The National Resources Defense Council announced on April 17, 2023 that they were joining with 20 other organizations in protesting the Culver City city council’s anticipated changes to the MOVE transit project.
Carter Rubin, the Senior Transportation Lead for the NRDC, posted on social media “For over a year, residents and visitors to Culver City have been able to move through downtown like never before. Thanks to an initiative called MOVE Culver City, rather than getting stuck in traffic with no other options, travelers along Culver and Washington Boulevards can glide by on frequent transit, bike side-by-side with friends, and stroll or roll in dedicated lanes, separated from fewer gas-burning cars.”
The National Resources Defense Council is a United States-based 501 non-profit international environmental advocacy group, with its headquarters in New York City and offices in Washington D.C., San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, Bozeman, India and Beijing. Clearly, for a non-profit of this stature to get involved in the politics of the MOVE project is evidence that this is not just a local concern. The impact of a conservative council majority working towards rolling back or removing the project has much larger implications.
Carter offers “In our letter, we make the case that any action by the city to increase the number of lane-miles available for mixed-flow vehicle traffic would require analysis, disclosure, and mitigation of potential environmental impacts pursuant to the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). The City must comply with CEQA before making any final decision on a project that changes conditions on the ground today. To reach our climate goals and create healthy, connected communities, we should be doubling-down on success stories like MOVE Culver City, not backsliding into traffic jams.”
The council has scheduled the matter on the agenda for the April 24, 2023 meeting.
Judith Martin-Straw
