HIGHWAY ROBBERY: TRANSPORTATION RACISM
AND NEW ROUTES TO EQUITY
(South End Press, 2004)
Edited by
Robert D. Bullard, Ph.D.
Glenn S. Johnson, Ph.D.
Angel O. Torres, M.C.P
Table of Contents
Foreword by U.S. Congressman John Lewis
Three decades ago, I first went to Washington, D.C. as a twenty-one year old
student to begin a historic journey called the Freedom Rides. The Supreme
Court had just issued a decision prohibiting discrimination in interstate
travel. I was one of a group of young people who set out to test that decision
by traveling by bus from Washington through the Deep South, and into Louisiana.
The bus we rode on symbolized freedom-freedom to travel as first-class American
citizens.
Despite the new law, barriers that had denied African-Americans
freedom to travel were still in place. When we rode across the South, I saw
the signs that divided the world into two classes of citizens: black and white.
The signs read: White Men, Colored Men; White Women, Colored Women; White
Waiting, Colored Waiting. As we traveled and challenged those signs, we were
intimidated, attacked, and beaten.
Highway Robbery clearly illustrates that our struggle
is not over. Today those physical signs are gone, but the legacy of "Jim
Crow" transportation is still with us. Even today, some our transportation
policies and practices destroy stable neighborhoods, isolate and segregate
our citizens in deteriorating neighborhoods, and fail to provide access to
jobs and economic growth centers.
We have come a great distance, but we are still a society divided
by race and class. From New York to Los Angeles, segregated housing, discriminatory
land use planning and unjust transportation policies keep poor people and
minorities separate and apart. Suburban road construction programs expand
while urban transit systems are under funded and fall into disrepair. Service
jobs go unfilled in suburban malls and retail centers because public transit
too often does not link urban job seekers with suburban jobs.
Introduction (Robert D. Bullard, Clark Atlanta University)
The modern civil rights movement has its roots in transportation. For more
than a century, African Americans and other people of color have struggled
for just and equitable transportation. Transportation decisions helped shape
metropolitan areas, growth patterns, physical mobility, and economic opportunity.
The authors assembled for this volume come from diverse racial, ethnic, and
socioeconomic backgrounds. They have tried to blend their work into a concise,
coherent, and readable book. There is no way that one book can reflect the
many transportation horror stories that exist in the nation. This book only
touches the surface of this national tragedy. In nine chapters, the authors
present real case studies that call into question the fairness and legality
of many of our transportation policies, practices, and procedures. They also
question the willingness of government to vigorously enforce existing transportation
and civil rights laws without regard to race, color, or national origin. The
authors clearly show that the nation is far from achieving color-blind transportation
planning and spending in metropolitan regions from New York to California.
Chapter 1: The Anatomy of Transportation Racism (Robert
D. Bullard, Clark Atlanta University)
In this chapter, the author provides a socio-historical overview of civil
rights struggles that are embedded in transportation. He places in context
transportation struggles from Plessy v. Ferguson to Rosa Parks to recent
challenges of unjust, unfair, and illegal transportation investment practices.
Historically, transportation policies did not emerge in a race- and class-neutral
society. Transportation planning outcomes often reflected the biases of their
originators with "losers" comprised largely of the poor, powerless,
and people of color. Transportation racism is defined as the socially organized
set of attitudes, ideas, policies and practices that deny African Americans
and other people of color the benefits, freedoms, opportunities, and rewards
that are offered to white Americans. Modern racism must be understood as everyday
lived experience. Transportation planning has responded to racist government
institutions and private entities that use discrimination to maintain white
privilege. Racism is a potent tool for sorting people into their physical
environment. It influences land use, residential and commercial patterns,
and infrastructure development.
Transportation equity is about just transportation. While addressing
negative environmental consequences or costs, transportation equity focuses
on the distribution of benefits, enhancements, and investments. Generally,
environmental justice concerns arise where people of color and the poor receive
more than their fair share of the negative impacts, while receiving few benefits
from transportation projects and investments. Environmental justice provides
a framework under which transportation planning can avoid, minimize, and mitigate
negative impacts and enhance the livability of community residents. Transportation
is a key ingredient in any organization's plan to build economically viable,
healthy, and sustainable communities. Transportation racism is easy to practice,
but difficult to eliminate.
Transportation decision-making is political. Building roads in the job-rich suburbs while at the same time blocking transit from entering these same suburbs are political decisions buttressed by race and class dynamics. In cities and metropolitan regions all across the country, inadequate or nonexistent suburban transit serves as invisible "Keep Out" signs directed against people of color and the poor. Some groups have taken legal action and used the law as a tool to accomplish their goals, while other have chosen other routes. However, there is no cookie-cutter formula for dismantling unjust policies and practices.
Chapter 2 Los Angeles Bus Riders Derail the MTA (Eric
Mann, Labor/Community Strategy Center)
Los Angeles is widely known for its automobile culture. However, the city
is also home to the second largest bus system in the country. The Los Angeles
County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) plans, coordinates, builds,
and operates public transit within a 1,433-square-mile service area. The MTA
operated 2,346 buses in its total fleet, with 2,058 in service on an average
weekday. The buses cover 185 routes at 18,500 stops. The MTA also operates
60 miles of Metro Rail service at 50 stations.
Written by longtime civil rights activist, Eric Mann, this chapter
details the battle waged in the legal arena by the Labor/Community Strategy
Center (LCSC) and Bus Riders Union (BRU) and their allies against transit
racism practiced by the MTA. This legal tactic is situated in the organizing
and movement building work of the L.A. Bus Riders Union in the 1990s-a
group who carried on the legacy of the Freedom Riders of the 1960s. The chapter
details the civil rights and transportation justice victories that the LCSC
and BRU achieved in federal court before and after the infamous April 24,
2001 U.S. Supreme Court Alexander v. Sandoval decision that limited the use
of disparate impact in Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The Los Angeles
case is the best example that Title VI, civil rights, and justice, though
wounded, are not dead and can still be fought for and won.
The class action lawsuit challenged the proposed Los Angeles
County Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) policies and the use of Federal
funds in building an expensive rail system. The dramatic increase in the cost
of public transportation would have a disproportionate and irreparable impact
on the county's minority communities, and the bus riding public of whom
are more than 80 percent Latino, African American, Asian/Pacific Islander,
and Native American. MTA policies substantially exclude, deny, and discriminate
against bus riders who are overwhelmingly low-income members of minority communities.
The MTA dragged the consent decree out on appeals for more than six years.
In August 2001, a federal judge ruled against the MTA and ordered it to abide
by the consent decree and buy new CNG (Compressed Natural Gas) buses.
Chapter 3 Dismantling Transit Racism in Metro Atlanta
(Robert D. Bullard, Glenn S. Johnson, and Angel O. Torres, Clark Atlanta University)
The authors discuss how regional transportation policies are implicated in
land-use patterns, unhealthy air, and suburban sprawl in metropolitan Atlanta.
Transportation and land-use plans contributed to and exacerbated social, economic,
and racial inequities. Transportation has always been an important part in
Atlanta's history and it's development. Race shaped the path of
land-use planning and public transportation in metro Atlanta. Racism has kept
the Atlanta region economically and geographically divided. The ten-county
Atlanta metropolitan area has a regional transit system only in name. The
Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA) serves just two counties,
Fulton and DeKalb. MARTA was built on deceit, broken promises, and racism.
Because Atlanta's white business elites wanted MARTA, it was predetermined
to be built-whether it met the needs of the region or was accepted by
the community.
The original plan called for a five-county regional transit
system. In the 1960s, MARTA was hailed as the solution to the region's
growing traffic and pollution problems. Atlanta's white economic and
political elites, led by Atlanta Mayor Ivan Allen, Jr., pushed for a rapid-rail
system that they felt would market Atlanta as a "cosmopolitan" New
South city. In 1967, rapid-rail lines were under construction in San Francisco,
Seattle, Los Angeles, and Washington, DC. Atlanta's leaders did not want
the city to be left behind as they marketed the city's progressive image.
In the very beginning, MARTA was planned with built-in disparities
between whites and blacks. MARTA was a business-led initiative. It was more
about business than transportation and mobility. It is no secret that white
suburbanites did not want public transit or blacks in their communities. For
many whites, MARTA stood for "Moving Africans Rapidly Through Atlanta."
In response to the sentiments of their constituents, suburban county officials
created their own bus systems. Race still matters in planning transit in metropolitan
Atlanta. Until racism is reigned in, the Atlanta region will continue to have
a patchwork of unlinked, uncoordinated, and "separate but unequal"
transit (bus) systems.
The Metropolitan Atlanta Transportation Equity Coalition charged
MARTA with racial discrimination under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of
1964. The coalition also filed an administrative complaint against MARTA with
the U.S. DOT for failing to comply with the federally mandated Americans with
Disability Act (ADA). The Metropolitan Atlanta Transportation Equity Coalition
(MATEC) complainants included a broad array of groups, including some well
known civil rights organizations (SCLC, NAACP, and Rainbow/PUSH Coalition),
neighborhood organizations (Rebel Forest Neighborhood Task Force, Campbellton
Road Coalition, Second Chance Community Services, Inc.), a disabled persons
advocacy group (Santa Fe Villas Tenant's Association), an environmental
organization (Center for Environmental Public Awareness), a youth group (Youth
Task Force), and a labor union that represents MARTA drivers (Amalgamated
Transit Union Local 732).
The complaint resulted in some concession from MARTA, including
service and station enhancements and amenities such as bus shelters, improved
station security and maintenance, allocation of clean fuel buses in the heavily
black South Fulton district, bus shelters, sign language and Spanish translation
at MARTA public meetings, and a plan to address overcrowding on the heavily
people of color bus routes.
Chapter 4 Burying Robert Moses's Legacy in New York
City (Omar Freilla, Sustainable South Bronx)
This chapter examines the myriad of transportation justice issues in the nation's
largest city-a city where nearly half of its residents use public transit.
The chapter also explores the issues of access, service quality and quantity,
and transportation investment disparities between services in affluent white
communities and communities of color. Over the course of 44-years, from 1920
to 1964 Robert Moses turned the powers of mundane government agencies into
his own personal empire of construction. Elected by no one, he held everyone
from mayors and governors to presidents in check.
Making transportation infrastructure compatible with a community's
needs was never a part of Robert Moses' agenda. Enabling communities
to direct a process that shapes the future of their neighborhood was perhaps
the last thing he would have ever wanted to see happen. It is a process that
not only ensures local needs are met, but it also empowers - an outcome unacceptable
to the predominantly white and middle-class world of transportation engineers
whose class and racial privilege lead them to think they have all the answers.
The battles being waged over the future of urban highways demonstrates that
the engineers may indeed have all the answers, but they're to all the
wrong questions. What we are doing in both Sunset Park and the South Bronx
is challenging future investments in highways that have caused suffering,
and advocating instead for their demolition and reuse of land to meet real
community needs. As urban highways across the country are nearing the end
of their useful life opportunities abound for community groups to undo the
legacy of the Robert Moses era, a legacy that shaped not only New York City
but also cities across the United States, and beyond.
In New York City, we have been able to build momentum for the
demolition of old highways for a number of reasons. One key component has
been our ability to convey to others in our community, the history of how
things got to be the way they are, of identifying Robert Moses' influence,
and of showing in very clear terms the ways in which the needs of local communities
were deliberately sacrificed. Another factor has been the collaborations that
have taken place between grassroots community groups and organizations that
provide technical assistance. These collaborations have enabled our groups
to turn ideas that were floating around aimlessly in the air into very real,
well thought out proposals that have been carefully designed and analyzed,
and are presented in a way that is friendly to the eye and clear to the mind.
However, it is important to recognize that no matter how great
the idea, it isn't enough to present a well-articulated argument and
hope that policymakers will be impressed by our data and swayed by our sheer
brilliance. From the onset of all of our efforts we have realized that no
highway will come down in our communities unless we have first built an aggressive
mass movement featuring a large coalition of supporters from a broad spectrum
of the community. This means not only organizations and other institutions,
but also direct organizing of local residents that aren't members of
any group. We are waging an uphill battle. Building a base of support is the
most critical part of our effort, and one that all of the groups mentioned
above have continued working to create.
Chapter 5 Transportation Choices in the San Francisco Bay
Area (Stuart Cohen and Jeff Hobson, Transportation and Land Use Coalition)
This chapter describes the development of the Transportation Land Use Coalition
(TALC) and the ways it has merged the environmental and equity agendas. Like
regions across the county, the San Francisco Bay Area is plagued by low-density
sprawl development that draws investment and life away from the urban core.
Taxpayer-subsidized highways attract jobs and houses into the suburbs and
agricultural areas, gobbling up open space and forcing residents to use cars
for nearly every trip. As a result, the share of all trips made on transit
has steadily declined while the amount each person drives each day has risen
– more than 60% over the past three decades.
Alameda County, which stretches from the urban centers of Oakland
and Berkeley into suburbs and farmlands to the east and south, has felt the
tension between suburban investment and urban disinvestment particularly acutely,
with lower income urbanites complaining that funding for their transit systems
and city streets has suffered while highways and commuter rail systems have
grabbed the lion's share of regional funding.
The immediate goals of social justice and environmental groups
are often different. Social justice groups focus on more frequent bus service,
increasing late-night and weekend transit service, making transportation more
affordable, or keeping speeders from turning neighborhood streets into dangerous
highways. Environmentalists have long focused on stopping suburban freeways
from paving over open space, getting commuters out of their cars to improve
air quality, and making the streets safe for bicycles and pedestrians. Merging
these various areas of concern requires both constituencies to broaden their
thinking about transportation.
The authors describe some of TALC's successes as well as
the obstacles they encountered, and use these case studies to draw some conclusions
about how organizations can work together to build a coalition that focuses
on a socially just and environmentally sustainable transportation system in
the Bay Area. Finally, they show how TALC's approach produced a radically
different -- and far more successful -- outcome when Measure B appeared before
Alameda County voters in 2000, two years after its defeat at the hands of
environmentalists.
Chapter 6 Transit Activism in Steel Town, USA (Brian
Nogrady and Ayanna King, Pittsburgh Transportation Equity Project)
Allegheny County is highly segregated by race. According to the 2000 U.S.
Census, about 75 percent of blacks live in urban neighborhoods east of Downtown
and 10 percent live in those just north. Over the past half-century, these
East End and North Side communities have born a disproportionate share of
the burdens of many of the region's transportation and urban renewal
projects. Highways built to serve suburban commuters severed vibrant black
communities of the North Side and the east's Hill District from Downtown.
These projects displaced tens-of-thousands from their homes, businesses, and
communities. Redlining and the Allegheny County Public Housing Authority,
which for decades specifically located black public housing residents into
particular communities, further contributed to the region's segregation.
This chapter examines transportation inequities in Pittsburgh-Allegheny
County. Clearly, all transit in Pittsburgh, PA is not created equally. Discrimination
has resulted in a segregated and unequal regional transit system, particularly
in the construction of fixed transit guideways. The Port Authority of Allegheny
County ("PAT"), the region's public transit agency, has invested
a significantly large proportion of the area's limited transit capital
funds to build a high-cost, modern, clean and quiet light rail transit ("LRT")
system serving predominantly white and higher income communities in the southern
part of the County. At the same time, in the region's highest transit
corridor – the predominantly black and lower income eastern communities
-- PAT has built a low-cost highway for the exclusive use of buses, the Martin
Luther King Jr. East Busway ("MLK"), on which it operates diesel
buses. In developing these unequal and separate systems, PAT has invested
or allocated seven times more capital dollars per rider in the South than
the East.
In choosing LRT for the South, PAT rejected cheaper busway options
as a "lesser alternative." Its early planning documents expressed
concerns over the adverse environmental impact of buses, specifically citing
the "odor" and noise problems that would be created in immediately
adjacent residential neighborhoods by high frequency service along the busway
and at station areas. However, in planning for a short extension of the MLK
busway, despite repeated requests from affected eastern residents concerned
about environmental impacts, PAT refused to consider a conversion of the busway
to LRT or provide the public with information that would allow an informed
comparison of the true environmental and monetary cost of any alternatives,
besides PAT's pre-ordained buses-only plans for the East.
Each weekday the extended busway will be used by more than 1,500
diesel bus-trips, adversely affecting adjacent residential neighborhoods,
particularly terminal communities, where hundreds of buses will use residential
streets to access the busway projecting noise and pollution into the adjacent
schools, homes, and playgrounds. The communities most directly impacted by
the MLK include those with the highest black populations in the region.
Chapter 7 The Baltimore Transit Riders League (Amy Menzer
and Caroline Harmon, Citizens Planning & Housing Association & Transit
Riders League)
Like the old East Coast city that it is, Baltimore depends on public transit.
Bus ridership is very high, while service is bare bones. Rapid transit is
an option for only a very small percentage of area residents, and many of
those with the option choose not to use it. This chapter traces the historical
legacy of transportation planning and racial segregation in Baltimore, Maryland.
It also provides a detailed account of the Baltimore Transit Riders Leagues
(BTRL) activities, work, and accomplishments. The BTRL is a grassroots group
that was formed to fight transit racism in Baltimore. The authors examine
the three main tensions that surround the BTRL's work: tensions between
the region's neighborhoods and the region's transit riders; tensions between
our dual roles as allies and adversaries of the MTA; and tensions between
supporting state-wide funding initiatives and pursuing greater parity between
the Baltimore and Washington D.C. regions in how that funding is allocated.
In addition, the BTRL's two major campaign victories ("Fair"box
Reform and Sunday Subway Service) are outlined in the chapter.
The BTRL has over one thousand riders of Baltimore-area public
transportation. Convened in 1999, the group is a citizen-led initiative of
Citizens Planning & Housing Association (CPHA), fighting for more &
better transit service through increased funding and better policy. The members
ride Greater Baltimore's 72 bus routes, three commuter rail lines serving
Washington DC, single 30-mile light rail line, several versions of locally
operated transit, and a single 15-mile Metro subway route
Chapter 8 Just Transportation, (Nancy Jakowitsch and
Michelle Ernest, Surface Transportation Policy Project).
This chapter discusses issues surrounding the TEA-3 spending priories and
its ability to advance transportation equity and environmental justice. The
discussion also addresses changes in the legislation that could bring a greater
scale of investment in transit, cleaner-fuel buses, affordable housing near
transit stations, neighborhood planning grants, and traffic calming measures
to make bicycling and walking safer around neighborhood schools.
Transportation agencies must address four basic challenges that currently block reform and provide an important framework for TEA-21 renewal and implementation. These challenges and their impacts on achieving transportation justice are namely: (1) the need to make government agencies cooperate, especially state and regional transportation planning agencies, (2) reinvestment in distressed communities through a "fix it first" policy, (3) focusing transportation investments on inter-modal facilities that serve both as nodes of commerce and mixed use, mixed income developments that build community ("making places that work"), and (4) making transportation decision-making more transparent and accountable through reforms that teach transportation
agencies how to serve people and communities.
The need to spend resources more efficiently and equitably is clear, although
current industry groups suggest that environmental regulations are to blame
for project delays and thus the shortfall in transportation funds. Research
by federal and state transportation agencies, however, find delays are due
to lack of funds, controversial projects, and the complexity of projects,
yet a major effort is underway to "streamline the environmental process."
NEPA is the only federal law that currently has teeth in the transportation
decision making process, and the mechanism that triggers Title VI.
Achieving these reforms will also require a unifed voice amongst
a broad set of allies, including environmental justice groups as well as mainstream
environmental organizations; bicycle, pedestrian, and transit advocates; community
development groups, public health interests; business leaders; local elected
officials; and associations that represent metropolitan planning organizations,
planners, and transit agencies-all of whom STPP and other coalition partners
are reaching out to.
Chapter 9 Building Transportation Equity into Smart Growth, (Robert
D. Bullard, Glenn S. Johnson, and Angel O. Torres, Clark Atlanta University)
This final chapter examines the role of transportation in promoting suburban
sprawl. Sprawl is fueled by the "iron triangle" of finance, land
use planning, and transportation service delivery. Smart growth involves expanding
opportunities and breaking down artificial barriers (i.e. housing, employment,
education, transportation, land-use and zoning, health and safety, and public
investments) that limit the social and economic mobility of racial and ethnic
groups.
Historically, the decentralization of employment centers has
had a major role in shaping metropolitan growth patterns and the location
of people, housing, and jobs. Government policies buttressed and tax dollars
subsidized suburban sprawl through new roads and highways at the expense of
public transit. Tax subsidies made it possible for many new suburban employment
centers to become dominant outside of cities, and to pull middle-income workers
and homeowners from the urban core.
The authors discuss why addressing social equity needs to be
an explicit priority in smart growth initiatives. Race and equity issues routinely
get left out of national transportation and smart growth dialogue or are tagged
on as an after thought. Too often smart growth discussions and dialogues take
place as if America was a color-blind or race-neutral nation. The U.S. is
becoming increasingly diverse. As a nation, we are also growing apart.
Rising segregation levels are most pronounced for Latinos and
Asians as their numbers and concentration increase in more places. The notion
of a racially integrated America is just an idea whose time has not come.
America's neighborhoods continue to be highly segregated along racial
and ethnic lines. Not talking about the race in regional planning will not
make the issue go away. Schools are a powerful perpetrator of metropolitan
polarization. The drift toward racially segmented metropolitan areas is most
pronounced in public education. Dismantling racial barriers would go a long
way in boosting financial incentives and reinvestment in central city neighborhoods.
People of color communities are not waiting for government, business, or mainstream environmental groups to come up with a "silver-bullet" solution to address transportation racism that fuels suburban sprawl and uneven development. Some communities and groups are taking action. Whether central city, suburb, or rural, it will take a coordinated effort among the divergent interests to fix the nation's transportation problems.
About Editors and Contributors
Robert D. Bullard is a Ware Professor of Sociology and
Director of the Environmental Justice Resource Center at Clark Atlanta University.
As an environmental sociologist, he has conducted research and written extensively
on environmental justice, urban land use, transportation, urban sprawl, smart
growth, community development, minority health, training, industrial facility
siting, environmental quality and housing issues for over two decades. Prior
to joining the CAU faculty in 1994, he was a professor of sociology at the
University of California, Riverside and visiting professor in the Center for
African-American Studies at UCLA. He is the co-editor with Glenn S. Johnson
of Just Transportation: Dismantling Race and Class Barriers to Mobility
(New Society Publishers, 1997). He is co-editor with Glenn S. Johnson and
Angel O. Torres of Sprawl City: Race, Politics, and Planning in Atlanta
(Island Press, 2000). He is co-editor of a forthcoming book with Julian Agyeman
and Bob Evans entitled: Just Sustainabilities: Development in an Unequal
World (Earthscan/MIT Press, 2003).
Stuart Cohen is executive director of the Transportation
and Land Use Coalition (TALC). Founded in 1997, TALC has become a major player
in Bay Area transportation and growth issues by complementing strong grassroots
campaigns with high quality policy analysis and strategic media efforts. Previously,
Stuart worked with International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives
(ICLEI) researching and promoting alternative fuel and transportation demand
strategies for municipalities in the United States. Stuart has authored eight
reports on transportation and regional planning. He received a Master's
Degree in Public Policy (MPP) from University of California-Berkeley.
Michelle Ernst is the senior analyst for the Surface
Transportation Policy Project (STPP) in Washington, DC. Since joining STPP
in 1998, she has authored many reports on transportation and its impact on
family budgets, air pollution and traffic safety, including Clearing the Air:
Public Health Threats from Cars and Heavy Duty Vehicles-Why We Need to
Protect Federal Clean Air Laws; Mean Streets 2002: Pedestrian Safety, Health
and Federal Transportation Spending; and Measuring Up: The Trend Toward Voter
Approved Transportation Funding. Ernst also convenes STPP's Energy and
Environmental Issue Team, a network of national and regional environmental
organizations committed to transportation reform. She holds a master's
degree in environmental policy from Yale University.
Omar Freilla is the program director for Sustainable
South Bronx, a newly founded organization that seeks to make the environmental
justice alternatives a reality. Currently, he is the Chairperson of the Board
of Directors for the New York City Environmental Justice Alliance. He is the
former transportation coordinator for the New York City Environmental Justice
Alliance, a coalition of community-based organizations in New York City working
for environmental justice. He is also a resident of the Hunts Point neighborhood
in the South Bronx.
Caroline Harmon is a rider of the number 36-bus line
in Baltimore, and is the current organizer for the Transit Riders League.
Her work has been in anti-poverty and anti-homelessness advocacy, mediation,
and direct service to survivors of domestic violence. A graduate of University
of California at Berkeley, she is currently completing the Community Organizing
program at the University of Maryland School of Social Work.
Jeff Hobson is policy director at the Transportation and Land Use Coalition
(TALC). He help found the Access to Opportunities project in November 1998
to focus on the transportation needs of low-income communities. He authored
Clearing the Road to Work: Developing a Transportation Lifeline for
Low-Income Residents in Alameda County. He has also provided policy analysis
for the Coalition's Transportation Justice Working Group, which brings
together representatives of low-income communities and social justice groups
to coordinate and increase public participation in transportation decisions.
Jeff began chairing the Coalition's East Bay Chapter at its inception
in 1999, which spent the next two years as a major force behind Measures B,
Alameda County's successful $1.4 billion transportation initiative. Jeff
has experience as a policy analyst and an advocate on environmental justice
issues regarding transportation and industrial pollution, and has worked in
non-profit organizations, a government agency, and the private sector. Jeff
holds a Master's degree from the Energy and Resources Group at University
of California-Berkeley and a Bachelor's degree in physics from Harvard
University.
Nancy Jakowitsch is the director of policy development at the Surface
Transportation Policy Project. She coordinates the Social Equity and Livable
Communities working group and similar efforts to organize local elected officials,
transportation leaders, social justice advocates, business leaders, public
health professionals, and the environmental community in the TEA-3 campaign.
Nancy previously managed STPP's multi-year project to introduce state
and local elected officials, transportation decision-makers, and advocates
to European approaches to integrated transportation and land use; and edited
STPP's two major publications. Before joining STPP in 1998, she authored
a chapter on transportation and land use best practices for the National Center
for Economic and Security Alternatives and worked at the Bank Information
Center, an information clearinghouse for international NGOs and individuals
seeking to stop environmentally and socially destructive projects funded by
Multilateral Development Banks.
Glenn S. Johnson is a research associate in the Environmental Justice
Resource Center and associate professor in the Department of Sociology and
Criminal Justice at Clark Atlanta University. He coordinates several major
research activities including transportation, urban sprawl, smart growth,
public involvement, facility siting, and toxics. He has worked on environmental
policy issues for nine years and assisted Robert D. Bullard in the research
for the book Dumping in Dixie: Race, Class, and Environmental Quality
(Westview Press, 2000 [3rd ed.]). He is co-editor of the book entitled Just
Transportation: Dismantling Race and Class Barriers to Mobility (New Society
Publishers, 1997). He also co-edited with Dr. Robert D. Bullard and Angel
O. Torres, Sprawl City: Race, Politics, and Planning in Atlanta (Island
Press, 2000).
Ayanna King is a native of Pittsburgh. She has a Masters degree in
urban planning from the University of Pittsburgh. Ms King has over twelve
years of experience in community development, project management, and organizational
development. She served as the community consultant for the Pittsburgh Transportation
Equity Project (PTEP) during its formation. Currently, Ms. King serves as
the Project Director for the PTEP. She currently serves on the following boards:
New Horizon Theater, Sustainable Pittsburgh's Advisory Board and co-chair
for the Diversity & Civic Engagement Committee, Point Park Alumni Association,
Pittsburgh Family Development and Carlow Hill College Entrepreneur Advisory
Board.
John Lewis is along-time civil rights activist and U.S. Congressman
from Georgia's Fifth District. He is currently serving his eighth term
in Congress. Lewis has been profiled in numerous national publications and
network television and radio broadcasts, including a profile in a Time Magazine
(Dec. 29, 1975) article entitled "Saints Among Us;" and profiles
in The New Yorker (Oct. 4, 1993); Parade Magazine (Feb. 4, 1996); and The
New Republic (July 1, 1996). John Lewis, with writer Michael D'Orso,
authored Walking With The Wind: A Memoir of the Movement (June, 1998).
The book is a first-hand account of this nation's civil rights movement.
Eric Mann is executive director of the Los Angeles-based
Labor/Community Strategy Center. He has been a civil rights, anti-Vietnam
war, labor, and environmental organizer for 30 years, and has worked with
the Congress of Racial Equality, Students for a Democratic Society, and the
United Auto Workers, including eight years on auto assembly lines. His books
include Comrade George: An Investigation Into the Life, Political Thought,
and Assassination of George Jackson (Harper and Row), and Taking on
General Motors Labor Insurgency in a UAW Local (UCLA Institute of Industrial
Relations). He also published Driving the Bus of History-The Bus Riders
Union Models a New Theory of Urban Insurgency in the Age of Transnational
Capitalism (Verso Press).
Amy Menzer has been active on campaigns for environmental justice in
Chester, Pennsylvania, unionization in Philadelphia, and living wages for
workers at Johns Hopkins Institutions in Baltimore, and was the first Chair
of the Transit Riders League. After serving as the League's organizer,
she is now Director of Housing at CPHA, and is completing her Ph.D in Human
Geography at Johns Hopkins. Her dissertation is entitled "Smart Growth
and the Scaling of Community Interest: Examining the Relationships Between
Growth Management, Social Equity, and Community Revitalization in Baltimore
County, Maryland."
Brian A. Nogrady is the coordinator for the East Light Rail Transit
Main Line Park Coalition. He has worked as an advocate for innovative transportation
planning and equity in transit investments and policies in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania,
since 1996.He has developed extensive plans to integrate bike trails, greenways,
and park space with the transit system to improve the livability, sustainability,
and economic future of Pittsburgh eastern communities. Brian has given numerous
presentations in the Pittsburgh metropolitan area on the economic benefits
of bike trails and greenways. He holds a B.S. from Carnegie Mellon University.
Angel O. Torres is a GIS Training Specialist with the Environmental Justice
Resource Center at Clark Atlanta University. He has a Masters Degree in City
Planning from the Georgia Institute of Technology, with a concentration in
GIS. He has expertise in several mapping programs including Landview, Atlas-GIS,
ARC-Info, and ArcView. Mr. Torres previously worked for the Corporation for
Olympic Development of Atlanta and The Atlanta Project, where he was the Geographic
Information Systems (GIS) specialist on several neighborhoods and housing
redevelopment plans. He co-edited with Robert D. Bullard and Glenn S. Johnson,
Sprawl City: Race, Politics, and Planning in Atlanta (Island Press,
2000).