Dear friends who live, work and/or love Oakland,
Please read the urgent action below. This will take less than 10 minutes of
your time and you CAN make a huge difference by calling or emailing.
Literally your voice could be one of the 30+ voices needed to help secure
Oakland City Councilmembers' NO vote on the Oakland Airport Connector
(OAC). Please don't put this off, just call and/or email now if you can!
The decision is being made tonight and EVERY voice matters!
Why is it a bad proposal?
* Voters approved the project in 2002 when the project was $130 million.
However the pricetag has now ballooned to $522 million for the three mile
project.
* BART plans to charge riders up to $12 round trip (in addition to the price
of a rider's BART ticket) and the estimated time to take the train is little
less than the current commute on AirBART.
* Community-serving intermediate stops have been removed from the project,
removing the economic development aspects of the project.
* The $522 million price tag will make it more difficult for BART to meet
the needs of its core system, including station renovation, the purchase of
new cars, and improvements in existing service (cleaner cars, more frequent
trains, for example).
* Other alternatives, such as bus rapid transit (BRT) are available, and
would cost less than a tenth of the OAC proposal.
* Organizing efforts by groups like Urban Habitat, TransForm, BayLocalize,
and APEN have already been successful in getting some City Council members,
Port Commissioners and others to reconsider this proposal
* But more efforts and more voices are needed to ensure that the full City
Council votes NO on the OAC!
Please call this morning, email your friends and other colleagues, and if
you can, come to the meeting tomorrow night with me!
In these budget crises, we need to be using Oakland's money wisely and this
is just a total waste of funds that could be better used for ensuring
quality public transit for all, not just tourists and others who can afford
to fly.
Please check out the urgent action below and visit
http://oaklandairportconnector.com/ for more info.
Thanks so much for your 10 minutes to help protect Oakland from wasteful
spending!
All the best
Megan
********************************************
URGENT ACTION: We need your help TODAY! Stop the OAC.
Tomorrow night, the Oakland City Council will be voting on a resolution
opposing the Oakland Airport Connector. I know many of you plan to attend,
and if you haven’t RSVPed yet, please do so on Facebook. Also, if possible
please fill in a speaker card online ahead of time so you don't have to
show up early (7-7:30pm) to register to speak and can come later (council
probably won't get to the OAC till at least 8:30).
Several councilmembers are on the fence or not yet decided. The supporters
of the OAC are generating phone calls to these offices and it’s important
that we do the same. One council office told us that we must generate 20
phone calls and 30 emails opposing the OAC before tomorrow's vote to secure
that councilmember's vote. Please take 10 minutes today to call these four
councilmembers and to send an email to the entire Council. To make an
impact, please call and email today (Monday) or early tomorrow (Tuesday).
It’s simple – here’s what you should do:
1. Call the following councilmembers:
Council President Jane Brunner, District 1 – 510-238-7001
Patricia Kernighan, District 2 – 510-238-7002
Jean Quan, District 4 – 510-238-7004
Ignacio De La Fuente, District 5 – 510-238-7005
When you call, you will likely talk to either the councilmembers’ staffers
or answering machines. Use the following script as a guide:
Hi, my name is ________ and I’m an Oakland resident calling to urge
Councilmember _________ to support the resolution opposing the Oakland
Airport Connector. This half billion project does not benefit Oakland, and
it would suck funding from several Oakland transit projects. The Connector
will not provide economic development to East Oakland, and many Oakland
residents will not be able to afford the $6 fare.
[If speaking to a staffer]: Can you tell me how Councilmember ________
plans to vote on this resolution?
Thank you for your time.
2. Email the full Council:
Rebecca Kaplan <rkap...@oaklandnet.com>, Jane Brunner <
jbrun...@oaklandnet.com>, Pat Kernighan <pkernig...@oaklandnet.com>, Nancy
Nadel <nna...@oaklandnet.com>,
Jean Quan <jq...@oaklandnet.com>, Ignacio De La Fuente <
idelafue...@oaklandnet.com>, Desley Brooks <dbro...@oaklandnet.com>, Larry
Reid <lr...@oaklandnet.com>
Use the following template as a guide:
Dear Oakland City Councilmembers,
I am writing to urge you to support the resolution opposing the Oakland
Airport Connector.
This half billion project does not benefit Oakland, and it would suck
funding from several Oakland transit projects. The Connector will not
provide economic development to East Oakland, and many Oakland residents
will not be able to afford the $6 fare.
A vote against the Airport Connector is a vote for:
A Stronger Economy: A bus rapid transit connector would have
intermediate stops and would be affordable to all Oakland residents.
More Jobs: Reverting OAC funds back to transit agencies would create
more jobs than building the OAC.
Better Transit: A bus rapid transit connector could be as fast as the
OAC, AND the money saved would stop transit service cuts throughout
the Bay Area.
Please vote for the resolution opposing the Oakland Airport Connector.
Sincerely,
_____________
3. Ask anybody and everybody you know who opposes the Connector to do the
same.
Thanks, and we’ll see you tomorrow!
If you have questions, please contact Bob Allen (510) 839-9510 x 312,
or Will Dominie (510) 839-9510 x 316 at Urban Habitat.
--
Carmen Rojas
543 Howard Street, 5th Floor
San Francisco, CA 94105
Green Access
Grants Officer
Mitchell Kapor Foundation
www.mkf.org
--
Carmen Rojas
PhD Candidate
Department of City & Regional Planning
University of California, Berkeley
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