Running for Transit (Because Your Commute Doesn't Have to Suck) - The Most Important Question

Update: 2025-10-24

Description

Things are a little tough out there. So you, want, no need, more examples of fight and progress you can actually see and touch and feel. And in these series of conversations, in partnership with our best friends at Run for Something, we are giving you exactly what you asked for.

Each episode features two guests, both sourced from the Run for Something pipeline and graduating classes, the next generation of American leaders. First, I'll introduce one young elected official at the state or local level who's made real, measurable progress on an issue facing more Americans than ever before.

And then in the same conversation I'll introduce a bright-eyed candidate currently running for a state legislature, mayor, city council, or school board, who's similarly hell bent on attacking the very same issue in their own hometown or state.

And for all you know, it could be yours. Or yours next, because you and I will find out together what they're working on and why, where they've made progress, where they've struggled, and how their exact tactics and strategies can be transferred to other schools, towns, cities, and states across the country.

First up today our topic: transit. We need way more of it. We used to have more of it. We need it to be more reliable, and we need it to be more affordable.

Our incumbent, New York State Senator Andrew Gounardes was born and raised in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. Following Superstorm Sandy Andrew co-founded Bay Ridge Cares, an organization that prepared 25,000 hot meals for victims after the storm, and as a member of the Rider's Alliance, he organized and formed the Concerned R-Train Riders to fight for better service and demand handicapped accessible subway stations in South Brooklyn. Andrew also worked with Bay Ridge Advocates for Keeping Everyone Safe or BRAKES and successfully pressured lawmakers to allow speed cameras in school zones, a fight he continues to wage all the way to Albany.

Our candidate, Miranda Schubert is a candidate for Tucson City Council, Ward 6. Miranda works full-time as an operations manager, on-air DJ, producer, and youth broadcasting camp counselor at KXCI Community Radio. She serves on two City of Tucson Commissions, is the founder of Tucson for Everyone, a local housing and transit advocacy group, and helped form the transit for all coalition there.

So you've got two amazing humans here fighting for more, more affordable, and safer transit, for more of our neighbors.

Let's go find out what it means for their hometowns and yours.

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Have feedback or questions? Tweet us, or send a message to questions@importantnotimportant.com

New here? Get started with our fan favorite episodes at podcast.importantnotimportant.com.

Take Action at www.whatcanido.earth

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INI Book Club:

The Power Broker and The Passage of Power by Robert A. Caro
Saving Time by Jenny Odell
Find all of our guest recommendations at the INI Book Club: https://bookshop.org/lists/important-not-important-book-club

Links:

Music recs: Bad Bunny Radio and Tucson 250+ Playlist
Read the New Yorker article about Families for Safe Streets https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-local-correspondents/when-cars-kill-pedestrians
Follow Sen. Gounardes on Twitter or Instagram @agounardes
Support Miranda's campaign at mirandaforwardsix.com
Support other young progressives at runforsomething.net or find a local office where you can run youself at https://wherecanirun.org/

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