Transportation Equity Network
Encyclopedia
The Transportation Equity Network (TEN) is a project of the Gamaliel Foundation
and a grassroots
organization with more than 350 community organizations
in 41 states
in the United States
. TEN's stated goal is "to create an equity-based transportation system by connecting local transportation campaigns with D.C.
-based advocacy
."
. TEN was founded to advocate for public transportation on a national level, to provide assistance to community organizations on the local level, and to advocate for public transportion as a civil rights
issue.
TEN worked in 2005 with then-Senator Barack Obama
to put workforce development language into a federal transportation authorization bill. This allowed local and state officials to craft local hiring
agreements to create employment and training opportunities in the transportation construction sector. One early success was in St. Louis, Missouri
, where TEN affiliate Metropolitan Congregations United brought the Missouri Department of Transportation
to the table and won an agreement that 30% of the workforce on a $500 million dollar highway project would be low-income apprentices and that 1/2 of 1% of the project budget ($2.5 million) would go to job training. This became known as the Missouri Model. Recently, TEN won a commitment from Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood
to encourage state Departments of Transportation to adopt TEN’s “Green Construction Careers (Missouri Model)” of workforce development nationwide. TEN also recently worked with Rep. Russ Carnahan
to secure language in the jobs bill that passed the U.S. House of Representatives on December 17, 2009, to give transit authorities local control over spending priorities for up to 10 percent of the bill’s $8.4 billion in emergency public transit funding. In December 2009, the Congressional Black Caucus
lifted up TEN’s “Green Construction Careers (Missouri Model)” in an open letter to President Obama.
TEN and its affiliates also pursue causes on a local level. In April 2010, TEN member Metropolitan Congregations United (MCU) and allies led a successful campaign in support of a ballot initiative to reinvest in transit in St. Louis city and county
. Voters overwhelmingly supported the measure, which will provide $75 million a year to restore service cuts. In the San Francisco Bay Area, TEN affiliate GENESIS was among several civil rights
groups that filed a federal civil rights complaint and successfully stopped the use of $70 million in stimulus funds for a rail project that would have violated the Civil Rights Act
. Instead, the money will be used to avoid cuts in the region’s other transit lines. In August 2010, in Kansas City, Missouri
, TEN member MORE2 secured $11 million in local transit funding over 10 years, an increase of $5 million over previous levels. In Minnesota
, TEN member ISAIAH
successfully argued that a planned light rail
line along the Central Corridor
connecting Minneapolis and St. Paul should include three additional stops in underserved, low-income communities. Also in Minnesota, after a five-year-long intensive campaign, ISAIAH convinced Minnesota Department of Transportation
to dedicate $6.2 million in federal highway money over the next five years to training and apprenticeships in highway construction work to low-wage workers, people of color and women. In October 2010, TEN affiliate MORE2 successfully worked to ensure that equity requirements would be included in the new TIGER II
federal grants.
In September 2008, TEN released a followup study called The Road to Good Jobs. The report built upon the foundation laid in The Road to Jobs but went further in examining patterns of pay and union membership in construction across the nation's top twenty-five metropolitan areas.
In 2009, TEN and PolicyLink
released a joint report entitled An Engine of Opportunity: A User’s Guide to Advocate for Transportation Equity in the 2009 Recovery Act
. The report was designed as guide to activists, advocates, and journalists on the distribution of billions of dollars in transportation funding. The report also highlighted the key deadlines, reporting requirements and policy targets that were still to come that year.
Later in 2009, TEN released a study co-authored by Transportation for America
on the effects of service cuts on transit systems across the country. Entitled Stranded at the Station: The Impact of the Financial Crisis in Public Transportation, the study looked at the challenges facing 25 communities across the country. Many communities were facing record levels of ridership and simultaneously dealing with crippling budget and service cuts. The authors of the study found that failures on the federal level had compounded these problems and that older Americans and members of racial minorities were disproportionately affected by the cuts.
In August 2010, a major study authored by TEN entitled More Transit = More Jobs was released. The study looked at 20 metropolitan areas and the potential effects of shifting 50% of highway spending to public transit. The report concluded that such a shift would create 1,123,674 new transit jobs over a five-year period in the 20 metropolitan areas. This would mean a net gain of 180,150 jobs over five years. The study was designed to demonstrate the positive impact of spending on public transit compared to spending highways.
Gamaliel Foundation
Gamaliel Foundation provides training and consultation and develops national strategy for its affiliated congregation-based community organizations. As of 2008, Gamaliel has 60 affiliates in 21 U.S...
and a grassroots
Grassroots
A grassroots movement is one driven by the politics of a community. The term implies that the creation of the movement and the group supporting it are natural and spontaneous, highlighting the differences between this and a movement that is orchestrated by traditional power structures...
organization with more than 350 community organizations
Community organizing
Community organizing is a process where people who live in proximity to each other come together into an organization that acts in their shared self-interest. A core goal of community organizing is to generate durable power for an organization representing the community, allowing it to influence...
in 41 states
U.S. state
A U.S. state is any one of the 50 federated states of the United States of America that share sovereignty with the federal government. Because of this shared sovereignty, an American is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of domicile. Four states use the official title of...
in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. TEN's stated goal is "to create an equity-based transportation system by connecting local transportation campaigns with D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
-based advocacy
Advocacy
Advocacy is a political process by an individual or a large group which normally aims to influence public-policy and resource allocation decisions within political, economic, and social systems and institutions; it may be motivated from moral, ethical or faith principles or simply to protect an...
."
History
The Transportation Equity Network was founded in 1997 by the Center for Community Change but has since been adopted as a project of the Gamaliel FoundationGamaliel Foundation
Gamaliel Foundation provides training and consultation and develops national strategy for its affiliated congregation-based community organizations. As of 2008, Gamaliel has 60 affiliates in 21 U.S...
. TEN was founded to advocate for public transportation on a national level, to provide assistance to community organizations on the local level, and to advocate for public transportion as a civil rights
Civil rights
Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from unwarranted infringement by governments and private organizations, and ensure one's ability to participate in the civil and political life of the state without discrimination or repression.Civil rights include...
issue.
Notable actions
In August 2005, TEN celebrated the signing of Safe Accountable Flexible and Efficient Transportation Equity Act-A Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU). TEN had worked with congressional representatives from both parties to ensure that language in the bill reflected TEN's priorities. In many cases, language in the bill matched TEN's language verbatim. The adopted language allowed for construction projects. The changes pushed by TEN required public participation plans to be developed with the involvement of local residents in the metropolitan transportation planning process. Changes in the legislation required greater transparency in the planning process and set aside $1 million each year for transportation equity research. TEN's work helped secure the Job Access and Reverse Commute Program by making it a formula program with a guaranteed $700 million over six years.TEN worked in 2005 with then-Senator Barack Obama
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
to put workforce development language into a federal transportation authorization bill. This allowed local and state officials to craft local hiring
Local hiring
Local hiring is a goal or requirement to hire people who live close to the place of work. This aim is often more specifically structured as a requirement for contractors awarded certain types of publicly-funded projects to recruit a certain proportion of the people working on the project from a...
agreements to create employment and training opportunities in the transportation construction sector. One early success was in St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...
, where TEN affiliate Metropolitan Congregations United brought the Missouri Department of Transportation
Missouri Department of Transportation
The Missouri Department of Transportation is a state government organization in charge of maintaining public roadways of the U.S. state of Missouri.-External links:*...
to the table and won an agreement that 30% of the workforce on a $500 million dollar highway project would be low-income apprentices and that 1/2 of 1% of the project budget ($2.5 million) would go to job training. This became known as the Missouri Model. Recently, TEN won a commitment from Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood
Ray LaHood
Raymond H. "Ray" LaHood is a Republican politician from Illinois who is currently the United States Secretary of Transportation, having served since 2009. Previously, he represented the Illinois's 18th congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives for seven terms .-Early life and...
to encourage state Departments of Transportation to adopt TEN’s “Green Construction Careers (Missouri Model)” of workforce development nationwide. TEN also recently worked with Rep. Russ Carnahan
Russ Carnahan
John Russell "Russ" Carnahan is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 2005. He is a member of the Democratic Party.The district includes the southern third of the city of St. Louis and most of the southern St. Louis suburbs including most of Jefferson County and all of Ste. Genevieve County...
to secure language in the jobs bill that passed the U.S. House of Representatives on December 17, 2009, to give transit authorities local control over spending priorities for up to 10 percent of the bill’s $8.4 billion in emergency public transit funding. In December 2009, the Congressional Black Caucus
Congressional Black Caucus
The Congressional Black Caucus is an organization representing the black members of the United States Congress. Membership is exclusive to blacks, and its chair in the 112th Congress is Representative Emanuel Cleaver of Missouri.-Aims:...
lifted up TEN’s “Green Construction Careers (Missouri Model)” in an open letter to President Obama.
TEN and its affiliates also pursue causes on a local level. In April 2010, TEN member Metropolitan Congregations United (MCU) and allies led a successful campaign in support of a ballot initiative to reinvest in transit in St. Louis city and county
St. Louis County, Missouri
St. Louis County is a county located in the U.S. state of Missouri. Its county seat is Clayton. St. Louis County is part of the St. Louis Metro Area wherein the independent City of St. Louis and its suburbs in St. Louis County, as well as the surrounding counties in both Missouri and Illinois all...
. Voters overwhelmingly supported the measure, which will provide $75 million a year to restore service cuts. In the San Francisco Bay Area, TEN affiliate GENESIS was among several civil rights
Civil rights
Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from unwarranted infringement by governments and private organizations, and ensure one's ability to participate in the civil and political life of the state without discrimination or repression.Civil rights include...
groups that filed a federal civil rights complaint and successfully stopped the use of $70 million in stimulus funds for a rail project that would have violated the Civil Rights Act
Civil Rights Act of 1964
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was a landmark piece of legislation in the United States that outlawed major forms of discrimination against African Americans and women, including racial segregation...
. Instead, the money will be used to avoid cuts in the region’s other transit lines. In August 2010, in Kansas City, Missouri
Kansas City, Missouri
Kansas City, Missouri is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri and is the anchor city of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area, the second largest metropolitan area in Missouri. It encompasses in parts of Jackson, Clay, Cass, and Platte counties...
, TEN member MORE2 secured $11 million in local transit funding over 10 years, an increase of $5 million over previous levels. In Minnesota
Minnesota
Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...
, TEN member ISAIAH
Isaiah
Isaiah ; Greek: ', Ēsaïās ; "Yahu is salvation") was a prophet in the 8th-century BC Kingdom of Judah.Jews and Christians consider the Book of Isaiah a part of their Biblical canon; he is the first listed of the neviim akharonim, the later prophets. Many of the New Testament teachings of Jesus...
successfully argued that a planned light rail
Light rail
Light rail or light rail transit is a form of urban rail public transportation that generally has a lower capacity and lower speed than heavy rail and metro systems, but higher capacity and higher speed than traditional street-running tram systems...
line along the Central Corridor
Central Corridor (Minnesota)
The Central Corridor is a light rail line under construction that is to cover the stretch between the downtown regions of Minneapolis and Saint Paul in Minnesota...
connecting Minneapolis and St. Paul should include three additional stops in underserved, low-income communities. Also in Minnesota, after a five-year-long intensive campaign, ISAIAH convinced Minnesota Department of Transportation
Minnesota Department of Transportation
The Minnesota Department of Transportation oversees transportation by land, water, and air in the U.S. state of Minnesota. The cabinet-level agency is responsible for maintaining the state's trunk highway system The Minnesota Department of Transportation (Mn/DOT, pronounced "min-dot") oversees...
to dedicate $6.2 million in federal highway money over the next five years to training and apprenticeships in highway construction work to low-wage workers, people of color and women. In October 2010, TEN affiliate MORE2 successfully worked to ensure that equity requirements would be included in the new TIGER II
Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery
Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery is a supplementary discretionary grant program included in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009...
federal grants.
Studies and reports
In January 2007, TEN released a study called The Road to Jobs, which used census] and other government data to the examine the employment of African Americans, Hispanics, and women in the construction field in 18 metropolitan areas. The study found that African-Americans, Latinos and women] are underrepresented compared to white men in every one of the 18 metropolitan areas. TEN has since worked to incorporate workforce equity requirements into federal, state, and local transportation legislation.In September 2008, TEN released a followup study called The Road to Good Jobs. The report built upon the foundation laid in The Road to Jobs but went further in examining patterns of pay and union membership in construction across the nation's top twenty-five metropolitan areas.
In 2009, TEN and PolicyLink
PolicyLink
PolicyLink is a national research and action institute which works to advance economic and social equity. They focus on policies effecting low-income communities and communities of color.-Background:...
released a joint report entitled An Engine of Opportunity: A User’s Guide to Advocate for Transportation Equity in the 2009 Recovery Act
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, abbreviated ARRA and commonly referred to as the Stimulus or The Recovery Act, is an economic stimulus package enacted by the 111th United States Congress in February 2009 and signed into law on February 17, 2009, by President Barack Obama.To...
. The report was designed as guide to activists, advocates, and journalists on the distribution of billions of dollars in transportation funding. The report also highlighted the key deadlines, reporting requirements and policy targets that were still to come that year.
Later in 2009, TEN released a study co-authored by Transportation for America
Transportation for America
Transportation for America , is a United States policy organization primarily focused on building grassroots support for—and enacting—federal, state, and local government laws that support progressive transportation and land use policy.Specific policy goals include support for greater...
on the effects of service cuts on transit systems across the country. Entitled Stranded at the Station: The Impact of the Financial Crisis in Public Transportation, the study looked at the challenges facing 25 communities across the country. Many communities were facing record levels of ridership and simultaneously dealing with crippling budget and service cuts. The authors of the study found that failures on the federal level had compounded these problems and that older Americans and members of racial minorities were disproportionately affected by the cuts.
In August 2010, a major study authored by TEN entitled More Transit = More Jobs was released. The study looked at 20 metropolitan areas and the potential effects of shifting 50% of highway spending to public transit. The report concluded that such a shift would create 1,123,674 new transit jobs over a five-year period in the 20 metropolitan areas. This would mean a net gain of 180,150 jobs over five years. The study was designed to demonstrate the positive impact of spending on public transit compared to spending highways.
Current platform
TEN's current stated platform centers around four issues:- 1. Economic Growth for All Through Fair Access to Transportation-Related Jobs
-
- Require that 30% of work hours for infrastructure and transportation projects be performed by low-income workers, ex-offenders, women, the homeless, and minority populations (the “Missouri Model” or “Green Construction Careers Model”).
- Require that 1% of project budgets be used for the recruitment, training, and retention of under-represented workers in highway construction, transit, and rail projects.
- Maximize the use of low-income apprentices and union labor.
-
- 2. Access to Opportunity Through Increased Funding for Mass Transit
-
- Shift the 80/20 imbalance in federal funding favoring highways over transit to include a significantly higher proportion of transit funding.
- Allow public transit agencies to use federal mass transit funding for operating expenses.
-
- 3. Accountability in Government Through Increased Community Input into Local and State Planning and Funding Processes
-
- Ensure that representation of Metropolitan Planning Organizations and state Departments of Transportation reflect the diverse communities they serve, and ensure that their project goals include achieving equitable results.
-
- 4. Sustainable Development Through Smart AND Equitable Growth
-
- Develop mass transit systems both inside and outside urban centers to serve diverse communities.
- Maximize the development of affordable housing in “transit villages.”
- Minimize forced relocations from demolition.
- Minimize the environmental impacts of development through ecologically friendly mass transit.
-