Bay Area residents will get an
early Christmas present when the Metropolitan Transportation
Commission (MTC) officially activates its 511 phone- and Web-based
traveler information system at a Dec. 6 ceremony in Walnut Creek.
The new 511 number will join 411 and 911 on the list of
easy-to-remember, three-digit phone numbers delivering important
public services.
Lawsuit-happy
activist David Schonbrunn charges that government agencies like the
Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) and the United States
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have defaulted on promises to meet
air quality and public transit levels. Of course, these agencies are
simply doing what the general public wants, which is to say one thing (we
want clean air) and do another (drive cars willy-nilly). Much as the
political process broke down over the issue of civil rights, leaving to
the courts the task of forcing desegregation through coercive busing and
other hugely unpopular measures, Schonbrunn looks to the courts to halt
sprawl, which means making people stop driving cars. Since it's generally
regarded that would take much higher gas prices, might we see courts soon
ordering $5 a gallon gas taxes? Is David Schonbrunn the Martin Luther King
of the sustainable communities movement? Bay Crossings sits down
with MTC's tormentor to find out more.
Hercules used to build dynamite
but now it's the community itself that's exploding. Our December WTA
pages takes a look at this dynamic Bayside community and the special
role ferry service looks to play in its future.
You may be among the hundreds
of thousands of Bay Area residents who cross over or under San
Francisco Bay every day, but how often do you think of going around
it? Thanks to a visionary project begun more than a decade ago,
walkers and bicyclists can now explore 230 miles of Bay shoreline.
