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
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