Published 26 Sep, 2011
Transportation funding and ensuring African Americans are at the table during planning and implementation of transportation were discussed at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s (CBCF) Annual Legislative Conference this past week in Washington, DC.
The panel, sponsored by TWU, “Moving Toward Livable and Sustainable Communities: Are African Americans Being Left Behind?” part of the Future Focus Series, discussed how the needs of the low- and moderate-income African Americans must remain a priority as the threats to cut transportation funding continue.
“Transportation is the most important piece in urban and rural development and last to be discussed with limited funding,” said Paul Taylor, Jr., Principal and Managing Member, SRP Development. “We have to switch the paradigm. Transportation is only as good as the roads transportation has to run on.”
The panel came about after the 2010 Census revealed that African Americans are moving out of cities and into suburban and rural areas, and increasingly leaving the Northeast and Midwest and relocating to Southern states while infrastructure is deteriorating across the nation.
“We can revitalize through transit oriented development, sometimes we are broke, but we’re not poor,” said Curtis Jones. Jr., Councilman of Philadelphia’s 4th District.
The Surface Transportation Bill, which was just extended for six months maintaining its current spending level, is a key piece of legislation that would stimulate job growth and rejuvenate current infrastructures.
Currently 700,000 families cannot access public transportation in America and without it, those in the low-income category cannot get a job or travel to their job.
For example, a recent case conducted by Toni L. Griffin, Adjunct Associate Professor, Harvard Graduate School of Design, Urban Planning and Design for the American City found 75 percent of the labor force in Newark, New Jersey commutes outside of their living area to get employment and only 44 percent of them have cars.
With numbers like that and Americans moving toward sustainable and livable communities, transportation funding is critical to help create those communities because of the importance of transportation as it impacts people’s everyday lives from employment opportunities to health care.
The CBCF covered these issues and others in the four-day conference, as it is a nonprofit, nonpartisan public policy, research and educational institute whose goal is to help improve the socioeconomic circumstances of African Americans and other underserved communities.
The panel was moderated by Garrick Davis, Legislative Director at the Economic & Financial Policy, National Urban League Policy Institute and the panelists were: Keith Benjamin, Legislative Associate, TWU Department of Legislative and Political Affairs; Rep. Donna Edwards (D-MD); Toni L. Griffin, Adjunct Associate Professor, Harvard Graduate School of Design, Urban Planning and Design for the American City; Councilman Curtis Jones, Jr., City Council Member, City of Philadelphia; Paul Taylor, Jr. Principal and Managing Member, SRP Development.