While the results are still unofficial the Gila River governor has stated that the vote has been officially in favor of the NO BUILD option. We will see what happens next. In light of the past resolutions it is had to say what this actually means.
That is why we will still be committed to building an even stronger base of resistance. ADOT has been told no in the past. Yet they have been incapable of truly respecting the opinion of communities. This has been a proposal for more than thirty years now. This may only mean that other communities are at a greater risk.
Also please read this and the other past zines on resistance to the freeway: NO LOOP 202
Yes: 603 (in favor of on-reservation alignment)
No: 158 (in favor of off-reservation alignment)
NO BUILD: 720 (no freeway built at all)
NO BUILD WON! Continue reading →
“We do not look to the CTOC or MAG for direction or understanding. Our presence at their meetings is to bring their arrogance to public attention. We rally to tear the social fabric holding their corporate networks and security together. Because we know under the outward togetherness of their business attire lays a permeable fragile bundle of nerves held together by the chance they stand unchallenged. Yet we know when we rise to challenge them, they quickly fall to the wayside of our challenge.” FROM what part of sacred don’t you understand
A year ago the “No Build” option for the Loop 202 extension was a somewhat well kept secret of ADOT. However, today the Gila River Indian Community (GRIC) is voting on three different options, including NO BUILD, regarding the freeway.
The Loop 202 extension has been defeated by GRIC twice in the past; once in 2000 and again in 2005. Members of Awhatukee have also organized against the freeway and won.
The unfounded notion of this proposal has been hanging over the heads of numerous communities since the 80’s. The question that arises once again today is whose head will the cloud burst over? It’s safe to say that the Loop 202 extension project has sat idle for more than 30 years now because it is a poorly constructed and unneeded proposal.
As one GRIC member stated at the January Citizens Transportation Oversight Committee (CTOC) meeting, “We [the Gila River Indian Community] are not here to solve the growth problems of the Phoenix area.” She later continued to address how so much of their land has already been taken. These few sentences state what everyone opposing this freeway are up against.
The repercussions of unsustainable development is blowing up in everyone’s faces. Urban sprawl has gone so far unchecked it is almost impossible to correct now. Instead of the Maricopa Association of Governments (MAG) and ADOT swallowing their pride and admitting that yes, they have spent these past thirty years flushing money into a bad idea, they instead invest even more public dollars and time into the Loop 202 extension. All this, while we witness a corrupt Phoenix City Councilman take advantage of insider information on the freeway. Current District 6 Councilman Sal DiCcicio was paid by ADOT in 2006, before being a Councilman, to push GRIC to accept the freeway on their land. Then, the following year he signed a lease to develop 75 acres of land at Pecos and 40th St. right next to where the freeway would be built (on or off GRIC land). Talk about conflict of interests!
Across the state we see it with the NAFTA CANAMEX freeway. We see it in Tucson with the attempted expansion of the I-10 (that has seen continued community resistance and even the lengths of drastic property damage). It looms nearer and nearer with the attempted widening of the I-17 in the central and northern parts of Phoenix. When will this harmful expanding stop?
ADOT has freeway plans for the next 30 years. When a member of the CTOC asked about sustainability within that plan, the presenter acted bewildered that the notion of “sustainability” would be feasible in any way.
That is where so much of the problems we currently face reside. It doesn’t appear that forethought for today’s actions and their effects on the land and people tomorrow fit into an economic package. Cultural genocide, environmental degradation, and racism cannot be offset. Phoenix has reached its tipping point and unless we pay attention to it now, the future will no longer be capable of supporting us.
Regardless of GRIC’s Tuesday vote outcome, we promise to continue the fight against the Loop 202 and all other frivolous attachments of the colonial genocidal urban sprawl mentality. We know that ADOT will continue to exhaust all of its resources–financial and natural–for this and other roads. We recognize that the problems with the Loop 202 originate with a systemic curse of greed that began more than 500 years ago.
We see this as none other than an extremely coercive effort by ADOT to once again pressure members of GRIC to accept the freeway. Sad but true, ADOT’s attempted onslaught of communities persists. We are energized to say we will continue our resistance to it. And we further state that we will continue to organize even stronger until it matches the need to end this unneeded expansion of ADOT’s.
Dear CTOC, What part of Sacred Don’t You Understand?
WE WILL HAVE A NEWER UPDATE ON A STATEMENT OF FURTHER RESISTANCE TO THE LOOP 202 OUT SOON! HERE IS REPORT BACK FROM THE LAST CTOC MEETING! WE HOPE YOU ENJOY.
January 24, 2012, a group of more than 3-dozen Loop 202 resisters united to confront the Citizens Transportation Oversight Committee (CTOC) at their first meeting of 2012. A portion of the resisters travelled from the Gila River Indian Community (GRIC), the community that would be most effected by the current proposal. Community members from Phoenix and surrounding cities also amassed to bring their heartfelt messages to the heartless CTOC.
Why the CTOC?
The CTOC is a group of individuals elected by the Governor and Maricopa County Board of Supervisors. This board holds the power (over the people) to convey and recommend messages pertaining to the allocation of state transportation funding and planning. They work hand-in-hand with other bureaucratic politicians such as the Maricopa Association of Governments (MAG) (which saw a strong community presence at their January 14, 2012 transportation committee meeting), Governor Brewer, and the director of the Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT). Conveniently enough, Chairpersyn Roc Arnett of CTOC is also a voting member of MAG.
At 3pm there was a high-energy rally held outside of the 206 S. 17th Ave. ADOT building, where the CTOC meeting was to be held. The entire block was host to numerous large banners, chalking of sidewalks, chants through a megaphone and other visible signs of resistance. Many Indigenous Dine’ and O’odham youth and Elders from Gila River were there to drive an often intentionally left out point of view to ADOT.
The rally eventually snaked around to the adjacent block. As they marched to the entrance their footsteps echoed to the chant of “What do we want?” “No Loop 202” “When do we want it?” “NOW!”
A strong spirit of confrontation filled the air and continued as the large group took their energy toward the building entrance. They lined the main walkway with banners, their chants reverberating through the courtyard. As the group lined in front of the entrance, a DPS officer aggressively barked orders declaring they could not block the door with their banners. He was answered with the chant: “No more needless roads! People need their fucking homes!” The same officer then got in the face of one of the protesters but was shouted down with the chant: “What part of Sacred don’t you understand?”
As the community members entered and advanced toward the meeting room with their banners they were told banners were not allowed. One of the resisters yelled inside that a border patrol checkpoint was being erected just like in the Tohono O’odham Nation. No laws were cited and upon request, once again, officers on duty refused to identify themselves while serving at a public meeting.
INSIDE THE CHAMBERS OF THE HEARTLESS BEAST
Leading up to the meeting the head of the CTOC approached one of the Gila River Community members and attempted to dissuade her from filling out two comment cards. This same tactic was used at the November CTOC meeting to make it impossible for the voice of the O’odham community to be heard at the meeting. It was demanded that he stop providing misinformation and to discuss this during the meeting as part of public record.
The public-comment period of the meeting was utilized by more than 15 different people opposed to the Loop 202 proposal. Although the committee repeatedly insisted the Loop 202 extension was not on the agenda, it fit in with three agenda items. Within the comment period for these items people addressed their animosity and full rejection of the Loop 202.
The meeting opened with a public comment period packed to the brim with disgust for the Loop 202. In general, the spirit of the rally was transferred into the auditorium as the Loop 202 resisters dominated the majority of the meeting. An assortment of varying comments were given by GRIC members, elders, as well as concerned community members representing most of the valley’s major cities.
Youth and elders from the community spoke to their personal experiences with health problems due to pollution, their necessity to maintain autonomy from the state, and a demand to protect sacred sites. Promises were made by all to fight until the freeway proposal is entirely dismantled.
The next agenda item commented on by Loop 202 resisters was the “Approval of the Minutes” from the CTOC meeting on November 15, 2011. GRIC members and other opponents spoke to their enragement that the Loop 202 had yet to been placed on the agenda, after it was demanded by GRIC members at the previous meeting that it be added to the agenda for the January meeting. It was also brought up how GRIC members were not allowed to speak at the November meeting.
The level to which the CTOC consistently ignores the demands of its constituents highlights its members’ blatant disregard for anything that doesn’t lead to the lining of their pockets.
During the “Five Year Performance Audit of the Maricopa County Regional Transportation Plan” agenda item, many approached the mic to share their discontent with the environmentally racist and harmful cultural, ecological, and physical repercussions of building the freeway extension. One member used the time to express his rage about the plans to transport ancestral remains dug up by ADOT to a museum. This was in response to one committee member’s statement of “odd reassurance” in regards to their process for frequently disrupting the burial grounds of indigenous people in the valley area.
Numerous times, the chairman and others said they understood there were a lot of “emotions” about the proposed freeway. Reducing human rights grievances to mere “emotions” by CTOC was evidence of their cultural, human, and environmental insensitivities and inability to listen to the hard facts that members were bringing up.
We will see if the CTOC is capable of bringing up the Loop 202 on the next agenda. We do not look to the CTOC or MAG for direction or understanding. Our presence at their meetings is to bring their arrogance to public attention. We rally to tear the social fabric holding their corporate networks and security together. Because we know under the outward togetherness of their business attire lays a permeable fragile bundle of nerves held together by the chance they stand unchallenged. Yet we know when we rise to challenge them, they quickly fall to the wayside of our challenge.
Everyone is welcome to an informational presentation on efforts to end the furthering of the proposed loop 202 freeway extension. Stand up for the health and well being of the people and land over economic development!
Join members of Gila River Against Loop 202 and No South Mountain Freeway as we will be discussing the current timeline of the freeway, the freeway’s origins in the international trade corridor CANAMEX, and why we are organizing to defend the health and well being of the people and land from corporate profits.
If built, the freeways attack on the health of both Akimel O’odham and Maricopa indigenous communities will be magnified far past the current smog inducing state of the road. These negative health impacts will definitely extend to the lives of residents in Ahwatukee and the larger valley area as well. In addition, the current alignment calls for the destruction of the western side of South Mountain, a cultural and sacred site to O’odham people.
Join us on Saturday, January 14, at 4:30 PM at DE-Occupy Phoenix (held at Cesar Chavez plaza) to hear about the struggle to stop loop 202, and how you can help to protect the mountain.
For background information and past actions in resistance too loop 202, and other ongoing issues facing indigenous people, check out the websites listed below:
We hope this discussion will help provide ways for others to join us at the upcoming M.A.G. and Citizens advisory Committee meetings. See this post for more information: Call-out for support at upcoming meetings
***This event is part of other larger efforts to ignite a spirit of action in support and solidarity with Indigenous Resistance to the loop 202 and other encroaching infrastructure projects. As well as efforts to attack the the roots of Capitalism , Neo-colonialism and in struggle to confront and end environmental racism. For healthy communities and a less oppressive future.*****
CALL FOR SUPPORT: PLEASE ATTEND THESE TWO MEETINGS! NO LOOP 202!
Wednesday January 18, 2012 4pm Maricopa Association of Governments (MAG) Public Transportation Policy Committee meeting MAG office suite 200 saguaro room
302 N. first ave (dwn twn phx across from the rail station)
Please attend the meeting and speak at the public comment period if you can.
We are also calling for a rally to take place before the meting 3pm outside of the MAG building (1st Ave. and Van Buren)
We will be leaving in time to make it up to the 2nd floor to sign up for the public comment period. So if you arrive after 3pm and the rally has ended join us upstairs for the meeting.
And then… Tuesday, January 24, 2012, 4pm Citizens Transportation Oversight Committee Arizona Department of Transportation Auditorium 206 South 17th Avenue , PHX
Leading up to these two events please see our blog for more updates. We plan to have a new zine coming out in the next couple weeks and other new media up as well!
For any questions or comments please e-mail: nosouthmountainfreeway@gmail.com
As the year 2011 was coming to a close a few people took advantage of the public meetings regarding transportation and the proposed Loop 202. Below are two sections from the minutes of meetings that community members spoke out against the freeway at:
From the November 15, CTOC meeting, minutes:
Public Written Comment Forms submitted to CTOC:
The following citizen’s were not in attendance during the Call to the Public; therefore, written comments are included here:
Paloma Allen, citizen regarding the Gila River against Loop 202. The Gila River Indian Community has two tribal resolutions stating our NO BUILD stance on the issue of the South Mountain extension to the Loop 202. We are stakeholders in the Loop 202 project as well as a sovereign nation, yet ADOT has not respected our NO BUILD wishes, and continues to advance this project against the wishes of our people. We oppose this Loop 202 extension on the grounds that South Mountain is the home of our deity, our Creator. We oppose to protect the air quality for our unborn children, to conserve the natural landscapes, plants and animal habitats that are all on South Mountain. Citizen’s Transportation Oversight Committee Minutes – November 15, 2011
6 Alex Soto, citizen regarding the Gila River against Loop 202. I demand the CTOC to stop the current South Mountain Loop 202 Freeway Extension “project”. This freeway will negatively effect my sister tribes, the Akimel O’odham who reside in the Gila River Indian Community. This freeway will add pollution that will affect the health of GRIC, encroach on GRIC, and desecrate South Mountain, which is a sacred site to all O’odham (Akimel Tohana O’odham). Lori Riddle, citizen with Gila River Alliance for a Clean Environment. I’d like to make a public comment on the Loop 202 South Mountain portion of this meeting (item 10). Thank you.
The following is from the October 19, 2011 MAG Transportation Policy Committee meeting. This is an audio clip of Jezz Putnam reading a nearly 30- year-old letter the Gila River Indian Community sent to HDR Engineering from the 80′s You can listen below:
The below text is taken from the meeting minuets. Chair Truitt recognized public comment from Jezz Putnam, who read a letter of concern dated September 10, 1986, from then Governor Donald Antone of the Gila River Indian Community that said the Community would like the results of the environmental impact statement prior to moving forward with any construction. Mr. Putnam stated he understood that there was going to be a vote by the Gila River Indian Community, but the cultural and environmental impacts of a South Mountain freeway are not known yet. He stated that it is the position of the Gila River Indian Community that the environmental impact statement would be the first step in the process of route selection.
Mr. Putnam then spoke of a letter dated August 14, 1986, by Preston Gibson that there were no comments at that time. Mr. Putnam stated that the cultural and environmental impacts have not been disclosed at any time and he would like that to come forward.
Chair Truitt thanked Mr. Putnam for his comments. He said that based upon the regional plan developed by MAG, ADOT is working with the Federal Highway Administration and other federal and state agencies to conduct the engineering and environmental study of the proposed freeway. This Environmental Impact Statement is still being developed and is expected to be out for public review and include a public hearing early next year. Chair Truitt stated that people are encouraged to provide comments through the project hotline at 602-712-7006. He advised that input provided through the hotline will become part of the public record.”
Once again we are asking that you please take the time to come and utilize the public comment period at these meetings. Let MAG and ADOT know we will not let them build this freeway. Support indigenous resistance, fight for healthy communities! No loop 202!-
We asking for anyone that is available to go to the these meetings this week. Tell ADOT “NO LOOP 202!”:
First on Tuesday the Citizens Transportation Oversight Committee Meeting will be meeting:
Citizens Transportation Oversight Committee
Arizona Department of Transportation Auditorium
Tuesday, November 15, 2011, 4:00 p.m.
206 South 17th Avenue Phoenix, Arizona 85007
And on Wednesday the MAG public transportation policy committee will be meeting.
Attend the meeting and speak at the public comment period
4pm MAG office 302 N. first ave
suite 200 saguaro room
Last month on Wednesday October 19, four loop 202 resistors attended the October Maricopa Association of Governors Transportation Policy Committee meeting. Prior to the meeting three of them held a banner reading “respect D6, no build, no loop 202″. Security came out and peered toward the resistors but no interactions were had.
Although not often taken advantage of one of the resistors used the open public comment period to speak against the freeway. They read a letter dating from 1986 from the then Gila River Indian council Governor.
From the minutes of the meeting:
Chair Truitt stated that an opportunity is provided to the public to address the Transportation Policy Committee on items that are not on the agenda that are within the jurisdiction of MAG, or non action agenda items that are on the agenda for discussion or information only. Citizens were requested not to exceed a three minute time period for their comments. An opportunity is provided to comment on agenda items posted for action at the time the item is heard.
Chair Truitt recognized public comment from Jezz Putnam, who read a letter of concern dated September 10, 1986, from then Governor Donald Antone of the Gila River Indian Community that said the Community would like the results of the environmental impact statement prior to moving forward with any construction. Mr. Putnam stated he understood that there was going to be a vote by the Gila River Indian Community, but the cultural and environmental impacts of a South Mountain freeway are not known yet. He stated that it is the position of the Gila River Indian Community that the environmental impact statement would be the first step in the process of route selection.
Mr. Putnam then spoke of a letter dated August 14, 1986, by Preston Gibson that there were no comments at that time. Mr. Putnam stated that the cultural and environmental impacts have not been disclosed at any time and he would like that to come forward.
Chair Truitt thanked Mr. Putnam for his comments. He said that based upon the regional plan developed by MAG, ADOT is working with the Federal Highway Administration and other federal and state agencies to conduct the engineering and environmental study of the proposed freeway. This Environmental Impact Statement is still being developed and is expected to be out for public review and include a public hearing early next year. Chair Truitt stated that people are encouraged to provide comments through the project hotline at 602-712-7006. He advised that input provided through the hotline will become part of the public record.
Here is part of one of the letters read:
Gila river will be voting on this in February of next year. Please Come out to either or both of these meetings and tell ADOT “NO LOOP 202!”
