Let's Talk Transit!

Good afternoon, Cometheads!!!

I kidnapped Bram Reichbaum and forced Blogger privileges out of him so I could talk to his readers about NOTHING BUT TRANSIT!!!!!

So coming to you live from the fifth floor of the City-County Building…

For those of you who don’t know me, by day, my name is Shawn Carter, legislative staffer for Pittsburgh City Councilman Rev. Ricky V. Burgess, who represents Council District 9.  I will note at this time that for those who may wonder why I am doing this during business hours, that the District my boss represents likely has the highest proportion of residents who do not own automobiles and therefore transit is how they live and manage their daily lives.

Chris Briem posted some photos sometime back over at Nullspace, they’re worth re-posting:

Each of our predecessor generations has had to grapple with this issue.  It seems that in many respects our great-great grandparents had a better grasp on connectivity. 

Let us cast aside, for a while, our various (and in some cases, varying) political vantage points on local government and the politics that drive them and have a genuine conversation about transit.

 

And for the sake of disclosure, yes, everything I have read of transit in Southwestern Pennsylvania does in fact reveal that transit’s biggest enemy was neither government nor politics but sprawl itself.

As such, the history of modern transportation facilities (read: expressways) and transportation improvements (read: wider roads) at the exact time where more and more Americans were purchasing automobiles and government policy incentivized new residential construction farther away from the central city are factors that have and continue to loom large over the footprint of transit in this region.

I’ll throw this out there as well (for you privatization advocates):  The Pittsburgh Railways Company, the largest of the private-market predecessor to the Port Authority of Allegheny County couldn't maintain profitability in the wake of interstate highways and roads with upgraded service capacities, which is why the state Legislature passed a law allowing the County to take over the provision of transit service in Allegheny County.  

Although running massive deficits is less than ideal, even for the government, at least the government isn't required to turn a quarterly or annual profit in terms of dividends to investors and shareholders.  Moving people who do not have automobiles and/or who do not live within walking distance of where they need to go and doing so reliably is the dividend that is to be paid here.

So, in a sense, against this historical backdrop, it is only logical that given the aforementioned factors in a greatly post-industrialized region where research laboratories and upscale housing now occupy the real-estate where once-mighty mills and factories towered (and bellowed) has exerted downward pressure on transit.

Much of the talk I hear these days centers around two points: 

1. Convincing the Governor and the General Assembly to give the Port Authority (and transit operators the state over) a dedicated funding source; and, 
2. Privatizing the Port Authority’s operations.

As most transit advocates know (and most rational business interests), even cherry-picking the suburban routes is no guarantee of a profit (or a break-even).

Equally as unfortunate, a “dedicated transit” allocation is equally tricky.  As most of us know, transit is a regional necessity.  Yet, whenever we talk about transit, the reality is we are only functionally referring to Allegheny County.  

As the decades have progressed, many of our job centers have migrated farther and farther away from our urban core and more on the fringes of Allegheny County and the surrounding counties.

With the advent of more and larger suburban and exurban communities and the amenities, job centers and the highways and wider roads that make living farther away possible, many, many people are simply locked out of the "regional" economy.

The Port Authority may be Allegheny County’s problem, but the solution(s) must be regional if we are to succeed.  Allegheny County (including the City of Pittsburgh) may hold 50% of Southwestern Pennsylvania’s population, but it only holds 15% of the votes needed to shift transportation and transit priorities.

Southwestern Pennsylvania is comprised of 10 counties:

Allegheny, Armstrong, Beaver, Butler, Greene, Fayette, Indiana, Lawrence, Washington and Westmoreland County.  These ten counties comprise the federally-designated Economic Development District, Local Development District and Metropolitan Planning Organization.  All three functions are housed in an organization that is formally known as the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission (SPC).

The Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission, from its website, says:

The Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission, or SPC, is the region's forum for collaboration, planning, and public decision-making. As the official Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) for the ten-county region including the City of Pittsburgh and the counties of  Allegheny, Armstrong, Beaver, Butler, Fayette, Greene,Indiana, Lawrence, Washington, and Westmoreland, SPC is responsible for planning and prioritizing the use of all state and federal transportation funds allocated to the region. The Commission has the authority and responsibility to make decisions affecting the 10-county region. Click a menu selection on the right to view a complete or partial Commission Member listing. 

As the Local Development District (LDD) and Economic Development District for southwestern Pennsylvania (as designated by the U.S. Appalachian Regional Commission and the U.S. Department of Commerce), SPC establishes regional economic development priorities and provides a wide range of public services to the region.

Based on that short summary, whether transit is regional or not, the decisions on how all those federal dollars are planned and spent are explicitly regional.  Any short-term or long-term solution will require changes in regional transportation, transit, economic development and land-use policy that we here in Allegheny County cannot unilaterally control.

What else do we know about the SPC?  It is governed by a 66-member Commission.  Each County (and the City of Pittsburgh) is entitled to 5 appointees.  In Allegheny County, the County Executive is responsible for appointing the County’s 5 representatives.  

In the City of Pittsburgh, the Mayor appoints 4 and the President of City Council appoints the fifth.  In the other 9 counties, the County Commissioners appoint the 5 representatives.  

The remaining 11 Commissioners are appointed ex-officio by the Port Authority, the state and the federal government, many of whom are non-voting members.

In other words, 29 men and women, elected officials, all, decide who sits at that large table and how tens of billions of federal dollars will be spent.  But just as important, the SPC’s decisions require almost 34 votes to become policy.  The City of Pittsburgh and Allegheny County COMBINED are only worth 10.

Ever wonder how the North Shore Connector came about?  That’s a Chris Briem special, but the long story short is the North Shore Connector which, in 1993, was envisioned as a bridge over the Allegheny River, not a tunnel underneath it.

 

The same study that recommended the Connector also recommended a Downtown-to-Oakland Spine Line with two branches:  One underneath Forbes Ave from Oakland to Wilkinsburg, the other would use the CSX line underneath CMU and go through Hazelwood to Homestead.  The SPC approved and planned and Congress funded the North Shore Connector.

Ever wondered how major transportation decisions get made around here?  Look no further than the SPC.

For a full listing of the current commission, go here: 

And while the federal government does provide dollars for capital improvements (when Congress has been so inclined), it is the General Assembly and the Governor of the Commonwealth that provides the region’s transit operators (when it is so inclined) their operating assistance.

Both of those point to political processes seemingly outside of the control of local forces.

There are 46 state House districts that encompass Southwestern Pennsylvania.  26 of those are held by Democrats (for now.)  There are 12 state Senate districts that encompass Southwestern Pennsylvania.  7 of those are held by Democrats (for now).  

Both houses of the General Assembly are controlled by Republicans.  Currently, the Governor is Republican.  But even when Ed Rendell, a Democrat, was Governor, the Republicans still controlled the state Senate, and even when, during the last 4 years of Rendell’s term, the state House was controlled by Democrats, the state Senate was still a problem.

Among our Congressional delegation, 13 of 18 seats in the U.S. House are held by Republicans, and of our two U.S. Senate seats, one is held by a Republican.  Thanks to redistricting, there is no easy pathway, if you see this as a Republican vs. Democrat problem, of changing the existing reality.

And I realize that this was a long-winded screed to arrive at a very direct point, so I’ll make the point:

1. Transit is not a regional asset, but the only solution is regional;
2. There is NO political solution to the transit crisis we have been facing that favors the Democratic Party (and no funding solution that favors the Republican Party);
3. Any practical solution to this crisis must contain a short-term (operating) and a long-term (system) redesign;
4. Any redesign with any hope of garnering regional buy-in will have to serve the economic interests and the day-to-day needs of the residents and business in the nine counties that surround Allegheny County.

I do realize that this was long, but I felt it was important to get this out and establish a framework for further discussions.