Call to Action!
City Council will be discussing the Mid-Cycle Budget next Tuesday and then voting on it in early June. Bike Walk Alameda is asking our Mayor and Councilmembers to clarify whether Staff has proposed what’s needed to get our delayed transportation projects back on track, and if not, to do so. Below is our letter. Feel free to borrow from it for your own letter to City Council if you would like. You can email all Councilmembers using this handle: CITYCOUNCIL-List@alamedaca.gov. Be sure to cc: the City Clerk at clerk@alamedaca.gov, too, if you want your comment on record.
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May 17, 2024
RE: Item 3-C: Mid-Cycle Budget Update
Dear Mayor Ezzy Ashcraft, Members of the Council, and Staff,
We’ve been eagerly looking forward to this discussion and have a few thoughts we hope you will consider. First, we urge you to support the additional $250K for safe streets / Vision Zero projects in Table 6 of this Item.
Second, we urge you to get clarity around the direction you provided Staff in earlier Council meetings, which was to return during budget discussions with options to address the many transportation project delays we’ve been experiencing. It’s unclear to us whether this funding is that option, or if that step was missed.
In the event this funding is that option, we suggest you have Staff include more details about it. Beyond daylighting, high-visibility crosswalks, public engagement and response, which specific concerns will it address? For example, will it get the Safe Routes to School Infrastructure projects back on track? Will it get the conversion of Slow Streets to Neighborhood Greenways project completed closer to the original timeline (as opposed to 2027, per the Strategic Plan Progress Report)? Will it put our 2030 Low-Stress Backbone Network back on track for completion by 2030? If not, what does Staff need?
We noted that there wasn’t a recommendation for additional transportation workforce, or even an option to consider it. Is that because Staff believes the delays will be remedied by the additional funding alone? If not, what does Staff need?
We ask that you clarify what it would take, including funding sufficient human resources if necessary, to get these and other impactful projects in our Active Transportation Plan and Vision Zero Action Plan delivered as originally planned. Without this step, our targets around street safety and reducing VMT (vehicle miles traveled) will very likely be missed.
This is the follow-through we expect from our leadership given our City’s Climate Emergency and Vision Zero commitments. We hope you will take this workshop and the mid-cycle budget adoption next month as opportunities to put those urgent words into action.
Sincerely,
Bike Walk Alameda Board
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