NEWSTRANSPORTATION

By Candice Norcross, a resident of Grand Rapids, MI and creator of a Change.org petition to protect the Thornapple River

Forty-one volunteers arrived at Lincoln Park in Ada, Michigan for the annual River Clean-Up Day. The early risers pulled blue shirts over their hoodies and gathered at the covered bridge, ready to scour the banks for garbage. Joggers — with knowing smiles — watched as we carried the canoes to the water's edge and started on our way.

I had never been to this particular river before, as it's about 10 miles from my own corner of Grand Rapids. However, I recently read several news articles in regards to the Gerald R. Ford International Airport and its stormwater dilemma. I was inspired to launch a petition on Change.org to protect the river from the airport's new proposal to use the river as a dump site for de-icing fluid.

The shock and grief over a young person's tragic death can be paralyzing. Not for Kimiko Nishitsuji.

Her friend's sudden death last month after being hit by a car at an intersection long known to be dangerous for pedestrians instead spurred her to action and mobilized a community. Kimiko created a petition on Change.org in the weeks after her friend Bo Feng, 17, died on July 16th. Bo had just graduated from Gabrelino High School in California.

In recent weeks, Kimiko has joined Bo's family in advocating for improved safety measures at the intersection of New Avenue and Shorb Street where Feng died. More than 1,200 people in the community have signed her petition to both the cities of Alhambra and San Gabriel (the intersection and existing crosswalk span the city line, a serious bureaucratic complication), and more than 100 attended a vigil and silent demonstration held at the streets. They are also started a facebook page for supporters and are holding a fundraiser for pedestrian safety. 

Author: Loretta Williams, aunt of Raquel Nelson

To the wonderful supporters of Raquel Nelson

On April 10, 2010, after celebrating a birthday, Raquel Nelson and her three children missed a bus. They arrived home after dark. What happened next has now become national news, and may be familiar to many of you.

On that night, Raquel took all reasonable safety precautions and attempted to cross the roadway to her home, which was in the apartment complex across from the bus stop where Raquel, her children, and other bus riders were let off. The nearest marked crosswalk was nearly 0.3 miles away.

After entering the roadway and crossing halfway, Raquel, her family and the other bus riders stopped in the small median to again check for oncoming traffic. But Raquel’s 4-year old son, little AJ, darted into the street following another bus rider crossing with them at the time. Doing what any mother would do, Raquel ran after him and they were hit by a van. Her son AJ was killed, Raquel and one of her daughters were also hit and injured; the driver never stopped.

This morning, Raquel Nelson went to her sentencing hearing facing the dire prospect of three years in jail away from her two children.

This afternoon, in a thrilling turn of events, Raquel emerged from the courtroom allowed to go home to her family, after an outpouring of national media attention around her case and intense support for her cause from more than 140,000 people taking action through a viral petition on Change.org.

Cobb County Judge Katherine Tanksley gave Ms. Nelson an "unusual" choice: 12 months probation and community service, or a new trial. The outcome does two positive things that thousands of people have been demanding: It keeps Raquel out of jail for now and hopefully for good, and offers her at least the choice to clear her name before a new jury.

Update 3 (7/27): Raquel has been given a chance to clear her name and can walk out of the courtroom to her family, which is amazing news. Change.org and petition creator Eliza Harris will continue to keep this petition alive, so that this petition can be used to advocate for a crosswalk at the intersection where A.J. was killed. So sign the petition if you support this idea, and read our new update with a statement of thanks from Raquel Nelson to the signers of this petition.

BREAKING! (7/26) Huge news. After her sentencing hearing this morning, Raquel Harris walked out of the courtroom today with her family. In lieu of sentencing, the judge is letting Raquel choose between probation or a retrial that could clear her name. Read the article in the Atlanta Journal Constitution for a few more details. Thank you to more than 140,000 people who signed the petition! Stay tuned for more updates.

“The outpouring of support from across the country for Raquel Nelson has been incredible,” said Corinne Ball, Director of Organizing at Change.org. “People have been moved by her story, and Change.org is happy that the petition provided an outlet for people to direct their support for Ms. Nelson to the judge."

"I thank the judge for doing the best she could given the existing verdict. I believe Raquel deserves to be named innocent,” said Eliza Harris, an urban planner in Orlando, Florida who first created the petition on Change.org after reading about the case. "Either way I commend her for her strength in this difficult situation."

Update 2 (7/25): Raquel Nelson's aunt, Loretta P. Williams, has a message to the more than 65,000 people who have signed this petition:

"Raquel will be grieving the loss of her son for the rest of her life because of this tragic accident on a dangerous roadway. We wish she had never been prosecuted for A.J.'s death, and now we're all praying she won't go to jail. I hope that many Change.org members sign Eliza's petition to help her at the sentencing on Tuesday, and prevent future accidents by making sure a crosswalk gets installed near this bus stop. I know Raquel would appreciate your help from the bottom of her heart."

Please keep signing so your signature can be delivered to the judge at the sentencing hearing tomorrow. You can also watch Raquel Nelson's moving appearance on the Today Show this morning, where she was joined by Loretta.

Update (7/23): We've just arranged for this petition to be personally delivered to the judge at Raquel Nelson's sentencing hearing on Tuesday. Please sign and share widely so we can show the national outrage over her prosecution.

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ORIGINAL POST

The unjust prosecution and conviction of Raquel Nelson, a grieving Atlanta mother, for the death of her 4-year-old son in a hit-and-run accident has outraged a nation in recent days.

Of particular note, it has also outraged a Eliza Harris, an urban planner in Orlando, Florida, who started a campaign on Change.org to clear Raquel's name and prevent a similar tragedy from ever happening again.

I'd like to share with a little bit about why Eliza started her petition to help Raquel a few days ago. Raquel's sentencing is this coming Tuesday, July 26th, so we find it to be particularly urgent that everyone spread the word. So read below, sign the petition, and then share it with your friends.

You can also tweet: Outrageous! Grieving mom of hit-and-run victim faces more jail time than driver. Take action http://t.co/9lmiTew #raquelnelson

Here's what happened. In April 2010, Nelson, her son A.J., and her two other children, got off a bus in metro Atlanta and—with several other passengers—attempted to cross a 5-lane highway to get to her apartment across the way. The nearest crosswalk was nearly a half a mile in either direction. Most anyone would take the shortcut. Standing at the median in the middle, little A.J. reportedly saw someone else jaywalk and ran out into the street to follow. Raquel ran out after him to stop him. But it was too late. Both Raquel and A.J. were hit by a vehicle, and A.J. died in the hospital a few hours later.

For the last month, All Against the Haul has been running a campaign on Change.org to help them in their fight against Exxon's "megaloads" project. Read below for their reaction to the recent Exxon spill in Montana, and how their petition has gained momentum.

Nearly 6,000 people have signed the Change.org national petition and 2,000 people have signed All Against the Haul's long-running campaign.

MISSOULA, MT— As cleanup workers struggle to recover and clean ExxonMobil’s 42,000 gallon Yellowstone River slick, the oil company’s controversial bid to create a permanent industrial corridor through Montana and Idaho’s Highway 12 is drawing new fire from concerned citizens around the country joining local residents in their fight.

Highway 12 is one of only 120 National Scenic Byways, a windy mountain two-lane road passing through national forests and along Lewis and Clark’s historic route. Exxon is pressing forward with its “megaloads” program — a succession of hundreds of larger-than-life (three-story high, 200-foot long) trucks that carry refining equipment to Alberta that would help to increase America’s consumption of oil from Canada’s dirty tar sands fields. 

(Seeing is believing - click here for a video on Exxon's proposal, and here for pictures of what similar trucks look like).

Did you know that 13,000 petition signatures, when printed, equal 260 feet of paper -- almost the same height of a mature old-growth redwood tree?

That was the symbolism unveiled on the steps of the California Capitol in Sacramento last Wednesday, as ralliers decried the state transit agency's plans to widen Highway 101 and destroy ancient redwoods in Richardson Grove State Park.

The rally went off without a hitch. According to Aliana Lee Knapp-Prasek, a Redway, CA resident who launched the Change.org action, two busloads of people met up and marched to Caltrans, some wearing bright orange vests and hardhats with "Eco Trans" spelled out on the back. There were banners, posters, puppets, animal costumes, drums and flutes. They converged on the building, chanting, and unrolled the petition in front of the building. (See a short write-up in The Sacramento Bee). A lead organizer of the Save Richardson Grove Coalition then met with aides in the Governor's office and delivered thousands of petition signatures and post cards asking that state officials prioritize timeless trees over a dubious highway widening.

After a major uproar among New York City cyclists, the NYPD has recently agreed to ease off a ticketing blitz that had threatened to sour bike riders on one of the most famous urban parks in the world.

The "zero-tolerance" crackdown had police looking to slap $270 tickets on riders who rode through the (mostly car-free) park's 46 traffic lights—even if their behavior was cautions or no pedestrians were nearby. Cyclists were rightfully outraged. The constant threat of a ticket—even for extremely careful riders— could ruin the ride on the park's famous 6-mile loop with unnecessary starts and stops. The strategy seemed to unreasonably target the cycling community over other park users.

Two petitions started on Change.org were part of the cyclists' strategy to pressure the NYPD to end these ticketing traps. 

I recently interviewed Zack Porter of All Against the Haul (AATH), a group of Montana organizers fighting against Big Oil’s “megaloads.” Porter and his colleagues are as talented and committed as they come, but alone, they stand no chance of defeating the world’s second largest corporation.

And that’s perfectly alright – because they’re not alone. AATH is just one of what Porter calls “an incredible assortment of groups, not just across this region but across the country” that have banded together to defeat ExxonMobil. This coalition includes National Forest supervisors, prominent Indian tribes, local authors and politicians, national environmental groups, and more - and they are winning.

The megaloads in question are 200 enormous trucks that haul foreign-made refining equipment through the northwest to the Alberta Tar Sands, one of the world’s dirtiest fossil fuel operations. When I say enormous, I mean three-stories tall, 200-feet long, and 650,000 pounds each. These megaloads are turning the Idaho and Montana portions of Highway 12 – a mountainous National Scenic Byway – into a permanent industrial corridor, cutting both National Forest trees and local electricity as they move. And all in the name of Exxon profits, global climate change, and Korean jobs.

“We are winning this campaign.”

These were not the words I was expecting to hear when I sat down with Zack Porter, campaign coordinator for All Against the Haul (AATH), at the Power Shift climate conference in Washington, DC last month. Porter and his team of Montana organizers are going to toe-toe with the second largest corporation in the world: Exxon Mobil. Their battle isn’t just David and Goliath; it’s David’s little brother and the guy who beat Goliath at his last wrestling match.

But Porter’s right – AATH and their allies across the northwest are winning this campaign.

At issue are Big Oil’s “megaloads” – over 200 trucks, three-stories high and 650,000 pounds each, transporting Korean-made oil equipment through rural communities and pristine National Forests to the Alberta Tar Sands. The megaloads have been on the road for less than three months but are wreaking havoc everywhere they go – cutting power to local towns, blocking traffic for hours at a time, putting the area’s rivers at risk (including the famous river that runs through it), and forcing forest supervisors to cut back trees on scenic byways.