Any Oaklander knows that our streets are in terrible condition. With a paving backlog of almost $450 million, Oakland ranks 89th out of 106 bay area cities in paving quality. Oakland’s paving cycle is 85 years long – when most cities with roads in good repair have a paving cycle closer to 25 years. We need to shake up the funding status quo if we hope to have better streets in our lifetime, and that’s why Transport Oakland is supporting the $600 million Oakland Infrastructure Bond.
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Month: August 2016
Endorsement: Yes on C1 (AC Transit Parcel Tax)
AC Transit has been funding some of its operations and maintenance through a parcel tax since 2002, which provides $30 million per year to keep the buses running. Unlike state and federal funding sources which are unpredictable, highly restricted, and dwindling, this funding is locally controlled, meaning it gives AC Transit the stability and flexibility it needs to, among other things, prevent service cuts during lean revenue years for its 180,000 daily riders.
Endorsement: Yes on RR (BART Bond)
With more than 430,000 daily rides including 95,000 that start in Oakland and 77,000 that end in Oakland, BART provides a critical service to Oakland and the whole Bay Area. BART’s system was designed over 40 years ago to carry a fraction of the people and service it now delivers on a daily basis. Like all infrastructure, BART’s components need replacement and modernization after a long life of use. The proposed $3.5 billion bond identifies effective expenditures that will deliver a fix-it-first approach to maximize the potential of the new fleet of rail cars (roomier, quieter, and a third set of doors!) that will start arriving in 2017. These are not the glamorous ribbon-cutting cutting projects the media craves, but they are essential to keeping our regional transit backbone from falling apart, and Transport Oakland strongly supports Measure RR.
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