Streetsblog San Francisco

As transportation planners and transit agencies around the country celebrated the announcement of the $1.5 billion in Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery, or TIGER grants, yesterday, BART received more troubling news that could hurt the feasibility of its planned Oakland Airport Connector (OAC).

After losing $70 million in stimulus funds last week because the agency failed to satisfy the Federal Transit Administration's (FTA) minority and equity standards for federal funding, BART lost another $25 million it was expecting from TIGER, money that was important for the agency to secure further federal loans to build the nearly $500 million OAC.

"Basically, it's just devastating," BART spokesperson Luna Salaver said about the OAC developments over the last week. "We had a triple-one project, a shovel ready project, and then it ran into this opposition that was using the Civil Rights Act make the region lose thousands of jobs."

To pay for the OAC project, BART had applied for a federal infrastructure (TIFIA) loan of $150 million, which required them to create a risk fund in case the agency later defaulted. BART anticipated using the $25 million TIGER grant for that risk fund, according to Salaver. The loss now has BART staff  scrambling to find more money or risk losing the loan.

"We're looking at different funding sources, but that is not set in stone," said Salaver. "There have been too many years of planning to just give up now."

Opponents of the OAC had consistently warned BART through letters and in public testimony at board meetings over the last year that the agency was not in compliance with FTA standards, but BART staff remained convinced the project would get federal funds.

Read more...

In a stern letter to BART [PDF], Federal Transit Association (FTA) Administrator Peter Rogoff informed the agency that it would not be able to develop a suitable action plan by March 5th to comply with equity and race requirements for the $70 million in stimulus funds for the Oakland Airport Connector (OAC), a move that may kill the project.

"Given the fact that the initial Title VI complaint against BART was well founded, I am not in a position to award the ARRA funds to BART while the agency remains out of compliance," wrote Rogoff.

In his letter, Rogoff said he was sure the project opponents that filed the original complaint with the FTA would proceed with further lawsuits, jeopardizing the tight timeline on stimulus funds. He advised BART and MTC to reallocate the money or the region would risk losing the funds altogether.

"The likelihood of protracted litigation with the parties that made the initial complaint is extremely high," wrote Rogoff. "Given this situation, and the fact that we are now only 3 weeks away from the March 5 deadline, I must bring these discussions to a close so that we can work together to ensure that the ARRA funds can create and preserve jobs in the Bay Area."

As a contingency plan, the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC), which oversees transportation planning in the Bay Area, had planned to meet on February 17th to decide whether to reprogram the $70 million if BART did not meet its obligations. The MTC will likely move the $70 million to the region's transit agencies by pre-established funding formulas, rather than risk losing the money outright.

OAC opponents were delighted with the news.

Read more...

As I climbed the steps out of the Lake Merritt BART station this morning I heard loud chanting. "Wow," I thought, "those bicyclists have really pulled out the troops!" But the demonstrators that greeted me across 8th Street in Oakland were pile drivers, iron workers, carpenters and other trades workers, chanting "Jobs for Oakland Now!" Not far from their boisterous demonstration in front of the main doors of the Joseph Brot Metro Center were a few cyclists showing their signs to passersby, "Bridge the Gap Now" "All the Way Across the Bay" and "Safety Path!" Across the street, Transform and Urban Habitat were also making their presence felt, opposing the Oakland Airport Connector that the building trades unionists were clamoring for.

Democracy in action, I suppose. Long-time bicycle advocates from the East Bay and San Francisco converged on this meeting, hoping to convince the Bay Area Toll Authority (BATA) to support using some of the new tolls ($5 on all bridges as of July 1, with $6 congestion pricing on the Bay Bridge during rush hour, and for the first time, a half-price toll for carpoolers) to fund a new west-span bicycle/pedestrian/maintenance/safety lane to make the bridge safer, and to finish the transbay route for bicyclists and pedestrians too, not just motorized vehicles. But that effort was bureaucratically sidetracked before this meeting even started.

Read more...

The Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC), at its monthly meeting in Oakland today, voted 11-5 to reaffirm its commitment to the Oakland Airport Connector, despite BART's recent problems with the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) over its Title VI civil right requirements for federal stimulus money. The MTC resolution gives BART until February 16th to comply with FTA's obligations, and if the operator fails to comply, the MTC would redistribute the $70 million to the region's transit operators.

Elected officials, transit advocates, construction workers, business groups and numerous other speakers gave testimony and debated the merits of the OAC before an overflow audience of at least 200 people

The first speaker was Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums, who used impassioned rhetoric about race and equity in an argument to support the OAC. Though he noted that the FTA ruling on BART's Title VI deficiencies indicated the agency had a long way to go, he said, "Title VI was designed to challenge large organizations to change. That ultimately is what needs to happen here."

Dellums said he  spoke with US DOT Secretary Ray LaHood and FTA Administrator Peter Rogoff in Washington last week and urged their patience and care in dealing with BART's Title VI obligations, which he assumed they would.

"Fairness not just about acknowledging the problem, it is about making sure there is a process for resolving this problem," said Dellums. "I asked them for time to resolve this matter."

Read more...

Transit advocates in favor of redirecting stimulus funds for the Oakland Airport Connector to financially struggling transit agencies are out in force at this morning's MTC Commission meeting in Oakland, along with dozens of union construction workers. Streetsblog's Matthew Roth reports the main meeting room and overflow rooms are filled beyond capacity. Roth and Streetsblog contributor Chris Carlsson are covering the meeting and will have full write-ups later today. In the meantime, follow our Twitter feed for updates, and see more photos below the break.

Read more...

Despite the rush of negative publicity around the FTA's letter to BART, which effectively put the agency on notice for failing its Title VI civil rights and equity obligations for the Oakland Airport Connector (OAC), MTC Executive Director Steve Heminger has faith in BART's ability to come up with a satisfactory action plan to meet FTA's demands, as noted by the recommendation he makes in a letter to his commissioners to endorse BART's OAC, albeit with provisions [PDF].

In the letter, Heminger says it is not "MTC's role to conduct or pre-judge the Title VI analyses that BART must undertake to satisfy the proposed FTA conditional award." But, he writes, "MTC must have some understanding of the scope of the issues involved so that we can assess the likelihood that BART can comply" with its obligation under the federal Civil Rights Act.

Heminger concludes that BART satisfactorily met the Title VI demands for construction related impacts in its environmental review from 2002 and he thinks BART will be able to meet the Title VI ridership analysis demands as stipulated by the FTA.

Thus, MTC commissioners are given two options by Heminger, the first to provisionally support the OAC and "accept the risk that the funds could be lost to the region if BART fails to remedy any Title VI deficiencies to FTA's satisfaction." If commissioners choose this option, Heminger recommends mandating that BART submit its "action plan" to the FTA by February 16, 2010. If FTA should find deficiencies in BART's action plan at that time, then Heminger recommends his commissioners program the money to transit operators for their operating budgets.

The second option would be to immediately redistribute the money to transit operators and MTC staff have prepared Resolution No. 3855 for the commission, should it decide on the immediate re-distribution of the federal funds.

Should make for a very interesting meeting in the morning, which Streetsblog will be covering with occasional updates via our Twitter account.

Muni riders have a chance at a reprieve from the one thousand hours per day of lost service that the MTA is proposing to cut in order to plug a $17 million deficit before the end of the fiscal year in June. The service cuts will lead to overcrowded buses on the major routes and the total elimination of service on the outer portions of some routes, while some transit riders will be forced to find alternate means of travel, especially at night.

The potential relief from this scenario is in the form of $70 million in federal stimulus that the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, at its meeting tomorrow, could direct to the region's transit agencies instead of to construction of the Oakland Airport Connector (OAC), which faces a large hurdle for failing to comply with federal social equity rules.

As reported here yesterday, the complaint filed by several Bay Area groups specified that BART had not conducted the required social equity analysis to determine how the service would impact low income groups, and that if it did, it would find that the project benefits relatively affluent airport passengers at the expense of airport workers and everyday transit riders.

"We see it as Robin Hood in reverse," said Rev. Scott Denman of Genesis, which coordinates a social justice transit collaboration with faith-based organizations. Denman added that the money being proposed will go to BART customers with means who can afford an airline ticket, while general transit service continues to be cut and fares continue to rise.

"I feel like lunch money is being stolen to pay for dessert for people with full stomachs," said Denman.

Read more...

The Obama administration's warning that the Bay Area has jeopardized federal stimulus funding for its Oakland Airport Connector (OAC) project could have national consequences for other urban transit proposals that risk harming low-income riders, civil rights and transit advocates predicted today.

Several Bay Area advocacy groups briefed the media on the civil-rights complaint they filed against the OAC project, which the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) investigated late last year. In a letter [PDF] that threatened to yank $70 million in stimulus money from the project, the FTA warned BART that it has until early March to develop a plan to comply with federal equity rules.

Stuart Cohen, executive director of TransForm, said advocates' victorious bid to push Bay Area's transit planners to examine more cost-effective and equitable alternatives to the OAC would "have a ripple effect" as other cities re-examine how their transit plans would affect lower-income and minority riders.

The FTA's decision on the OAC, described as the first of its kind, "represents government at its best," PolicyLink president Angela Glover Blackwell told reporters, adding that by "us[ing] the power of purse to make transportation agencies accountable, government shows it can be consistent with its values."

So where else are civil rights complaints playing a role in local transportation decision-making?

Read more...

With the civil rights imbroglio between BART and the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) making news last week, a problem that could imperil $70 million in federal stimulus funds obligated to the Oakland Airport Connector (OAC), advocates are calling on the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) to give the stimulus money to cash-strapped transit operators or face the possibility of losing it altogether. The FTA has given BART until March 5th to prepare an action plan to meet Civil Rights Act Title VI requirements to analyze the impacts the OAC fares will have on minority and low-income riders, something BART has so far failed to do.

The gravity of the situation has not been lost on the MTC. In a letter from MTC Executive Director Steve Heminger to his Commissioners about BART and the FTA [PDF], Heminger quoted the stern warning from FTA Administrator Peter Rogoff:

If BART were to fail in any respect to make progress or to meet its deadline as established in the action plan, FTA would have to de-obligate the ARRA funds for the Project and would be prohibited by law from re-obligating those funds to alternative projects in the San Francisco Bay Area [emphasis original].

As a result, Heminger noted in the letter, the Commission has several options, including a reaffirmation of its commitment to the OAC, with the attendant risk of losing the money if BART doesn't meet it's obligations to the FTA, or redistribution of the funds to operators according to MTC funding formulas. MTC staff will present its recommendation to Commissioners by this Wednesday's regular MTC meeting.

Bob Allen, Transportation Director of Urban Habitat, said he found BART Board Director James Fang's surprise with the FTA ruling to be disingenous at best. According to Allen, he stood before BART Directors at meetings starting in early 2009 and repeated the same refrain, "If you don't do this analysis, you own the outcomes. You are responsible for any civil rights outcomes that could come from this."

"The idea that this is a surprise flies in the face of public comment that has been made since February 2009 by me and by other members of the public," he said

Read more...

In a strongly worded reply to Federal Transit Administration (FTA) Administrator Peter Rogoff yesterday [PDF], a number of BART Board Directors and General Manager Dorothy Dugger contested the FTA's assertion that BART has not complied with its obligations to minority riders under Federal Civil Rights Act Title VI in relation to the fare for the future Oakland Airport Connector (OAC). Citing a number of public meetings and involvement by several minority organizations in planning for the OAC, the letter asserts that BART is inclusive in its planning process and encourages public input.

"Our organization always has been and will continue to be committed to providing non-discriminatory, equitable, accessible and safe public transportation to the communities and residents of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Area," reads the letter. "BART takes strong exception to the assertion in your January 15 letter suggesting otherwise and the alleged admission by BART during the compliance review conducted in December 2009."

At the same time, the letter says that BART will do everything required of it by the FTA to guarantee that the $70 million in federal stimulus funds in question will not be de-obligated and sent elswhere, a move that could imperil the OAC.

BART spokesperson Linton Johnson struck an even more conciliatory tone, saying that conversations with the FTA throughout the day yesterday had changed dramatically and that BART was confident it would meet all its obligations to establish an action plan by the March 5th deadline imposed by the FTA for the federal stimulus money.

"We believe that all the Title VI work that we’ve done over the years is legally sound and meets legal muster," said Johnson.

Read more...