Public meetings on transit between Downtown and neighborhoods East

Next week, the City is hosting public meetings to discuss proposed transit improvements and community development between Downtown and Oakland. This is an important opportunity for transit riders, transit workers, and residents to share ideas, concerns, and questions.

Here is the invitation from the city, and this link provides more information:

The City of Pittsburgh invites you to provide input on an action plan for transit improvements and community development in the corridor between Downtown and neighborhoods east.

Please come share your ideas. For convenience, the public meeting is being offered twice at different times and locations. Take your pick of:

Tuesday, May 5, 2015 Uptown/Downtown, Noon – 2:00 pm

Duquesne University, Power Center Ballroom, 1015 Forbes Avenue

Wednesday, May 6, 2015 Oakland, 6:00 – 8:00 pm

William Pitt Student Union, Kurtzman Room, 3959 Fifth Avenue

At these upcoming public meetings, the City of Pittsburgh will provide an overview of coordinated planning efforts in the corridor along Fifth and Forbes Avenues, including the Downtown, Uptown, Oakland, and other east end neighborhoods. This will involve a review of ongoing planning for transit improvements, including bus rapid transit (BRT), and upcoming planning for an EcoInnovation District in the Uptown neighborhood.

Per the requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969, which govern transit planning, the environmental scoping process will include the opportunity for the public and agencies to provide comment on the purpose and need for transit improvements, as well as environmental issues that should be considered. Participants will also be able to provide preliminary input on possible station locations for proposed BRT alignments.

The goal of the Uptown EcoInnovation District is a revitalized Uptown community, which is both environmentally and financially sustainable while promoting equity, and public and private sector innovation.

The City of Pittsburgh has undertaken an effort to coordinate multiple complimentary planning projects in this corridor. The purpose is to capitalize on the community and economic development potential of the neighborhoods in this corridor while better connecting them, to each other and the region, through improved mobility. The City will knit together neighborhood-based planning projects, which will influence planning for improved transit service and infrastructure underway by Port Authority of Allegheny County.

For more information, contact Patrick Roberts, Department of City Planning, Principal Transportation Planner at 412.255.2224 or patrick.roberts@pittsburghpa.gov

The meeting locations are accessible to persons with mobility disabilities, a sign language interpreter will be available and the meeting document will be available to attendees in Spanish and Braille.

Both meetings are accessible via Port Authority service. For more transit schedule information, go to PortAuthority.org or call 412.442.2000.

Pittsburghers for Public Transit encourages riders and residents to come to the meetings next week so that their voices can be heard during this process.

Pittsburghers for Public Transit supports the Fight for 15!

Fast food workers and other low wage workers are going on strike today (4/15) to demand 15 dollars an hour and a union. Many of these workers are transit riders. They all deserve a living wage and respect on the job.

Let’s lift up neighborhoods and families across our city and increase the wages of all workers.

-Rally at 12 noon at Market Square downtown

-4:00 PM, Gather at Forbes & Bigelow in Oakland, in front of the Cathedral of Learning.

See below for the ATU International’s support for the Fight for 15:


	ATU workers nationwide gear up for Fight for $15 Building on three years of successful actions by fast-food workers, tomorrow, Wednesday 4/15, underpaid workers across the country, from restaurant workers, to bus drivers, to adjunct professors, are coming together to demand living wages and the right to unionize. The first action was over three years ago in New York City when more than 200 fast-food workers walked off the job. Today, the national conversation around the living wage is moving cities like Seattle and San Francisco, towards a $15 per hour living wage. Within the transportation industry, workers who are employed by private companies often face the same indignities of poverty wages and abusive working conditions. ATU is proud to join our brothers and sisters in fighting back against predatory corporations that take more than their fair share of the profit. To find a Fight for $15 Rally in your city, click here.

Join us for Stand Up for Transportation Day

Join us on Thursday April 9th as we Stand Up for Transportation!

Groups from across the country are calling on Congress to pass a federal transportation bill, with adequate funding for public transit, biking, and walking. If we do not act now, the funding will run out at the end of May.

On April 9th, we encourage you to:

1) Call and/or write your elected officials. Click here to get the info or see below

2) When you’re on the bus or T, or waiting at a stop, take pictures, and post them on social media. #SU4T #StandUp4Transportation

3) Sign this petition: http://standup4transportation.org/

PPT is helping to host a press conference on Thursday April 9th at 10 am, Wood St T station lobby, 601 Wood St.

Volunteers will then go to bus stops to encourage riders to call their federal elected officials: Sen. Casey, Sen. Toomey, Rep. Doyle, Rep. Murphy, and Rep. Rothfus. We need to tell those in Washington how crucial public transit is to us. We expect our legislators to act NOW to pass a federal bill that provides adequate funding for public transit, biking, and walking.

If you’d like to volunteer, to help get the word out to riders, contact: molly@pittsburghforpublictransit.org

Script for calling elected officials:

Hello. My name is ______________, and I live at __________. My phone number is__________. I am calling to ask that you do all in your power to pass a long-term sustainable surface transportation bill before May 31st. I ride the bus/T/bike/walk every day, and I want to make sure you understand how important public transit, biking, and walking is to me and my neighbors. Many of us either do not have cars or choose not to drive. We need alternative choices, and it is your job to ensure those options are there for us.

US Rep. Mike Doyle (14th district-PA)
2637 East Carson Street
Pittsburgh, PA 15203
Phone: (412) 390-1499
https://doyle.house.gov/contact-me

US Rep. Tim Murphy(18th district-PA)
504 Washington Road
Pittsburgh, PA 15228
Phone: (412) 344-5583
https://murphy.house.gov/contact-me

US Rep.Keith Rothfus(12thdistrict-PA)
6000 Babcock Boulevard, Suite 104
Pittsburgh, PA 15237
Phone: (412) 837-1361
http://rothfus.house.gov/email-keith

Sen. Pat Toomey (US Senator—PA)
100 W. Station Square Dr., Suite 225
Pittsburgh, PA 15219
Phone: (412) 803-3501
http://www.toomey.senate.gov/?p=contact

Sen. Bob Casey (US Senator—PA)
310 Grant Street, Suite 2415
Pittsburgh, PA 15219
Phone: (412) 803-7370
http://www.casey.senate.gov/contact

For more info see below.

MEDIA RELEASE:

Local advocates from community development, public transit, ped/bike, labor, and business sectors join with communities nationwide to emphasize need for long-term investment in US transportation infrastructure before funding evaporates on May 31

WHO: Pittsburgh Community Reinvestment Group, Pittsburghers for Public Transit, Bike Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership, Allegheny Conference on Community Development

WHAT: Stand Up for Transportation Day –Pittsburgh area leaders are joining with their counterparts nationwide,April 9, 2015 to draw attention and awareness to the looming federal transportation funding crisis and call on Congress to follow Pennsylvania’s lead by passing a comprehensive, sustainable transportation funding package. Sponsored by the American Public Transportation Association (APTA), with support from national and local partners from transportation, business, labor and community oriented interests, Stand Up for Transportation Day will unite the voices of 200+ participating organizations in over 140 communities nationwide to focus on the federal transportation funding crisis’s urgency and provide a Pittsburgh-region context.

WHY: Whether you ride a train, bus or bike, walk or drive, the expiration of the federal funding bill, Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (MAP-21), has a direct impact on southwestern Pennsylvania’s economy and quality of life. On May 31, 2015, the nation’s transportation funding mechanism – the Highway Trust Fund – becomes literally insolvent. It also threatens to wipe out the leadership Pennsylvania showed in passing its own transportation funding bill, Act 89 of 2013. Without a long-term federal transportation funding bill, ours and communities across the country will face tremendous economic and employment uncertainty. Transportation is the backbone of our local and national economy. A long-term transportation bill is needed to reinforce and expand transportation choices, and to continue to grow our economy – locally and nationally.

If you have questions or concerns, do not hesitate to email info@pittsburghforpublictransit.org or call 412-216-9659.

Sincerely,

Molly Nichols
Community Organizer
Pittsburghers for Public Transit