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No Cars in L.A.


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Envisioning No Cars in LA!

Putting the Pieces Together: The No Cars in LA Models our Model

The NO CARS IN LA Campaign has already begun. It was launched at the Strategy Center’s annual Political Party fundraiser/celebration on May 4, 2013 after months of discussion and planning by the Bus Riders Union Planning Committee and the Fight for the Soul of the Cities First Responders Group. The audience of 350 people, low-income bus riders and high school students, lawyers, professionals, teachers, and a wide range of people, were deeply moved by the Fight for the Soul of the Cities, Stop the Pre-Prisoning of Students, and No Cars in LA presentations. This was reflected in many ways, from dozens of new people signing up to work on the campaign, to the generous financial support from our appeal.

The No Cars in LA Campaign begins with the moral imperative of the fight to stop and reverse global warming.

Los Angeles generates massive quantities of greenhouse gases and air toxins from the automobile, with 8 million cars on the road in a county of 10 million people. L.A. is known as “the auto capital of the world” and a No Cars in LA Campaign is understood by all at first glance – it needs little explanation. The discussion becomes, “Is it a good idea and can it be achieved?” For many, the idea is compelling. So, before we get to how such a radical plan could be won, the first theory of this campaign is that it is based on winning widespread support for the objective. For example, people begin by agreeing that racial segregation must be eliminated, the war in Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, must be ended immediately, and move from that moral imperative to a tactical plan. The first component of our tactical plan is to create widespread knowledge of and support for this bold proposal.

Key Policy Demands of No Cars in LA:

  • No Cars in LA—Stop the US and LA’s Attack on the Planet
  • Restrict auto use—bus only lanes on surface streets and freeways, auto free rush hours, auto free days, auto free zones
  • No Fare: Stop Any MTA Fare Increases
  • No Fare: Free Public Transportation
  • No Fare: Free Student Bus Pass
  • No Fare: Stop MTA Sheriffs -No Stop and Frisk on buses and trains.
  • No Fare: There is no such crime as “fare evasion”
  • Restore 1 million hours of bus service that the Bus Riders Union won during our ten year Civil RightsConsent Decree –that the MTA cut as soon as federal oversight was lifted
  • Purchase 5,000 zero emission buses for a total fleet of 7,500 zero emission, no fare buses running 24/7 throughout Los Angeles County
  • Stop the great train robbery. A moratorium on all new rail projects. We can use the existing rail lines as part of a bus centered multi-modal system but no mas, no more.
  • A moratorium on highway expansion
  • Stop the MTA as gentrification developer
  • Stop the MTA attacks on transit riders who speak at MTA meetings.
  • A code of conduct for the MTA board demanding rights and respect for transit riders at all public forums.

The Bus Only Lanes Victory-an important example of the theory and practice of Transformative Organizing and the Hopes for No Cars in L.A.

Five years ago, the Strategy Center initiated a Bus Only Lanes campaign in Los Angeles, proposing an 11 mile pilot project on Wilshire Boulevard. We began with one vote on the 14 person city council. Three years later we won the demand, including getting federal funding. This was an example of how the Strategy Center works to change the terms of the debate – winning over small business people who first feared it would hurt their profits by restricting auto use during rush hours. They came to agree it would not hurt their businesses, but would dramatically help the city they wanted to live in and improve their public health and that of their families. We won because we tackled the issue from an ideological framework – limit the polluting auto, public health and climate justice first, mobility for masses not the polluting single passenger auto. As with our Truancy Ticket victory, it was amusing to hear city council people who had opposed the measure for years act as if they had initiated it. It is this long history of ideologically and morally driven organizing and from there, translating it into public policy that gives us great confidence about the No Cars in LA campaign.

No Cars in LA Tactical Plan: Mass popular education in low-income Black and Latino communities on the No Cars in LA campaign.

This is a proposed five year organizing plan, with great saturation, to shift the terms of the debate about cars and public transportation. This will be done through on-the-bus organizing, neighborhood organizing, school site organizing, paid media, phone banking, robocalls, mass lawn signs and postering, extensive social media work, and as we will explain below, institutional organizing. We have many lessons from the No on J Campaign that give us great hope about our ability to develop a complex tactical arsenal, and we have learned the need to have a substantial budget to reach large numbers of people.

Building Multi-racial and Multi-class Alliances.

The Strategy Center works well with the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Coalition for Clean Air, the Sierra Club, with many labor unions, Americans for Democratic Action, UCLA and USC students and faculty, and many high school faculty and students who are already part of the Fight for the Soul of the Cities (FFSC). Our principal focus will be South Central Los Angeles, which, with 850,000 people, is still the largest concentration of Black residents amidst a growing Black dispersion and still the most Black/Latino area of the city. But we will also reach out, albeit with fewer resources, to many middle class forces.

Because, as with many other issues, the effects of climate change is not just an environmental issue, but a racial one.  As Susie Cagle pointed out in her recent Grist article “A new study published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives digs deep under the sidewalks and streets that are soaking up all this new heat in our cities – and finds that not all neighborhoods and racial groups are faring equally. According to the research, blacks, Asians, and Latinos are all significantly more likely to live in high-risk heat-island conditions than white people.”

We plan to work with groups in many cities in the U.S, starting with the Bay Area, New York, Chicago, and Detroit, to discuss the FFSC model and the idea of “No Cars in SF, Oakland, Chicago, Detroit, New York, Philadelphia, Houston, Denver and every major city in the U.S.” Then we will take this struggle into the international stage.

We ask the MTA to reverse its present “privatizing, polluting, policing” policies and adopt our No Cars In L.A proposal.

groups The Los Angeles County is proposing yet another toxic fare increase which will only decrease the amount of riders on public transit and increase the number of cars on the road. There will be a public hearing held on Saturday, March 29th at 9:30am at MTA headquarters. Call an FFSC organizer at 213-387-2800 to get involved and for more information on the proposed fare increase. Or click here for more info.