in reaching particular decisions. In others,
these decisions will take place in public arenas, such as
In 1994, I joined Bill Lann Lee of the NAACP Legal De-legislative halls, executive offices, regulators' hearings,
tense Fund and Howard Sokol of Georgia Legal Services the media's stories, church pulpits, and the public's con-
in filing an administrative complaint about Macon's over-versation. The transportation equity advocate cannot rely
all transportation planning with the United States Depart-only on judicial declarations and applications of law to pro-
ment of Transportation. It was the nation's first adminis-vide for a favorable outcome, even if the law may facially
trative complaint about intermodaltransportation funding appear to support the desired result. Transportation is
disparities, and identified legal violations under both the not just law. It is politics and community. It is morality.
-6-
Gentrification
Making the Transportation and Land Use Connection in Low Income Communities
Cameron Yee, Transportation Equity
Project Director, Urban Habitat Program
The economy of the San Francisco Bay Area is boom
ing, led by the high tech industry's growth in Silicon
Valley. But not all segments of the population and com-
munities have benefited from the increased economic
activity. A decreasing amount of affordable housing means
low income communities are threatened with the displace-
ment of long time residents.
Metropolitan regions around the country are beginning to
recognize the negative impacts of suburban sprawl. But
the emerging equity issue for communities of color is
gentrification. When 16 community activists in Urban Habi-
tat Program's 1999 Leadership Institute were asked what
issue most affected all of their communities, their
gentrification include highway-oriented transportation
policy, which prioritize roadway capacity over good public
transit, and land use decisions made to increase the sales
and property tax revenues instead of goals of community
stability. The federal government's retreat from providing
affordable housing, discrimination in housing and lend-
ing, and weakened rent control laws are other influential
factors.
To promote community stability instead of gentrification,
low income communities and communities of color need
good investment that benefits existing residents. The
emerging smart growth agenda is an opportunity to help
existing residents in low income communities build and
increase their assets and stability.
unanimous response was gentrification. During
the summer, these community leaders explored
the three key phases of gentrification: disinvest-
ment in a community, policy driven reinvestment
in a community, and finally, displacement of low
income and working people.
UHP believes the following mechanisms can help stem gentrification In the
San Francisco Bay Area and across the nation:
As a result of the lnstitute's preliminary analysis,
Urban Habitat began researching nine commu-
nities in the Bay Area experiencing gentrification
and found that these communities shared the fol-
lowing characteristics: each is majority people of
color, contains redevelopment projects, and has
Community Land Trusts -Land is purchased and set aside for communities
to decide the use for anything from parks to housing to small business devel-
opment. Brownfields redevelopment should be an affordable housing option.
Community / Equity Impact Reports -Projects that come into a community
must show that they benefit the community through creating local jobs, meet-
ing local social needs, etc. A monitoring and enforcement mechanism must be
in place if the project fails to meet the benefits.
Community Plans -Communities need to be supported to plan, develop and
implement their economic, social and environmental vision for the future of
very good highway access. The research culmi-their community.
nated in the Urban Habitat report, There Goes
the Neighborhood: A Regional Analysis of
Gentrification and Community Stability in the San
Francisco Bay Area. Based on job and housing
indicators, the report finds that seven out of the
ten cities causing gentrification in the San Fran-
cisco Bay Area are located in the Silicon Valley.
These cities leave low and middle wage workers
with few affordable places to live, forcing work-
ers to move to places like San Francisco and Oak-
land, which in turn displaces existing residents
lnclusionary Zoning and Housing / Rent Control -The supply of affordable
housing must be increased and protected through incentives to build afford-
able housing and protecting renters rights.
Tax Base Sharing -Cities and counties in a metropolitan region must share
property and sales taxes to stop the fiscalization of land use.
Regional Housing Fund --Those cities which build only high end housing
must contribute to a regional housing funds that support cities building af-
fordable housing
and causing new transportation problems. For example,
from 1995 to 1998 the number of people commuting from
San Francisco to Santa Clara County increased by 29%,
and is projected to grow by another 60% by 2010, an in-
crease of 11 ,000 commuters.
Much of the report's media coverage has focused on the
connection between gentrification and irresponsible land
use policies by cities in Silicon Valley that promote corpo-
rate office space and high end housing. Other causes of
The Urban Habitat Program is working to ensure that
social justice and the concerns of low income communi-
ties are at the forefront of the Smart Growth debate
around land and transportation policy in the San Fran-
cisco Bay Area. Copies of the report "There Goes the
Neighborhood" are available for $20 for organizations
and $10 for individuals by calling 415.561.3329 or bye-
mail: [e-mail].
-7-
Pedestrian Safety and Social Justice
Emerging California Coalition Demanding Safer Streets for Everyone
James Corless, California Director, STPP
and Luis Arteaga, Associate Director,
Latino Issues Forum
I n theory, pedestrian safety progr~ms should t~rget areas
with high volumes of foot traffic; places with a denser
urban fabric that have increasingly been inhabited by re-
cent immigrants and people of color. For these communi-
ties getting around without a car is more a matter of neces-
sity than choice, and streets that make traveling by foot
safer and more convenient aren't mere amenities, they're a
critical component of everyday life. Yet in practice, atten-
tion to the needs of pedestrians and demands for traffic
safety improvements have more often followed political power
and economic status, than objective assessments of where
problems exist and why.
The pattern is easily recognizable across the country, and
California historically has been no exception. Some of the
first and most aggressive traffic calming programs began
in Berkeley and Palo Alto in the 1970s, two of the most
expensive and exclusive communities in the state.
Berkeley's program included full street closures, a move
that outraged auto advocates at the time but has also
drawn criticism for its parallel to the gated communities of
more recent years.
Yet the physical, social and cultural landscapes of Cali-
fornia are undergoing massive changes. When Berkeley
constructed its first street closures thirty years a:go, over
70% of the state's population was white. Today, demog-
raphers consider California "a majority of none," and poll-
ing among Latinos in particular (comprising nearly a third
of the state's residents, expected to reach 50 % by 2040)
has shown overwhelming support for environmental pro-
tection , quality of life and community safety programs that
rivals or surpasses that among the population at large.
It's in this context that issues of pedestrian safety and
traffic calming are beginning to resonate in low-income
neighborhoods and in communities of color all across
California, from Los Angeles through the Central Valley
and into the Bay Area. In September 1999, STPP's Califor-
nia field offices released a report with the Latino Issues
Forum documenting troubling trends in pedestrian safety
statewide. The Forum contributed research showing that
not only do Latinos and African Americans walk, bike and
take transit more than the average California resident, but
they are far more likely to be victims of vehicle-pedestrian
crashes relative to their overall share of the population.
The report, released as the landmark "Safe Routes to
School" bill sat on the desk of California Governor Gray
Davis, was covered by every major news outlet in the state.
A week after the report's release, along with additional
publicity generated by National Walk a Child to School
Day and the endorsement of a coalition of more than 80
organizations, Governor Davis signed the Safe Routes to
School bill into law. The coalition that worked to support
the bill, including a diverse array of bicycle advocacy
groups led by the California Bicycle Coalition, public health
professionals, pedestrian activists, neighborhood groups,
parent-teacher associations, municipal governments, en-
vironmentalists and social justice organizations, is now
setting its sights on additional legislation to further the
cause of pedestrian rights and traffic safety. Local efforts
are now underway to prepare project applications for the
$20 million a year in federal highway safety funds avail-
able to communities as a result of the new law.
Although small in relation to the billions the state spends
on transportation annually, the Safe Routes to School bill
has now given traditionally disenfranchised communities
some leverage in the struggle to direct resources back
into neighborhoods that need them the most. What re-
mains to be seen is whether this initial groundswell of sup-
port can be translated into both lasting institutional change
and stronger, safer and more socially just communities.
To read the report "Caught in the Crosswalk," visit http://
www.transact.org/ca. For details on the Latino Issues Fo-
rum, visit http://wwwllif.org. For information on legislative
advocacy strategies, see the 5/99 Tool of the Month at http:/
/www.transact.org/T oolmonthl. tools. htm
Transportation Advocacy Materials en Espanol
lgualdad en el Transporte y Justicla Ambiental, Environmental Defense, 1999. . .
Articles on transportation and environmental justice are available a http://www.edf.org/b1envenidos/
Camlnando a Traves de los Aiios, Washington, DC: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 1997 and 1998.
This three-part series is available at http:llwww.nhtsa.dot.gov/people/outreach/media/catalog/material.cfm
Tome Nota, Washington, DC: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 1998. . .
This "walkability checklist" is available at http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/peopleloutreach/media/catalog/mater,al.cfm
Atrapado en el Cruce Peatonal: Segurldad Peatonal en California: STPP, Septiembre de 1999.
Both the "Caught in the Crosswalk" report and related materials are available online at http://www.transact.org/ca. .
Acerca de Commuter Connection: Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments. On-line resource on commuter choice
programs. http:llwww.mwcog.org/commuterlccindex.html
I
The Transportation Equity Network
Building Coalition for Transportation Justice in Low-Income Communities
Rich Stolz, Policy Specialist, Center for
Community Change
Veena Allen is a resident of Winchester Greens, an
affordable housing complex in Richmond, Virginia.
There is no bus service to and from her community. Win-
chester Greens abuts a highway -their sidewalk is the
highway's shoulder. Parents must walk their children to
the nearest bus stop for fear of their safety; elderly resi-
dents with walkers must ramble more than a mile to the
nearest market to purchase basic necessities. Allen be-
gan organizing residents in her community last spring. Last
summer she joined a national movement to strengthen
and magnify the voices of low-income people in federal
transportation policy, the Transportation Equity Network
(TEN).
TEN is a national coalition of grassroots and faith-based
organizations working to improve transportation ser-
vices for poor communities and to open up the transpor-
tation planning process to more effective grassroots
participation. The groups in TEN include statewide
coalitions, church-based groups and individual member-
ship organizations of low and moderate-income people.
Typically, these groups have not worked on transporta-
tion issues for very long, but began to focus on transpor-
tation as part of broader anti-poverty agendas in their
own communities.
In 1998, TEN advocated for several amendments to be
included in the planning portion of the Transportation Eq-
uity Act of the 21 st Century (TEA-21 ). In addition to these
amendments, TEN also fought aggressively for the Jobs
Access and Reverse Commute program as part of a
broader national coalition coordinated by STPP.
Staffed by the Center for Community Change, TEN also
provides a loose infrastructure for the work of dozens of
local and regional organizing efforts across the country.
TEN organizations share information about local cam-
paigns with one another and when necessary coordinate
national advocacy efforts. Following are examples of these
local efforts.
Last fall, the Interfaith Federation of Northwest Indiana
successfully prevailed upon the US Department of Trans-
portation to conditionally certify the Northwest Indiana
Regional Planning Commission. The Federation, an or-
ganization of almost 30 churches and 50,000 people rep-
resenting both central city and suburban communities,
demonstrated that there were significant problems with
respect to environmental justice and disproportionate
negative impacts on low-income central city communities
in the regional planning process. NIRPC and the Interfaith
1ransporto,;011 Jqllil'Y Neht,,0~~
~
Federation have until this fall to correct the problems iden-
tified in the joint FHWA/FTA certification letter.
Another organization, the Statewide Emergency Network
for Social and Economic Security (SENSES) in New York
state won a statewide "access to jobs" grant program us-
ing New York's surplus welfare money. Funds will go to
local jurisdictions to develop and fund projects that help
welfare recipients and low-income workers find reliable
transportation to work and related services, like childcare
and job training.
In Los Angeles, the Alameda Corridor Jobs Coalition is in
the process of securing the campaign victory that set aside
30% of all hours worked on a major rail construction project
connecting the Los Angeles and Long Beach ports for lo-
cal residents in the poor communities being disrupted by
the project. The victory amounted to one of the largest
hiring agreements for low-income residents in US history.
TEN is currently involved in an effort to press the US De-
partment of Transportation to properly implement data
reporting requirements for MPOs in TEA-21. TEN has
also joined with a broader coalition of national environ-
mental, civil rights and human needs organizations to open
up access and improve collection of federal and local trans-
portation funding data, including STPP and Environmen-
tal Defense.
The Center for Community Change is a national non-profit
organization based in DC with a thirty-year old track record
in anti-poverty issues ranging from community reinvest-
ment to welfare reform. For more information, contact
Rich Stolz of the Center for Community Change at
202.339.9343 or visit http://www.communitvchange.org.
-9-
Transportation Equity and Environmental Justice
Robert Garcia, Senior Attorney and Los
Angeles Director, and Michael Replogle,
Transportation Director, Environmental
Defense
Dorothy Johnson, 50, lives in Detroit and commutes to
her job in the suburbs cleaning office buildings. She
leaves home about 3 p.m. on weekdays and gets to work
two buses and two hours later. She leaves work at 11
p.m. and gets home by 12:30 a.m. "There aren't too many
jobs here in Detroit," she said. Jobs closer to home have
another drawback: "The city sort of pays less." If she had
a car, the drive would take only 25 minutes. But folks like
her cannot afford a car. Only one in four residents owns
one. People without cars and the working poor with lim-
ited access to cars are disproportionately people of color,
low income people, women, children, the elderly, and the
disabled.
Ruthie Walls, a single mother looking for an affordable
home in which to raise her five children, bought a house
in southeast Atlanta, surrounded by freeways on three
sides. Cleaner cars have hardly addressed the harms
she and her neighbors still suffer from the air, water and
noise pollution of traffic that has tripled over the years.
But Ruthie and her African-American neighbors pay higher
taxes for storm water cleanup caused by the roads that
serve suburban commuters and truckers. They breathe
the diesel exhaust from dirty ~uses, while cleaner buses
operate elsewhere.
Transportation equity lies at the crossroads of civil rights,
the environmental and economic vitality for people like
Dorothy and Ruthie all across the country. And while
people of color and low income communities continue to
disproportionately suffer from transportation inequities,
progress is being made to include and consider these
communities in the transportation decision-making pro-
cesses that affect their lives. New guidance from the U.S.
Department of Transportation makes clear that transpor-
tation agencies need to examine the cumulative effects of
billions of dollars in transportation investments to consider
how alternatives would promote equitable access and cut
air pollution and traffic congestion. This recent memo-
randum builds on TEA-21 and !STEA reforms that helped
open the planning process to greater public scrutiny, in-
volvement, and accountability. The following transporta-
tion equity framework is good policy and good law.
Goals. Transportation agencies must achieve results that
are equitable, are environmentally sound, and promote
economic vitality.
Information. Agencies must gather, analyze and publish
the information necessary to understand the impact of their
actions on all communities. Follow the money: Who ben-
efits from funding decisions? Who is left behind?
Participation. Agencies must insure the full and fair par-
ticipation of all communities in the decision-making pro-
cess.
No Discrimination. Agencies must avoid intentional dis-
crimination and unjustified adverse disparate impacts for
which there are less discriminatory alternatives.
This framework lies at the heart of our civil rights and en-
vironmental laws. The President's Order on Environmen-
tal Justice affirms the principle of using the planning pro-
cess to implement the civil rights and environmental laws,.
including Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and TEA-
21. The 1990 Clean Air Act conformity provisions, which
hold transportation investments accountable as part of
state plans to protect the public from air pollution, and the
National Environmental Protection Act (NEPA) of 1970
can also serve as a tool for transportation equity.
In metropolitan Atlanta, where transportation conformity
issues have had their biggest impact to date, hundreds of
millions of dollars have been redirected from sprawl-in-
ducing roads in outer areas to investments in clean buses,
sidewalks, transit centers and other projects that have a
· positive or neutral impact on clean air, such as highway
safety and bridge reconstruction. But bus rapid transit,
clean buses, and van services that could efficiently and
quickly expand access of low income and minority work-
ers to suburban jobs are being crowded out by expensive
commuter rail investments that may fuel more sprawl.
As can be seen in these photos, there was a great contrast between bus and transit service in the Los Angeles metropolitan area.
disparity led to one of the most important environmental justice lawsuits in recent years.
-10-
\
A coalition of environmental, environmental justice, com-
munity, and civil rights groups are working with US DOT
to implement the transportation equity framework in At-
lanta. This effort is analyzing the equitable and environ-
mental impacts of all transportation spending and plan-
ning , including highways, public transportation , and the
pedestrian and bicycle environment. The struggle for
transportation equity is spreading to other regions -from
Seattle to San Francisco to Milwaukee to Indiana to Ma-
con to Texas to New York .
Kaid Benfield , Matt Raimi and Don Chen, Once There Were
Greenfields: How Urban Sprawl is Undermining America's
Environment, Economy and Social Fabric, New York:
Natural Resources Defense Council, 1999.
Robert D. Bullard, Glenn S. Johnson, Angel 0 . Torres,
Sprawl City: Ra ce, Politics and Planning in Atlanta, Island
Press , 2000.
Robert Bullard, Just Transportation: Dismantling Race and
Class Barriers to Mobility, New Society Publishers , 1997.
Getting to Work: An Organizer's Guide to Transportation
Equity, Center for Community Change, Washington, DC:
August 1998.
Helping Ourselves: How to Design and Implement Transpor-
tation Solutions in Low-Income Communities, Bay Area
Transportation Choices Forum , October 1999.
Greg LeRoy, Sara Hinkley and Katie Tallman, Another Way
Sprawl Happens: Economic Development Subsidies in a
Twin Cities Suburb. Institute on Taxation and Economic
Policy's Good Jobs First project, January 2000.
"Opportunities for Smarter Growth: Social Equity and the
Smart Growth Movement," prepared by Policylink for the
Funders' Network for Smart Growth and Livable Communi-
ties, December 1999.
Myron Orfield , Metropolitics: A Regional Agenda for Commu-
nity and Stability, Washington , DC: Brookings Institution ,
1997.
Cameron Yee, Crash Course, San Francisco: Urban Habitat
Program, 1998.
ColorLines Magazine: http://www.colorlines.com
Brookings Institute: http://www.brookings.edu
Center for Neighborhood Technology: http://www.cnt.org
Environmental Defense : http://www.edf.org/ej
Environmental Justice Resource Center:
http://www.ejrc.cau .edu
New York City Environmental Justice Alliance :
http://www.nyceja.org
Policylink: http://www.policylink.com
Transportation Equity Network:
http://www.communitychange.org
Urban Habitat Program: http://www.igc.org/uhp
The United States has developed the greatest highway
system in the world, giving unprecedented freedom to travel
to those who can afford it. We cannot afford to leave so
many of our fellow travelers stranded by the road . It is
time for a national agenda to achieve equal justice for all
under our environmental and transportation laws.
For more information on environmental justice, and the
Los Angeles lawsuit, visit http://www.edf.org/ei.
Announcements
STPP's Reader Pkks Contest
This year's Summer Reading issue of Progress will pro-
file some of the best places to live and visit in the U.S.
Our intent is to highlight places which afford a high qual-
ity of life because of wise transportation and land use
planning decisions .
Readers are encouraged to submit nominations of 150
words or less describing the attributes that make these
favorite places special. Please include your name, ad-
dress and affiliation . The most compelling entries will
receive a prize! Please email entries by May 12, 2000
to Progress Editor, Nancy Jakow1tsch at
[e-mail].
Grants for Rall statMllrRevltalz
The Great American Station Foundation is accepting
applications for its 2000 cycle of grants for rail station
revitalization projects. Eligible applicants for the seed
and capital grants include state and local units of gov-
ernment, transit agencies, non-profit organizations, and
community development corporations. Applications are
due on April 14, 2000.
For the full grant guidelines, contact Janice Varela at
the Great American Station Foundation at 505 .425.8055
or at http://www.station foundation.org/programs/
2000Application .html
Rail•Volution 2000: Call for Papers!
This year's Rail-Volution conference will be held in Den-
ver, Colorado from October 4-8, 2000. Readers with an
important lesson to share are encouraged to submit a
300 word presentation abstract by March 20, 2000. For
more information, visit http://www.railvolution.com
Planning Journal: Call for Manuscripts
The Journal of the American Planning Association is
soliciting manuscripts on all aspects of the theory and
practice of planning. For more information, contact
JAPA editors at 503-725-4087 or by email
[e-mail] , or visit http://www.japa.pdx.edu/
-11-
Surface Transportation
Policy Project
1100 17th Street, NW, Tenth Floor
Washington, DC 20036
Nonprofit Org
U.S. Postage
PA ID
Permit #1400
Silver Spring, MD
Phone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
Email: [e-mail]
http://www.transact.org
http://www.tea21 .org
RECEl\/f:D
MAR 2 7 2000
SUPEFiFU/\JO SECTION
I II I, I I,,, I, I I,,,,, II,,, I I I,,, I I,, I,, I I,, I,,, I, I I,, I,,, I,, I, I I
GROVER NICHOLSON T49 P1
DEPT. OF ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH
PO BOX27867
DIV. OF SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT
RALEIGH NC 27611-7867
The goal of Surface Transportation Policy Project is to
ensure that transportation policy and investments help conserve
energy, protect environmental and aesthetic quality, strengthen
the economy, promote social equity, and make communities
more livable. We emphasize the needs of people, rather than
vehicles, in assuring access to jobs, services, and recreational
opportunities.
The work of STPP is made possible by grants from the Bui/it
Foundation, the Nathan Cummings Foundation, the German
Marshall Fund of the United States, the William and Flora
Hewlett Foundation, the Joyce Foundation, the Martin Founda-
tion, the Richard and Rhoda Goldman Fund, the Prince Chari-
table Trusts, the David and Lucille Packard Foundation, the
Surdna Foundation, the Rockerfeller Brothers Fund, and the
Turner Foundation.
Progress is edited and produced by Nancy Jakowitsch and
Michelle Garland. We encourage contributions from our
subscribers. Please send donations, comments, and requests
for reprint permission to STPP by email or by post at the return
address above.
STPP Staff: Don Chen, James Corless, Grace Erb, Reid Ewing,
Michelle Garland, Carmen Hunt, Nancy Jakowitsch, Sonya
Jubar, Charlie King, Barbara McCann, Jerome Milton, Trinh
Nguyen, Gloria Ohland, William Peters, and Nancy Willis.
Printed using metal-free, soy-~ased inks on recycled paper.
The STPP Board of Directors
Scott Bernstein
David Burwell
Sarah Campbell, Chair
Hank Dittmar
Judith Espinosa
Emil Frankel
Kathryn Higgins
Jessica Matthews
The STPP Steering Committee
Susan Almanza, People Organized in Defense of Earth and her Resources
Deborah Alvarez, American Association of Retired Persons
Betty Weiss, National Neighborhood Coalition
Kaid Benfield, Natural Resources Defense Council
Chuck Beretz, American Farmland Trust
. Jeff Blum, Committee for the Future
John Bosley, National Association of Regional Councils
Jason McElvaney, American Society of Landscape Architects
Thomas Bulger, Association for Commuter Transportation
Ross Capon, National Association of Railroad Passengers
Jim Clarke, Sierra Club
Art Guzetti, American Public Transportation Association
Ken Cook, Environmental Working Group
Jacky Grimshaw, Center for Neighborhood Technology
Marianne Fowler, Rails-to-Trails Conservancy
David Hirsch, Friends of the Earth
Elizabeth Jackson, International Downtown Association
Leslie Lowe, New York City Environmental Justice Alliance
Meg Maguire, Scenic America
Dale Marisco, Community Transportation Association of America
Robert Molofsky, Amalgamated Transit Union
Jon Orcutt, Tri State Transportation Campaign
Tamar Osterman, National Trust for Historic Preservation
Michelle Robinson, Union of Concerned Scientists
Jeffrey Soule, American Planning Association
Les Sterman, East-West Gateway Coordinating Council
Michael Townes, Peninsula Transportation District Commission
Carol Werner, Environmental and Energy Study Institute
Bill Wilkinson, National Center for Biking and Walking
Daniel WIison, American Institute of Architects
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