Comments on: Catching up on the Oakland Airport Connector

By: PRE

PRE — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 01:16:50 +0000

Maybe the Public Works Committee and the City Council members as a whole are finally waking up and making some decent choices for this city. The fact that a 550 million dollar, 3-mile above-ground anything doesn’t get laughed out of the room immediately is testament to the foolishness that passes for public transportation spending in this country. Now if we could only get that money spent on an Oakland streetcar system…

By: V Smoothe

V Smoothe — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 20:04:48 +0000

You take the meeting, Becks. I have other, related posts I’m working on, so I’d don’t mind at all not having to write about today’s Public Works Committee. And yes, the meeting did go extremely well.

By: Becks

Becks — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 19:31:31 +0000

The committee meeting went extremely well. All committee members strongly questioned the project, and they’re bringing it back as an action item to their first committee meeting in September. Thanks to everyone who sent emails about this.

If V doesn’t beat me to it, I’ll write a comprehensive post about the meeting later this week.

By: Becks

Becks — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 16:32:53 +0000

For anyone who woke up a bit late, it looks like this item will be heard late on the agenda. They’re on item 8 now and it’s item 18. So if you’d like to come speak, you still have plenty of time.

By: Chuck

Chuck — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 04:39:44 +0000

Done. So, I wrote an email to those Council members for whom I’m a constituent, expressing my concerns about the OAC as it stands. And I’m happy to goad all y’all into doing the same!

Also, V, fuckin’ awesome AJAX applet for allowing edits for a 5-minute window. Said it before and I’ll say it again: you rule.

By: dbackman

dbackman — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 23:51:25 +0000

Good luck and have fun protesting! Unfortunately, I am going to have to recuse myself from this conversation.

By: Becks

Becks — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 23:28:34 +0000

Chuck (and others who can’t make it), you should consider emailing or calling the committee members to express your concerns about the project:

Rebecca Kaplan, At-Large
RKaplan@oaklandnet.com or 510-238-7008

Patricia Kernighan, District 2
PKernighan@oaklandnet.com or 510-238-7002

Nancy Nadel, District 3
NNadel@oaklandnet.com or 510-238-7003

Desley Brooks, District 6
DBrooks@oaklandnet.com or 510-238-7006

By: Chuck

Chuck — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 22:50:14 +0000

This is a fantastic synopsis. And though it’s clearly slanted in the “wow, this is a not a viable solution”, it’s slanted because of those pesky facts. Always with their little fingers on the scales…

Can’t make the meeting tomorrow AM (ironically, I’m traveling to OAK to meet my brother who’s flying in for a visit, go fig), but thanks in advance to everyone going to protest the project. Thanks, too, to Becks for the hard work on this!

By: Max Allstadt

Max Allstadt — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 22:09:27 +0000

Just a little more info:

The Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) is chaired by a man named Scott Haggerty. Scott Haggerty is a Republican who represents Fremont on the Alameda County Board of Supervisors.

At last week’s MTC meeting, Haggerty pushed the Airport Connector forward by using some sneaky and aggressive parliamentary maneuvering. Realizing that the subcommittee in session didn’t have a quorum, he used his role as Chairman to summarily appoint two allies to fill out the quorum, and won the vote.

That’s shifty enough. But in the course of the meeting, Haggerty also said things like “Oakland doesn’t have a dog in this race”, and “The City Council can’t stop the Oakland Airport Connector”.

This is all the more reason for Oaklanders to get involved. Do you want decisions about transit in Oakland being driven by a Republican from Fremont? A Republican from Fremont who holds an almost entirely non-competitive elected office? A Republican from Fremont who says things like “Oakland doesn’t have a dog in this race”?

Write your Councilmember and tell them to vote against the Airport Connector. It’s a wasteful project. It’s being shoved down our throats by a suburban Republican who says arrogant, obnoxious things about Oakland.

The reason Oakland keeps getting screwed on transit issues is that we don’t have a seat at the table. The only inner East Bay representative on the MTC is Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates, who’s consistently voted against the OAC boondoggle.

Oakland is the urban heart of the East Bay and we’re getting pushed around by a bunch of gas guzzling self interested suburban conservatives. Write your Oakland City Councilmember and tell them this has to stop. Tell them to take a stand, take a vote and vote “No” on this wasteful version Airport Connector.

By: Becks

Becks — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 21:55:43 +0000

V – this is awesome!

I encourage Oaklanders who care about transit and planning to attend and speak at the Public Works Committee hearing tomorrow. Note that though the item is late on the agenda, it is possible (even likely) that it will be moved up so please arrive as close to 9am as possible. You can turn in your speaker card and then give me your cell number to call you when the item comes up. Then you can go get coffee or breakfast and not have to sit through the whole committee meeting.