The world has become more challenging for all of us these past several years, especially recently. Move LA started building a campaign in 2007 to address LA's then soul-crushing traffic congestion. But we did not know then how deep our community's affordable housing crisis would be become nor how severe would become our crisis of homelessness. We knew climate change would be a generational challenge, but we did not know an IPCC report in 2018 would say we had but a decade to turn things around.
The important question for Move LA now is what can we do, together with allies and coalition partners, to help make progress on important issues related to clean transportation, affordable housing and smart land use over the next couple of years? Below are our priorities for the next decade.
Boulevards of Equity and Opportunity (BEO)
This program is essentially an affordable housing advocacy plan joined with the development of new Bus Rapid Transit or other more robust bus service strategies on commercial boulevards or in downtowns in LA County.
It brings together a plan for siting new housing near high-quality transit as well as proposals for new funding to make our affordable housing efforts real. Under the banner of this program
Move LA will champion:
• State legislation and local strategies to ensure that as a state, as a county and as a community we have created the funding programs and planning tools needed to implement a robust affordable housing program;
• Multiple Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) systems on boulevards around LA County;
• State and local legislation to enable a vigorous community development program of mixed-use, mixed-income, multifamily housing projects on commercially zoned property along LA County boulevards done without sacrificing existing neighborhoods or displacing current renters or longtime local businesses;
• Creation of bikeways parallel to transit along the length of such boulevards; and
• Ensuring robust investments in urban greening and first-last-mile bike and pedestrian access to transit.
By shifting the discussion to promoting mixed-use development on commercial boulevards or in downtowns, where development potential is greater and nearer to transit services, Move LA with our BEO program hopes to reshape the discussion about how to do housing development near transit in California without threatening R-1 neighborhoods and making the homeowner community hostile to transit.
NextGen Bus Program
Engagement with LA Metro to make sure the NextGen Bus Program—especially in the aftermath of the COVID-19 crisis—rebuilds our bus ridership and is smart, efficient, effective and equitable for low-income communities, seniors, people with disabilities, and students.
Vision 2022: Conquering Climate Change & Air Pollution & Accelerating High Efficiency Transit
Move LA will use our coalition building experience, our understanding of the legislative process and ballot measure strategies to develop a statewide ballot measure to place before California voters in November of 2022. Our proposed measure will:
• Make dramatic reductions in both greenhouse gases and air pollution in California by accelerating the deployment of zero and near-zero emission light, medium and heavy-duty vehicles and equipment as well as the charging and fueling infrastructure to support these advanced technologies. Proposed first decade priorities:
° Moving heavy-duty trucks and equipment away from reliance upon diesel fuel—designated a toxic air contaminant by the State of California—to instead use battery electric, hydrogen fuel cell, or RNG near-zero emission technologies, and expand available infrastructure to support this goal.
° Implementation of programs to reduce and capture short-lived climate pollutants aka “super pollutants,” believed by scientists to be responsible for 40% of global warming. Because existing SLCPs will decay within 12-15 years or less, doing so presents our best and maybe only oppourtunity to actually roll back climate change.
• Make significant investments in zero-emission, high-velocity, express regional rail systems and county-based transit infrastructure and operations in urban and rural communities around California.