Today: Mayor Faulconer Forgoing Vote on $200 Billion Regional Transportation Plan
As Voice of San Diego reports,
Mayor Kevin Faulconer has punted an opportunity to vote on $200 billion in spending on an issue central to his legacy.
That’s right, with a $200 billion dollar plan on the table where our city has a 40% stake in – our own mayor has opted to not bother with a vote. He is sending his alternate, Councilmember Zapf who will be voting to support the plan. Yes, despite the plan proposing to implement over 1,700 additional miles of freeways, the mayor still seems to think this is a great plan. Never mind the “Transit First” resolution that the city of San Diego Council passed in 2011 that the plan is failing to implement.
If you read SANDAG staff responses to various organization’s requests to prioritize bicycling and walking or implement “transit first” (prior to freeways), the responses repeat one line over and over: that SANDAG does not have land use authority and thus the Regional Transportation Plan cannot dictate land use – or what can be done with land. That is true, SANDAG as a regional planning agency does not have land use authority. However, the SANDAG board is comprised of elected officials from around the county who are ostensibly elected to represent the citizens in their jurisdiction. These elected officials vote on land use matters specific to their jurisdiction. For example, the San Diego City Council voted to give land to Deco Bike Share so the company could place advertisements on public land and raise revenue to support their bike share operations. These elected officials, like Mayor Kevin Faulconer (or Councilmember Lorie Zapf) and Councilmember Todd Gloria are expected to carry out the will of their electorate who expect their electeds to vote on a plan that is a good use of public taxpayer dollars.
The current plan, scheduled for adoption today, is an update of the 2011 plan. The plan scheduled to be adopted today still has all the road projects from 2011. The transit projects from 2011 have been replaced with cheaper projects. In other words, if you thought hoping for an empty bus rack was a temporary problem, SANDAG plans to make this permanent.
While the plan will get adopted today with the vast majority of the board ignoring the overwhelming majority of public speakers who will urge them to vote against the plan, I know one local leader will listen to his constituents and oppose the plan, Councilmember David Alvarez. As he stated on twitter yesterday, “Waiting 35 years for progress in bike/transit/pedestrian infrastructure is not an option.”
Thank you Councilmember Alvarez, for being a true leader.
