Transit on the ballot

The Overhead Wire has a nice roundup here, "Transit Election Results Central."

2. This statement is from CALPIRG on the successful ballot measure there for high speed rail:

Californians Say “Yes!” to High-Speed Rail!

Statement by Emily Rusch, Transportation Advocate for CALPIRG

“We couldn’t be more thrilled with voters’ approval of Prop 1A. With this vote, Californians decided to reduce our oil dependence, to build alternatives to traffic and long airport lines, and to help solve global warming. Californians were also voting to boost the economy.

“Prop 1A is another historic example of California leading the nation. This vote confirms California’s commitment to building high-speed rail. Now California leaders must continue fighting for the project in order to start laying the tracks as quickly as possible. Before we spend bond funds on construction, Congress and private companies will have to match California ’s commitment to the train. We need that to happen quickly because this project cannot be delayed any longer. We saw gas prices hover well above $4 a gallon in California all summer. California has three of the top five most congested regions in the country, costing commuters billions in time and money. Continued oil dependence puts our environment, our economy, and national security at risk. And we know that we need to take dramatic steps now in order to prevent the most devastating impacts of global warming. For all of these reasons, Californians urgently need the high-speed train up and running.”

CALPIRG and our student chapters launched a campaign more than one year ago to build the support necessary to keep the high-speed rail project on track.

Earlier this year:

Our citizen outreach staff had face-to-face conversations with more than 120,000 Californians to educate the public about the proposed high-speed rail project.

In March, CALPIRG Students organized 50 college students to participate in a spring break tour of the high-speed rail route, holding nine different media events along the way and meeting with two dozen elected officials to raise critical visibility and support for the project.

Throughout the spring and summer CALPIRG advocates worked with Assemblywoman Cathleen Galgiani, Assemblywoman Fiona Ma, and other tireless supporters in the legislature to pass AB 3034 and put Prop 1A on the ballot. When the bill passed we collected more than 2,000 petition signatures to the governor, urging him to sign the bill.

Since Prop 1A was put on the ballot in September:

· CALPIRG organized nine different educational forums on college campuses, inviting speakers to educate the campus community about Prop 1A.

· We authored op-eds and commented to the media on the benefits of the project in print media, television and radio stations.

· We helped reach out to elected officials and other organizations to build the expansive list of endorsements for Prop 1A.

· We’ve held dozens of visibility events on street corners, on college campuses, at airports, and on freeway overpasses to raise awareness about Prop 1A.

· In the final weeks we made a video and organized a day of action that reached out to more than 200,000 Californians, mostly college students, to urge their peers to vote “yes” on Prop 1A.

“CALPIRG will be there to make sure that the commitments of Prop 1A are met, and to make sure that the public is protected in the process of rolling out this project and enlisting contractors.

“Luckily, California leaders like Speaker Pelosi, Senator Feinstein, Congressman Jim Costa, and many others in Congress are strong supporters of high-speed rail. We thank them, and so many others, for their past leadership. We urge them to stay the course and see this project through.

“Looking ahead, the impacts of Prop 1A’s passage extend well beyond California. Other regions, from the Midwest to Florida , are also considering high-speed rail to help meet their growing transportation needs. With this vote, California is again leading the way. I look forward to riding the train!”

3. This does remind me of the article in Governing Magazine about states being the more likely place for government innovation to happen. And the description of the Calpirg campaign effort shows what has to be done to win on these kinds of efforts. (I am skimreading a book right now, Politics of Historic Districts, about campaigning and historic preservation. It covers the ground quite well, laying out what's taken me a number of years to figure out.)

4. Even though I prefer Democrats, I am a bit sorry about Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory losing the governor's race in North Carolina as he was a strong proponent of light rail there. According to this article from the Raleigh News & Observer, "Claims Dept: McCrory and light rail," in the Republican primary, an opponent ran ads against McCrory that criticized the light rail system over overspending (do infrastructure construction projects of this sort ever really come in on budget?)

From the Greensboro News-Record editorial endorsement of McCrory:

On McCrory's watch, Charlotte's downtown has become a model for other cities. On his watch, city voters resoundingly backed a sales tax increase to create the first light-rail system in the state. McCrory has favored mass transit for years, as well as sidewalks and green spaces....

Obviously, McCrory can't take all the credit for Charlotte's prosperity. It has had many champions over the years, among them a formidable banking industry. But he has helped keep the city moving forward and reaching higher. And he has remained front and center as Charlotte copes with the uncertain future of one of its major employers, struggling Wachovia Bank.

McCrory also was the founding member of the N.C. Metropolitan Coalition, which unites mayors from towns and cities to work on common issues, including street gangs.

Similarly, while I can't claim I love Norm Coleman (he changed his party affiliation from Democrat to Republican after he was elected mayor of St. Paul, as Senator from Minnesota, he has to be attuned to the issues of cities. We need that perspective in Congress. Actually, that was a strength of Virginia's Tom Davis (before entering Congress he was Chair of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors), although my criticism of him was as chair of the House Government Reform Committee, he didn't take the opportunity to hold hearings on how cities and other local government agencies let themselves get screwed out of everything, including their underwear, in terms of providing stadium-arena funding to professional sports), and Mike Taylor, a Congressman and former Mayor from Dayton, Ohio. (See "Turner leads Mitakides" from the Dayton Daily News.)

In the restroom at the Detroit Metropolitan Airport last night, I was laughing to myself about the old line "I don't vote for the party, I vote for the [best person]" line (although usually the word "man" was used rather than best person), thinking that I vote for the best ideology and rational approach, not the wo/man or party.

5. And according to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, "Sound Transit's package is passing; I-985 falling short." The latter was a referendum initiated by a referendum gladfly that including lifting HOV limitations outside of two 3 hour periods.