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September-October Newsletter
Hi friends,
We hope you're doing well! It's been an exciting few months for the New Urbanism Initiative, from organizing a record-breaking BART speedrun to working with local officials on safer streets and expanding our youth transit advocacy efforts.
Here's a recap of what we've been up to and what's coming next!
🚲 Making Palo Alto's Streets Safer
On October 8, our steering committee met with officials from the City of Palo Alto's Transportation Department to discuss student e-bike regulations and ways to bring youth perspectives into the city's Safe Routes to School Program.
We're planning two exciting projects: a district-wide student survey to gather feedback on e-bike safety and transportation infrastructure, and a crowdsourced reporting tool where students can submit photos of unsafe intersections and suggest improvements. We'll share the findings with city officials to help inform future safety initiatives. Once we flesh out our plan for these programs, we’ll need help from NUI’s Mid-Peninsula Team in the implementation. We’ll keep you updated!
A special thank-you to Elaine Uang, founding member of Palo Alto Forward, for connecting us with city officials and supporting our advocacy work!
🚆 What's Next with BART?
Following our record-breaking BART Speedrun on September 6, hosted in collaboration with the California High School Transit Alliance, which brought together over 200 participants and received coverage from more than 16 news outlets, we're excited to take our partnership with BART to the next level!
We're working with BART to promote its youth fare discounts by distributing educational materials to libraries, YMCAs, schools, and other youth-serving organizations across the Bay Area. In the next month, we’ll train volunteers from our South Bay Team to go in person to libraries and youth-serving organizations and distribute resources.
On October 8, NUI Founder and Executive Director Justin Chen was also recognized at a BART Board of Directors meeting, where he delivered remarks and received a Certificate of Appreciation from BART General Manager Robert Powers and the Board for his work organizing the speedrun and promoting youth ridership.
đźš„ What About Caltrain?
We're also continuing to coordinate with Caltrain on future youth outreach efforts, with in-person activities coming soon! Those in our Mid-Peninsula and South Bay Teams will have an opportunity to contribute.
🌱 Art Meets Advocacy at the Bay Area Youth Climate Summit
On September 27, NUI hosted its Artivism for Environmental Change workshop at the Bay Area Youth Climate Summit, which brought together more than 150 participants. Over a dozen students joined our interactive workshop, creating activism zines and discussing how art and creative expression can make environmental advocacy more accessible and engaging. A huge thank-you to Anthea Sun, Aspen McBreen, and Justin Chen for helping make the workshop a success!
🏛️ Connecting with Local Leaders
Throughout September, we've continued building relationships with local elected officials to advance public transportation advocacy.
We met with San Francisco County Supervisor Daniel Sauter on September 23 and Deputy Chief of Staff Ariel Mercado, from Contra Costa County Supervisor Shanelle Scales-Preston's office, on September 9. Our conversations focused on public awareness surrounding the Regional Transit Measure, affordable housing, and opportunities for youth-led community engagement.
đź“Ł Get Involved: Mid-Peninsula Team Meetings!
We're launching biweekly Mid-Peninsula team meetings for members in East Palo Alto, Palo Alto, Los Altos, Los Altos Hills, Mountain View, and Sunnyvale!Â
These meetings are one of the best ways to get involved in our projects, contribute ideas, and help turn advocacy into action.
Our next meeting is Sunday, October 11, at 11:00 AM. We'd love to see you there!
🏫 Help Us Bring NUI to More Schools!
We're expanding our network of student-led chapters, with plans to launch a chapter at Archbishop Mitty High School next semester. Know someone at another school who might be interested in starting a chapter? Please share our chapter interest form with them!
đź“śOther Updates
We’re actively working on establishing teams in the East Bay and continuing to partner with other organizations like Transbay Coalition.
đź’š Thank You for Being Part of NUI!
None of this would be possible without the dedication of our members, partners, and supporters. Whether you've attended an event, helped organize a project, or simply shared our work with a friend, we truly appreciate your support.
We're excited to keep building momentum together! If you have any questions or want to get involved, feel free to reach out to our steering committee — Justin Chen, Neel Jonnala, Yasseen Fakhry, and Yihan Zhao — on Slack.
Best regards,
Neel Jonnala
Deputy Executive Director
Justin Chen
Founder & Executive Director
New Urbanism Initiative
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