A big coalition of citizens and local elected officials in Portland, Oregon, led a movement in the 1970s to depart from the conventional practice of investing in roads to invest in transit instead—a departure that has made that city the exemplar of sustainable transportation. Los Angeles followed suit in 2008, when LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, LA Metro, and the Move LA business-labor-environmental coalition put the Measure R sales tax on the ballot and won $40 billion in transportation funding. And just 8 years later we are poised to do the same thing again--but for $120 billion.

My how times have changed: Because of our success Portland is asking Los Angeles—or Denny Zane, anyway—to explain how to build a big coalition that can win funding for transportation. Here’s what Denny is going to tell them:
Lesson #1: You have to think big.
Lesson #2: Unless the coalition sticks together nobody wins anything.
Lesson #3: Big coalitions are essential to a winning vote.
Lesson #4: Cities have to plan for everyone—rich and poor.

Lesson #1: You have to think big.
If you have to win 2/3 of the vote for a funding measure to pass, as we do for measures that get put on the ballot in California, then you have to come up with a robust program of projects that provides something for everyone: In other words, you need to fund a transit system and not just a rail line. When you think big, you capture greater interest from voters and from the members of your coalition will work harder promoting it because what you are doing is worth their while.

Lesson #2: Unless the coalition sticks together nobody wins anything.
Because a 2/3 vote sets a very high bar all coalition members have to in it together and that means that leaders of the coalition are going to be more disciplined because no one wants to be to blame if things go south. Members of the coalition should think big but expect to get only 70% of what they are asking for. This is an important lesson: Coalition members need to understand that no one is going to get everything they want but that if they don’t stay together then no one is going to win anything at all.

Lesson #3: Big coalitions are essential to a winning vote.
With the Measure R sales tax in 2008 we organized the classic green-blue-green coalition of business (money is green), labor, and environmentalists. But with the planned 2016 measure we’ve had the time to create a broader coalition: seniors, students, faith-based groups, the disabled, people concerned about social equity, local jobs, and construction careers. This helps make the coalition and the measure more successful because all these new constituencies raise issues that make the program better and that give it broader appeal to voters.

These constituencies are important to a winning vote. Elected officials—including LA Metro board members, local elected officials and the agencies that are part of the councils of governments— play a very big role in deciding what gets funded. But elected officials can’t campaign for the sales tax measure while constituencies can—which is why the these constituencies have to be treated with great seriousness. When it comes to the vote Metro and the councils of government have to pass the baton to the voters—and government needs to be cognizant of the important role that constituencies play in turning out the vote.

Lesson #4: Cities have to plan for everyone—rich and poor.
Urban form and planning issues are also in play with a sales tax measure and it’s very important that we all remember that transit-oriented development isn’t really TOD unless real transit users are in the mix. If market-rate TOD happens that can be good but if there are no transit riders it’s development that is going to generate more traffic.