Politics

Candidates Agree: Traffic is Bad And Scooters Aren’t Helping

THE TENNESSEE TRIBUNE — The race for Mayor is on and four candidates faced off against each other Wednesday morning to talk about sidewalks, bikeways, and traffic. The event at the Watson Grove Missionary Baptist Church was sponsored by Walk Bike Nashville and the forum was moderated by WPLN’s Tony Gonzales.

Published

5 years ago

May 25, 2019

Peter White

By Peter White

The race for Mayor is on and four candidates faced off against each other Wednesday morning to talk about sidewalks, bikeways, and traffic. The event at the Watson Grove Missionary Baptist Church was sponsored by Walk Bike Nashville and the forum was moderated by WPLN’s Tony Gonzales.

Mayor David Briley, State Representative John Ray Clemmons, At Large Councilman John Cooper, and Republican Carol Swain pretty much agreed that sidewalks are good, bikeways are not being used much, traffic is bad, and scooters are becoming a deadly menace.

While the candidates agreed that people just don’t feel safe walking or biking around the city, they had different ideas when it comes to reducing traffic congestion and a better overall transportation system.

John Ray Clemmons said the city should make developers pay more for the traffic disruptions they cause. He also said increased traffic is a regional problem and it requires collaboration between local and state officials to address the issue.

Carol Swain criticized her opponents for being career politicians who cater to downtown interests. “It’s unacceptable where there’s some neighborhoods that get sidewalks and other neighborhoods are totally neglected,” she said.

Mayor Briley said transportation requires long term investment. “When we built out the suburbs in the fifties and sixties and seventies, it was designed around the use of the car and so we didn’t require developers to put in sidewalks. That’s just the fact of the matter,” Briley said. He said the City Council recently passed a law requiring developers to build sidewalks in new subdivisions and Metro will invest $30 million next year to build sidewalks in the neighborhoods.

“Thirty million sounds like a lot of money but it’s not enough. At this rate it will take 23 years to add 71 miles of sidewalks and fix the current system,” said Clemmons. “At this rate my children, who are in elementary school now, will be in their 30s before we build a proper network of sidewalks in the city,” he said.

“So we’re seventy years behind,” said At-Large Councilman John Cooper. He faulted Metro for contracting out sidewalk construction. He said it wastes time and money. “We’re never going to stop building sidewalks and yet the way we handle it is by subcontracting it out. So much of what we do by eliminating competency of government actually ends up with having a very high linear cost and the time delays are much greater than any other city we have any data on,” Cooper said. Swain agreed. She said Public Works should build sidewalks out in the neighborhoods where they are most needed.

Swain does not support a dedicated transportation fund within the Metro budget. Mayor Briley said the city is working on a number of transportation issues already. He mentioned bus service, the Dickerson Road expansion, bike routes connecting East Nashville with downtown, and downtown with the airport. “We don’t need to wait. We can do it within our existing infrastructure,” Briley said.

All of the candidates felt the Mayor’s office should develop and promote a transportation plan and coordinate things like sidewalks, crosswalks, bike lanes, greenways, and parks to make Nashville a safer and healthier place to live. All the candidates agreed scooters need to be regulated more than they are now.

“Our streets need to be where people want to spend time. That’s going to be the key to a great city,” said Cooper. But he said 4,000 scooters demonstrate how fundamentally unsafe the right of way in the streets has become. He suggested mandatory helmets and an after dark ban on scooters for safety sake.

Cooper singled out land use and the key role it plays in walking, bicycling, and traffic safety in a fast-growing city. “We do zoning before infrastructure and it’s not really creating the greatest possible city. We have a treasure map of zoning. We look at a site as landlords and improvements for the general public as incentives have not been linked to the kinds of policy goals we want,” Cooper said.

The election for Nashville’s next Mayor, Vice-Mayor, and members of the City Council is August 1.

This article originally appeared in The Tennessee Tribune.

Peter White

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MAYOR BREED ANNOUNCES $53 MILLION FEDERAL GRANT FOR SAN FRANCISCO’S HOMELESS PROGRAMS

San Francisco, CA – Mayor London N. Breed today announced that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has awarded the city a $53.7 million grant to support efforts to renew and expand critical services and housing for people experiencing homelessness in San Francisco.

Published

4 days ago

April 20, 2024

Oakland Post

Mayor London Breed

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Wednesday, January 31, 2024

Contact: Mayor’s Office of Communications, mayorspressoffice@sfgov.org

***PRESS RELEASE***

MAYOR BREED ANNOUNCES $53 MILLION FEDERAL GRANT FOR SAN FRANCISCO’S HOMELESS PROGRAMS

HUD’s Continuum of Care grant will support the City’s range of critical services and programs, including permanent supportive housing, rapid re-housing, and improved access to housing for survivors of domestic violence

San Francisco, CA – Mayor London N. Breed today announced that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has awarded the city a $53.7 million grant to support efforts to renew and expand critical services and housing for people experiencing homelessness in San Francisco.

HUD’s Continuum of Care (CoC) program is designed to support local programs with the goal of ending homelessness for individuals, families, and Transitional Age Youth.

This funding supports the city’s ongoing efforts that have helped more than 15,000 people exit homelessness since 2018 through City programs including direct housing placements and relocation assistance. During that time San Francisco has also increased housing slots by 50%. San Francisco has the most permanent supportive housing of any county in the Bay Area, and the second most slots per capita than any city in the country.

“In San Francisco, we have worked aggressively to increase housing, shelter, and services for people experiencing homelessness, and we are building on these efforts every day,” said Mayor London Breed. “Every day our encampment outreach workers are going out to bring people indoors and our City workers are connecting people to housing and shelter. This support from the federal government is critical and will allow us to serve people in need and address encampments in our neighborhoods.”

The funding towards supporting the renewal projects in San Francisco include financial support for a mix of permanent supportive housing, rapid re-housing, and transitional housing projects. In addition, the CoC award will support Coordinated Entry projects to centralize the City’s various efforts to address homelessness. This includes $2.1 million in funding for the Coordinated Entry system to improve access to housing for youth and survivors of domestic violence.

“This is a good day for San Francisco,” said Shireen McSpadden, executive director of the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing. “HUD’s Continuum of Care funding provides vital resources to a diversity of programs and projects that have helped people to stabilize in our community. This funding is a testament to our work and the work of our nonprofit partners.”

The 2024 Continuum of Care Renewal Awards Include:

$42.2 million for 29 renewal PSH projects that serve chronically homeless, veterans, and youth
$318,000 for one new PSH project, which will provide 98 affordable homes for low-income seniors in the Richmond District
$445,00 for one Transitional Housing (TH) project serving youth
$6.4 million dedicated to four Rapid Rehousing (RRH) projects that serve families, youth, and survivors of domestic violence
$750,00 for two Homeless Management Information System (HMIS) projects
$2.1 million for three Coordinated Entry projects that serve families, youth, chronically homeless, and survivors of domestic violence

In addition, the 2023 CoC Planning Grant, now increased to $1,500,000 from $1,250,000, was also approved. Planning grants are submitted non-competitively and may be used to carry out the duties of operating a CoC, such as system evaluation and planning, monitoring, project and system performance improvement, providing trainings, partner collaborations, and conducting the PIT Count.

“We are very appreciative of HUD’s support in fulfilling our funding request for these critically important projects for San Francisco that help so many people trying to exit homelessness,” said Del Seymour, co-chair of the Local Homeless Coordinating Board. “This funding will make a real difference to people seeking services and support in their journey out of homelessness.”

In comparison to last year’s competition, this represents a $770,000 increase in funding, due to a new PSH project that was funded, an increase in some unit type Fair Market Rents (FMRs) and the larger CoC Planning Grant. In a year where more projects had to compete nationally against other communities, this represents a significant increase.

Nationally, HUD awarded nearly $3.16 billion for over 7,000 local homeless housing and service programs including new projects and renewals across the United States.

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Oakland Post: Week of April 17 – 23, 2024

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of April 17 – 23, 2024

Published

6 days ago

April 19, 2024

Oakland Post

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Barbara Lee

Congresswoman Barbara Lee Issues Statement on Deaths of Humanitarian Aid Volunteers in Gaza 

On April 2, a day after an Israeli airstrike erroneously killed seven employees of World Central Kitchen (WCK), a humanitarian organization delivering aid in the Gaza Strip, a statement was release by Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA-12). “This is a devastating and avoidable tragedy. My prayers go to the families and loved ones of the selfless members of the World Central Kitchen team whose lives were lost,” said Lee.

Published

1 week ago

April 17, 2024

Oakland Post

Congresswoman Barbara Lee

By California Black Media

“This is a devastating and avoidable tragedy. My prayers go to the families and loved ones of the selfless members of the World Central Kitchen team whose lives were lost,” said Lee.

The same day, it was confirmed by the organization that the humanitarian aid volunteers were killed in a strike carried out by Israel Defense Forces (IDF). Prior to the incident, members of the team had been travelling in two armored vehicles marked with the WCF logo and they had been coordinating their movements with the IDF. The group had successfully delivered 10 tons of humanitarian food in a deconflicted zone when its convoy was struck.

“This is not only an attack against WCK. This is an attack on humanitarian organizations showing up in the direst situations where food is being used as a weapon of war. This is unforgivable,” said Erin Gore, chief executive officer of World Central Kitchen.

The seven victims included a U.S. citizen as well as others from Australia, Poland, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Palestine.

Lee has been a vocal advocate for a ceasefire in Gaza and has supported actions by President Joe Biden to airdrop humanitarian aid in the area.

“Far too many civilians have lost their lives as a result of Benjamin Netanyahu’s reprehensible military offensive. The U.S. must join with our allies and demand an immediate, permanent ceasefire – it’s long overdue,” Lee said.