Move LA launched its mission in 2007 by convening business, labor and environmental interests, political consultants, pollsters and elected officials to assess whether a transportation ballot measure could win in the election of 2008—and we were there at the victory press conference when Measure R won. We were also there at Union Station on August 31 when LA Mayor Eric Garcetti announced the campaign for Measure M.
Today our mission took a giant leap forward with the LA Times lengthy endorsement of Measure M. Our interest in 2007 was in solving the problem of “soul-crushing traffic,” as the Times called it today. The best way to avoid that traffic is to take the train, and Measure M would build what would become the 2nd-largest transit system in the U.S. Pledge HERE to #VoteYesOnM!
Some of you remember Move LA's conference in the spring of 2014 when we released our “Straw Man” ballot measure proposal and encouraged all of LA County to “dream big.” It was a resounding message, and our coalition grew to include faith-based groups, social equity advocates, older Americans, people with disabilities, and students—a constituency so large it could provide the “margin of victory” allowing Measure M to win.
We believe Move LA has played a special role in what could be the imminent success of Measure M: We created the table around which a long back-and-forth conversation took place over several years and resulted in 51 more Straw Man proposals that eventually allowed stakeholders to reach consensus about which projects and programs should be funded by what became Measure M.
The end result was probably the most robust and well-informed engagement effort ever for a transportation ballot measure in LA County. This included a truly bottoms-up planning process at LA Metro with the result that local governments were fully engaged and that 48,000 people participated in Metro’s public outreach and engagement process—either speaking out at board meetings, writing letters, or attending public forums or telephone town hall meetings.
Of the 13 elected officials who served on the Metro board in 2008 only one remains on the board now who supported Measure R in 2008—Glendale Mayor Ara Najarian—which is indicative of the challenge we faced to keep the momentum going. But Move LA has been there since the beginning helping to develop and drive the conversation and coalition.
There are about 30 transportation measures on ballots across the U.S. in the Nov. 8 election, and ours is the biggest and most ambitious—we are, after all, the 2nd largest metro area in the U.S. so we have to dream big! We are proud of our contribution. We helped keep the dream of a transformational transportation investment alive and this is why Measure M — for mobility, momentum and mojo, at a minimum — is going to win. Especially if we tell our friends, neighbors, family and colleagues to #VoteYesOnM November 8! Pledge HERE to #VoteYesOnM!