Advocacy Alliances and Partnerships
PolicyLink undertakes advocacy to ensure decisions about infrastructure investments are equitable and create economic opportunity; and works to build the capacity of community leaders, organizations, coalitions, and policymakers to craft effective approaches and to collaborate on strategies for policy change.
- Federal Financing of Transportation and other Infrastructure. The center will participate in coalition efforts to bring about equitable outcomes in the next federal transportation reauthorization bill, and in the creation of the proposed federal infrastructure financing bank. These key pieces of legislation, along with others in the future, will shape the infrastructure policy landscape for years to come and represent critical opportunities to advance the equity agenda.
- Transit Oriented Development. PolicyLink has responded to the growing demand for strategic planning, policy advocacy, and technical assistance to secure equitable outcomes in transit-oriented development.
These efforts include:
- In Seattle, conducting research for the City of Seattle and community groups in Southeast Seattle about promising techniques to ensure that residents in the diverse neighborhoods of the Rainier Valley benefit from the billion-dollar light-rail system connecting downtown to the international airport, slated to open in 2009.
- In Massachusetts, working with the region’s preeminent nonprofi t equity advocates to craft a long-term policy campaign to deepen the affordability of housing near transit, connect workingclass families to economic opportunity, and maximize environmental protections for low-income communities.
- In the San Francisco Bay Area, working with the Association of Bay Area Governments and transportation equity groups to advance station-area planning promoting “development without displacement.”
School Overcrowding. In response to urgent pleas by community and education leaders for a new public commitment to address overcrowding and the deterioration of school facilities in low-income communities, PolicyLink partnered with the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF) to produce Ending School Overcrowding in California, Building Quality Schools for All Children (2005). The report illustrates the school overcrowding crisis, analyzes the state’s New Construction and Critically Overcrowded Schools programs, discusses structural barriers to addressing overcrowding, and outlines recommendations for a more equitable distribution of funds. During the next two years, PolicyLink worked with MALDEF, The Advancement Project, and local community advocates and policymakers to craft new state legislation addressing many issues raised in the report. Thanks to this work, all of California’s successive school bond issues have incorporated more equity principles and safeguards.
