'This isn’t a community forum' - Words of wisdom from a labor thug at a SMART transit forum

It was one of those city administrators’ public meetings where the staff outnumber the public. Last night a transit panel discussion organized by SMART was conducted at Elk Grove's District56 facility. 

The introductions of the panelist was performed by a tall young man who failed to introduce himself. It was obvious that tough or embarrassing questions would not be allowed as another staff member passed out paper slips and pens and that only direct action would reveal real concerns about too large and too fast vehicles with the subject at hand, public transit.

Then things got even worse. Elk Grove Mayor Bobbie Singh-Allen spoke for three minutes, reading from what looked like a prepared speech promoting the massive, $400 million future zoo and the failed so-called Project Elevate, an enclosed village of dense housing, shops, and urban amenities. 

She promoted transit oriented developments but did not mention safety for pedestrians. She repeated the zoo reference, declaring that the existing light rail Blue Line would pass by the zoo. 

Then she left the premises. Apparently, city councilman Rod Brewer was in the wings and took her place in the audience. With his colleague Sergio Robles on the dais, there was at least a momentary if not sustained violation of the Brown Open Meeting Act with a majority of the Elk Grove City Council unofficially caucused.

After the panel introduced itself, I took the liberty to announce my name and set the agenda saying "I’m Michael Monasky and I want to know why being a pedestrian in this city sucks." 

That’s when the tall young man who started the meeting asked me to sit down, telling me that questions would be addressed later. As it was, the 5:30 pm meeting started ten minutes late, and was promoted to end by 7 pm, a perfect temporal excuse to restrict public input.

Elk Grove City Planner Christopher Jordan described the ionic track that is the Blue Line, and its future emanation from Cosumnes River College (CRC) to its terminus through Elk Grove. Original plans placed it east through Old Town Elk Grove. But the city convinced the transportation authority to run it through the west side, with a variety of alignments still unsettled. 

That’s because such track placements require real empirical numbers for housing and job densities, and those figures don’t exist just yet. The jobs haven’t materialized in the south-central city and the housing is a regional transit planner’s sprawling nightmare. 

Jordan emphasized the need for more money for master planning, feasibility studies, and for the city to buy more land, to own assets like the spot for the now failed Project Elevate. More trails; more crosswalks.

“There’s so much more to do,” he said. 

Jordan also said that we should lead by example; have more pedestrian options (without specifying just what he meant); “more gathering places”; “other choices for other people”; and that the city had officially set aside more dense planning spaces for “100 units per acre by right.”

Sacramento Regional Transit’s Anthony Adams recited the tale of his daughter’s student experience in San Diego that did't need a car to go to college there. Adams said that wasn’t the case in Elk Grove.

“In Elk Grove, you need a car to get to college,” he said. After the forum, I told Adams that buses ran through Elk Grove and delivered passengers to CRC.

He said his daughter could not use them because they did not live in Elk Grove. He refused to refute his original statement and said mine was a rude question. 

Adams alluded that the Blue Line is not ready for prime time, and that Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) is more likely to be introduced in the next five to seven years. For an extension of light rail to occur, which would be a $400 to $600 million venture, greater jobs and housing densities must be built.

 That would push a light rail project, like the Blue Line extension to Elk Grove’s New Zoo, out at least 15 years. He cited examples of multiple decades of delays in light rail build-outs in San Jose and Walnut Creek.

On the dais, Adams addressed the issue of declining bus and light rail ridership. He said it was up to 116 percent of pre-pandemic levels, and that student rides have doubled.

Then Adams went afield, citing the need for the public to embrace and use rideshare resources, microtransit, and electric bikes and scooters. When asked about global warming, Adams asked did you know that the air district is a non-attainment area for pollutants?

Then he went off-topic, complaining that his own agency required cash for a bus ride from the airport, then ruminating that phone applications could make ticketing easier for bus and train riders. 

Perhaps that would work for him, but most public transit riders are students, the disabled, the poor and elderly, decidedly those who do not have motor vehicles, and are more likely not to have a smart phone to run virtual ticket applications.

From the dais, Councilmember Robles said to Adams, “Gee, you did your homework.” Then Robles went off-topic, complaining that young people like him could not afford $600,000 starter homes. 

Further, he was irritated that he was always in a vehicle between Elk Grove, Rancho Cordova, and Sacramento. Robles rambled further that developers are part of the solution.

Robles made comments including “There are good developers” and “Who wants to live in high density?” and “It’s unsafe to ride a bicycle.” 

In what has been a profound $10 million embarrassment for the city, Robles commented on the state’s lawsuit over the Oak Rose Supportive Housing Project, in which the city denied housing for disabled persons. Robles said “I’m gonna be proactive with developers,” attract more young people and their voices to “break norms,” and that different messages were needed for different populations.

Robles asked how we make community. He said there might be Old Town for the older community, but complained that “there’s nothing here on the east side.” He said this from inside the District 56 Community Center which includes the Senior Center, Veterans Center, and Aquatics Center (which happens to be on the west side of town.)

I arose at a break in the action during the question about reduced ridership. I said I had the answer: public transit ridership depends upon safe and effective movement of pedestrians. That’s when the very tall young man approached me with irritation in his voice. He said: “This isn’t a community forum.”

SMART is a recently formed private corporation headed by former Sacramento City Council member Steve Cohn. It stands for Sacramento Metropolitan Advocates for Rails and Transit. 

No matter the intent of SMART, the real power is in the money dispersed at various levels of government. Federal grants and state funds go to regional Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPO). 

Here it’s called SACOG, the Sacramento Area Council of Governments, a six-county agency which distributes all this cash to various projects proposed by counties and municipalities in the region. Sometimes the proposed plans get funded; other times, not so much. 

The MPO is required by law to attain air quality goals and, well, we have collectively failed. So this funding isn’t always forthcoming, and the grand plans of our elected leaders aren’t always realized.

Meanwhile, traffic is faster, more congested, and the constituent vehicles are much larger. SUVs are registered as trucks, so they do not fall under more restrictive federal fuel fleet efficiency standards as sedans and smaller cars. 

SUVs and trucks on average weigh two to three times more than smaller, more fuel efficient vehicles. SUVs and trucks stand taller and have impaired sight lines which endanger pedestrian and bicycle traffic.

Vehicular traffic constitutes 70 percent of green house gas emissions. Additionally, vehicles pump out nanoparticles of spent rubber from tires and flecks of metal from brake pads and discs which are implicated in causing heart and lung disease and cancer, the leading causes of death in the United States.

Many thoughtful critics of urban planning say that our priorities need to go back to the pedestrian. Private vehicles need to be smaller, burn less gas, and go slower. Congestion already slows down traffic as average inner city vehicular speeds are those of bicycles.

Too many streets are completely unwalkable due to excessive speed and vehicle size. Getting us out of our cars, SUVs, trucks, and private vehicles is a gargantuan task. But it must be done to save our species.

Driving everywhere, walking nowhere, both are killing us. Where are the citizen assemblies to decide how to live, walk, and breathe in our neighborhoods?

And just who was the very tall young man who denied public input at a very public meeting? Sam Rice, SMART board member, and union representative at state workers’ SEIU Local 1000. 

This is not a public forum, indeed.