Speak up for more traffic safety projects, sooner!
The Oakland Dept. of Transportation (OakDOT) is coming before the Public Works and Transportation Committee of the City Council on Tuesday, July 8th at 11AM with a number of agenda items to streamline the City's response to a pending settlement of a lawsuit over ADA-required pedestrian right-of-way access. This lawsuit is known as Curran vs City of Oakland.
Broadly, these agenda items would grant OakDOT an expedited path to upgrade sidewalks, curb cuts, crosswalks and other pedestrian features intended to provide safe, accessible pedestrian right-of-way across all of Oakland. This adds up to literally thousands of individual fixes, which will take many years in any case.
Why are safety advocates interested?
This narrowly-tailored set of requests will have a key role to play in making our city safer and more accessible for people walking and those with mobility challenges. So on their own, they are a key part of our agenda. But also, this request could become a proving ground for making these reforms broader and permanent.
Of the ideas people have brought forth so far, both a greater delegated contracting authority and a relaxing of the stringent rules on small and local business preferences figured prominently, as the first promotes faster timelines, and the other will almost certainly lower costs. And addressing this ADA lawsuit settlement makes the need for action urgent and should motivate Council to welcome reforms, rather than merely grant yet another exception to the rules.
Speak in favor of these agenda items on Tuesday
In Agenda Item 6, OakDOT requests "Allow $7.5 million contracts for pedestrian right-of-way, without returning to city council ... to The Lowest Responsive And Responsible Bidder, ... Up To An Individual Contract Award Of Seven Million, Five Hundred Thousand Dollars ($7,500,000)..., Without Return To City Council, To Enable Rapid Compliance In The Event The Parties Of Curran Vs. City Of Oakland Reach Settlement"
In Agenda Item 7, they request that Council "Adopt A Resolution To Waive Local/Small Local Business Enterprise Program Requirements (Ordinance 13101, Ordinance 13640 As Amended) For Pedestrian Right-Of-Way Construction To Increase Competition, Lower Prices, And Enable Rapid Compliance In The Event The Parties Of Curran Vs. City Of Oakland Reach Settlement"
Finally, Agenda Item 8 is not directly related to reform, but is a related item for sidewalks, and we encourage folks to support this as well: "Eliminate Annual Cap On Sidewalk Assistance Program: Authorize The Department Of Transportation To Complete Private Property Sidewalk Repairs Of Low-Income Property Owners At No Cost To Qualifying Property Owners With No Annual Cap On Expenditures"
How to make Public Comment
Making public comment is easy, once you know the rules. First, if you want to speak remotely, you need to sign up at least 24 hours in advance (by 11am Monday). This is the best option, even if you plan on attending in person. Go to THIS LINK and then scroll down until you find Items 6, 7, and 8. For each item, you'll see two choices: to submit an e-comment (you can do this too!), or Sign Up to Speak. When you click on that, you'll be prompted to log in, or create a log in, very standard stuff. Then, scroll again and when you get to the items, you'll see you can now "Register to Speak". Just click that, then confirm, and you're good to go. Repeat for each item you want to comment on. You will be granted 2 minutes to make your comment, either in-person or remotely, but don't feel like you need to use it all. The Zoom link to attend the meeting is https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85801962909
Suggestions for your comment
Try something like "My name is ______ and I live in District ___. Oakland's streets and sidewalks are dangerous for people walking, as well as inaccessible for people with mobility issues. Addressing this situation is going to take a lot of time and money. But you can reduce both the time and the money it takes by granting this request from our Department of Transportation. Oakland can be a great city, but we have so much work to do. Let's be smart and efficient in getting this work done, and we will all benefit. Thank you." But also feel free to do your own thing. The more personalized you can be, the better. Talk about specific locations, talk about specific people you know. Make it real.
Thanks for all you do!
Our campaign to achieve our broader set of reforms is going to take time, so please be on the lookout for more on this topic, and also watch for other opportunities to take action on other traffic safety issues. Hoping to plan an "Infrastructure Ride" around Oakland soon: the great, the fair, and the missing. Please share this email with friends and neighbors!