Should the OCTA extend the 57 Freeway through Santa Ana?

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A friend of mine tipped me off about an OCTA meeting yesterday where they discussed extending the 57 Freeway.  And you thought that was off the table?  Nope!

This could be quite expensive.  Take a look at the graphic above.  The options include tunneling under the Santa Ana River. 

The idea is to extend the 57 to the 405.  A good idea, but this surely won’t be easy – and I can only imagine the political battle that is about to ensue.

Don’t forget that local politicians are on the OCTA Board, including Santa Ana Mayor Miguel Pulido and Supervisor Janet Nguyen.

In related news, Santa Ana Councilwoman Michele Martinez is urging everyone to support a rally this Thursday to save the OCTA bus routes, many of which are being cut back due to budget problems at the OCTA.  Here is the information she sent me today:

SAVE OUR BUS SERVICE RALLY –

Thursday, June 4, 6-8 pm

Former Santa Ana Transit Terminal, triangular corner of 5th St., Santa Ana Blvd., & Ross

Please join us this Thursday for a rally to call attention to our huge bus service cuts. Bring as many friends and bus riders as you can so we can let people know how important this is. We will be letting people know about the cuts, encouraging people to attend the June 8 OCTA board meeting vote, and advocating for more bus funding.

Speakers to be announced.

Let us know if you can volunteer to:
Run PA system, pass out literature, be a safety monitor, translate materials into Spanish, phone our mailing list to attend

Send us a quick note to let us know if you can attend.

Please SPREAD the WORD!

& CSU Fullerton/UCI people should attend to help save the buses too! Preserve your UPASS! I know that as a Long Beach student, riding Long Beach Transit for free is beyond awesome.

OCTA Bus Service Reduction Vote –

Monday, June 8, 9 am
OCTA Headquarters, 1st Floor, Rm. 154, 600 S. Main St., Orange

Please get as many people as you can to attend this last meeting on the service cuts. The Board is not expecting the public to show up, so it will send a great message to them that we care about our service! Even if you can’t speak, your presence will make a huge difference.

Let OCTA know what effect these cuts will have for you and your best suggestions on which cuts would hurt least. Also let them know that you’d like them to support finding ways to make bus capital funds available for bus operations.

WHAT YOU CAN DO

1. Attend our June 4, 6pm rally and bring some friends.

2. Attend the June 8, 9 am OCTA Board meeting vote

3. Send this message to your friends.

4. Urge your legislators to restore transit funding (see below)

CONTACT YOUR STATE LEGISLATORS

The only way to stop the cuts is to restore transit funding! Most legislators are not familiar with the huge, disproportionate impact they had on transit when they voted to eliminate state transit operations funds to pass the budget. Let them know how the cuts will affect you and ask them to restore funding.

This is the most important thing you can do!

Speaking points:

• Bus riders are taking a disproportional hit; bus service is being reduced by almost 40% !

• Bus service is lifeline transportation for people with no alternatives – riders will lose their jobs and health care

• We HAVE bus capital funding, but we need bus OPERATIONS funding

• Ask them to explore ways to restore operations funding or ask feds to make capital funding flexible on a temporary emergency basis

If you’re not sure who your State legislators are:

Call the Registrar of Voters – OC: 714.567.7600

or enter your zip code at: http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/yourleg.html

Michele Martinez**
Council Member
City of Santa Ana
(714) 200-3181 Cell

** For Identification purposes only


About Admin

"Admin" is just editors Vern Nelson, Greg Diamond, or Ryan Cantor sharing something that they mostly didn't write themselves, but think you should see. Before December 2010, "Admin" may have been former blog owner Art Pedroza.