Executive Director Steve Heminger's Report to the Commission Meeting of September 24, 2014
Goods Movement Roundtable
July 23, Oakland
Along with Commissioners Haggerty, Sartipi and Spering, I attended this series of panel discussions jointly hosted by MTC and the Alameda County Transportation Commission.
Obama Signs Bailout into Law
August 8, Washington DC
President Obama last month signed the Highway and Transportation Funding Act of 2014 into law, which transferred an additional $11 billion into the cash-strapped Highway Trust Fund and extended the MAP-21 authorization from October 1, 2014 to May 31, 2014. Thus ended any hope of dealing with the federal surface transportation program’s chronic funding shortfalls during the lame duck session later this year. Thus also began another likely parade of short-term extensions of MAP-21 until a new surface transportation bill with adequate funding can be enacted.
BART Silicon Valley Ceremony
August 20, Milpitas
Commissioner Liccardo and I were among the speakers at an event hosted by the Silicon Valley Leadership Group to mark the receipt by the BART Silicon Valley extension project of the last installment of the $760 million commitment of Traffic Congestion Relief Program funds initiated during the Davis Administration many years ago.
Jameson Canyon Ribbon Cutting
September 3, American Canyon
I attended this gala event marking completion of the State Route 12/Jameson Canyon widening project at which Commissioners Dodd and Spering were featured speakers. Caltrans Director Malcolm Dougherty was the master of ceremonies, and he took some good-natured ribbing after butchering the names of several of the elected officials and other dignitaries who were present.
SB 375 Target Update Roundtable
September 5, Sacramento
As I have informed you previously, the California Air Resources Board (ARB) is considering whether to adjust the greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction targets now that the major MPOs in the state have met or exceeded the targets with their first sustainable communities’ strategies (SCS), and have embarked on their second round of SCS planning. The ARB is scheduled to act on the GHG target issue at its October meeting. If I could read the tea leaves for you, I anticipate that ARB probably will not change the GHG targets for the “Big 4” MPOs until the third round of plans, but the board may face pressure to raise the fairly low “placeholder” targets that were adopted for the Central Valley MPOs in the first round of SCS planning.
John Foran Dies
September 11, San Francisco
MTC’s “founding father”, former Assemblyman and State Senator John Francis Foran, died earlier this month after a brief bout with cancer. John was 84 years old, and had maintained an active social and travel calendar until the last few weeks of this life. John was a formidable legislator and wonderful friend to this agency, not only because he authored the bill creating MTC in 1970 but also because he nurtured our growth and maturation in the decades after that founding event. We have posted an obituary on MTC’s web site. I attended John’s memorial service at St. Ignatius Church in San Francisco last Friday, as did former MTC Chair Jon Rubin.
TIGER Grants Announced
September 12, Washington DC
In the 6th round of discretionary multi-modal grant making under the TIGER program, the U.S. Department of Transportation announced the funding of 72 projects around the nation for a total of $600 million in federal assistance. Unfortunately, the Bay Area received only one grant totaling $1 million, although the silver lining behind that cloud is that the grant will help fund MTC’s core capacity transit study.
SACOG Board Meeting
September 18, Sacramento
At the invitation of my counterpart Mike McKeever, I made a presentation at the regular board meeting of the Sacramento Area Council of Governments about our work on performance measures in Plan Bay Area. As crazy as it sounds, SACOG hopes to follow our fine example in this difficult area of work.
Map of the Month
For several years, foreign immigration has been a hot topic in our political debate. However, the movement of people from one state to another can have an even bigger influence on our country’s economy, politics and culture than immigration. These two charts depict where California residents were born, and where they have moved to. The ribbons are color-coded by region, and foreign-born residents are included at the bottom, in gray, to complete the picture for each state.
We know that California has long been the destination of American dreamers from other states. These days, California no longer plays that role. Our residents are leaving for greener pastures out East. Today, the state is still pulling in foreign immigrants, but the percentage of American-born transplants has shrunk significantly as fewer people move into the state. In 1960, half of California residents were born in another U.S. state. Today, that's down to 18 percent.
There are growing pools of Californians in nearly every state. It's quite a switch because through 1990 California led the nation in retaining its native-born population. There are now about 6.8 million California natives living elsewhere, up from 2.7 million in 1980.
MTC Operational Statistics
The monthly report on the performance of MTC’s operating programs: