Transit Justice and Minority Communities
The lawsuit discussed in this post involves several low-income immigrant communities.
From Public Advocates:
Coinciding with this week’s anniversary of the stimulus package (American Recovery and Reinvestment Act or ARRA), we’re celebrating a powerful step forward in our transit justice work and writing to share the exciting news.
If you’ve been following along, you’ll remember that we filed a Title VI civil rights complaint with the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) charging that Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) failed to consider community needs and input, violating the civil rights of low-income minority residents, in the planning of the Oakland Airport Connector project. In the first action of its kind, FTA has pulled $70 million in federal stimulus funds from a BART expansion project due to multiple civil rights violations.
This victory for equity and accountability is garnering national and regional attention. A few headlines:
NY Times: U.S. Blocks $70 Million for Rail Line in Bay Area “This is a powerful statement by the Obama administration saying that a project is not shovel-ready until it is fair,” said Guillermo Mayer, a staff lawyer for Public Advocates.”
AP: Feds Deny BART $70M for Oakland Airport Connector
Bay City Newswire: Other Transit Agencies Gain After BART Loses $70M
Five years ago we sowed these seeds when we filed Darensburg v. MTC. I credit our amazing team, and our clients, Urban Habitat, TransForm and Genesis, for creativity, patience and perseverance in pursuing this complex struggle to ensure fairness for all. We are also grateful to our donors and Board for the vision to invest in this work.
Our education team is also watch-dogging stimulus funding. In reviewing the State of California’s application for federal stimulus and Race To The Top dollars, we discovered that the State is manipulating numbers in an attempt to qualify for funds without having to spend more on public education.
In short, California is attempting to evade the minimum level of effort toward school funding in 2009-10 and 2010-11 as required to receive ARRA funds and also fails to meet the minimum requirements for the requested FY 2010-11 Maintenance of Effort waiver under ARRA.
Along with our partners in the Parents and Students for Great Schools coalition (Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE), Californians for Justice and Pico California), we sent a letter to Education Secretary Arne Duncan urging him not to approve California’s applications for stimulus dollars until the state meets the minimum education spending requirements called for by Congress.
Just today’s examples of how we work daily to make rights real for marginalized communities.
Celebrate with us in person at our 39th Anniversary Event on Wednesday, April 28th at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco!
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