While many students spent their Spring Breaks in Cancun
or Palm Beach or other exotic locations, CALPIRG
students spent our Spring Break building support for the High-Speed Rail
proposal here in California. We are happy to report it was a
HUGE success. More than 50 students participated in our trip doing 11 events
from Northern California to Southern
California.
High-speed rail would remove up to 92 million car trips off the
road annually, reduce global warming pollution and reduce the need to expand
expensive roads and airports. In order for such a large project to get built, it needs to
be a priority for elected officials and the public. The students’ trip was
crucial to creating needed momentum.
Over the course of the week we had 43 media outlets attend our events and met
with 23 local leaders.
Here are a few photos from the week’s
events:
From left to right, top to bottom: UC
Berkeley student Jen Engstrom speaks in San Francisco with Senator Migden,
Supervisor Peskin, and Judge Kopp; Congresswoman Lofgren speaking at our event
in San Jose, with San Jose Mayor Reed in the background; UC Davis student Dan
Xie speaking at our Sacramento event with Asm. Ma and Huffman and David Crane
from the HSR Authority; all of us in Stockton; Congressman Costa on his bike
with students in Fresno; Bakersfield Mayor Hall gets a t-shirt from Davis
student Andrew Peake; meeting up with Los Angeles Mayor Villaraigosa at our LA
stop; our final stop in San Diego.
Here are a few highlights from the
media coverage of the week:
Riding for the
Rail, Fresno Bee
On
Spring Break, students ditch bikinis in favor of work boots, LA Daily News, Chicago Tribune
Web Edition
Students find altruistic
alternative to spring break partying, Sacramento Bee
Students
rally for high-speed rail, The Bakersfield
Californian
CALPIRG
Promotes High Speed Rail, Daily Trojan
CALPIRG
Students Rally for High Speed Rail Project, CBS13 (video)
High Speed Rail
Advocates Call for Major Transportation Bond,
KCBS
Rail Against the
Machine, Silicon Valley
News
Students Take Spring Break
Road Trip That Follows High Speed Rail, MSNBC, NBC11
(video)
Students rally for high-speed
rail, Antelope Valley Press
Enviro's Spring
Break, Chico
News and Review
Statewide High-Speed Rail
Supporters Target November Ballot, KPBS
This is the photo that
ran in the Fresno Bee:
We were also excited to see that Assemblymember Ma was
sporting our T-shirt at the Democratic
State Convention last weekend.
CALPIRG,
is a statewide public interest organization that stands up to
powerful interests. CALPIRG Students
consist of student chapters at 8 University of California campuses and USC. At each one
of our student chapters we have professional staff of organizers and advocates
working with students on campaigns that the students choose. High-speed rail is
one of the campaigns the students are prioritizing this spring.
