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About Street roots. (Portland, OR) 1998-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 17, 2012)
street roots Feb. 17, 2012 One Penny Too Many (no well around) By Jay Thiemeyer TriMet fare plan unfair to poorer bus riders n o /v i BY JONATHAN OSTAR C O N T R IB U T IN G W R IT E R I clutch two pennies From the sidewalk I reach down and pluck them One by one with my good left hand Remembering how lucky Or unlucky two pennies Have always been for me And how it was always worse If I tried to ignore them And leave them there On the sidewalk Overhead a lit sign Ignites the sidewalk’s rain ‘$22 — all night parking’ The sign wants me to know: once, I slept in a corner there Beneath the hood Of a car it was too dark To see but no one saw me Till dawn When the rain had stopped And I split When the garage attendant kicked my feet And not a soul At Blanchet’s morning feed Complained about my smell One block later I saw another penny I chose to leave it for the next fella The inevitable next fella It’s winter, cold, always Wet, the air is wet All the time And the shelters are full Three pennies are much heavier than two When two’s too few For anything except a wish In a well or two Where the only thing to present To that dark gaping hole Is the unholy wish To get away and forget What the pennies remind me of And I don’t see A well anywhere And the liquor store doesn’t open For one more hour You can’t take it I am what’s been taken ransit equity means identifying and prioritizing the needs of those who O R S A ^ iZ lN S PEOPLE / AC TW ATIN6 LEASERS rely on transit the most. Fare increases and service cuts should always Jonathan Ostar is the director, OPAL be a last resort, yet TriMet is proposing to Environmental Justice Oregon, a grassroots increase fares, cut services and eliminate nonprofit advocating for environmental and social justice. round-trip transfers to save money. These changes will hurt regular transit riders who depend on transit the most. in Washington DC, projecting $4 million If you’re a transit-dependent rider and less in federal grant revenue in the next live in outer Southeast Portland or out in fiscal year. Regardless of what Congress Forest Grove, you rely on the bus as a eventually does with the federal lifeline: to get to the grocery store, the transportation bill, the vast majority of pharmacy, jobs and job interviews. Right federal dollars that come to TriMet are for now, if you can’t afford a monthly or annual capital construction projects, so should bus pass, you are using cash or single have little to no bearing on its service. tickets, and you try to get as much use out Third, TriMet is using too conservative of that single ticket as possible. This means of a forecast in projecting $3.2 million less $2.10 for a two-zone round-trip to the in payroll tax revenue. In fiscal year 2011, nearest grocery store. Under TriMet’s TriMet used a 4 percent growth rate for recent proposal, this simple errand will payroll tax revenue, but actually received cost you $5.00. $7 million more than projected. In fiscal TriMet is justifying these fare increases year 2012, TriMet again used a 4 percent and service cuts with poor data, faulty growth rate and is on track to again analysis and a lack of transparency and underestimate by $7 million. For fiscal year accountability that leaves transit riders 2013, TriMet used a more conservative confused and in the dark. growth rate of 3.5 percent, meaning it First, TriMet is blaming its bus drivers thinks the economy will get worse, not for wanting the best health care. TriMet better, and is estimating a shortfall of $3.2 claims that the current contract will cost million. Recent trends show that we will the agency $5 million to $10 million more end up with more payroll tax revenue than than projected. We all should stand with estimated. Conservative estimates and the union in these negotiations, and they surpluses are generally good things, but have every incentive to ensure service and should not be used to justify making such ridership are maintained, as this protects major fare increases, service cuts and their jobs. What’s important here is that policy changes. this cost was foreseeable, and TriMet And what of TriMet’s engagement with should not be driving a wedge between those who will be impacted the most by drivers and its riders due to its poor these fare increases? In 2011, OPAL management. enlisted more than 6,000 transit riders — Second, TriMet is blaming partisanship T primarily from East Portland - who supported extending transfer times to three hours as a way to inject value back into the system for riders who could not afford a transit pass. More than 30 community-based organizations endorsed this campaign goal. What we learned is that TriMet lacks the information and data needed to accurately estimate how this policy change might impact the bottomline or improve people’s access to positive, healthy outcomes. This same faulty analysis is now being used to justify the current proposal to eliminate round-trip transfers, all to save, at most, $3 million dollars, which is less than 1 percent of TriMet’s overall $400 million budget. What we hear from our members, echoed by many transit-dependent riders who attended a TriMet forum at the Immigrant and Refugee Community Organization on Feb. 9 was that many people use transit for these short but necessary errands, and won’t be able to afford paying $5 every day they need to leave their homes. It is time for people who depend on TriMet as a lifeline — low-income people, people of color, people with disabilities, immigrants and refugees, the elderly and youth — to get organized and make our voices heard to maintain our basic rights, demand transit equity, and preserve round trip transfers. O P A L Environmental Justice Oregon is a 501c3 grassroots nonprofit empowering low- income communities and people of color to for environmental and social justice. To connect with O P A L to support and join our B us Riders Unite membership, visit us on the web at www.opalpdx.org, or call 503- 928-4354. S is te rs Of The Rood T E R N A T ÏO N A L * We tip our mugs to Coffee Bean International for donating coffee to Street Roots and keeping our vendors warm in the morning! Thank you! coffee bean IN T E R N A T IO N A L » c r e a t in g c o m m u n ity , c r e a tin g c h a n g e ,t o g e t h e r SISTERS OF THE ROAD XX X . we are— » » hospitality & friendship community change through the Dorothy Day Community School » working together for nonviolence & justice » and don’t forget: fun! Stop h for a delirious meol, Mondoy-f riday, lOom - î:ÎOpm 133 NW 6th Ave. in Portland 503-222-5694 w w w .s is te r s o fth e r o a d .o r g
