Today's event brings leaders together to keep Southern California moving during tough economy
More than 1,000 transportation, business and elected leaders converged on the JW Marriott at L.A. Live today to pledge their commitment to job creation for Southern California by aggressively pursuing and delivering state and federal transportation investment to our region.
The focus of the 10th annual Mobility 21 Summit was on strategies for securing U.S. dollars to create local jobs and a push to prevent the federal gas tax – 18 cents per gallon – from expiring at the end of September. If it vanishes, a significant amount of federal funding for transportation will go with it.
Among other key issues discussed at the Summit, the largest one-day transportation conference in California, was the much-needed passage of a long-term federal transportation bill that would give counties flexibility to use innovative financing methods, streamline the project delivery process without sacrificing the environment and create a legacy of improved mobility for the region.
Mayor Antonio R. Villaraigosa spoke about the transformative nature of the America Fast Forward initiative as a template for the entire nation to leverage local sales tax dollars to accelerate the delivery of projects and get boots on the ground faster.
"We will not put the Great Recession in our rear view mirror until we put people back to work," said Los Angeles Mayor and Metro Board Chair Antonio Villaraigosa. "One of the best ways to accomplish this is to create jobs building the rail-lines, the cargo docks and the airport terminals of the future. This is the reason we launched the 30/10 initiative. It is why we have expanded the idea nationwide as America Fast Forward. And it is why we are asking Washington to change the rules so we can incentivize companies to locate in LA and hire local workers for our locally funded transportation projects."
Mobility 21 members discussed the Breaking Down Barriers initiative and other innovative financing tools to help accelerate construction and jobs creation.
"The Breaking Down Barriers initiative will expedite the creation of more than 800,000 jobs in the U.S.," said Orange County Transportation Authority CEO and Mobility 21 Chair Will Kempton. "While the economy continues to struggle, highway and transit projects in Southern California have the potential to create thousands of jobs. In challenging financial times, it is critical that we cut down on red tape and create jobs faster."
A coalition of both public and private partners, Mobility 21 Summit attendees agreed that goods movement investment should take top billing in the region.
"The private sector has an important role in transportation and goods movement," said Nancy Lindholm, President and CEO of the Oxnard Chamber of Commerce and Mobility 21 board member. "We need to be a leading voice in advocating for goods movement funding since nearly 50 percent of the nations goods flow through our ports and on to the rest of the nation."
Mobility 21 members expressed strong support for using the design-build project delivery method, and enhancing our region's ability to use public-private partnerships to deliver key projects like the SR-91 in Riverside County, the Devore Interchange in San Bernardino and the Gerald Desmond Bridge at the Port of Long Beach. Further, Mobility 21 members spoke up for the urgency of a fall bond sale to help save or create more than 214,000 good-paying jobs, avoid wasting thousands of taxpayer dollars and prevent delaying dozens of critical projects throughout the region.
As keynote speaker, former Pennsylvania Gov. Edward Rendell shared his vision for the future of the transportation system and the necessary investment the nation must make in infrastructure to maintain its global competitiveness. According to the American Society of Civil Engineers, if the nation continues to under-invest in transportation, U.S. exports will drop by $28 billion by 2020.
"As the world's largest package delivery and logistics business, we rely heavily on quality transportation and believe it is vital to economic growth," said Noel Massie, President of UPS Central California and the title sponsor of the Summit. "If each one of our U.S. small package delivery drivers is delayed by 10 minutes each day, the cost to UPS is $125 million per year. Without a doubt, we need to invest more in transportation, and invest wisely."
Notable conference speakers included:
- Hon. Antonio R. Villaraigosa, Mayor, City of Los Angeles and Chair, Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority Board of Directors
- Hon. Ed Rendell, Former Governor of Pennsylvania
- Hon. Diane DuBois, Vice Mayor, City of Lakewood and Second Vice Chair, Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority Board of Directors
- Hon. William Fulton, Mayor, City of Ventura and Chair, Ventura County Transportation Commission
- Hon. Paul Glaab, Mayor Pro Tem, City of Laguna Niguel and Vice Chair, Orange County Transportation Authority
- Richard Katz, Chair, Metrolink and Board Member, Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority
- Hon. Suja Lowenthal, Vice Mayor, City of Long Beach
- Hon. Larry McCallon, Mayor, City of Highland and Chair, San Bernardino Associated Governments
- Hon. Pam O'Connor, Councilmember, City of Santa Monica and President, Southern California Association of Governments
- Hon. Karen Spiegel, Councilmember, City of Corona and Second Vice Chair, Riverside County Transportation Commission
- Hon. Zev Yaroslavsky, Supervisor, Los Angeles County and Board Member, Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority
Mobility 21 honored Peter Buffa, former Board Member of the Orange County Transportation Authority, with a public sector leader of the year award. The group also presented Lucy Dunn, President & CEO of the Orange County Business Council and Board Member of Mobility 21, with a private sector leader of the year award. Richard Steinke, Executive Director of the Port of Long Beach, received the lifetime achievement award during a special ceremony at noon.
For more information, visit the event website: http://mobility21.com/summit/agenda
Mobility 21 fights for funding and solutions to transportation challenges facing the 21 million residents of Los Angeles, Imperial, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego and Ventura Counties.
Titanium Sponsor: UPS
Platinum Sponsors: AECOM,
Automobile Club of Southern California, CH2M HILL, Clark/Atkinson
Construction, HDR, Parsons Brinckerhoff, Simon Wong Engineering, Skanska
Contacts:
Mobility 21
Kristin Slocum, Communications Manager
949.375.4523
kslocum@mobility21.com
