Dates/Time
October 1, 2020
10:00 am-11:30 am
Join Smart Growth California’s Los Angeles Funders Collaborative, the Collaborative on Mobility and Access at TFN, Southern California Grantmakers, ClimatePlan, Transit Center, ACT-LA, Koreatown Immigrant Workers Alliance and the Community Power Collective for a funder briefing and conversation about transit justice in Los Angeles and its state and national implications.
Despite LA County’s car-centric reputation, over a million Angelenos do not have cars, and this is particularly true in LA’s Black and immigrant communities. Public transit is the community infrastructure that connects us to jobs, family, and healthcare. LA County is by far the most populated County in the US; it is critical to maintain and grow our transit ridership in order to address climate change and improve air quality.
However, public transit in LA County is often unreliable, slow, poorly connected and overpoliced. It burdens the pocketbooks of the extremely low income families that rely on it. ACT-LA, a countywide coalition working on transit issues believes that LA Metro as an agency has long prioritized the wrong budget items; funding major train projects over the much more utilized bus system, maintaining an extensive fare enforcement system and committing almost a billion dollars for policing.
Community organizers in LA are building a movement for transit justice in order to make the County’s development of public transportation a pathway to a just transition rather than a source of displacement and further inequity. This convening invites dialogue about the multi-sector nature of this issue, successes and challenges at the state and regional level and where we go from here.
Speakers:
- Chanell Fletcher, Executive Director, ClimatePlan
- Laura Raymond, Director, ACT-LA
- Carla De Paz, Community Power Collective
- Alexandra Suh, Executive Director, KIWA
- David Bragdon (moderator), Executive Director, TransitCenter
The Los Angeles Funders Collaborative is a workgroup of Smart Growth California.
