Take Action NOW to Save Measure U

NEW ALERT: Speak up for a fair allocation of Measure U funds! OakDOT has been severely underfunded from Measure U bond sales, and it appears that the same short-changing may be happening again. Contact your Council Members (see below) and demand that the paving and street safety programs in OakDOT get their fair share of bond funds, which should be 34% of the total bond. And it should happen now.

Immediate Call to Action! Demand that Street Safety be funded

This action is very straightforward, but must be done this weekend. We are asking everyone to contact the entire City Council, and insist that they support Item 10 on Monday’s Council Agenda*. This would fund the OakDOT paving and street safety program, and support the scheduling of the 2025 bond sale for Measure U, despite concerns over Oakland’s bond rating (newly revised to AA, from AA+). Measure U is the primary way for OakDOT to improve safety on our streets. Without it, other costs will pile up:

1. Oakland has over 30 traffic deaths and hundreds of serious injuries annually, with awful personal costs borne by these victims, their families and their communities
2. Cash settlements to these families cost millions every year
3. The costs of emergency response are disproportionately due to traffic violence
4. The deteriorating condition of the roads makes repaving costs rise over time
5. Inflation due to delay makes every project cost much more
6. We cannot even spend grant money without the matching funds from Measure U
7. Safety can not wait for a better time. The better time is now.

*kudos to CM Kaplan for developing this proposal, and to Council President Bas for supporting it to reach this point.

How to speak up:

If you can spend your Monday at City Hall, please come and speak in person. Be sure to file a speaker card for Item 10 as soon as you get there. To comment remotely, you must submit an ecomment card by Sunday at 9:30AM. Second, please call your Council Member and deliver the above message in your own words. Third, send an email to the whole Council with Nikki Fortunato Bas in the To line, and the rest of the recipients in BCC, doing the same. Here is the contact information for all Council Members:

• Nikki Fortunato Bas, D2 and Council President: nfbas@oaklandca.gov (510) 238-7002
• Rebecca Kaplan, At-Large: atlarge@oaklandca.gov (510) 238-7008
• Dan Kalb, District 1: dkalb@oaklandca.gov (510) 238-7001
• Carroll Fife, District 3: cfife@oaklandca.gov (510) 238-7003
• Janani Ramachandran, District 4: jramachandran@oaklandca.gov (510) 238-7004
• Noel Gallo, District 5: ngallo@oaklandca.gov (510) 238-7005
• Kevin Jenkins, District 6: kjenkins@oaklandca.gov (510) 238-7006
• Treva Reid, District 7: treid@oaklandca.gov (510) 238-7007

Backstory: Street Safety Funding depends on Measure U

NOTE: some corrections of the original text have been made below, Deleted text is shown in strikethrough, and new text is shown in italics.

When Traffic Violence Rapid Response was just getting started in Summer of 2022, in response to a tragic and preventable upsurge in traffic violence deaths, we recognized that the answer was making the streets themselves safer to be on, for everyone. This has been, and remains, our core belief. At the very first vigil we held, Dan Kalb attended and suggested that we had an opportunity to get language into a new bond measure to make sure funds went to street safety.

This new bond measure became Measure U, and we joined other advocates in pushing for explicit language linking repaving with improved safety features, and these changes were made with the support of CMs Bas, Fife, and Kalb. In support of this new language, TVRR members fanned out at community events every weekend to help assure passage. We won with 75% of the vote.

It took a while, due to Oakland reaching its indebtedness limit, and a change of Directors, but by Summer of this year, the OakDOT paving program was in full swing (with paving reaching a record volume), the big 14th St Complete Streets project was underway, the International Blvd quick build was going in, and the queue of exciting projects was really coming together. Things were looking up. Over the same period, though, more and more safety projects such as Grand Avenue were moved into the paving program, in the good-faith hope that this would speed their implementation.

Then, the City announced a halt to bond sales from Measure U, citing budget concerns and a potential reduction in the City’s bond rating. This article, by Jose Fermoso of Oaklandside, explains the details. Advocates across several Oakland transportation and street safety groups pressed the Mayor to push forward with the bond sales, in the well-founded belief that this work is central to making our streets safer. We got a clear message that the Mayor was planning to direct Finance to go forward with the bond sale expected in early Spring.

After the election and recall, and with time running out for resolving a dire budget crisis, we had not seen clear action to move forward on this important program, until literally yesterday, when Monday’s City Council agenda was published. Council Member at-large Rebecca Kaplan has proposed a resolution make $30M available for OakDOT projects and initiatives from the Measure BB account, and to direct the City Administrator to come back to council no later than February 2025 with a plan for Measure U bond sales in 2025. The resolution also makes additional funds, perhaps between 5 and 10 million dollars, available for street safety programs, specifically including Lakeshore Avenue.

This thirty million dollars will cover OakDOT plans for several months. It appears intended to cover until the end of the fiscal year on June 30. Once the City Administrator sets the bond sale date, OakDOT can also borrow against that sale in advance, thus paving the way for uninterrupted operations, if all goes according to plan.

The clock is still ticking, and advocates can rally to make safer streets a reality in Oakland. Call, write, and speak up NOW!

Demand that street safety spending be continued!

Now for something completely different

Traffic Violence Rapid Response (TVRR) will be holding a general meeting in January! In a new feature, we will have in attendance Josh Rowan, Director of OakDOT, for the first half of the meeting. He will speak on the coming year of efforts and challenges for safe streets infrastructure in Oakland. Come prepared with your questions!

The second half will allow us to work as a group on planning for 2025, including such topics as Direct action, community traffic calming, OakDOT funding and contracting, Caltrans issues, TVRR organizational structure, and, most controversially, a TVRR name change to better represent our positive movement, along with ways for folks to get more involved. You do not need to have anything but an interest in making Oakland’s streets safer, and a willingness to do something about it.

The date, time, and place have not been set. If you want to attend, please record your availability so we can set a date by the end of the week. We will pick among the best days for all respondents. AVAILABILITY SURVEY

See you then, but take the action above, first!

Traffic violence deaths can be prevented, and we will prevent them.

Safety can’t wait!