Pataki sabotages clean fuel buses

[this is from WEACT.org ]

MTA MOVES TO BREAK GOVERNOR PATAKI'S COMMITMENT ON CNG;
COMMUNITY DEMANDS EXPLANATION FROM THE GOVERNOR

WE ARE MOBILIZING COMMUNITY RESIDENTS AND ORGANIZATIONS TO JOIN
US AT THE MTA BOARD MEETING ON
THURSDAY, MARCH 31ST
9:30 AM
347 MADISON AVENUE AND EAST 45TH STREET
TAKE THE 4,5, 6 TRAINS TO 42ND ST-GRAND CENTRAL
You can sign up to speak 30 minutes before the board meeting

AND

CALL GOVERNOR PATAKI AT 518-474-8390 DEMANDING THAT
a.. THE MTA MUST KEEP THE PROMISE MADE TO OUR COMMUNITY
b.. DEMAND THAT THE BOARD VOTE NO ON THE NEW BUS PURCHASE
ORDER

Amid pomp and circumstance, Governor Pataki came to West 133rd
Street in 2000 and committed that the New York City Transit would convert
the largest bus depot in Northern Manhattan to Compressed Natural Gas (CNG).
Yet on Thursday the MTA board may vote on shifting its clean fuel bus
purchases away from CNG without discussing these issues with the
communities dispropotionately burdened by these disel bus facilities.

If New York City Transit will not discuss these public health
issues with affected community residents, now experiencing an asthma
epidemic fueled by the disparate exposure to toxics present in diesel soot, then we demand that the Governor come to Harlem personally and make the case to the people prior any vote by the MTA board.

Last February we discovered that the MTA would renege on their
plan to convert the Manhanville depot through a New York Times report
and again yesterday we discovered through another New York Times report
that the MTA was shifting gears and would no longer purchase Compressed Natural Gas buses.

The Northern Manhattan community will seriously consider the
Governor's action or lack thereof as the 2006 election for Governor
proceeds. The State should not default on its substanstive committment to the public
health of a vulnerable community without respectful discussion with that
community of the rationale for a changed dicision.

The historic treatment of Northern Manhattan communities that
bear the disproportionate burden of diesel pollution as evidenced by the
soaring asthma hospitalization and deaths has been an ongoing dispute
between the MTA and the Northern Manhattan community which is home to six of the seven diesel bus depots located in Manhattan.


.. For more information please call Yolande at 212-961-1000 ext 316 or
e-mail yolande@weact.org

Yolande Cadore
Director,Community Organizing and Outreach
Tel:212-961-1000 ext.316
Fax:212-961-1015
E-Mail:yolande 'at' weact.org
Website:www.weact.org

"No permanent friends;no permanent enemies; only permanent
issues"-
Anonymous

___________________________________
please notify friends in our community of this urgent appeal - Mary