The BRU, Communities for a Better Environment, East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice, and Physicians for Social Responsibility-Los Angeles have sent this letter to Mayor Villaraigosa and the Board of Directors of MTA calling for swift action on climate change. We demand restoration and expansion of bus service and a halt to the multi-billion dollar expansion of the I-710 freeway as two immediate actions that would benefit the health and well-being of LA's low income communities of color while reducing LA's carbon footprint.

Tell Governor Brown to protect our public health, invigorate California's economy, and get real reductions in greenhouse gas emissions! The Center on Race, Poverty & the Environment and Communities for a Better Environment have been hard at work to hold the California Air Resources Board accountable as it implements California's groundbreaking Global Warming Solutions Act, AB32 

After six years of campaigning, the Wilshire Boulevard Bus-Only Lanes
project took an important step forward, with the Los Angeles City
Council voting to approve the project and move it forward.

After six years of campaigning, the BRU scored a major environmental victory today: the Wilshire Boulevard Bus-Only Lanes won the resounding approval from the LA City Council and cleared the last major political hurdle for it to become reality

Planners from UCLA, USC and across the city weigh in on Bus-Only Lanes debate with a clear message: the complete 8.7 mile project is clearly the best choice.

For me as a youth of color, Power Shift 2011 was an inspiring and
effective space for two major reasons: it gave me a chance to really
start to build with youth from other grassroots organizations, and it
allowed me to gain insight into the Environmental Justice movement as a
whole.

With the battle lines drawn, the 5-member committee could not agree on any option and ended the meeting taking no action at all.

We need a strong showing from the broad coalition we have built for this project to come out tomorrow, Wednesday, June 8th at 2PM at the City Council Room 1010.

Tuesday in West Los Angeles we rallied in support of the Bus Only Lane. This project will substantially improve service for 35,000 transit
riders on Wilshire Boulevard, saving as many as 30 minutes of travel
time each day, totaling 130 hours of travel time savings for each rider
over the course of a year. If an estimated 10% of drivers on Wilshire
leave their cars at home and switch to the bus (2,000 cars during rush
hour!), we will reduce 22,000 tons of carbon emissions and 2,500 tons of criteria pollutants annually.

The fate of the Wilshire Bus-Only Lanes Project will be determined this
May at the Los Angeles City Council and the Metro Board. We need you
all to raise hell that LA should not compromise this decade long
transportation project and the federal funding that we fought so hard to
get.