NACTO's Non-Profit Status Needs to be Reconsidered
Take a peak at this photograph.
Notice anything?
Look back below the closest cyclist in the photo and it’s revealed that he, as well as the others in the photograph are riding down this road going the wrong direction. While the smiles make for a pleasing photograph, this is coming from a group of people who assert that there is such thing as “traffic violence” (a term that’s replaced others such as traffic accidents, collisions, or crashes) and nonsensical concepts such as “mobility transportation justice.”
This crowd is often highly critical of advertisements by motor vehicle makers asserting they’re at least partially responsible for the deaths on roads. Take Streetsblog’s Kea Wilson for example, who authored “Why Traffic Violence Victims Can’t Easily Sue Automakers That Advertise Cars That Kill.” In that article she notes that victims of mass shootings were able to sue the manufacturers of the firearms (
might have more to say about why this is ineffective) and she argues that victims of so-called “traffic violence” should be able to sue manufacturers of motor vehicles.This delusion isn’t only felt by Wilson:
Wilson is no fan of automobile ads asserting, citing a fiat academia study, that these ads cause drivers of these automobiles to drive recklessly which leads to the killing of roughly 40,000 people each year in the United States. The idea that people are this vulnurable to having their behavior changed by a simple commercial ignores individual agency at the least and at most ignores human nature.
All this goes to say… if these people had any desire to practice what they preach, they’d perhaps show the bicyclists in their photos as modeling best behavior, i.e., riding in the direction of traffic, which is orders of magnitudes safer than wrong-way riding, but also the legal direction to ride.
This post largely isn’t about that though. It’s about NACTO.
The National Assocation of City Transportation Officials, otherwise known as NACTO are a New York City based 501(c)(3) non-profit organzation which consists of member cities. For an annual fee of $25,000, a medium to large sized US city (>400k) or metro area (>2 million population) can join NACTO as a Full Member - provided their application is also approved by the organization’s Board of Directors. That same monetary amount can extend International Membership for cities and metropolitian areas outside the United States too. For the small to medium sized cities, Affiliate Membership is offered with the price ranging between $7500 and $12,000 depending on the population. Transit agencies also have their own membership tier.
“Members,” provided with a number of perks. For one, NACTO publishes a number of “design” guides such as the Urban Street Design Guide, the Transit Street Design Guide, and the Urban Bikeway Design Guide. The latter indeed has some useful and innovative treatments but also includes hazards such as door zone bike lanes and manufactured conflicts at driveways and intersections.
There are also conferences, such as the one that occured this year in Denver.
That poor city.
NACTO are the ones who sent out the request in the first photo.
Both their X feed and email sent out to their mailing list openly call for a “US-based early or mid career professional of color working to embed mobility justice”
The email itself elaborates a bit more saying, “the Fellowship supports US-based, early- and mid-career professionals of color who are working to embed mobility justice in transportation agency priorities and beyond,” and, “From tools for professional growth to insights on promoting equity in the transportation sector, the Transportation Justice Fellowship offers a talented group of change agents the opportunity to learn together and work at the forefront of transportation justice!”
In other words, ths 501(c)(3) non-profit, whose membershp comprises of cities and transit agencies - all funded by taxpayers, is openly discriminating based on both age and race.
Per their website:
*We have adopted the People of Color Nonprofit Professionals group definition of “People of Color” as: “African descent/Black, Asian, Chicanx/Latinx, First Nations/Native American/Indigenous, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander, Southwest Asian, North African/Arab, Middle Eastern, Muslim, South Asian, and Mixed-Race peoples, and people identifying with regions of the world outside of Europe and not part of a history of settler colonialism (e.g., white European Dutch-English South Africans).
So if you’re Sami, tough shit. You’re still European, and your skin doesn’t contain sufficient amounts of melanin.
The application itself, is an orgy of woke cringe.
NACTO’s 2021 Form 990 showed they received just above 60% of their cash flow from We The People.
And in 2020 along with Kanye West they received a Paycheck Protection Plan (PPP) loan, over half was forgiven.
Many of their employees, per the Form 990, recieve six-figure salaries.
Is it illegal for a non-profit to discriminate by race?
Infamous (actual) white supremacist Richard Spencer runs a 501(c)(3) called the National Policy Institute. The IRS rescinded its tax-exempt status not because of his obvious racism but because the organiztion failed to file returns for three years.
So, perhaps not.
But should an organization, which is composed of government bureaucrats (whose salaries are provided by theft) pretending to speak “for the people,” be allowed to discriminate based on immutable characteristics?
Likely not.
Either way, this smells of a Title VI violation. Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that is given NACTO have received Federal monies via a PPP loan. The Federal Government is quite clear on the illegality of race-based discrimination.
Title VI prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, or national origin in any program or activity that receives Federal funds or other Federal financial assistance. Programs that receive Federal funds cannot distinguish among individuals on the basis of race, color or national origin, either directly or indirectly, in the types, quantity, quality or timeliness of program services, aids or benefits that they provide or the manner in which they provide them. This prohibition applies to intentional discrimination as well as to procedures, criteria or methods of administration that appear neutral but have a discriminatory effect on individuals because of their race, color, or national origin.
Given that NACTO are based in New York, said state also has strict anti-discrimination laws. NYC itself even has a Commision on Human Rights which offers process for complaints.
The citizens of NACTO’s various member cities too may be equally appauled their money has not only been stolen from them via force, but that it was also used by unaccountable bureaucrats to fund a bigoted organization.
The IRS has a complaint process for organizations in violation.
If enough people file complaints with the IRS, not just against NACTO but also People for Bikes and the other grift organizations “sponsoring” this tax-slave supported act of discrimination, perhaps something will be done. This likely goes against the requirements for nearly any type of non-profit organization.
The City of Philadelphia too should be ashamed given their logo adorns the racist (and ageist) program propaganda. The bureaucrats responsible should be fired immediately and every dime they’ve stolen returned to the residents of the city.
It’s correct to say that racism in the United States isn’t, as Thomas Sowell has said, isn’t dead, but still on life support. It’s been kept alive by woke/racists/progressives, and many of them parasitize on the labor of normal people by virtue of being bureaucrats.