Please join us at our next meeting on Tuesday, August 30 at 6pm in San Jose. At our upcoming meeting, we will discuss:
- VTA’s “Next Network” bus restructuring proposal and what can we can do to maintain bus service in Santa Clara County
- Whether to support or oppose “Measure B” – VTA’s latest transportation sales tax proposal
- Other ideas you have that you are willing to work together with us on
Here are directions to the San Jose Peace and Justice Center, where we meet most every month. Note that the Peace and Justice Center has wheelchair access.
Can’t make our meeting in downtown San Jose on Tuesday? Contact our group to get a dial-up phone number for our meeting.
See you Tuesday night.
Eugene Bradley
Founder, Silicon Valley Transit Users
Mr. Bradley, thank you for the reply. I was not aware of your group until you posted on the Friends of Caltrain. I am involved with my city’s affairs, as I am my neighborhood’s association president, I am also on the Citizen Advisory Committee for my city to update the comprehensive plan.
As for meeting places, I do agree that it is not that easy to get one, we normally meet at a church simply because a member of this church attends our meetings. One thing I can say that 6pm meetings are very hard to attend due to traffic. I attended some meetings at the Cupertino city hall, but it always helps when a city resident organizes the meeting place.
I am not sure what cities your group members live at because that will determine the support you will get.
I was able to confirm this afternoon that the VTA can change the list of projects after the November vote with a 75% vote which is 9 out of 12 board members, although this seems like hard to achieve, it is actually not since SJ has 6 members and Milpitas has 1 member (historically Milpitas always voted with SJ) so this guarantees 7 votes and it is not that hard to get 2 more.
Best
Mark
The VTA is very San Jose centric, even this group is meeting in downtown SJ. Please remember that Santa Clara county has a lot more cities, but the VTA plans all revolve around SJ. Next Network bus service cuts service to all other cities and focuses on San Jose. Measure B is the third tax we are voting on to benefit SJ. The VTA is working hard to solve the traffic problems in SJ but nothing is being done to north and west county traffic problems. This is the reason I am voting NO on measure B.
Mr. Nadim:
Thank you for commenting on our upcoming meeting in San Jose.
The main reason why there are no meetings outside San Jose: no one outside San Jose has ever contacted us offering to help host our meetings. When and if a group outside San Jose contacts us, I am more than happy to help set up meetings there. From my own experience, many groups in the county I run into show either passive interest, or are shocked when they learn I’m “not from here” to where they avoid someone like me.
Do you run a civic group, or know someone who does? Please contact us to set up an appointment to discuss how we can work together.
http://www.svtransitusers.org/about-us/contact-us
If the San Jose Peace and Justice Center can contact me about having group meetings there, what prevents other groups – especially outside San Jose – from doing the same?
Remember: silence builds the very “kite” San Jose tells other cities to go fly.
As for Measure B: I personally have a LOT of reservations about it. I will say that, historically, our group has opposed every VTA ballot measure since 2000. More on Measure B will be discussed in a separate post.
I personally look forward to working with you to make sure VTA is better for everyone.
Eugene Bradley
Founder, Silicon Valley Transit Users