Report to the Commission and the ABAG Executive Board: October 23, 2019
Plan Bay Area
Plan Bay Area outreach season has started. With over 30+ community pop-up events scheduled to “meet the people where they are” staff is primed to fully engage the public in this region-wide planning event. All activities are listed on the PBA website at www.planbayarea.org.
In late September, MTC partnered with UC Berkeley’s Center for Cities + Schools (CC+S), to engage over 350 youth in ten schools representing grade levels 4-12 to understand “The Future of Schools” in the Bay Area Region through the spring semester of 2019 as a part of the Horizon efforts. Using CC+S’s Y-PLAN (Youth-Plan, Learn, Ac ten school Now!) curriculum, youth throughout the nine county Bay Area responded to central project question. Youth developed over 100 strategies in response to the challenge, about half of which overlap with strategies identified through the Horizon process. The youth strategies speak to the needs, concerns, and are grounded in the day-today life experience that are top of mind for youth. In addition, and the strategies youth generated reflect a strong ethos of shared responsibility, a concern for the environment and a focus on equity.
APTA National Conference: TransFORM
I attended the conference held in New York, moderating a session on “Cities and Mobility”. The Bay Area was well represented among APTA’s annual awards, honoring Senator Jim Beall with the State Distinguished Service award; and Chair Haggerty accepting an “AdWheel” Grand award for Livermore Amador Valley Transportation Authority. VTA also was awarded an Ad Wheel Grand Award. Jason Weinstein was a presenter highlighting the region’s planned advancements for the Clipper Program.
Mega-Measure (FASTER Bay Area)
The Executive Committee met on October 11, 2019 to discuss key expectations and communications to representatives for the FASTER Bay Area proposal, to help inform the presentation that is agendized today. The Chair and Vice Chair have requested an on-going presence in future strategic level discussions; staff is engaged in technical discussions, focusing on coordination with Plan Bay Area 2050 development in particular. We will be providing standing reports to the Commission on the status of this and any other mega measure initiatives, such as principles being advanced by community stakeholders coalesced by Voices for Public Transit.
Housing Update
Central to our long range planning work is housing related policy and analysis. Significant initiatives were passed by the Legislature and reported to the Legislation Committee. Among the key bills signed by the Governor was AB 1487, authorizing the Bay Area Housing Finance Authority. MTC and ABAG leadership are outlining a strategy regarding next steps for this bill, and will report back through the joint ABAG and MTC Legislative Committee meetings over the ensuing months. As well, ABAG’s Housing Methodology Working Group met on October 18th in a productive kick-off of an intensive effort supporting the Regional Housing Needs Assessment (RHNA).
Equity Platform
Today I am presenting an “Equity Platform” as an essential framing for our external and internal work at MTC and ABAG. This initiative will also be presented to the ABAG Executive Committee in November. I would note that Commissioner Amy Worth accompanied me, Nalungo Conley, Ky-Nam Miller and Judis Santos to the conference “Connecting Equity and Transportation”, developed and sponsored by the UCLA Institute of Transportation Studies and Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies. The conference underscored the critical need for integrating and being accountable to equity in policy, service delivery and advocacy, as is embodied in the Platform.