For those of you who don't know: "Founded in 1989, Urban Habitat builds bridges between environmentalists, social justice advocates, government leaders, and the business community. Their work has helped to broaden and frame the agenda on toxic pollution, transportation, tax and fiscal reform, brownfields, and the nexus between inner-city disinvestments and urban sprawl."
On the other hand, the website of TransForm provides this information on its organization: "TransForm works to create world-class public transportation and walkable communities in the Bay Area and beyond. They build diverse coalitions, influence policy, and develop innovative programs to improve the lives of all people and protect the environment" (Goddard).
With all this in mind, you can already tell that this was going to be a very intriguing couple of hours. Fortunately, the building we were directed to go into for the meeting was literally right beside the BART station at 12th St./City Center in Oakland, and therefore didn't require any extra CO2 emissions from any bus or car rides. Therefore, already setting us into the right direction in being eco-friendly with our transportation.
Joel Ramos and Lindsay Imai presented equally compelling arguments about why our society faces such issues with carbon dioxide emissions and how we can go about cleaning our atmosphere once again. Lindsay Imai's presentation which required the assistance of several of the Green News members demonstrated how because of a family's poor economic status, it is more difficult for them to live a more Earth-friendly life because they are so limited as far as transportation and work goes. On the other hand, middle to upper class individuals have a wider variety of transportation possibilities because they can afford to live in locations where such methods are more accessible. It's basically an economic struggle that's truly holding us back from moving forward in more environmental ways of traveling.
Toward the end of the meeting, Joel Ramos educated us with a powerpoint on the "world-reknown sustainable city [and] capital of Columbia, Bogota" (fedwards). This city began with Sundays and holidays as its designated days to open a network of bike paths with 121 km of the major streets closed for alternative methods of transportation to reside. Forunately, the introduction to this new idea became so popular that a permanent network became initiated which, today, contains 329 km of bike paths for almost 182,000 people to travel through daily. An amazing feat to achieve for such a large population as this city is only another added step toward creating more environmentally-friendly means of transportation for the world. This just goes to show that if a city as large and populated as Bogota can change their ways for a better Earth, then anything is possible!!
All in all, the presence of Lindsay Imai and Joel Ramos as this month's Green News meeting was a truly rewarding and eye-opening experience at the reality in the Bay Area's need for growth in not only creating better means of transportation, but in also supporting the lower class residents who deserve opportunities at economic growth that they currently don't receive.
Check out this video from Urban Habitat for more information on the work that's being down in creating an "Equitable Bay Area." :]
Peace&Love, Everyone.
-Dr. Green T
Bibliography:
"About Urban Habitat." 2009. Urban Habitat. 15 Mar 2009. http://urbanhabitat.org/about
fedwards. "Sustainable City - Bogota, Columbia." Sustainable Cities Net. 28 Jun 2007. VEIL. 24 Mar 2009. http://www.sustainablecitiesnet.com/uncategorized/sustainable-city-bogota-colombia/.
Goddard, Seth. "About Us." TRANSFORM. TALC: Transportation and Land Use Coalition. 15 Mar 2009. http://transformca.org/about-us
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