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UPDATE: SCAG Issues This Release After We Report Long Beach Vice Mayor Richardson, Councilwoman Gonzalez In China On SCAG (Regional Gov't) Paid Trip


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(Nov. 2, 2016, 5:23 a.m.) -- The Southern California Association of Governments has issued the following release text with photo (sent to LBREPORT.com at 9:40 p.m. on Nov. 1 from Vice Mayor Richardson's office) regarding a SCAG-funded trip to China whose participants included Long Beach Vice Mayor/9th dist. Councilman Rex Richardson and Long Beach 1st dist. Councilwoman Lena Gonzalez. Our intitial Oct. 31 report text follows the official release:

[Scroll down for further.]


[SCAG text] BEIJING, CHINA -- Long Beach Vice Mayor Rex Richardson and Councilmember Lena Gonzalez are wrapping up a week-long trip to the port's largest international trading partner to share strategies and experiences on sustainable development and transportation.

The councilmembers are participating as part of a visiting delegation from the Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG). As the nation's largest Metropolitan Planning Organization, SCAG develops long-range transportation and sustainable community plans for the six-county region of Imperial, Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino and Ventura. Highly regarded for its innovative, collaborative and data-driven planning processes, SCAG was invited by the Chinese Academy of Transportation Sciences' Institute of Policy and Management to participate in a workshop on regional planning and inter-agency collaboration.

Both Richardson and Gonzalez are both members of SCAG's governing board, the Regional Council, and were joined by members Larry McCallon, mayor of the City of Highland and Greg Pettis, vice mayor of the City of Cathedral City, and SCAG staff.

At the workshop, SCAG shared information on its recently adopted 2016-2040 Regional Transportation Plan/Sustainable Communities Strategy (2016 RTP/SCS). The 2016 RTP/SCS is a visioning document that helps the region address critical future transportation and land use needs, while improving the quality of life of its residents. The plan includes over $556 billion in investments that will increase mobility options, while also meeting the state's mandate to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Richardson and Gonzalez spoke about the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles and how, through geography and infrastructure, the region has become the largest international gateway to the U.S., handling over 40 percent of the nation's imports – much of it coming from China. As a result, goods movement is a major economic cluster, with freight and logistics representing one-third of all jobs and economic activity in the region.

"The City of Beijing and the SCAG region are similar in size and complexity," said Richardson. "While goods movement is important to the world economy, both regions have suffered in terms of air quality and health."

Gonzalez, whose father was a long-time truck driver, shared the importance of mitigating the impacts of shipping vessels, freight trains and trucks.

"The Port's Clean Air Action Plan helps reduce the health risks of surrounding communities, while investing in new, cleaner technologies," she said. "And we've seen a huge turnaround in the past 10 years - diesel particulates have been cut by 81 percent."

But still more work needs to be done, she added. SCAG's 2016 RTP/SCS includes $70.7 billion in investments to relieve the top 50 truck bottlenecks in the region through highway/rail grade separations, and supporting the implementation of a zero- and near-zero emission freight system.

In addition to meeting with the research institutions, the delegation visited China's urban transit and high speed rail lines, which have seen heavy government investment. They visited the Shanghai metro system, which first opened in 1993 with one rail subway line. It is now the world's longest subway system and second largest with 356 stations. On an average workday, over 10 million people use the Shanghai metro system, which is second in terms of annual ridership only to the Beijing subway system.

The SCAG delegation capped the trip with a signing of a Memorandum of Understanding with the Chinese Academy of Transportation Sciences to further collaborate on sustainable economic development and greenhouse gas reduction strategies. This is the second partnership SCAG has with a Chinese research facility. In 2012, SCAG entered a MOU with China's Academy of Sciences. Since then, SCAG has trained visiting scholars on developing urban growth forecast models and how to use transportation data for planning purposes.

"This collaboration is important for both countries," said Hasan Ikhrata, SCAG's Executive Director. "As the nation's largest Metropolitan Planning Organization, we're proud of the technical analysis that we use to support our long-range plans, and we're happy to share that with our partners overseas."

"Both China and Southern California have such strong economic ties, and we share incredible air quality challenges," added Richardson. "Through our common bonds, these partnerships will help us meet those challenges and come out stronger together."


Photo source: SCAG release

(Oct. 31, 2016) -- Long Beach Vice Mayor/9th dist Councilman Rex Richardson and 1st dist. Councilwoman Lena Gonzalez are in the People's Republic of China on a trip funded by the "Southern California Association of Governments." SCAG is joint powers authority funded through dues paid by its member governments (ultimately paid by taxpayers; we're working to learn LB's current annual amount.)

We learned about the trip via tourist style "selfies" accompanied by laudatory content that Vice Mayor Richardson sent to his Facebook page.



Councilman Richardson's office provided us with some general information about the trip, indicating its discussion subjects will include clean air and innovations. Councilwoman Gonzalez's office didn't respond to our phone calls or email. [Ed. note: Councilwoman Gonzalez famously tried to block our camera lens in August when we asked if she would support restoring police officers for taxpayers beyond the level proposed by Mayor Garcia.]

SCAG spokesman Jim Liu confirmed the trip; said the SCAG delegation includes two additional Regional Council [governing board] members (from inland areas); and indicated SCAG plans to sign an MOU (Memorandum of Understanding/text not immediately available) with what he called SCAG's "sister agency" in China.

Examples of some of Richardson's Facebook comments:

  • "A little jet lag but we touched down on the tarmac in Shanghai. So much for the great Facebook firewall."

  • "Shanghai has an amazing public transit system. The system has 600 km of rail and on pace for 1,000 km by 2025."

  • "30% of all transportation [sic] uses the metro line in a city of 24 million"

  • "MagLev train takes you 20 miles in 7.5 minutes, from the airport to downtown, while subway takes an hour, and taxi takes 40 minutes. It's completely autonomous, zero-emission, energy efficient, safe, and convenient. And it's cheaper than cab fare..."

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[For an independent overview of government internet control/censorship in the People's Republic of China, see this link..]

Further as newsworthy.

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