The Mon-Fayette Expressway ­ Why YOU should be concerned and what you can do about it! Dear Ground Zero Network, We need your participation NOW! Many groups including Ground Zero have been actively opposing this expressway for a number of reasons (see the GZ statement below, following the public hearing announcement). +++++++++++++++ On May 16th City Council will have a public hearing to hear comments about this proposal. It will be held on Thursday, May 16 at 6PM in Council Chambers, the City-County Bldg, 414 Grant Street, 5th floor, Pittsburgh. Each speaker will have 3 minutes to present his or her testimony. TO TESTIFY YOU MUST PRE-REGISTER. To do so, please call Kim Clark at 412-255-2142, ext. 232. WE EXPECT A LARGE TURNOUT BY THE SUPPORTERS OF THE TOLL ROAD. LET'S ENSURE THAT OUR SIDE IS WELL REPRESENTED TOO! City Council needs to hear that its citizens oppose the toll road because: + It will divide neighborhoods + It will destroy valuable riverfront property and rural landscape + It will foster sprawl, further shifting the population and business tax-base away from the City to the suburbs - just as I279 did with Cranberry Township + It will increase rather than alleviate traffic problems + It will burden taxpayers for generations ­ current financing proposals call for a 63-year payback period! + It will increase the need for parking garages in the city augmenting the amount of land that is non productive and non tax paying Some of the groups working to educate the public about the threat posed by the expressway, and advocate for a more sustainable transportation solution are: Ground Zero Action Network, The Sierra Club, Penn Future, The Environmental Law Center ­ University of Pittsburgh, Hazelwood Initiative, Squirrel Hill Urban Coalition, CANTR ­ Citizenšs Alternatives to New Toll Roads, GASP ­ Group Against Smog and Pollution +++++++++++++++ The following outlines the Ground Zero Action Networkšs concerns about the proposed Mon Fayette Expressway. For a printer-friendly version of this please go to: http://www.gzpgh.com/Downloads/MF_Handout_short.pdf You can also go to www.gzpgh.com/monfayette to send an email message to your elected officials expressing your support for the NO BUILD option. A toll road will not solve the challenges facing this region - it will only compound the regionšs problems. + Pittsburgh and the surrounding region are losing population. Another highway to accommodate a shrinking population is ludicrous. The expressway will only continue the process of shifting wealth away from existing cities by enabling the construction of more suburban sprawl development. The abandonment of existing built infrastructure in favor of the paving over of acres of Southwestern PA farmland is not a sustainable plan for this regionšs future. The Mon-Fayette is a redundant and expensive piece of infrastructure that will preclude transit and infrastructure improvements we actually need. + As a general approach, Ground Zero advocates the identification and utilization of existing resources before reinventing the wheel. In contrast, for most of its length, the Mon-Fayette is redundant roadway and to find the billions needed to build it money will be diverted away from other needed transportation projects in the region for decades to come. The Mon-Fayette will destroy natural amenities and historic communities in its path. + Truly progressive cities around the world are burying or even tearing out existing highways that divide neighborhoods and cut off access to natural amenities. Our region should be investigating and investing in real transportation-based alternatives that are in themselves amenities, enhancing the regionšs quality of life, not tearing down neighborhoods and walling off its riverfronts. Automobile pollution is already a threat to our quality of life. + The only thing the Mon-Fayette Expressway and Southern Beltway project can surely bring is more cars and more time spent in them, through increased traffic and increased sprawl. Studies have shown that Pittsburgh already has an unacceptable amount of smog caused by cars and trucks, contributing to a host of health problems, including asthma and various types of cancer. If you would like to know more about the quality of our air go to www.scorecard.org and type in your zip code. Public input into the Mon-Fayette construction process has been all but ignored. + Despite the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commissionšs required public input process, the Mon-Fayette project was NOT developed through an inclusive, community process in which questions were adequately addressed and real alternatives, such as public transportation, were explored. Highway construction is a flawed model for regional and economic development. + The Mon-Fayette Toll Road and Southern Beltway has been sold to the public as a boost for the regional economy. However, highways do not create wealth, they only move it from one place to another. The only real profit goes to sprawl developers who rape the landscape as they move jobs and people from historic real places to faceless new places. Highway alternatives have not been adequately developed. + Younger citizens of the region seek a quality of life that cannot be provided by a landscape of highways and sprawl. We seek more responsible regional development based upon sustainable, denser multi-use development models, supported by an array of transportation choices. As young citizens we are the future of this region and we demand accountable, democratic public policy decision-making. + Ground Zero formed from a group of young people who feel their point of view is not being adequately represented locally at the public policy level. Most politicians in our region welcome the Œ freeš money that the Turnpike project offers, without adequately considering the opportunity costs and reduction in quality of life that will occur in the turnpikešs wake. Public policy decisions must promote sustainable planning practices based upon current wisdom rather than fifty-year old myths that have, without fail, proven to bring economic and environmental destruction to older American cites and towns. --- The Ground Zero Announcements list periodically sends out updates on our projects, calls for participation, and other information about our activities relevant to our extended community.