Lone Star Sierra Club honors CTC
I am delighted to report that CTC received an unexpected accolade!
Gene Creely, Evelyn Merz (Sierra Club), Robin Holzer, and Adra Hooks
CTC was invited to the Sierra Club’s statewide annual meeting in Austin, where we were presented with the Lone Star Chapter’s 2007 Special Service Award. We were nominated by the Houston Regional Group. Evelyn Merz, chair of the Houston group, said this to introduce the award:
The Citizens’ Transportation Coalition, organized in 2004, provides a needed independent voice that concentrates on transportation issues in the Houston area. The Houston Group has worked with the CTC on several locally important transportation issues: noise abatement techniques for the construction of the Loop 610 adjacent to Memorial Park, the routing of light rail, and currently the Grand Parkway and sunset review of TxDOT. Their leadership was instrumental in raising the visibility of the light rail issue on Richmond Avenue in the media and galvanizing support for light rail on this important local transportation corridor. The CTC provides leadership on most transportation issues in the Houston area.
The CTC also organized and led a freight rail tour for decision makers in the Houston area and led a second trip in February 2008. You would be surprised at how interesting a freight rail tour can be! Considering freight rail as an alternative to trucking, especially when trucking means more multiple lanes of concrete highway being laid across Texas, is something we should be thinking about — especially in view of the Trans Texas Corridor.
The CTC organizes public information meetings, hosts a website with discussion forums on various transportation issues, and provides on-line fact sheets on a array of transportation questions. These fact sheets include general topics of light rail expansion, commuter rail, and freight rail as well as analyses of specific projects such as Interstate 10 inside Loop 610 and the Interstate 45 Bayou Crossing. All of the fact sheets are clear, well written, and demonstrate that the author understands the deep connection between transportation choices and the environment.
The CTC also co-sponsored a Houston candidate forum in October 2007, which was organized by the Houston Sierra Club. Each of the candidates was asked to address the same four questions and the CTC designed the forum’s transportation question.
The Houston Sierra Club values the work being performed by the CTC and is happy to present them with the Sierra Club Lone Star Chapter’s Special Service Award.
Our thanks to Evelyn for the kind words and to Sierra Club for this honor! While just three of us — Adra Hooks, Gene Creely, and I — went to Austin to accept the award, it represents the efforts of many, many others. Congratulations to all of CTC’s busy volunteers, and keep up the good work!