by Brian Flagg
In the middle of this recent attack on the transit budget orchestrated by the Mayor? the City Manager? and whomever else, I received an email from the renowned transit advocate Suzanne Schafer, entitled: “Where were we (and Karin Uhlich) on May 19?”
It read:
“That’s when the budget was presented and the cap was approved with the $2.4 million out of transit. Staff was not explicit about the route changes involved and senior transit officials were aghast that NO ONE ASKED. Basically they got direction from the City Manager’s office to not bring on a fuss but the BRU wasn’t there and Karin didn’t push back and make them explain HOW they were going to take that all out of transit.”
And I would add that none of our other usual allies on the Council said anything at the time or alerted us that something like this was in the works.
We and I somehow got it in our minds that in this, an election year, transit would not be attacked. We were clear that everyone had agreed that the Transit Envisioning Process would play out before changes to the system occurred.
We were wrong.
After we figured it out we went to Karin. Her meager attempts to restore the majority of the service cuts almost entirely failed. Only three of the proposed route cuts were undone.
Karin continues to talk very positive about how we are developing a vision of how to do transit better. But this is all illusion without the will to fight for the dollars necessary to make it happen. It’s all about the money!
The moral of the story? Ultimately, it’s our own fault, it’s my fault. We were not vigilant. We need to be better organized and not trust politicians. Or surface our own progressive candidates from among the ranks of the poor and working class and put them forward?
And I just got to invoke the words of Peter Townshend from The Who, “We Won’t Get Fooled Again!”
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NO MAS SERAMOS ENGANADOS!
traducido por Cesar Gonzalez
Yo recibí un e-mail de Suzanne Schafer explicando me como los politicos de la ciudad votaran para un porsupuesto en el 19 de Mayo que incluido $2.4 million de cortes a la systema de camiones.
Los burócratas del Camion fueron asombrados que los politicos pudieron a hacer este golpe sin muchos pleitos de los pasajeros, su union, y todo el publico. La City Manager dijo que es mejor a tratar a esconder este hecho.
Los politicos que nos apoyan usualmente no dijeron nada sobre esto en la junta en 19 de Mayo. Ni recibimos llamada sobre esto.
Estuvimos pensando que fuimos seguro de golpes es este ano porque tuvimos acuerdos sobre como vamos a hacer cambios al sistema de Camiones.
No hicimos lo correcto.
Nuestro campeona en la lucha por justicia por pasajeros no fue muy fregona defendiendo a los pasajeros. Ella ha halado mucho sobre una vision mejor para el sistema de camiones. Pero ella y todos necesitamos luchar por el dinero para el sistema. Es sobre la feria!
Al final, la culpa es de nosotros. No tuvimos la suficiente vision. Necesitamos organizarnos mejor. Talvez estuvimos confiando demasiado en los politicos. Muy posiblemente necesitamos encontrar nuestros propios candidatos.
No mas sevemos enganados!