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Towards a just & healthy democracy in the Commonwealth... and beyond!
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Fri Apr 02, 2010 at 10:53:59 AM EDT
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(Oh yeah! I'm excited for a season of common sense solutions finding their voice via great GRP candidates. Pay attention, Democrats. Listen up, Republicans. Take some notes, Libertarians... STEAL OUR IDEAS! - promoted by eli_beckerman)
I support an effective public transportation system centered on the residential, employment, and business corridors of Berkshire County. Employers tell me that for many workers and job-seekers, reliance on a private automobile and the lack of other options prevents people from gaining employment, getting to work, and can cause disruption other workers' schedules when something goes wrong. Individuals tell me that for many of them a private automobile is a major debt-inducing financial burden. We all know that encouraging use of public transportation is good for the environment and for lowering our carbon footprint.
Clearly, Americans are re-thinking their relationship with the car. It's seldom as advertised.
Two years ago my husband and I went from being a two-car family to a one-car family. Our local public transportation network allowed us to do that. As I began using the system regularly I applied to the Lenox Select Committee, which then appointed me to represent the town on the system's board. This system, the Berkshire Regional Transit Authority, will benefit from a study conducted last year by the Berkshire Regional Planning Commission, which advised it on developing revised routes and schedules in order transport residents and visitors to employment, business, cultural, and retail centers - where they needed to go and when they needed to go there. This study was long overdue because employment, shopping, and residential patterns had shifted considerably since the last comprehensive analysis of the system.
The study and planning is only the beginning. The funding ahd legislative championing makes it happen.
A public transportation network is a key infrastructure component for healthy, green, and forward-looking communities. When elected to the 4th Berkshire District State Representative seat this year, I will be a loud and strong advocate for public transportation.
For more information on my campaign, please visit:
http://www.scottlaugenour.org |
| scott_laugenour :: Public Transportation - A Candidate's Statement |
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| About |
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Green Mass Group is an online forum for Green thought and collective action in Massachusetts. It is a community forum for justice, sustainability, democracy and health in the Commonwealth and beyond.
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| Quotes |
"Now, is this the deal I would have preferred? No. I believe that we could have made the tough choices required - on entitlement reform and tax reform - right now, rather than through a special congressional committee process. But this compromise does make a serious down payment on the deficit reduction we need and gives each party a strong incentive to get a balanced plan done before the end of the year. Most importantly, it will allow us to avoid default and end the crisis that Washington imposed on the rest of America."
--President Barack Obama on the debt ceiling "deal"
"Despite Democratic control over the White House, despite Democratic control over the Senate, despite overwhelming opposition from the American people, a small minority of the members of the Republican-controlled House have successfully pushed an extreme right-wing agenda onto the American political landscape. It is an ideology which believes that despite the fact that the rich are getting richer, the middle class is shrinking, and poverty is increasing, all - all of the burden for deficit reduction should rest on working people."
--Independent Senator Bernie Sanders on the debt ceiling "deal"
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Then and Now
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Then...
"Last year Evergreen, a Massachusetts company, agreed to establish their first-ever United States based manufacturing facility here in Massachusetts. They did so, or are doing so, at Devens. They have now agreed and chosen to triple their size at Devens. Their next phase of expansion, right here in Massachusetts, a signature company in a signature sector, and we congratulate all of the folks at Evergreen and look forward to continuing to work with you...
We made a personal commitment to Evergreen for the sake of Evergreen, but also because we wanted to show that there are ways in which state government, in working together with private industry and with the utility companies, could begin to create a different kind of environment, a different kind of business climate here, to grow that sector, and it is happening. It's happening. Evergreen is one of the most prominent examples, but there are a whole host of examples."
--Governor Deval Patrick, April 7, 2008, boasting about state investment in Evergreen.
and Now...
"Evergreen Solar Inc. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection yesterday, completing a stunning reversal of fortune for a high-flying alternative-energy company that once seemed to herald a new era for the Massachusetts economy... At its peak, Evergreen employed roughly 900 people locally and attracted more than $50 million in state support, as its stock price soared above $100 a share.
Yesterday, Evergreen's stock closed at 18 cents. The company shuttered its manufacturing plant in Devens earlier this year and now has only 85 employees left. Massachusetts is one of its top creditors, owed $1.5 million in rent."
--Erin Ailworth, Boston Globe, August 16, 2011
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