2 min readby Jimmy Ojeda, I have been attending the Transit Task Force (TTF) meetings for over two years now. This task force is formed by representatives of all the City Council Offices and Citizen Transportation Advisory Committee (CTAC). City staff is also present, including Sun-Tran Administration. Yesterday, for the first time, I thought this group of people that “represent” bus riders and all stakeholders, was actually moving in the right direction. For several years it has been a constant battle between the Bus Riders Union and the city bureaucrats not to increase the bus fares. For this reason, the City Council

5 min readby Cesar Aguirre As the end of the school year winded down and summer break couldn’t come soon enough I received a call from my daughters’ grandmother, their mom’s mom, to give me the news that my step-son Boogie would be going back to live with them. Knowing that I am very involved with public education she asked me to look into a summer school program for him because he is behind in school. Jesus, or Boogie as I call him, just turned 16 last month and will start this coming school year as a second year freshman. When his

4 min readLaura Alameda has lived and worked here with her extended family for the last 8 years. She is the heart and soul of Casa Maria. No one works harder than she does. Laura made it through 6th grade in Nogales Sonora. It has been a privilage to see both her beautiful daughters, Carmen and Yanseli, graduate from Pueblo High School! Yanseli is now a tennis star at Pima College! This is her story: by Yanseli Alameda, When my senior year of tennis season approached at Pueblo High School I could not picture myself planning to play at the next level.

2 min readby Brian Flagg (go to: http://azstarnet.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/city-council-scraps-bus-changes-in-budget-plan/article_22a41a05-d573-5e52-a631-05d885f3d078.html) GRACIAS to the 5 votes, (Karin Uhlich, Regina Romero, Paul Cunningham, Richard Fimbres and Shirley Scott) for standing up for transit justice in the face of lying city bureaucrats. The article stated that Assistant City Manager Albert Elias “stressed that bus service wasn’t being cut. Instead routes were being realigned to meet the demand of bus riders.” How stupid do they think we are? They were trying to cut transit by $2.4 million. The bus would come less frequent on 11 major bus routes. Do they really think that their fake public outreach efforts

2 min readThe Sun Tran bureaucrats plan to issue a report to the Mayor and Council on May 6th that says that proposed service cuts to 12 of the Sun Tran fixed routes will not have a “disparate impact” on low income and minority riders. To make matters worse, the majority of the services being cut are on the South and West sides. Their own numbers tell the story. For all the fixed routes (not the express routes) the ridership is 62% minority and 68% low income. How much higher would these numbers be for ridership in Wards 1 and 5, the Westside