The Green New Deal discussion series in the spring of 2020 brought together a wide array from our diverse community to discuss a powerful vision of how we can and must adapt in order to survive as a species within our larger global ecology. We looked closely at the deep interdependence of our human needs such as health care, housing, transportation, education, food access, dignified work, and inclusive democratic process. And we agreed that surviving and thriving will depend on understanding and repairing the long-time harms of systemic racism, sexism, homophobia, xenophobia, ableism, class oppression and other unjust cracks in our collective foundations.
This next five-month series focuses on supporting collective efforts on the local and regional levels to develop concrete platforms, policies, and legislation tailored for the needs of our own communities - and to understand the power system ecologies that move decision making. Each session will focus on a different topic area. Next Wednesday, December 16th, from 6-8pm, you're invited to a policy and power mapping session focused on Allegheny County public transportation and mobility.
The first hour will be focused on providing feedback on the transportation proposals being developed by a Pittsburgh regional network convened by the UrbanKind Institute and their partners at Black Women Wise Women and Mongalo-Winston Consulting as part of the the Equitable and Just Platform for Pittsburgh, with a deep commitment to systemic racial justice and intersectional organizing by communities most affected by public decision making.
The second hour will focus on building a power map to support the outreach, advocacy, and organizing needed to push our collective visions for public transportation and mobility into practical reality. We will be starting from this initial draft of a public transit power map, working to incorporate other sectors of regional decision-makers, power players, influencers, opponents, and potential allies such as:
Boards and Commissions for Pgh and Allegheny County
Unions related to transportation operation or manufacturing, with assistance from union researchers and organizers from UE and ATU;
The foundations and other big non-profits, like Pitt, CMU, UPMC, the Allegheny Conference, etc; (we'll be using the Mon Connector as an example in the Dec 16th session.) Here's an excellent PG series of articles by Rich Lord on the broad context of how such institutions wield power and influence government and development in Pittsburgh.
Corporations in public-private partnerships with government for local public services, such as those that contract with Port Authority's paratransit Access service.
Tech-transportation privateers like Uber and Lyft, and/or other autonomous vehicle manufacturing or design companies like Aptiv.
Transportation-related advocacy organizations, many of which work across a range of modes and issues, including buses, rail, biking, walkability and disability access, racial equity, migrant justice, and environmental justice.
Transportation media: Which venues and reporters cover transportation beats that are relevant to educating and influencing both the general public and decision makers?
Your ideas of other sectors to include are strongly encouraged! This session is just one brainstorming analysis for the power mapping process in this topic, with many registrants already committed to continuing to contribute their expertise over upcoming months. The Google documents from all topics throughout the series will be shared with participants for further input, revisions, additions - and for use in their areas of advocacy, organizing, or coalition building.
To join the December 16th session, please fill out this Google form and we will email you the Zoom link. If you can't make this session and have a special interest or expertise in transportation and mobility, please reply to this email and we will share the Google power mapping document with you for your participation in the continuing process. And in the spring there will be a second session devoted to the transportation policies of the ReImagine Appalachia regional platform and transportation policy and power mapping at the regional, state, and national levels
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