If BART supporters are willing to engage in an open and fair debate, they should reinstate Greg Perry to the panel. And if they are right, they should not be afraid to debate him on this issue.
Statement of the Loma Prieta Chapter of the Sierra Club, Melissa Hippard, Chapter Director
The Sierra Club advocates for transportation policy and systems that minimize environmental impacts and the consumption of limited resources; provide everyone, including pedestrians, bicyclists and transit users with adequate access; strengthens local communities; and eliminates transportaiton subsidies which handicap achievement of the above goals; and ensures vigorous and effective public participation in transportation planning.
In 2000 The Loma Prieta Chapter opposed Measure A because BART was not the best use of transportation funds and did not contribute to a multi-functional transportation infrastructure. The Chapter's concern about the potential of BART to San Jose has been vindicated by the Federal government's continued opposition to allocate funding to this project and the inability of the project promotoers to demonstrate how BART is the right answer to local and regional transportation needs. There is an alternative that is less costly and can be built in less time.
The Commonwealth Forum today would have been an ideal arena in which to further the public's understanding of the complex issues that inform transportation policy. However, the decision to remove Greg Perry from the panel is a clear indication that powerful interests committed to BART have stacked the deck in their favor. The Sierra Club encourages the formation of the politically neutral forum for an honest dialogue that informs the public.
Let's Have an Honest Dialogue About Santa Clara County's Transportation Needs
Santa Clara Community Leaders Speak Out
"Mr Perry is the best, most knowledgeable member of the Policy Advisory Committee regarding the alternatives of any elected politician or self-appointed transit expert." -- Mark Brodsky, Vice-Mayor, City of Monte Sereno
"Transit is needed east and west. When the federal government says your numbers are not credible, it's speculation and not transit --- and I want transit!" -- Mark Brodsky, Vice-Mayor, City of Monte Sereno
"I had great respect that this forum was going to be a true exchange of ideas that would show all sides of the BART issue including the concepts that Mr. Perry would represent. I was deeply distrubed to hear that after the Institute accepted my recommendation to have Mr. Perry on the panel that one or two people pulled him off, thereby making this a situation where a discussion of a full spectrum of ideas could not take place." -- John McLemore, Vice-Chair, Metropolitan Transportation Commission
Text of Margaret Okuzumi's (BayRail Alliance Executive Director) speech:
Why are we here today? Because we want better transit! We want better transit. And yet certain people have decided to take advantage of the public's deep desire for better transit to give us a boondoggle like the Big Dig instead of actual new and improved transit.
If it weren't for a fixation on BART as the solution to everything, we would have had a rail service running between Union City and San Jose by now. The Fremont-South Bay commuter rail service was supposed to begin operations in August of 2003.
Greg Perry is excellent with numbers. He knows the facts. He understands that we need to work on getting traffic relief now for the whole county, not just for a single part of the county ten or fifteen years from now. We can expand and improve our existing regional rail service at far less cost, and with a greater increase to our mobility, than building a single overpriced BART line. This is better for the environment, and better for the people who take transit.
It's clear that the BART project falls on its face and that the BART supporters are unwilling to face the facts. With the $6 billion dollars that VTA has, we know that VTA can build more and better regional rail transit than a single BART line.