Dozens of transit advocates gathered in downtown Oakland last Friday to help launch one of the most consequential regional signature drives in recent memory. Their goal? To get a measure on the November ballot that could generate up to a billion dollars a year in regional transportation funding.
The Connect Bay Area Act, authored by State Senators Scott Weiner of San Francisco and Jesse Arreguin of Oakland and passed by the legislature last year, created the framework for a measure that will qualify for the November ballot — if volunteers gather 186,000 signatures from registered voters by June 6.
If the ballot measure passes, it would add a half-cent sales tax in Alameda County for 14 years.
Transit agencies and advocacy groups formed Connect Bay Area Transit, a regional advocacy partnership, to organize efforts to gather those signatures. The Oakland kickoff took place in front of the Alameda County Administrative Building, while others were held at the Pleasant Hill BART station, Embarcadero Plaza in San Francisco, the Redwood City courthouse, and the San Jose Diridon transit station.
The signature effort will focus on the five affected counties: Alameda, Contra Costa, San Francisco, San Mateo, and Santa Clara.
At the Oakland event, East Bay officials revved up volunteers by stressing the importance of the measure, given the financial difficulties the Bay’s major transit agencies have faced since the pandemic. AC Transit, for one, reduced service due to budget constraints and is currently operating at around 85% of its prepandemic levels. BART officials have warned that the system could close lines or stations for the same reasons.
Rebecca Mirvish, a Berkeley transportation advocate, said at the launch event that Caltrain in the South Bay could reduce service to one train per hour and lose weekend service entirely, and that AC Transit could see service cut by 37%.
“These cuts would hurt working people, increase congestion, spike emissions, and undermine our local economy — their effects will be devastating,” she said. “Signature gathering is how we put this decision in the hands of the public. Every conversation matters. Every signature matters. Every volunteer here matters.”
Public transit is ‘not a luxury’
Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee, transit advocate Rebecca Mirvish, and Local 1021 President Theresa Rutherford all spoke at the rally. Credit: George Spies
The money from the measure will give these agencies a consistent backstop fund for operation and maintenance and may help them expand. In addition to BART, Caltrain, and AC Transit, San Francisco’s Muni system; the Valley Transit Authority, which runs trains in the South Bay; and SamTrans, which runs San Mateo County trains, are among the other agencies that would benefit.
Mayor Barbara Lee appeared at the Oakland event to say she and her staff would work with advocates to support the signature effort.
“Public transportation is not a luxury, it’s a necessity,” she said. “AC Transit is a lifeline. People use public transit to get to doctors, to shop, to take their kids to childcare, to get to work.” It’s a shame that we have to fight like this, because it’s good for the economy, good for labor, and good for union jobs,” she added. “Alameda County needs this. Oakland needs this.”
Arreguin said that if the measure gets on the ballot and is passed, it will continue a streak of good news about regional transit.
“We want to talk about how clean our transit is, how efficiently it’s running, how many trains we have, how we’re expanding service,” he said. “We want to make sure we’re continuing to provide support for the people who use transit to get from A to B every single day. Whether that’s school, work, or back home, we want people to have safe, efficient, reliable transportation.”
About 50 people attended a kickoff event in Oakland to launch signature gathering for the measure. Credit: Carter Lavin
AC Transit board member Jean Walsh, who also serves as a city communications officer, said the measure was needed because the state underfunds transit “compared to other states and countries.” BART Director Robert Raburn and former BART director Rebecca Saltzmann, who is now mayor pro-tem of El Cerrito, also attended the Oakland event.
Senator Scott Weiner laid out the stakes in a Tuesday social media post.
“If we fail, agencies could face catastrophic service cuts, including major route reductions and even elimination of rail lines,” he wrote on Instagram. “If we win, this measure provides stable regional funding to protect access to jobs, school, and health care across the Bay Area.”
Carter Lavin from the Transbay Coalition told The Oaklandside he had already started gathering signatures. He said Oakland residents he’s spoken with are eager to sign the petition once they are told that the Bay Area’s major transit agencies are at risk of “devastating cuts.” He said most of the people he talked to this morning were unaware of the agencies’ financial problems.
“People are just flooded with things to care about, but when they hear that it’s our BART and bus service under threat, and all it takes is a signature and then a vote to help save our community, folks have been eager to help,” he said.
Connect Bay Area has already raised $3 million to fund its outreach efforts over the next few months. The advocates are also expected to receive support from labor unions, including SEIU 1021, ATU 1555, and AFSCME, and from the San Francisco Transit Riders. At the Oakland event, Theresa Rutherford, from Local 1021, said a healthy transportation system addresses environmental risks that affect local communities.
A recent poll by EMC Research, paid for by the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, the regional transportation funder, found that about 59% of registered voters support a regional sales tax to fund transit.
Volunteers are invited to join Connect Bay Area at their next Oakland event at Snow Park this Saturday at 10 a.m.
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