The MT Position

By Leah Harnack
Mass Transit Associate Editor

It’s not often you go to a conference and the welcoming reception is at a night club with lights flashing, music pounding and there is what looks like a woman, but what is indeed a man, belting out songs on the stage.

It was a fun, energizing way to meet up with familiar faces, get acquainted with new ones and to kick off Rail-Volution 2007: Building Livable Communities with Transit.

The conference was three days in Miami Beach, with more than 50 workshops and 17 mobile workshops that provided hands-on learning and a trade show featuring 24 exhibiting companies.

When talking to friends about the conference I was going to be attending, the name was a bit misleading as they thought it was simply a conference about trains and passenger rail. Rail-Volution covers much more, looking at how all modes of public transportation can shape a community.

Workshops illustrated some of the latest creative solutions to common challenges and reiterated the importance of cooperative relationships between everyone when it comes to successful transit.

I don’t know if it was from the hot sun, the exhilarating nightlife or the restful beach, but the conference had a relaxed ambience with quite a bit of humor on the part of the presenters.

But more importantly, it provided examples of what can be accomplished and what has already been accomplished. Many of the common challenges were addressed, including parking, partnerships, gentrification, climate change and of course, funding.

In the workshop TODs and Responsible Development in Lower Income Communities, James Hencki, senior urban designer with PB PlaceMaking, talked about planning with the community of West Baltimore.

At the end of a weeklong charrette at the beginning of the process, a small group of vocal dissenters presented unforeseen negative attitudes due to their anger, fear, anxiety and frustration.

Hencki stressed to us the importance of responsible development: everyone has a safe, decent place to live, to succeed you need a place to call home, hard-working people should be able to afford a home and necessities to live there and children deserve an opportunity to succeed.

He concluded his presentation sharing that the second community workshop was very well attended after they had learned a few things that made all the difference in collaborating with the community.

It’s better at their speed, not the planner’s speed. Reach out to the community early and thoroughly. Identify and support community leaders. Focus on the community’s issues, not planner issues. Gender and ethnicity do matter. And, to build a place, you have to build trust.

At the Implementing TOD at the Regional Level workshop, Tom Boone, TOD project manager with the Denver Regional Council of Governments (DRCOG) in Denver, Colo., had his own list of information to share — his Top Ten Ways to Fail at Collaboration:

10. Make speed your priority

9. Speak negatively about stakeholders in their absence.

8. Hold unfocused meetings.

7. Send irate emails when someone does something you don’t like.

6. Use jargon when you don’t want people to understand.

5. Be exclusive.

4. Don’t concern yourself with how you will resolve conflict.

3. Want more for yourself, your cause or your organization.

2. Don’t take the painful steps to agree on the problem you are trying to solve.

1. Push for your favorite solution and hope others will acquiesce.

The question and answer part of the discussion maintained some humor, despite the tough topics being addressed.

Boone talked about DRCOG’s breakthroughs in behavior in the community through marketing and was asked how he felt DRCOG did at communicating with the community prior to the campaign. He responded, “I think we sucked at it.”

It was good to have a session such as this, where attendees could hear the steps involved that improved the communication and the effect that has had in the community.

When asked about the three biggest challenges in the Bay Area, Steve Heminger, executive director of the Metropolitan Transportation Commission in Oakland, Calif., answered, “Parking, parking and parking.” He then added, “If you build it; they will come. Especially if it’s free.”

Some thoughts on solutions revolved around what people should be charged for parking and to build parking in a way to make it easier to turn into development as an area changes. A parking lot is easier to turn into a multi-use development next to a transit station, as opposed to a multi-story parking garage.

Understanding and Using Federal Legislation and Regulations provided a lot of useful information, especially for those not familiar with the FTA’s funding process.

Mariia Zimmerman, vice president for policy with Reconnecting America in Washington, D.C., discussed what is going on now on the Hill and the impact that is having, or could have, on transportation dollars.

SAFETEA-LU is important, but we should be showing equal enthusiasm in the energy bill she pointed out. Climate change and transportation are key issues for energy and transit has not been in the climate change discussion as much as it should be.

Another big concern is that when SAFETEA-LU is up in FY09, the highway trust fund is projected to be down to $0 and they could look to transit dollars for money.

To win support in communities for public transportation, Zimmerman says, “Make public transportation personal.” Transportation is the second biggest expenditure for the average person but often people don’t realize it.

Rail-Volution provided many examples of specific strategies that illustrated how public transportation creates sustainable and livable communities. Hopefully next year we will see you in San Francisco next year as more industry leaders share success stories and lessons learned.

 

This entry was posted on Friday, November 9th, 2007 at 9:24 am and is filed under Transit Talk. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.