When I was in college more years ago than I care to admit I cut my organizational teeth working as a board member for PIRGIM at the University of Michigan and as a canvasser for MASSPIRG in Boston. It was knocking on doors in Newton and other Boston suburbs imploring homeowners to support the Public Interest Research Group's (PIRG's) work on behalf of the environment that I met fellow canvasser Sue Minter, a born community organizer, in the best (think President Obama) sense of the word.
Elected to the Vermont House of Representatives in 2004, where she served four years on the House Transportation Committee, since 2008 Minter has been a member of the House Appropriations Committee. A skillful consensus builder, as voters in her district and others who have worked with her know, she is among the country's smartest, most collegial and committed public servants.
Which brings me back to LA, where we'd be lucky to have Minter rethinking LA in a post-30/10 Initiative world. If you don't know yet, 30/10 is LA's ambitious and visionary plan to build thirty years of critically needed public transportation projects within a decade.
You see, trained as she is as an urban planner with experience in the US and overseas addressing land use planning, transportation policy, downtown revitalization, community development, and public involvement issues, Minter is the sort of public servant we could really use in LA if she'd ever relocate. But since she is not likely to be moving west any time soon, the best thing to do, if you happen to vote in Waterbury, Duxbury, Huntington, or Buel's Gore, Vermont, is vote for Minter this Fall. You won't regret it.
OK. With that shameless plug for a great public servant out of the way, let's focus on 30/10 and LA's transportation future. Miles from Boston and Ann Arbor, I have been pleasantly surprised to find myself working again with the Public Interest Research Group and with CALPIRG's Erin Steva, a tireless public transportation and environmental advocate in the Minter mold. I guess you could say, they train them well at PIRG, a group with its roots in the automobile safety movement and a reputation for holding Detroit's feet to the fire.
In LA, Steva and CALPIRG are working with Metro, Move LA, and a host of businesses and civic, environmental and labor groups to help LA expand its public transportation system. A committed partner on the push for 30/10, CALPIRG recently brought in ten staff from the Student PIRGs to build support for the initiative. The organizers who usually work on college campuses are in LA for two and a half weeks running CALPIRG's SWAT Team 30/10 organizing. CALPIRG considers 30/10 a key opportunity for changing LA's transportation map, and it is.
So with its grassroots organizing effort CALPIRG is helping ensure that the US Department of Transportation is committed to the Wilshire Subway extension and the Downtown Regional Connector project and, that momentum isn't lost on the 30/10 push in Congress. Consistent with PIRG's 37-year history of organizing in Los Angeles, CALPIRG's transportation work is typical of the coalition building, media and office holder engagement and advocacy training PIRG is known for.
What are the goals of CALPIRG's summer canvass and the SWAT Team's work?
CALPIRG is working to demonstrate broad-based public and business community support for 30/10. Its on-the-ground, as opposed to grass tops, strategy includes:
Citizen Support: Over the summer, the group gathered over 2,200 supportive public comments, letters, photos, and calls from Angelenos calling for Congressional action on the 30/10 Initiative. Over the next week, the SWAT Team will gather an additional 800 photo petitions to be shared with the US Department of Transportation and the LA Congressional delegation.
Small Business Endorsements: CALPIRG has recruited 60 individual business owners to sign a statement supporting the 30/10 initiative and calling for expedited Congressional action on the model program. The SWAT secured an additional 72 business endorsements in one day of outreach, and intends to add 150 to that total by early September. These business endorsements were secured through face-to-face meetings with small business owners along the proposed Wilshire Subway and Regional Connector routes.
Press Event: CALPIRG's business outreach will culminate in a business press conference featuring small and large business owners calling for action from the US Department of Transportation on the Wilshire Subway and Regional Connector, and for Congressional support for 30/10.
Citizen Outreach Effort: CALPIRG spent the Summer focused on public education, going door-to-door and to busy public places to talk to people one-on-one about public transportation. These are time-tested tools for educating the public and raising support for an initiative and over three months, CALPIRG reached nearly 20,000 people through its efforts.
Public and Business Response: CALPIRG's work, the passage of Measure R and the growing public support for 30/10 confirm that Angelenos are jonesing for efficient, reliable public transportation. The group also found comparable enthusiasm in the business community which supports both the construction-driven job creation and improved foot traffic public transportation will bring.
With so much to do to bring 30/10 home, it's good to be working with CALPIRG and the many others pulling together to make public transportation happen for LA. And with any luck, we'll have the Subway to the Sea finished before Vermont and State Representative Minter build a line of their own.