Post Type
BART/Oakland Airport Connector
About the Campaign
In September 2009, Public Advocates filed a successful civil rights and environmental justice administrative complaint with the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) on behalf of our partners Urban Habitat, Genesis, and Transform. The complaint challenged Bay Area Rapid Transit’s (BART’s) controversial Oakland Airport Connector (OAC) project, alleging that, in its rush to build the OAC, the agency violated federal rules implementing Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and President Clinton’s Executive Order on Environmental Justice — rules that require transit agencies to analyze whether their projects have a disproportionately negative impact on low-income and minority populations, or fail to provide those populations with a fair share of their benefits.
The $492 million OAC was conceived as a three-mile elevated tramway connection from the BART Coliseum station to the Oakland International Airport, which was previously served by affordable bus and shuttle service. It would provide few, if any, benefits to the area’s overwhelmingly low-income and minority residents due to its expensive $12 roundtrip fare and its lack of access to hotel and restaurant jobs along the commercial Hegenberger corridor. BART’s own analysis predicted that less than 3% of the OAC riders will come from the immediate East Oakland neighborhoods surrounding the project, where some census tracts were 97 percent people of color and a third living in poverty.
Based on BART’s failure to conduct an equity analysis of the OAC, in February 2010 the FTA withdrew from the project $70 million in federal stimulus funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act — the first action of its kind in the nation. The strong action underscored a promise made in President Obama’s State of the Union address to continue prosecuting civil rights violations.
The federal stimulus funds were recaptured by Bay Area transit agencies, including AC Transit, and used to maintain existing transit service and jobs during the Great Recession. To remedy the many civil rights deficiencies identified by the FTA, BART was also required to implement a corrective action plan.
Resources
- Urban Habitat v. Bay Area Rapid Transit
- “The Oakland Airport Connector: BART’s Little Engine that Could?”—September 8, 2010, Streetsblog
- “Civil Rights Complaint Filed Against BART Over Oak Airport Connector,”—September 4, 2009, Streetsblog