response to staff report on ESTF-2 recommendations

[Marianna Grossman]

Dear Mayor Siegel,

I am glad that the Council is moving forward on the recommendations that the ESTF-2 presented in June 2018. I have read the staff report and while I appreciate their analysis, I am very disappointed in the gap between their recommendations and the goal of reducing GHG emissions by 40% by 2030 (only 11 years and with a rapidly growing population!!!).

The task force worked really had to recommend actions that could help the City meet its goals. I was on the Transportation working group. As you know, Transportation is about 60% of the GHG footprint of the City. We recommended a suite of solutions that included carrots and sticks to drive behavior change and infrastructure changes to support those changes.

1) Restrict and charge for parking (this is the stick). You have to have good alternatives to driving solo cars for this to work to reduce traffic and GHG emissions.

2) Make section of Castro into a pedestrian mall (this is a carrot to encourage more visitors to downtown and more social and commercial activity by keeping cars to other streets.

3) Improving regional bike infrastructure so that regional bike commuting can become a realistic option for many people. The report says some progress here but does not set ambitious goals or timelines.

4) EV charging. Over 50% of Mountain View residents live in rental housing. If landlords do not provide EV charging, it is impractical for residents to purchase EVs. Adding significant EV charging on City and school district owned lands would help provide convenient overnight charging while landlords slowly implement EV charging. 5 chargers at the new Rengstorff community center is nice, but does not provide the scale for supporting neighborhood charging.

5) City funding for first 3 miles in or out of MV on SHARED Network Transportation Company (NTC) rides. This has several goals:

a) encouraging ride sharing (to reduce congestion)

b) reducing time spent searching for parking

c) as NTCs add more EVs to their fleets, that will reduce GHG emissions from those trips, as well.

6) improved shuttle service. This can be done based on shared ridership patterns. Current system serves non-drivers but does not divert people from solo driving. An evening schedule might encourage people visiting downtown bars to have safe rides home.

7) Having SVCE supporting discounts on solar and EV purchases as well as replacing gas appliances with electric are great measures to endorse.

8) Buying offsets for the gap between performance and GHG reduction goals will help support the case for paying for the investments to drive the transformational change we need.

These solutions are interrelated. Taking them one at a time misses the synergy in catalyzing behavior change and acceleration of turning over gas vehicles in favor of EVs. Additional actions are needed to get people to use active transportation and move off of natural gas.

I hope that the Council decides to hold themselves to account for meeting the GHG goals they have set. The current staff recommendations treat the achievement of these goals as optional. Our children and grandchildren will be severely harmed by our failure to take this challenge as seriously as the City does to maintain a balanced fiscal budget and excellent bond rating. We will be losing an opportunity to lead as a city with an amazing, talented population of residents and employers.

Best regards,

Marianna

Marianna Grossman

Founder and Managing Partner

Minerva Silicon Valley

+1-650-520-7003 

mgro...@minervaventures.com 

Blog: Message to Leaders about Climate

www.minervaventures.com

Twitter: @mgrossmanSV; @MinervaVentures

"We are now faced with the fact that tomorrow is today. We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now. In this unfolding conundrum of life and history there is such a thing as being too late. Procrastination is still the thief of time.…We must move past indecision to action."

Speech delivered by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., on April 4, 1967, at a meeting of Clergy and Laity Concerned at Riverside Church in New York City