ECOS Climate Committee 5/12 Focus on Transportation

ECOS Climate Change Committee – Focus on Transportation, THURSDAY, MAY 12 6:00 pm

Co-hosted by Ralph Propper, Climate Committee Chair and John Deeter, Transportation Team Lead

Agenda

6:00 Let’s chat — Zoom break-out rooms

6:05 Welcome and brief introductions

6:10 Sacramento Regional Transit (Sac RT) staff will discuss plans for the coming year. RT’s fiscal status has improved, as ridership is increasing again.

Craig Norman (Director of Engineering) will discuss more frequent service on Folsom line, electric buses, low-floor light rail stations/vehicles, new LRT stations (Dos Rios station; Horn Rd. station near Rancho Cordova’s Kassis property)

6:30 SacRT and TOD – Traci Canfield will provide high level overview of the SACOG-SACRT Transit-oriented Development Action Plan written in 2020

6:50 CapCity Freeway Lawsuit Update – Betsy Weiland of SARA (invited contributor) to discuss impacts to river

7:05 Transportation Ballot Measure for November election – Steve Cohn of SacMoves (invited contributor)

7:20 UPDATES

Climate Action Plans for County and City of Sacramento
For July presentation — Valley Rail, San Joaquin JPA, by Dan Leavitt, Manager of Regional Initiatives, will update us on the Stockton to Sacramento segment of Valley Rail w/maps, station areas, station designs. Valley Rail is on the Sacramento Subdivision from Stockton to Natomas — on separate, parallel UP track(s) to Sac RT from Cosumnes River Blvd to R Street in Midtown. Service will extend to Natomas (Elkhorn Blvd), but planning work is being done with Butte CAG and SACOG for a future extension to Butte County (Chico).

7:30 Adjourn

Thursday, May 12, 2022, 6:00pm

Link to join: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/6656164155

To phone in: 669-900-6833, Meeting ID: 665 616 4155

Sac City Council Meeting, April 26, 2022, Item 19 Quarterly Climate Update

On April 26, 2022, ECOS submitted a letter to the City of Sacramento Council Members regarding their Council Meeting on April 26, 2022, Item 19: Quarterly Climate Update. Below is an excerpt from our letter.

Sacramento can be a leader in sustainable and equitable growth and reducing of GHG emissions. The Sacramento region is the home of the Blueprint, upon which was modeled the landmark law SB375 linking land use and transportation. The concept of coordinating or integrating land use and transportation was right in 2008 and it is still right today. The key is to implement it.
Therefore, ECOS urges the City to use SacRT’s transit system as the backbone for redevelopment. Five- to seven-story buildings should frame the light rail station areas. Streets with existing high-ridership bus routes should be transformed into boulevards with consistently high street walls, wide sidewalks, protected bikeways, street trees on park strips, and curb parking. New parks and public plazas should be inserted.

Click here to read the letter in full.

Third Act Sacramento Gets Boomers Involved in Climate Fight

By Hannah Holzer | March 27, 2022 | The Sacramento Bee

Sacramento facilitators Ferris and Laurie Litman have wholeheartedly committed the third acts of their own lives – post-retirement – to climate activism. Both worry about the futures their children and grandchildren will face. Litman says the fact that young people have inherited a planet polluted by older generations is “an intergenerational injustice.” “This is the most important thing people my age can be doing,” Litman said. “We overconsumed. We’ve taken a lot, and now we’re leaving a depauperate future for our kids.”

Sacramento’s Third Act working group is still in its early days, but as it grows, so does excitement about the future. The group meets virtually on the third Monday of each month at 6 p.m. and anyone who lives in or around the Sacramento region is encouraged to get involved by emailing thirdactsac[at]gmail[dot]com. Fighting a planetary crisis on a personal scale can feel futile. But people of every generation must do everything in our power to ensure a livable future.

ECOS Letter to Sac County re Climate Action Plan

On March 23rd, 2022, Sacramento County held a workshop on their CLimate Action Plan. ECOS, Sierra Club, 350 Sacramento, as well as several other organizations and many residents, provided testimony during the workshop.

ECOS submitted a letter preceding the meeting, stating:

We’re grateful for the effort that County staff has made developing this CAP draft. However, it doesn’t address the biggest change we need to make: we need to increase housing in ways that don’t increase commute distances and thereby make our air and climate less healthy.

Click here to read our letter in full.

ECOS letter to County Supervisors re Climate Emergency Mobilization Task Force

On February 7, 2022, ECOS submitted a letter to the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors regarding the County’s Climate Emergency Mobilization Task Force. Below is an excerpt.

We will soon receive the next draft of the County’s Communitywide Climate Action Plan (CAP), and hope that it contains enforceable actions and does not rely on anticipated recommendations from the Task Force. We suggest that the Task Force be charged with developing ways to implement the CAP, including an emergency response plan. For the Task Force to succeed, we hope the County will budget funding for such items as additional staff, consultant studies that may be needed, and outreach/community engagement.

Click here to read the letter in full.

Photo by Markus Spiske from Pexels

Joint letter to SMUD re Sac County Climate Action Plan

This Jan. 24, 2022 letter from the Environmental Council of Sacramento, Sierra Club Sacramento Group, and 350 Sacramento, regarding the Sacramento County Climate Action Plan (CAP) requests that SMUD verify some of the SMUD-related information in the CAP, and also consider helping to increase standardization of CAP processes across the state.

Click here to read the letter.

Photo by Vincent M.A. Janssen from Pexels