PPT will be helping to facilitate a community meeting with the residents of Baldwin to talk about the borough’s transit needs and steps that can be taken to help improve and restore service. See all the details below and help us to publicize by distributing the attached poster to your friends and neighbors!
Community Meeting on Transit in Baldwin
WHEN: Wednesday, June 18 at 7:00PM
WHERE: The Baldwin Borough Building (3344 Churchview Ave, Pittsburgh PA 15227)
See and share the EVENT FLYER here!
On Tuesday, May 20, members of PPT and the ATU’s Local 85 joined transit supporters from around the country in our nation’s capitol to call for federal transportation funding. The rally and lobby day was organized by the Amalgamated Transit Union and the Transit Workers’ Union as a part of their Transit Action Month campaign.
Speakers at the rally included elected and union officials, Rev. Al Sharpton, and PPT’s own Alicia Williamson, who shared our Transit Bill of Rights and the scoop on how we mobilized thousands of riders, workers, and supporters around it in order to help get a comprehensive transportation funding bill passed in Pennsylvania last fall in spite of some pretty significant political obstacles. “Which just goes to show,” she said, “that an organized ridership working in solidarity with organized labor GETS THE GOODS. Workers fighting together get the goods. We did it in Harrisburg; we can do it here.” She also thanked the ATU for “being a union that makes things happen, for making our transit systems better and safer and more equitable, and especially for helping to bring riders and drivers together to fight for what’s right because we’re not just workers and customers in a business, we’re co-owners in a public service that benefits everyone whether or not you ride.”
PPT was proud to stand with the ATU to call for more public support and funding for public mass transit. Most importantly, Transit Action Month has helped us build communities and coalitions to improve OUR transit system. Fix it. Fund it. Make it fair!
PPT was happy to be invited to present this morning to PAAC’s Urban Land Institute advisory panel on the future of our transit system. We told them about us and our Transit Bill of Rights and suggested that PAAC sign onto it.
What would it look like for Port Authority to join us in affirming and realizing these rights? Well, for starters…
You can also have your say about public transportation in our region by registering for the Port Authority’s MindMixer forum – sign up and speak out today! http://paac.mindmixer.com/
Twenty-one PPT volunteers, including eleven Port Authority riders and ten drivers, took to the streets of Baldwin on Saturday, May 10 to see if residents wanted their bus back and if they were willing to take action to get it, and the answer to both was a resounding “yes.” We surveyed over 300 people in the neighborhood, all of whom agreed restoring public transit service was a vital need for their community. We heard stories from workers whose daily commute has increased to four hours round-trip following the cut of the Spencer route, from seniors who have taken to hitchhiking down the hill to get to local businesses, from landlords who are unable to fill their rentals because there’s no transit access, and many more.
We’ll be doing our part to make sure all these voices and those of the many other under-served neighborhoods around the county are heard by decision-makers. Help us to communicate the transit needs of our communities by sharing our online survey and volunteering to survey your neighbors!
Pittsburghers for Public Transit is launching a new campaign to restore service and push for increased public inclusion in transit planning processes, and we’d like to hear your input.
For starters, we’re asking for your help in assessing the need for mass transit in the North Baldwin, Brentwood, and Carrick communities. PPT is well aware of the lack of mass transit in these neighborhoods, and thus we are encouraging residents to take a few minutes to fill out an online survey so we may better understand the needs of this under-served area and communicate them to decision-makers.
The brief survey is available under the “Baldwin Survey” tab on our website. Please encourage your neighbors to fill out the survey as well!
Bricolage’s Fifth Wall series seeks to break down the barriers between scripted storytelling and current events in the world at large.
The 2014 Fifth Wall Series continues with a panel discussion on public transit in Allegheny County. Specifically, how (or if) public input should be included in planning for public transit. Panelists include:
Lucy Spruill – Committee for Accessible Transportation
Bonnie Young-Laing – Hill District Consensus Group
Ben Samson – Architectural Designer
Tom Conroy – Amalgamated Transit Union
Grant Ervin – City of Pittsburgh
Moderated by Chris Potter – Pittsburgh City Paper
Transit Tales, a collaboration between GoBurgh, Bricolage, and Pittsburghers for Public Transit is a multimedia program of community engagement, experience documentation, and creative storytelling that aims to raise public awareness and positive perception of public transit while attracting involvement from a diversity of audiences that may not engage in traditional conversations.
YOU did this – you didn’t give up! Even when the news on Monday was grim, you kept calling and emailing state legislators. Our contacts in Harrisburg say your efforts made the crucial difference!
Please join us to celebrate the victory at a performance of your very own stories, Transit Tales at Bricolage Production Company tomorrow during Light Up Night, downtown at 937 Liberty Ave, starting at 8pm.
We will be planning next steps at our General Membership meeting this Saturday, from 10-11:30am in the Homestead Grays room of the Human Services Building, at One Smithfield St, downtown Pittsburgh. Free parking is in back – driveway into the lot is on Fort Pitt Blvd.
Please join us – we want to make sure that public transit planning in the future will include our concerns, our ideas, and the needs of our communities.
THANKS AGAIN – YOU KEPT OUR TRANSIT ROLLING!!!
BREAKING: Pa. transportation funding bill in jeopardy
Contact Key Legislators
In addition to urging your own elected officials to vote for the funding, we are asking that you reach out to legislators in parts of Pennsylvania where they and their constituents are not as informed on why public transit is so important to the economy and to the tax base of the entire state budget. Please take a few moments to call their offices and share the information below.
Rep. Michelle Brooks 724-588-8911
Rep. Sheryl Delozier 717-761-4665
Rep. Keith Gillespie 717-840-4711
Rep. Glen Grell 717-795-6091
Rep. Sue Helm 717-651-0100
Rep. Mark Keller 717-582-8119
Rep. Ron Marsico 717-652-3721
Rep. John Payne 717-534-1323
Rep. Rick Saccone 412-653-1025
Rep. Stan Saylor 717-244-9232
Rep. Curtis Sonney 814-897-2080
Rep. Mike Turzai 412-369-2230
Please tell them:
Please call today! We send enormous thanks to all the volunteers who have already helped reach out to voters and legislators across the state.
The PA General Assembly is down to the wire, with just five session days left to address the transportation funding issue before Thanksgiving. That’s why we’re reaching out to legislators tomorrow to impress upon them how important it is that they pass a robust bill that funds transit, as well as roads and bridges.
Most important in ensuring that legislators hear our message, is making sure that they hear from their constituents. We are looking for volunteers to staff a phone bank toight, November 13th to reach out to voters across the state. from 6-8:30pm at the Sierra Club, 425 N. Craig
Contact Key Legislators
Because Allegheny House Representatives are generally supportive of public transit, we are asking that you reach out to legislators in parts of Pennsylvania where they and their constituents are not as informed on why public transit is so important to the entire state economy and budget. Please take a few moments to call their offices and share the information below.
Rep. Michelle Brooks 724-588-8911
Rep. Sheryl Delozier 717-761-4665
Rep. Keith Gillespie 717-840-4711
Rep. Glen Grell 717-795-6091
Rep. Sue Helm 717-651-0100
Rep. Mark Keller 717-582-8119
Rep. Ron Marsico 717-652-3721
Rep. John Payne 717-534-1323
Rep. Rick Saccone 412-653-1025
Rep. Stan Saylor 717-244-9232
Rep. Curtis Sonney 814-897-2080
Rep. Mike Turzai 412-369-2230
Please tell them:
Please call today! We send enormous thanks to all the volunteers who have already helped reach out to voters and legislators across the state.
Recent Pittsburgh Post-Gazette articles raised concerns about potential plans for a “bus free downtown” and, more importantly, the possibility of non-inclusive public transit planning processes that would give more weight to a limited range of developer and business interests rather than to the needs of a broad range of stakeholders that would be most affected by such plans. County Executive Richard Fitzgerald and Mayoral candidate Peduto have responded that no such plan has been laid on the table and that there will definitely be public process for future planning.
Not only is readily accessible public transit crucial to the health of our urban core, but this connective hub promotes the entire region’s economic, environmental and social health. All plans and decision-making processes for major transit re-routing must be fully inclusive of all the stakeholders that would be most affected and fully respectful of the complex decisions about equity and economic health that we must face together as a diverse set of interdependent communities.
We invite all who are affected by or involved in public transit planning to participate in one or more of a series of public meetings to fully consider these practical and social justice issues and then participate in action planning sessions. Each session will begin with guest speakers who have expertise or experience in public transit issues, then participants will share their own experience and information, and develop an outline of concerns, priorities and action plans to promote more inclusive and informed public engagement in transit routing decisions. These outlines will be presented to media, transit planners and elected officials in early 2014.
October 26th
10-11:30am: PPT General Membership meeting: you’re invited to join our General Membership meeting as we begin with a general discussion of current concerns about our public transit system, our neighborhood chapter efforts, and formation of an all-volunteer force to carry forward an action campaign calling for democratic inclusion in public transit planning.
12-2pm: Overview of our public transit system and our priorities: Pittsburgh City Transportation Planner Patrick Roberts will give an overview of how public transit functions within the Pittsburgh region’s larger multimodal transportation system. Transit users, drivers, small business owners and other stakeholders will share their experiences and develop an list of central concerns and priorities to present to local elected officials.
November 2nd, 12-2pm: Economic health: Consideration of employment and shopping access, business health and equitable development. Transit drivers will discuss the role of the union in promoting quality of transit service. Comparison of public transportation vs privatization outcomes for communities. Funding options that promote democratic control over public investments for our region.
Nov. 9th, 12-2pm: Environmental and human health: air quality benefits; access to food and healthcare; integrated multimodal transportation and health benefits of exercise and social connection.
Nov. 16th, 12-2pm: Social and political equity: Consideration of access to culture, recreation, parks, volunteering, political action and democratic engagement. The role of public transit in bridging community divides based on geography, class and race.
Speakers and participants will include:
To learn more, contact Community Organizer, Helen Gerhardt at 412-518-7387 or info@pittsburghforpublictransit.org for more information and to RSVP for the series or for any session of particular interest to you.