Change is coming.

We're tired of big rail projects that don't take people of color where they need to go. We are not a large green group or transit authority. This campaign is about our communities coming together saying, This is where we stand, and we have all our people behind us.

Public transit is not a stepchild in the transportation mix. It is our key to fighting poverty, racism and climate change.

In the Bay Area we're facing severe transit cutbacks. We're seeing our bus systems shrink as rail expands to the suburbs. TRPT is a platform for us to seek federal funding so that it gets down to our local communities to meet the needs we see on our streets.

Here in Sunset Park Brooklyn, we have 200,000 cars a day going through the Gowanus Expressway. Our community complains about asthma, cancer, respiratory disease but the excuse for neglecting us is that it is too expensive to mitigate.

On top of wanting to double bus fares, our Capital Metro wanted to start charging the elderly who were exempt, and double fares for the handicapped. We need a paradigm shift in transportation funding away from highways, for public transit.

There are over 136 petrochemical facilities along our 85-mile stretch of the Gulf Coast. We are losing Historic African American communities to toxins and flooding. Fenceline communities like New Orleans need our country to reduce its dependence on oil.

Single mothers, the disabled, low income workers who have to travel 2 hours to get to their jobs--this campaign brings their demands, their transit vision to the same federal table where cement, auto and construction have sat for decades.