Focus on Transportation, Health and Equity


From Coalition for a Livable Future:

Transportation Health Equity Series: Save the Date

A partnership of organizations in the Portland Metro region is proud to announce a series of events around Transportation Health Equity on January 28 and 29, 2010.

An emerging working group of Metro Portland-Vancouver organizations announce a special series of community events on the issue of Transportation, Health and Equity January 28th and January 29th, 2010. We believe the Portland Metro region is ready for a healthy, equitable, world class transportation system in which success is measured by fairness, safety, and accessibility.

We are pleased to have Shireen Malekafzali from PolicyLink, a national research and action institute advancing economic and social equity. Ms. Malekafzali is editor of Healthy Equitable Transportation Policy and The Transportation Prescription, and is working to create environmental and policy changes aimed at addressing health disparities.

The Transportation Prescription: A Dialogue with PolicyLink
Brown Bag Luncheon
Thursday, January 28th
11:30 AM -1:00 PM
OTREC, 1930 SW 4th, Suite 300, Portland, OR (tentative)
* Learning and Discussion on Opportunities to Advance Health Equity in Transportation Planning and Policy, including in the Federal Transportation Authorization.

21st Century Civil Rights: Transportation Health Equity Community Forum
Thursday, January 28th
6:00-8:00 PM
Native American Center, Portland State University
* An opportunity for diverse communities to come together to learn about how improving our transportation systems can improve our lives.

Organizing for Health Equity in Transportation
Leadership Training (Invitation only through Sponsoring Organizations)
Friday, January 29th
9:00 AM – 3:00 PM
TBA Portland, OR
* A special opportunity to become more deeply educated and engaged on issues of health and equity related to transportation policy. New community activists welcome. Participants must register through one of the co-sponsoring organizations.

Co-Sponsors: OPAL (Organizing People Activating Leaders), Coalition for a Livable Future, Ride Connection, Oregon Tradeswomen Inc, Portland Transit Riders Union, Upstream Public Health, Portland State University Native American and Student Community Center. Organizations, academic and government institutions interested in co-sponsoring, please contact us.

For more information please contact Rev Joseph Santos-Lyons josephsantoslyons@gmail.com / 503-512-0490


25 responses to “Focus on Transportation, Health and Equity”

  1. So they have transportation equity and now transportation health equity?

    How bout they just get more buses and forget about the rest of it for now.

  2. If we are going to make use of federal money how ’bout just dropping the bus fare to one dollar? I bet more people would use it then. I was in Sheffield, UK in 1985 and the bus fare? 5 pence. Lots of people took it. And then there is the matter of Fred H.’s $250,000 salary…. (oohhh, I forgot it is about one dollar when you have a bus pass)

  3. Public-sector administrators are paid peanuts compared to what high-level managers in the private sector get paid.

    If you want to add your support for maximum wage legislation, given that managerial salaries are notoriously inflated by Wall Street self-dealing (with the result that public sector has to offer similar deals to attract anyone approximating competent), I’m sure it would be welcome.

  4. Look man. Wall Street is 3000 miles away from here. I think we are talking about Oregon on this board. Why don’t you take your offensive comments and shove ’em?

  5. Wall Street pay packages affect managerial salaries all around the country–and that corporate boards of directors have been busily awarding seven and eight-figure salaries to buddies in the CEO suite–is old news. It does affect salaries in Oregon, and all other 49 states. CEOs who manage corporations of similar size as Tri-Met (which has an annual budget of $900 million or so), get paid a lot more than $250k. (And have severance packages and fringe benefits that would make Fred Hanson blush).

    My comment wasn’t intended to be offensive in the slightest–if I had intended to be offensive, Bob would have bleeped it by now and likely banned me to boot. :) But it is fair comment, I think–I’ve encountered many who moan about waste in the public sector, then turn around and praise the private sector as inherently efficient and rational, despite the overwhelming evidence to the contrary.

    At any rate, I’m not trying to defend Fred too much–merely noting that his compensation is not out of line, and in reality far less than he would get in the private sector. (And for those who think he would have been fired by now were he running a private corporation–many of those tolerate odiously bad management for many years at a time, for the same reason that salaries are so high–boards of directors fail to do their duty).

    At any rate, Merry Christmas.

  6. Ron complains: Why don’t you take your offensive comments and shove ’em?

    Ron, it was you who brought up the issue of salaries, Fred Hansen’s in particular.

    You have also repeatedly used this forum to bring up the concept of union collusion in pushing fir big-ticket projects.

    Therefore, it is fair for others to respond with contrasting points about pay scales in the private sector.

    If you’d rather that this blog entirely avoid the issues of pay scales and project backers, I’m willing to entertain that suggestion from you.

  7. The government runs hand in hand with corporate America.

    Goldman Sachs is intricately involved with Trimet finances, I know because I actually watch the Trimet board of directors meetings.

    Executive salaries, all across America, our out of control as the elite seizes more and more power away from the working class.

    The whole system has been corrupted, and we are in big TROUBLE!

  8. I see that I accidentally typed “pushing fir”. This is typically not a union responsibility, and is left to independent Christmas tree farmers and their trade associations to do around this time of year. I regret the error.

    Happy holidays everyone!

  9. Bob,

    The goodfellas from PCUN would like to have a word with you.

    (Whack! Whack! Whack!)

    Of course, who can forget the classic Bloom County series concerning the Christmastime strike by the Professional Elves and Toymaking Craft Organization (PETCO), and Ronald Reagan’s handling of the crisis?

  10. Bringing up what happens on Wall Street is more out of of context on a Portland Transport blog than whatever you think I have written in the past.

    “Bob,
    The goodfellas from PCUN would like to have a word with you.”
    What does this have to do with Transportation issues?

    Let’s get back on topic, shall we?

  11. Oh sure, tending, chopping, harvesting, prepping and shipping fir are very much indeed within PCUN’s interest.

    But “pushing” fir is more of a sales and marketing function, really.

  12. Pinieros y Campesinos Unidos del Noroeste (Northwest Treeplanters and Farmworkers United), a mostly-Latino agricultural union here in Oregon.

    I’m surprised you didn’t know that Ron.

    At any rate, I’ll heartily agree that PCUN is off-topic for this thread (it was a joke, after all). Management salary structures are probably off-topic as well, including what Fred H. gets paid.

    Whether or not he is an effective manager of TriMet is on topic, but I really don’t care how much coin he makes–especially since giving him a paycut isn’t going to pay for substantial service improvements. The suggestion, though, that he is grossly overpaid, or that TriMet management is engaging in self-dealing with regard to salaries, is probably off the mark.

  13. or that TriMet management is engaging in self-dealing with regard to salaries, is probably off the mark.

    The topic has to do with equity doesn’t it? Why would the salary range within the institution that is central to this forum be off-topic? Actually Fred’s salary is only the tip of the iceberg of very high Tri Met salaries. Someone who has participated on this Forum has those figures.

    Re: Wall Street salaries. Closer to home there are a lot of well paid CEO’s in Silicon Valley, too. Harping about “greedy CEO’s” these days is pretty much misleading, since they are pretty well bi partisan these days. ( I am independent politically)

  14. Ron Swaren: The topic has to do with equity doesn’t it? Why would the salary range within the institution that is central to this forum be off-topic? Actually Fred’s salary is only the tip of the iceberg of very high Tri Met salaries. Someone who has participated on this Forum has those figures.

    Very high salaries? Do tell.

    Any of my comments are purely my own, and not condoned, sponsored or approved of by TriMet. Or anyone else, for that matter.

  15. Why are you asking for my support for “maximum wage legislation?” Care to explain? And, also, how that pertains to transportation equity?

  16. Why are you asking for my support for “maximum wage legislation?”

    Sheesh Ron, you opened this door by complaining about Fred Hansen’s salary.

    This door is now closed, for everyone. Until such time as you are able to come back with demonstrable proof of a well-known private for-profit corporation at least the size of TriMet where the CEO’s total compensation is less than Fred Hansen’s. (Tip: Apple’s Steve Jobs’ total compensation is significantly more than his $1 annual salary.)

  17. At the risk of offending the moderator, I should note that my remark about “maximum wage legislation” was mostly rhetorical. Such legislation is not likely forthcoming, after all–but experience has shown that many who complain about public-sector compensation are not likely to lodge similar complaints about the private sector.

    What is sauce for the Christmas goose, after all, ought to be sauce for the gander.

    And in the words of a great US philosopher, that’s all I gots to say ’bout that. :)

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