Keating’s Friday Blog (Second Edition)
Transit has a new voice…and it’s “green”
“It’s not easy being Green”… but on 04 March 2014, the inaugural meeting was held for the new LRTontheGreen Foundation. The grassroots group brought together four City Councillors, Community Leaders and representatives from the Provincial Government to the Thorncliffe Greenview Community Association to discuss the future of the “Green Line”. This transit line is critical to the future of Calgary, not just in terms of benefits, but because it helps enable sustainable long-term growth by providing Calgarians with more choices of places to live that are less reliant on automobiles.
The LRTontheGreen endeavours to speed up progress on the Green Line. The group plans to do this by raising awareness about the benefits of the Green Line; advocating for Transit Oriented Development (TOD); and eventually evolving into a citizen/stakeholder driven authority to coordinate resources and to help in the policy formation process. The LRTontheGreen hopes to draw upon a range of stakeholders, advocacy and policy dialogue to convince policy-makers in the provincial and federal governments to make an LRT on the Green Line a funding priority.
The nonprofit group was co-founded by Jeff Binks and Doug Hayden to present–on behalf of Calgarians–the case for an LRT with one strong, united voice. The nonprofit plans to use the feedback it received at this event to help shape its direction over the coming year. They also plan to have representation from the various stakeholder groups on their Board of Directors. If you are interested in the LRTontheGreen initiative and/or want to participate as a Director on the Board of Directors you can contact Jeff through the twitter addy: @LRTontheGreen.
Background
The City of Calgary recently committed to funding large scale improvements to the North Central and Southeast transit corridors. These two transit corridors have now been merged together into one large project that is called the “Green Line”. Over the next 30 years the population of Calgary is forecast to increase by another one million residents. Much of this growth will take place along the Green Line.
Those who attended the event:
- Representatives from 12 different Community Associations along the Green line;
- Councillors Sean Chu, Jim Stevenson, Shane Keating, Gian-Carlo Carra;
- Representatives from both MLA Rick Fraser’s Office and Minister Ric MicIver’s Office;
If you have any questions about the group or want to join you can contact them through their Twitter addy: @LRTontheGreen
