Coming together for future

By Diane Bagley

 

For too long, political infighting and parochial interests have kept the cities and counties of Marin and Sonoma from decisively addressing some of the issues that negatively affect the quality of life of their people.

Why? Perhaps, for some leaders, the reasons might include:

• Parochial interests, which are seen as best for their communities or for re­taining their positions.

• Political infighting, which results from not having the opportunity to be aware of solutions to complicated local and regional problems.

• The inability to decisively address these complicated issues, which results from not having the opportunity to know and understand the positions of their neighboring jurisdictions.

The Highway 101 corridor planning process has helped address some of these reasons, but much remains to be done to improve Marin and Sonoma’s quality of life.

One way to solve our problems region­ally is to better understand our difficult problems and possible solutions.

To help achieve that goal, the North Bay Transportation Management Asso­ciation has scheduled a Land Use and Traffic Reduction Conference, to be held from 9 a.m. to 3:45 p.m. Friday, Feb. 2 at the Petaluma Community Center.

Most of us probably have attended educational conferences. In doing so, we have learned that two components deter

mine the quality: conference structure and expertise of the presenters.

This conference is structured to help the region better understand the com­plex interrelationship between land use, the jobs-housing balance, traffic and the environment. When any of those four components are shortchanged, none works effectively, and our quality of life suffers.

A balanced and knowledgeable panel has been assembled:

•  Angelo Siracusa, president of the Bay Area Council.

•  Larry Orman, director of Greenbelt Alliance.

•  Milton Feldstein, director of the Bay Area Air Quality Management Dis­trict.

•  John Stevens, traffic consultant to the California Assembly and a designer of the Congestion Management Program Bill.

•  Bob Harrison, chief. consultant to the 101 Corridor Plan.

•   Peter Calthorpe, architect and origi­nator of the pedestrian pocket concept for railside land use.

•  Karen Baker, legislative analyst to the Minnesota House of Representa­tives.

Luncheon speakers will include: 

    •  Sen. Marian Bergeson, author of many bills concerning land use, traffic and affordable housing.

• Assemblyman William Filante, a 10-year legislative representative for Mann and Sonoma and a long-time ad­vocate of workable communities.

This will not be a conference struc­tured so that the expert panelists make their statements and leave. Seated across from the panelists will be local imple­menters — public officials, environmen­tal spokespersons, developers, and others who have tried or may try to help or hin­der the solutions proposed by the ex­perts. A facilitator-instigator will press the local implementers to respond to the experts’ remarks with more than a non­commital political answer.

 

The larger the crowd, the greater will be the educational impact. The better­ educated we are, the better we can address the region’s land, air, housing and transit needs. Don’t be part of the problem — be part of the solution.

Join us. Tickets at $25 for individuals and $50 for business representatives are available from the North Bay Transpor­tation Management Association, P.O. Box 466, Novato 94948. Or phone 897-8560.