April 30th Happy Hour and Actions to Take for Better Transit and Parks

Hopefully you're staying safe and healthy while sheltering in place! We've got two upcoming meetings in the coming weeks, a new blog post, two important actions, and a great reading list. Read on to see the details!

Late April Happy Hour:
We’re having another Zoom Happy Hour on Thursday, April 30th at 5:30 PM. Register here.

May Meeting:
Our May meeting will have a presentation from Hana Creger at Greenlining, a racial and economic justice institute, to talk about their equitable mobility framework. Register at this link.

New Blog Post - “COVID-19: The (New) Future of Urbanism in the United States”
Robert, one of our leads, wrote a great blog post on how we see the current pandemic affecting the future of our movement. Read it here!

April Recap:
In April we had a low-key meeting with about 18 Zoom attendees joined by three leaders in the energy transition and sustainable mobility: Andrew Salzberg, Ben Holland, and Christian Roselund. We discussed why land use and tackling car-dependence have not been prioritized within the environmental and climate action movements, and how they and others are working to change that. They were excited to chat with us because of the potential for YIMBYs to challenge the cultural dominance of exclusionary and car-centric development patterns. Stay tuned for more collaboration, and in the meantime you can follow their work. Andrew is a Loeb Fellow and is teaching a course on decarbonizing mobility. Ben is a senior associate on RMI’s mobility team and just penned Coronavirus and the Fragility of Auto-Centric Cities. Christian is the editorial director at RMI and wrote about 21st Urban Mobility for the inaugural issue of the Energy Transition Magazine.

Today’s Action(s):
For residents of any Bay Area county, please join us in supporting Seamless Bay Area’s Seamless Transit Act (AB2057) by asking your assemblymember to support the bill.
If you’re in San Francisco see the SF Bicycle Coalition’s action to email the Rec and Park Commission before their Thursday 4/16 meeting asking the commission to open up more car-free space. This is also a good opportunity to call in and give public comment - the meeting starts at 10 AM.

California Energy Commission EPIC Challenge Comments
California is funding a competition to “design and build mid-rise, mixed-use development that is affordable, equitable, climate-resilient, cost-competitive and emissions-free”. We applaud this effort, but believe the design requirements could be better. Check out our public comments, where we encouraged Energy Commission staff to go all in on density; promote affordable housing in all neighborhoods, including higher income areas; prioritize micromobility and transit over cars; support small businesses and equitable outcomes; and more.

What We’re Reading (and Watching)

• “The hidden traffic metric that makes cities worse” (City Beautiful, YouTube)
• “Cities Close Streets to Cars, Opening Space for Social Distancing” (New York Times)
• “Op-Ed: Dear Gov. Cuomo, The Problem Is Crowding, Not ‘Density’!” (Streetsblog NYC)
• “Build Cities for Bikes, Buses, and Feet—Not Cars” (Wired)
• “New Research Links Air Pollution to Higher Coronavirus Death Rates” (New York Times)

If you like these links be sure to “Like” us on Facebook for more: 
​https://www.facebook.com/UrbanEnvironmentalists/