The MTA held a public meeting today to vote on a proposed fare restructuring proposal that will have disastrous consequences for the city's mostly impoverished bus riders. Leading the opposition to this increase is the Bus Riders Union (BRU), which mobilized an enormous contingent of mostly poor working and unemployed bus riders to attend the meeting and testify against the increase.

The following pictures are chronologically ordered and the captions briefly tell the story of the meeting.

Media coverage was extensive and I just heard channel 5's report and for corporate media it was fairly informative. When a significant people's movement flexes its muscle in public it _is_ still possible to break through, or at least ruffle, the media's "corporate curtain."

All seats will filled an an overflow crowd gathered at the back of the room and snaked out into the hallway. Later, the MTA ordered all of those standing into a separate room with closed circuit TV showing the meeting room, reducing the number visible in the room (although even at the end of the meeting, most of the seats were still filled).

Translation devices are distributed by an organizer from the BRU, so that non-English-speaking members of the public could fully participate in the meeting.

The MTA announced that no public comment would be heard on the fare increase issue. Bus riders responded by rising from their seats, chanting, and completely shutting down the meeting. The MTA responded by fleeing the room. The remained AWOL for one hour, keeping the public waiting and wasting everybody's time.

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The suit and briefcase set was there as usual in their own little corner of the room, looking for public money, of course. Doesn't the one guy look exactly like Dick Cheney?

When the MTA left, the BRU took over the meeting from the floor and spoke to those attending, explaining what had happened and what was likely to occur. Then, they held an informal press conference which resulted in extensive coverage on the evening news.

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During the MTA Boards unannounced "recess," an angry exchange occurred between this unknown (to me) rider and an official of the MTA, who shouted at the rider in front of the cameras.

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After an hour of absence which turned out to be significantly detrimental to their reputation, the Board decided that it would hear public comment at last.

Only one minute was provided to each person testifying, so this rider decided to sing a fare hike protest to the tune of "I've Been Working On The Railroad."

Long-time transit researcher and gadfly John Walsh testified angrily and humorously on several agenda items related to the increase. His piece de resistance was tearing up a bus pass (whose price is being increased by almost 20 percent) and (literally) eating it. He remarked that although due to poor service the pass was not worth the money charged for it by the MTA, when it passed through the system the next day it would still be worth more than the entire MTA board combined.

Korean-American BRU Activist "Grandma Kim" testifies, with translation by another BRU member.

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This bus rider told the MTA that the impact of their fare increases on her limited budget would be to force her to choose between diapers and maxi pads. She left both boxes on the podium, where they remained for the rest of the meeting.

After detailing the economic impact of these increases upon her life, this bus rider took several shirts and tossed them over the railing into the MTA's area to illustrate that they were taking the shirt off her back. The Board was evidently so stunned that these items remained on the carpet for the rest of the meeting, along with the diapers and maxi pads on the podium.

Prior to this member's testimony, MTA Board Member and County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky accused bus riders in general of "Making out like bandits" with the fare subsidies "given" to them by the MTA. This BRU member pointed out that a large chunk of the MTA's budget comes from a regressive one percent sales tax that is paid by the poor, and that the MTA is spending public money that comes to a significant extent from the riders themselves.

After public comment was completed, the MTA had some discussion, during which Board Members Yoh, Hahn and Burke expressed attitudes toward the increase ranging from skepticism to direct opposition. Supervisor and Board Member Zev Yarolslavsky and Board Member Fasana spoke in support of the increase. When the vote was taken, only Yoh, Hahn, Burke and Hudson voted against the increase. The measure passed by a single vote. Gloria Molina, who represents a low income area containing many bus riders, cast the deciding vote in favor, thereby significantly reducing the living standards of many of her constituents.

This is how the meeting ended. A large group then staged an impromptu march from the meeting to Glora Molina's office to protest her vote. Molina's staff refused to meet with the protestors.

Tax wealthy Republican and Libertarian suburbanites; use the money for free bus, trolley and subway service. Let these parasites give back to the community a little of what they have stolen through rent gauging, outrageous doctor bills, miserable pay for gardeners, janitors and other essential workers, and the trust accounts and real estate they inherited from their larcenous parents.

http://www.smmirror.com/volume4/issue48/proposed_mta_fare.asp

Know the PR techniques used to justify the redistribution of wealth into wealthier (whiter hands). In a Santa Monica Mirror article Ed Scannell, Media Relations for the MTA denies the charge of MTA's racism by asserting that white riders use the bus and rail in "almost equal numbers...14.1 percent of riders on the Green Line, which connects Norwalk and Redondo Beach, are white." Scannell insists, while on "the bus system 12.5 percent of the riders are white." Yet just 3 paragraphs above that assertion, the very same article admits "last year, MTA had 1.1 million bus riders and 225,000 rail riders." Calculators already at hand, I know you are already ahead of me. Who do you think is paying more for the 225,000 rail passengers a year and MTA's future rail projects, the 137,500 white bus passengers or the 962,500 brown ones?

CONTACT:
Ed Scannell/Marc Littman
MTA MEDIA RELATIONS
(213) 922-2703/922-2700 www.mta.net/press/pressroom
e-mail: mediarelations@mta.net
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Yes, the fact that similar small numbers of white people use both bus and rail lines (although there are sitll more whites on rail, and subsidies are hugely skewed to upper-income whites - e.g., on the Metrolink) is used to mask the racism of the MTA's policies - a racism over which they have already been forced to settle in court.

The entire mass transportation system is used overwhelmingly by impoverished people of color. The MTA's insistence upon pursuing hugely expensive and ineffective rail projects to the detriment of economical and effective bus transportation is a result of its desire to satisfy corporations that have made campaign contributions to the Board's directors for their various elected offices and have found other ways to reward Board members who favor contracts with their firms.

Hence, the MTA would rather pay 300 million dollars per mile for the Red Line than spend a tiny fraction of that on bus service that serves many, many more riders.

You might say, well, that is corrupt, but how is it racist if people of color are also riding the trains? The answer is obvious, and has been pointed out already by the previous poster 1984ISHere: The MTA's misallocation of public funds to grossly inefficient transportation modalities with enormous cost overruns (i.e., rail) is essentially theft, and it benefits huge corporations (e.g., Tutor-Saliba and Parsons-Dillingham construction firms who build the train systems) who in turn find ways of benefiting the MTA board members who support these projects.

The racism becomes apparent when you notice that the overwhelming majority of those _victimized_ by this theft are poor people of color who are forced to rely upon mass transportation. This is the most oppressed demographic in the city and it is precisely for that reason that the MTA feels that it can get away with robbing it of essential transportation services in order to serve its corporate masters.

If you _really_ want to squirm and call this opportunism rather than racism, then you might as well call the people who moved into the homes of Jews in Poland after the Nazis carted the Jews away to death camps "opportunists," too. People who deliberately take advantage of those who are victims of a racist system and who therefore cannot put up an adequate resistance are racists themselves.

To learn more, visit the Bus Riders Union at:

http://www.busridersunion.org

or call the BRU at: 213-387-2800.

Non-bus riders may also join the BRU as supporters.

BRU and Critical Mass need to get together.

I ride the bus!"