Congressman Blumenauer Brings His Railvolution to L.A. Sept. 18th

Congressman, on September 18th the Railvolution conference, now in its 15th year, will kick off in Los Angeles. Why Los Angeles? And what can participants from all over the country expect to learn?

The Los Angeles region is perhaps the most important laboratory for livability this decade. We've been doing a lot of work in the Portland metropolitan area and over 30 states have developed some approach to growth management and planning. But the Los Angeles region has been a trendsetter for America for at least a century. The issues that you are working with now-in the beginning of the post-automobile, post-sprawl, post-freeway era-have profound implications for communities large and small around the country. Beyond being a model community for dealing with challenges presented by growth, the Los Angeles region is also one of the largest economies in the world. What happens in Southern California has a profound effect on our nation's politics, media, and economy. So this is a great place for us to gather, to look at what's being done, and to consider examples of both good and ill. Los Angeles is where America is headed-and we want to make sure that America is headed in the right direction.

You usually have a theme for your Railvolution conferences. In Atlanta, for example, it was the health implications of mobility. What will be the key themes for the Los Angeles Conference?

We are working very hard on the notion of how to build and finance a foundation for change, how we deal with profound issues of the environment, of social equity, and of health. These issues continue to occupy the center-stage of livable community efforts as we begin to see the interrelationships between transportation and land use and the health of America. The quality of the air we breathe and the state of our physical fitness are key indicators of the work that needs to be done. Our emphasis this year is how to best equip communities to put all these pieces together.

Could you share information on the conference's agenda and on the mobile workshops that will take place throughout Southern California?

An important part of our conference will be acquainting conferees from around the country, as well as from the Los Angeles region, with the wide array of transit oriented development under construction here. We'll have mobile workshops that will cover many types of development in different parts of LA: the Angel's Walk, the Hollywood Historic Walk, some of transit oriented development along the rail lines; the downtown renaissance; and projects in the nearby cities of Long Beach and Santa Monica. So we'll be combining issues that deal with traditional transit/land use with some on-the-ground experience of what is going on right now. I think people are going to be stunned at the breadth of the opportunities that exist in the Los Angeles region as they witness livable communities principles being put to work right here, right now.

Let me segue to the matter of federal re-authorization of transit funding. Would you give us an update on TEA-21 re-authorization and how it might relate to the substance of what will be discussed at the Rail-Volution conference in Los Angeles September 18-21st?

Originally, we had hoped that Rail~Volution would be an opportunity to deal with the implementation of a new transportation bill, but there is now little likelihood that we will have that bill reauthorized by mid-September. There is a fundamental breakdown in Washington. Both houses have signaled that they would pass a transportation bill with enough money to meet our needs: the House set a target of $375 billion by a large bi-partisan margin, while the Senate approved a $318 billion bill. However, the administration has drawn a line in the sand, refusing to sign any legislation that is anywhere near large enough to meet our needs. In the rush to the election, it is unlikely that the administration is going to change its position and because we have the votes to override a veto, the Republican Congressional leadership is reluctant to put up a bill that would embarrass the President. So the most likely outcome is continued stalemate. As a result, instead of focusing on how to implement the transportation bill at Rail~Volution, we'll still be working out how to right-size the funding.

Actually, that is not a bad outcome. I have been one of those that has said, "Look, let's just extend it for another six or eight months rather than pass an inadequate bill that will handicap us for a generation." The dual threat of passing a bad bill is that inadequate funding lowers the bar for future bills and places the most important provisions at risk, as vested interests fight fiercely over too few dollars. The good news is that we've assembled an impressive coalition of diverse interests to fight for this bill; groups from the Sierra Club to the Chambers of Commerce, homebuilders, cyclists, asphalt paving companies, and the Women's Garden Clubs of America all support a bill that is big enough to get the job done. But it would be a tragedy to have this coalition dissolve in the face of substandard legislation. Rail~Volution will provide an opportunity for people to add their voices, learn about the proceedings, and be a part of the effort to make sure that when the bill is finally passed, it meets their needs.

When we last interviewed you about the absence of any enhancement provisions in the re-authorization bill, you were working on an amendment to restore them to the bill. Can you update us, a year later, on whether that language, so dear to you, made it into the current bill?

The most popular portion of the federal highways legislation is the Enhancements Program, money that people have used for historic preservation, pedestrian and bicycle paths, and open space – elements that enhance the entire transportation system. Last summer, there was a concerted effort to strip the Enhancements Program from the transportation bill. In fact, the bill that came to the floor had eliminated the provision altogether. When Republican Tom Petri (Chair of the Surface Transportation Subcommittee of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee), who was responsible for shepherding this legislation through the House, introduced an amendment to restore funding for this popular program, it passed on the House floor with an overwhelming bi-partisan majority of 327 votes. Every single Democrat and a majority of Republicans – against the recommendation of the House leadership - joined us to restore this funding. I found this victory tremendously heartening; it was a signal that there is simply no political support for attacking the Enhancements Program. Now the only remaining threat is the administration's determination to pass a much smaller version of the transportation bill.

One of the crises we face in Los Angeles is the handling of goods movement from our Ports-the seaports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, and LAX-which expect growth of around 300% over the next decade or more. How does this fit into the scope of the Rail-volution Conference, your work in Washington, and your concerns about the transportation re-authorization bill?

Those of us who have been concerned about building livable communities have not given enough attention to the movement of freight, an absolutely essential component of not only communities in Southern California, but the global economy. Increasingly, the arteries of freight movement - whether it's roads, container ships, or rail cars - are becoming the warehouses of America's factories and offices; if goods cannot move freely to and from ports and distribution centers, both the region economy and individual citizens suffer from higher prices and a diminished quality of life.

The country has made a huge investment in some of L.A.'s freight facilities, such as the Alameda Corridor. As a member of the Transportation Committee I was pleased to support that investment because it has national significance. We need to continue to support these kind of freight-related investments in the LA region; too often, it's the first few miles of freight movement – which can take not just hours, but days - that constricts the entire system. I'm hopeful goods movement will be a part of our discussion at Rail~Volution, elevating it to a level of national attention.

We're also interested in talking about aviation. In this country, we are currently devoting too much aviation capacity for short-haul trips; one third of our airline trips are 350 miles or less. One of the best ways to preserve capacity in some of our busiest air corridors is to use rail to move people for short distances.

Airports also have to learn to be better neighbors in their own communities. This critical interface between the community, the airport, and the airport's role in a region's livability as well as its economy, is something that I hope can be woven into the conversations at Rail~Volution. All of these issues are germane to Southern California: what to do with a surplus airport, if and how to expand LAX, what's the best way to provide airport access, and how to develop alternatives to air travel.

Two last questions. In this issue of The Planning Report is an interview with John Norquist, the former Mayor of Milwaukee and current President of the Congress for the New Urbanism. CNU is having their conference next summer in Los Angeles, less than a year after the Rail-volution conference. How effectively do the Congress for the New Urbanism and Rail-volution build on each other's work to promote livability?

There is a lot of overlap between the two conferences; in fact, I've spoken at several of their events and several of their key people are regular speakers at ours. Yet there are distinct differences. Rail~Volution grew out of an emphasis on a transportation system that serves the livable community; the New Urbanists have been more design oriented, trying to give real dimension to the principles of livable communities. Frankly, I have a slightly different bias from the New Urbanists in terms of the human infrastructure; I believe that citizen involvement and the planning elements are major elements in creating more livable communities.

Some 15 years ago, Rail~Volution grew out of an effort in Portland, Oregon to extend our first light rail line. We wanted people to focus not so much on the actual rail line, but on what they wanted to see outside the window, what they wanted their communities to become. It was an intense effort to involve, educate, and empower citizens throughout the city -and now Rail~Volution is taking this same effort to the national level.

What we need – more than technology, legislation, or even architectural design – is to empower people to fight for their own vision, educating them on what the elements can be and how to translate their into action. This is one of Rail~Volution's greatest strengths.

In many of the cities that have hosted Rail-volution, there's been a valuable leave-behind at the conclusion of the conference. How might Los Angeles benefit from hosting Rail-volution in September?

As I previously said, Los Angeles is the largest area in America dealing with livability issues. Although the New York metropolis is larger, the region there is much more fragmented, consisting of three states and 2,000 jurisdictions. Here, you have a simpler political composition, providing you with less complex opportunities to link and focus the federal, state, and local levels on these issues. I am hopeful that Rail~Volution helps your residents and officials gain a greater appreciation of what you've already accomplished, as well as the range of tools that are available to help develop and further your vision. Candidly, I am hopeful that our conference helps create more regional cohesion in Southern California; sometimes I get the feeling that San Diego could be on another planet.

I find it somewhat ironic that, despite good environmental instincts on the part of your current governor, your previous governor, and your legislature, California has never stepped up to the plate in terms of a systematic framework to help provide a buffer against fiscal zoning. You work on such a mammoth scale on many of these issues; it would seem that a state framework would help to eliminate the fragmentation and uncertainty of dealing with these issues on an individual, local level.

I have been impressed with the efforts of organizations like New Schools-Better Neighborhoods to encourage people to look at the massive investments that are being made in educational facilities. Again, the order of magnitude you must use to address some of these issues is simply mind-boggling to the rest of America. School buildings aren't just educational resources for our children; they are the building blocks that can provide multiple benefits for our neighborhoods, our communities, and our society. I would hope that gatherings such as Rail~Volution can help people understand this relationship, that by showcasing some of the examples you've been working on here, we can help your citizen infrastructure weave these pieces together for what is the most important and the largest undertaking of its kind in the country.