Legal Commentary

An Example Of Why The ?Stimulus? Doesn?t Stimulate

Title VI Complaint by San Francisco Bay Area Coalition Has National Implications

by Urban Habitat

In the first successful action of its kind in the nation Urban Habitat, helped organize a coalition that filed a civil rights complaint to stop $70 million in stimulus funds from being allocated to a $500-billion boondoggle elevated ?people-mover? known as the Oakland Airport Connector (OAC). The funds will be shifted to Bay Area transit agencies to help avert service cuts, fare hikes and layoffs that will affect hundreds of thousands of people, as the coalition recommended.

The complaint, filed by the nonprofit law firm Public Advocates on behalf of Urban Habitat, TransForm and Genesis, charged the Bay Area Rapid Transit agency (BART) with failing to take the needs of communities of color and low-income communities into account when planning the OAC project.

Full post as published by Discriminations on March 07, 2010 (boomark / email).