Agenda for #JustGrowth: Healthy, Sustainable, and Equitable Mobility

If you live in Los Angeles County, you’ve probably heard about — or have experienced — some of the most challenging issues with mobility we need to solve in Los Angeles County.

Yes, traffic and congestion are important issues — but, for some of our most vulnerable neighbors and families, the issues with transportation are so intertwined with housing, jobs, school and household income that we can’t afford to ignore them any longer.

Our families need better transportation options – recap of our recent #First5LA meetings https://t.co/Pd9vG7kkut pic.twitter.com/9gmlwMh7is

— Investing in Place (@InvestinPlace) January 23, 2017

Some of these crucial issues preventing our region from growing stronger are:

1. Our housing crisis is worsening (long-time families are being displaced and living further away from job centers),
2. The costs that the average family is spending on housing and transportation is going up (many have to take on multiple jobs in order to survive),
3. Youth who are poor in Los Angeles County (areas that are mostly low-income communities and communities of color) face the worst odds getting out of poverty, and
4. The access to quality careers near major transit, especially for our most vulnerable residents, is looking bleak (but getting better with more awareness on connecting people experiencing homelessness and our veterans to entry-level jobs).

Leading With a Just Growth Agenda

To help build a stronger region and economy, we are developing a draft #JustGrowth advocacy agenda with six key policy outcomes. We’re using guidance from our Transportation Equity Technical Work Group, the policymakers who participated in our Just Growth Forum in November 2016, and the elected officials and policymakers who shared their thoughts at last week’s breakfast. But, we want feedback from anyone in Los Angeles County.

These six outcomes will guide our work on the 2017 Long Range Transportation Plan (LRTP), Measure M guidelines, Metro Strategic Plan, and other upcoming policy opportunities. In each of these opportunities, we seek to set measurable objectives and align public investment directly to achieving those goals:

1. Metro promotes access to opportunity by concentrating and prioritizing investments in communities with the greatest need.
2. Metro engages the community as a partner in developing the transportation system.
3. Metro supports economically stable and culturally diverse neighborhoods by promoting integrated transportation and land use policy.
4. Metro invests in a frequent network of bus and rail transit service.
5. Metro leads on transportation safety throughout Los Angeles County.
6. Metro builds an integrated, connected, and sustainable transportation system.

Next Steps

Throughout February, we’ll highlight each draft outcome in a blog post. We invite your questions, comments, and critiques. Please email us any thoughts, suggestions, and questions: jessica@investinginplace.org.

Also, we hope our Transportation Policy Advocacy Resource Manual can be of use to you, your advocacy, and your organization.

To dive deeper into how we plan to advocate for #JustGrowth, please feel free to register for our first work group meeting next week on Thursday, February 16 2:30-4PM.