This Week's Call to Action

 From Sylvia Plummer, April 5, 2015

We need people to call, email or write the Pasadena City Councilmembers before the April 13th City Council meeting.  Then in a separate email or letter sent a copy to the City Clerk - Mark Jomsky - to be put on the record.  Ask Mark Jomsky to put on the record for the April 13th City Council meeting regarding SR-710, also ask that your letter or email be distributed to all the Council members.  Mark Jomsky's email address:  mjomsky@cityofpasadena.net  
 

What is happening April 13th @ 6:30pm at the Pasadena City Council Meeting? 

There will only be one topic for the meeting, the SR-710.  No other business will be discussed. A staff report will be given on the SR-710 Pasadena Working Group Recommendations.  There will be a vote by the City Council on whether or not to accept or approve the Working Group Recommendations. 

I have personally hear from Steve Madison's office and was told that Madison will bring up a Resolution for the City of Pasadena to oppose the SR-710 tunnel(s).
 

Talking Points for your emails:

1.  You support the Working Groups recommendations.
2.  Ask them to support a  Resolution for the City of Pasadena to oppose the SR-710 Tunnels. 
3.  Tunnel is prohibitive and a waste of resources that could be used for Public Transit projects.
4.  Measure A issue - Some Councilmembers apparently continue to express concern that a vote to oppose the tunnel would go against the voters of Measure A to complete the gap with a Freeway surface route.  Measure A never said anything about a tunnel or a toll.  The 710 gap issue can be solved using other options.

Here is a link to the Working Group's Report and Letter which have been added to the City of Pasadena's SR710 site: 

http://cityofpasadena.net/SR710/ 

Below is a letter from the WPRA to the Mayor and City Councilmembers regarding the City of Pasadena's Position on the SR-710 North Alternatives.  This should give you some ideas as well.

April 4, 2015

The Honorable Mayor and Councilmembers
City of Pasadena
100 N. Garfield Ave.
Pasadena, CA 91109
Re: City of Pasadena’s Position on SR-710 North Alternatives
Dear Mayor Bogaard and Councilmembers:
The West Pasadena Residents’ Association (WPRA) urges you to continue fighting the disastrous SR-710 freeway tunnel alternative proposed by Metro and Caltrans. Specifically, we ask you to:

1. Vote against the SR-710 tunnel alternative

•  The Draft EIR/EIS demonstrates that this alternative does not improve regional traffic. It simply shifts traffic from one part of the region to another.

• This alternative is not cost effective. Instead of spending billions on an alternative that has minimal benefit, we should invest precious taxpayer funds on environmentally responsible public transportation options.

• This alternative will have very large negative and permanent impacts on Pasadena’s traffic, air quality, economy and quality of life.

2. Endorse the Pasadena Preferred Alternative recommended by the City’s SR-710 Alternatives Working Group.

We agree that a multi-modal alternative including light rail transit, expanded bus service, local street network improvements and bicycle transit, is the preferred alternative.

3. Endorse the Connecting Pasadena Project.

The CPP is a citizen-driven effort to develop a vision for revitalizing the SR-710 stub, a barren 35-acre area seized by the State for extension of the SR-710 freeway.

4. Demand that Metro and Caltrans provide a cost benefit analysis for the proposed SR-710 Project for public review.

• Caltrans has publicly promised to provide such an analysis, including during the California Transportation Commission meeting on December 11, 2013.

•  Cost estimates used in the DEIR released March 6 are general and very puzzling. The SR-710 tunnel estimate is half the cost per mile of its proposed Sepulveda Pass tunnel.

There are no contingency provisions, even though failures and cost overruns on such projects are the norm.

5. Demand that Metro and Caltrans study the environmental impacts of a tunnel-boring
machine (TBM) failure.

• Failures of drilling equipment and tunnel flooding and collapses have plagued almost half of the world’s large tunnel projects reviewed.

• The spectacular failure of the Seattle tunnel’s TBM is a recent and real-world example of how TBMs can and do fail. Such a failure would have severe environmental consequences and significantly increase project costs.

6. Agree that Pasadena’s Measure A should not constrain councilmembers’ ability to speak and vote on this critical issue.

Specific proposals for connecting SR-710 are before us. At the time of the Measure A vote, the SR-710 project didn’t include tunnels, tolls and trucks. Furthermore, in 1999, one year before the measure was placed on the ballot, the United States District Court for the Central District of California ruled that both the EIR and EIS upon which Measure A was based, were inadequate and issued an injunction against the 710 freeway project (City of South Pasadena et. al. v. Slater (U.S.D.C. Central CA 1999) 56 F.Supp.2d 1106).

Sincerely,

Geoff Bill 

WPRA President 

Bill Urban

WPRA Board Member/ Past President

Audrey O’Kelley 

WPRA Board Member/Past President

Michael Udell

WPRA Board Member/Past President

Distribution:
Pasadena Mayor and City Council
Assemblymember Chris Holden
Senator Carol Liu
Congressman Adam Schiff

Here are the email addresses for the Mayor, City Councilmembers and City Manager:

bbogaard@cityofpasadena.net

mmcaustin@cityofpasadena.net 

vdelacuba@cityofpasadena.net

johnjkennedy@cityofpasadena.net

smadison@cityofpasadena.net

nsullivan@cityofpasadena.net

district1@cityofpasadena.net

ttornek@cityofpasadena.net

mbeck@cityofpasadena.net

Plan to attend on April 13th:  The City Council Meeting will be held at the Pasadena Convention Center in the Ballroom, a very large venue.  A large turnout at this meeting will make a difference.  The Council does respond to numbers. We need an audience .