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Red Line Community Compact Signed: On Friday, Sept. 12, 2008, CPHA Board President Mel Freeman joined Mayor Sheila Dixon, Maryland Transportation Secretary John Porcari, and many other community and civic leaders in signing the Red Line Community Compact.
Mayor Dixon proposed the compact at the Mayor's Red Line Summit on May 10, recognizing that the proposed 14-mile east-west Red Line transit line -- pottentially an investment of more than $1 billion -- can leverage neighborhood revitalization, well-paying jobs and apprenticeship opportunities for local residents, and new work for local small and minority-owned businesses.
We at CPHA got a taste of these possibilities three years ago as we led trips of interested Red Line-area residents to Boston, Denver, Los Angeles, and Portland, OR. (More detail at "CPHA-Sponsored 2005 Trips..." below.) During these trips, we saw impressive examples of transit agencies working hand in hand with citizen leaders and local governments to maximize a new transit line's positive impact on the community.
Mayor Dixon launched the Red Line Community Compact as a formal effort to bring such practices here to Baltimore for the Red Line. It reflects input from hundreds of citizens and organizations, including CPHA. If you have questions, please contact our Director of Community Engagement, Bryan Alston at 410-539-1369 x109.
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October 2007 Tour of Transit and Development a Success! On Saturday, October 20, 2007, sixty concerned citizens joined CPHA's "Activate Your Inner Citizen" Baltimore Rail Transit Stops tour where we took a look at Baltimore's experience with development around six Metro subway and light rail stations. Our group included engineers and architects as well as community residents engaged in planning future transit-oriented development. We saw Baltimore's experience so far and talked about the challenges of building communities that benefit new and existing residents alike. Many thanks to the sponsors who helped make this event possible: the Urbanite magazine, State Center, LLC, the Greater Baltimore Committee, and the Maryland Transit Administration. You can click here to view the tour itinerary. Contact our Director of Community Engagement, Bryan Alston at 410-539-1369 x109 for more information.
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CPHA Analysis Helps Revise Farebox Law: CPHA shared an analysis with Maryland state lawmakers during the 2008 General Assembly session, suggesting Maryland's "farebox recovery requirement" is probably hurting public transit in the Baltimore area and helping to bolster an O'Malley administration effort to change the law. Before the 2008 legislative session, state law required the Maryland Transit Administration to cover 40% of its operating costs for Baltimore-area bus and rail transit operations from rider fares and advertising revenue. According to the latest 2005 data, MTA Baltimore-area transit service already has the eighth highest farebox recovery in the nation. The General Assembly lowered the requirement from 40% to 35%, but that is still higher than Baltimore-area transit's current rate of about 32%. Click here for the full analysis.
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Want to survey your own bus route? Contact CPHA at 410-539-1369 x109 to take action!
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