Community organizing gets the goods!! When a corporate property owner tried to remove important bus stops, more than 1500 riders spoke up to demand better – and won!
Besides Downtown Pittsburgh and Oakland, two of the busiest bus stops in our system are out front of the Giant Eagle and Target in Homestead. It was announced late-Summer that the corporation that owns the Waterfront (M&J Wilkow) wanted to remove those stops because of unsubstantiated claims about “safety”. When the announcement came, transit riders in the Mon Valley snapped into action. Within a week we had collected 1,500 signatures on a petition, we’d gotten the County Executive and Congressperson involved, and a solution was reached that maintained access for transit riders (and may even improve it in the future)!
On Monday, October 20th, PPT membrers and elected officials celebrated our win in style. We showed that this decision doesn’t just impact riders, but employees, transit workers, neighbors with disabilities, children, people who live in City of Pittsburgh and the Boroughs throughout the Mon Valley.
The issue of bus stop access is particularly important in the Mon Valley region because it is an area that has experienced disinvestment. Many communities in the Mon Valley face food and healthcare apartheid, and pedestrian infrastructure is often nonexistent or inaccessible. In this region, bus lines serve as crucial lifelines, connecting residents to jobs and essential needs.These problems would have been obvious if the people actually impacted had been involved in these talks and decisions from the very beginning.
While the decision to not remove the stops is a win, riders will not be pushed to the margins. We will not stand for our basic needs being cut due to deep prejudice. We want to recognize once again the incredible power of Black Women who have demonstrated longstand leadership and stood at the forefront of mobilizing (and spreading the riders petition) retail workers, neighbors, operators, elected officials, and so many to take action. We thank Rep. Summer Lee, Homestead Borough Vice President Mary Nesby, Homestead Resident Kristen Greene, Hazelwood Resident Tameeka Jones-Cuff, and Community Organizing Manager Cheryl Stephens.
image description: Movie night logo says “PPT Movie Night!” with the photo for the IKIRU movie poster has a man sitting alone on a swing. Text reads “Here’s what we learned!”
PPT hosts Movie Nights with our members every now and then to learn skills about organizing. This month we wated IKIRU. Here are our reflections on what it taught us about community organizing and the value it has in our lives.
As part of our ongoing PPT Movie Night series, Pittsburghers for Public Transit showed the film IKIRU by the acclaimed director Akira Kurosawa. IKIRU takes on the question of finding meaning in a beautiful and moving manner.
To recap the film, an aging bureaucrat in a stifling job learns he only has months to live. (Sounds depressing, I know. Stick with us though)
The hero of the film, Mr Watanabe feels that he has never really lived and wants to do something to change that
First, he uses some of his life savings to seek out excitement – drinking and carousing. Predictably, this is tawdry and empty
Then he befriends a co-worker, a young woman brimming with joy and good humor. However he soon discovers that he cannot regain youth by merely being around someone young.
Finally he returns to work and takes up the cause of a group of mothers who want to see a toxic abandoned lot turned into a playground for their children.
From then on he uses his knowledge of the bureaucracy to push through creation of that playground. While that’s a small thing, the bureaucracy is resistant to change. Still, doggedly, he persists and succeeds. The children get their playground, he inspires (at least for a time) his coworkers and at last he finds the meaningful life he so desperately wanted.
Here are some lessons about organizing that PPT Members are taking away from the film:
Ikiru showed me all the ways that bureaucracy stifles and distorts any meaningful civic change. A touching story about a man’s terminal illness moving him to actually make a difference using the power he has accumulated over 30 years of public (non)service. Even then, it seems community organizing rather than individual action is key in bringing about social change. – Abhishek Viswanathan
Ikiru makes it clear that the grind of organizing is worth it. Even small wins matter when they’re fought for and shared by a community – Marcelese Cooper
This story reminds me of the power of Persistence! When you fight, you have to keep showing up, even when all you’re hearing is “no.” The fact that you keep showing up is a victory in and of itself and people recognize that, the target of your actions definitely recognize that. Keep going, pa’ lante – Nicole Gallagher
We don’t have to look very far to find the purpose and connection that can give our lives meaning. In the film it’s right there in the hero’s job, what he found so stifling and unfulfilling before. What can inspire us is often right in front of our noses – in the connection with our family, friends and neighbors and what we can do to help them. – Dean Mougianis
The film reminded me of how much personal fulfilment we can get in our own lives from organizing together with our community. When we invest their heart/soul/capacity in bringing toether our neighborhood/friends/family/community to make life better, we find loads of inspiration, power, and fulfillment. – Dan Yablonsky
Keep following for updates and join us next time we schedule a PPT Movie Night!
Image Description: Mon Valley Organizing Fellowship Participants & Facilitators smiling near a bus shelter after a trip on the 59 Mon Valley. The group is framed by red starbursts. There is a drawing of a yellow bus with text stating “Next Stop, Mon Valley Transit Fellowship” in the right corner.
PPT’s recent Organizing Fellowship in the Mon Valley shows that when advocates skill up, they can organize their communities and win!
This year, Pittsburghers for Public Transit launched it’s first fellowship program for transit advocates in Mon Valley communities, led by staff and PPT Board facilitators. Why now, and why focus on these areas? PPT members voted as a part of our 2025 strategic plan to place additional time and resource into supporting transit riders in Mon Valley communities by sharing our learned experiences in working to win improvements to transit infrastructure (finding ways to get our sidewalks repairs, extended, restore bus shelters, and preserve stops) by educating elected officials and department leaders in the City of Pittsburgh on how they can make using transit an easier and more dignified experience. Through this program, we aimed to equip transit riders with ways to educate and activate municipal leaders to support robust policies that foster more connected communities.
PPT has worked along residents in the Mon Valley to stop service reduction on routes that are some of the highest for commuters in the state of Pennsylvania and riders have turned out to community meetings, rallies, and have made strides to not only stop changes to routes that would slash service, but make gains for weekend service and projects that would make traveling between communities and the City of Pittsburgh faster. Unfortunately, many places have not seen significant economic investments for residents over time. As a result, riders often travel far to access full-service grocery options, pharmacies, medical facilities, recreation centers, and more. Transit is more than the bus, but an essential lifeline.
Fellows met weekly for 4 months to learn about community organizing and transit advocacy
For this program, fellows focused most of their time in Homestead, McKeesport, Duquesne, and Rankin, where they reside. Each week, we dove into a specific aspect of transit access in relation to PPT campaigns through both in-person and virtual discussions. During our in-person days in the field, we compiled a list of bus stops with high ridership numbers that would be eligible for a bus shelter. We also conducted a citizens’ audit of stops in each borough, speaking with people waiting to gather their transit service needs. Related to service, we rode the well-loved 59 Mon Valley route and chatted with riders waiting at the bus stop in North Versailles about their travel destinations and how the service frequency affected their experience. Fellows meet with a representative from the Steel Valley COG to explore how local-level policies influence street design and planning by elected officials. Additionally, we discuss the potential for equitable transit-oriented development on county-owned land in collaboration with Pittsburgh Regional Transit staff. Fellows learned about fare equity and the Allegheny Go program. We monitored the county’s enrollment progress, identifying opportunities to boost enrollment through discussions of benefits and facilitating on-the-spot enrollments.
During our short time, our fellows and facilitators cover tremendous ground in learning about how we can make the kinds of connections we want to see for more people-focused, transit-grounded decision-making to create thriving places and spaces.
Our Mon Valley Organizing Fellowship set us up for victory on the Waterfront Bus Stop campaign – join our next Organizing Fellowship to win better transit in your community!
When we organize, we win! – and our Mon Valley Organizing Fellowship proved that. Almost immediately after our Fellowship ended, it was announced that the property owners at the Waterfront wanted to remove the two bus stops in front of the Giant Eagle and Target. This move was a disgrace to transit riders. These two stops are some of the most used stops in the Mon Valley – serving more than 2500 riders every week!
Organizers from the Mon Valley Organizing Fellowship snapped into action and began circulating a petition to keep the stops at the Waterfront. Their work in the fellowship helped establish a network to get the word out about opportunities to fight for improved transit. In less than a week our petition had collected 1400 signatures, and won the endorsement of US Congressperson Summer Lee! Our Organizing Fellows made the news speaking up for the bus stop. And within a week more, it was announced that County Executive Sara Innamorato had reached a deal with local leaders and the property owners to keep these bus stops!
You can be part of this Organizing Fellowship success story! Join us at our Press Conference Parade on October 20th to declare that transit riders have power. We’re here to stay at the Waterfront – and all throughout Allegheny County! RSVP here
We’ll be launching new PPT Organizing Fellowships in communities around our County (and state!) in 2026, so be sure to stay tuned for the next opportunity to sign up!
Image Description: A group of advocates stands with Pittsburgh City Councilmembers inside council chambers. They smile and hold Transit for All PA! and Week Without Driving PGH signs, as well as a large proclamation bearing the City seal.
On Sept 30th, Mayor Ed Gainey announced his proposed 2026 budget for the City of Pittsburgh, in which he has included funding for the purchase of transit passes of all downtown City employees through Pittsburgh Regional Transit’s PRTner pass.
This is a huge deal, enabling hundreds of municipal workers to be given free transit passes as an employment benefit, and making the City of Pittsburgh a leader in modeling the benefits of the program for other regional employers and institutions. Mayor Ed Gainey and City Councilwoman Barb Warwick deserve major kudos for their tireless efforts in advocating for this program!
At the end of last year, Pittsburgh Regional Transit rolled out the new PRTner pass program after receiving overwhelming support through its public comment period. It enables the bulk purchase of transit fares for employers, developers and school districts to pay for passes for their constituencies at the deeply discounted rate of $28/per person monthly.
The PRTner pass has the potential to provide low-income and working class people (renters, students, employees) across Allegheny County unlimited transit access—freedom of movement—that will both save money on their existing transit trips and incentivize more travel by transit. Moreover, it will increase the amount of dedicated operating revenue for PRT, through new transit fare payments by corporations and developers, large non-profits, school systems and now municipalities like the City of Pittsburgh.
In our challenging political climate, it’s hard to win new revenue for restoring and expanding transit service, particularly through progressive means. The PRTner pass is a unicorn funding opportunity- growing transit equity, transit ridership, transit revenue, and sourced from corporations and major institutions! Win win win win!
And there’s massive potential for growth – at SOUND transit in Seattle, where a similar program has existed for years, more than half of the transit agency’s total revenue is generated from a bulk discount fare program like the PRTner pass.
Send a letter to your City Councilmember to show your support for the City’s purchase of transit passes for Pittsburgh City workers, and to ensure that this benefit is preserved and solidified in this year’s budget vote in December, 2025!
Send a letter in support of the PRTner Pass
To affordable fares—and beyond!
Now, the PRTner pass purchase for City employees is only the first step. It’s important that more employers and developers are incentivized to participate. That is one piece of why we have been organizing in support of the Mayor’s Housing and Zoning Code Package, which include incentives for developers and employers to mitigate their commuter impacts through PRTner pass purchases.
This program has long been an organizing goal of riders! There is a big demand by employers, schools and developers to provide a benefit similar to the student pass programs at CMU, Pitt and Pittsburgh Public Schools. Since 2019 and the launch of our Fair Fares Platform, PPT has called for Pittsburgh Regional Transit to offer common-sense fare products (we called them “fare incentive programs”) that would increase both revenue and ridership for the agency.
We have envisioned opportunities for large employers like UPMC to purchase passes for their workers, helping ease some of the transportation costs on our region’s healthcare staff and reducing the need for shuttles and parking lots that increase congestion and disallow more housing or commercial developments in the city. For service employees like those at Giant Eagle or janitors in the downtown office buildings, monthly transit passes could be a substantial commuter benefit, but it could also be used for all sorts of necessary trips outside of the workplace- for recreation and childcare, for grocery shopping and healthcare appointments.
Image Description: An illustration of an orange and yellow bus, decked out with smiling passengers, and with its destination sign reading “future”. To its right, in front of starbursts and cartoon stripes, is black and white text reading “The Future of Transit Justice: PPT’s 2026 Strategic Plan”.
Every year, our grassroots union engages in a collaborative planning process to chart a path for our growth in the coming year. PPT’s members help us brainstorm ideas for our internal organizational development, creating goals for how we support our members and build up the PPT family. We also brainstorm ideas for campaigns we can take on to win improvements for transit riders and communities–things like making fares more affordable, improving service, or building better sidewalks and more affordable housing.
Below are 6 target areas we want to focus on in 2025, and some ideas for specific goals within each area. We want to hear your input on them, so please share your opinions and wisdom below.
For each of the 5 campaign topics (Fares, Service, Infrastructure, Funding, #VoteTransit), consider these questions as you give your feedback:
What needs to be changed or added to this plan?
What parts feel particularly aligned with PPT? What parts get you fired up for the year to come?
What seems most important to prioritize over the coming year?
How will we measure success?
All feedback is welcome–after all, you’re the expert on your own experience riding local transit!
For each step, share any thoughts you have about the listed target area and goals. If you don’t have anything to write, just write “n/a”.
Fill out this form to help us brainstorm PPT’s 2026 Strategic Plan:
Image Description: a grainy image of a bus stop outside the Target at the Waterfront development. Overlaid is black and yellow text reading “ACTION ALERT: Bus stops removed at the Waterfront”.
While no details on the deal are available, Innamorato has said that the stops outside Target and Giant Eagle will remain in service until a more specific deal is struck.
This is a short-term win generated by the advocacy of over a thousand transit riders, Waterfront shoppers, Waterfront employees, and transit operators. In just 13 days, over 1,300 people signed our petition; we also received support from from U.S. Representative Summer Lee, City Councilmember Barb Warwick, State Senator Nick Pisciottano, and ATU Local 85 President Ross Nicotero. 50 Waterfront employees signed the petition, sending a clear message that the Waterfront needs public transit in order to function.
As the County and Waterfront management work out the details of their deal, advocates need to send a strong message: The Waterfront needs transit riders, and transit riders won’t tolerate harm. Keep the bus stops where they are.Please continue to circulate this petition to your networks, and help us keep the pressure up.
Waterfront management forces major bus stop removal
There are major changes planned that will impact riders taking the 53/53L, 57, 59, 64, and 61D to and from the Waterfront in Homestead, PA. The stops they use to shop at Target and Giant Eagle will be removed.
In the next round of schedule changes on October 19, 2025, riders who rely on buses to pick them up and drop them off at stops by Target or Giant Eagle, will no longer be able to use those stops. These stops, which serve over 2,500 rider boardings per week, will be removed entirely. This change was triggered by M&J Wilkow Properties, LLC, which manages the shopping center.
Instead, riders will have to walk or from Target, Giant Eagle, and other nearby shops, to existing stops on Amity Way (see map below). Depending on location, this could mean distance of a thousand feet, beside a sprawling parking lot and requiring riders to cross major roadways. The stops at this new location currently see less than half the weekly ridership as the existing stops at Target and Giant Eagle.
PRT previously considered relocating the stops to East Waterfront Drive (which currently see less than 1 rider a day on average), but opted for the Amity locations due to a lack of accessible drop off areas on East Waterfront. This change will likely cause some of the buses that service the Waterfront to be rerouted entirely for that portion of their journey.
Image Description: a screenshot from Google Maps of the Waterfront development. Target and Giant Eagle are marked on the map. The current bus stops, which are slated for removal, are marked in yellow. In red, across 20-30 rows of cars in a parking lot, are the new stop locations on Amity Street.
What This Could Mean For Riders?
Eliminating these stops will have a huge impact on riders and businesses both.
These bus stop changes will harm already marginalized community members: People using mobility devices like wheelchairs, walkers, and canes; other disabled folks; caregivers with kids; hourly retail workers; and shoppers carrying heavy groceries will all face a more arduous journey between their grocery stores and the bus. Riders will have to budget additional time into their trips, traveling long distances between the sidewalk or crossing through a sprawling parking lot to get to and from a stop quickly.
This will harm stores as well: shoppers may decide to make fewer trips to stores because they are physically not able to make it to and from the new stops easily.
Finally, this will add confusion to routing patterns that riders rely on to plan their trips. Adjustment to routes takes time and many riders will experience delays, confusion, and pass-ups due to not understanding changes patterns for the new inbound and outbound routes. While some buses already use the Amity stop, others will need to be rerouted entirely for their Waterfront journeys to make room for this change.
What Can You Do?
We need your help to spread the word! Do you take any of these routes to the Waterfront? Are you an employee who takes the bus to work, a shopper, or anyone whose rider will be impacted? Take action by signing the petition asking Waterfront Management (M&J Wilkow Properties, LLC), the Boroughs of Homestead and West Homestead, and Pittsburgh Regional Transit to stop these cuts and ensure that transit riders are not displaced to the margins.
Help us protect accessible transit at the Waterfront by signing our petition now!
Pittsburgh Regional Transit’s Board Meeting is scheduled for Friday, 9/26 at 9:30 am, and we want to make sure they hear our voices loud and clear. Register with us by Tuesday, 9/23 and we will make sure you’re signed up and prepared to speak online or in-person at the PRT Board Meeting.
And so, while we continue to organize for NEW transit funding out of Harrisburg that serves all PA, we are calling on Pittsburgh Regional Transit to take action now to improve schedules and transit service, and to build a system worth fighting for.
In developing your testimony for the PRT Board meeting, we urge you to share the following:
Who are you, and why are you organizing for better transit.
All the work that you have done- this year, over decades, to win state funding so that we can have the transit service that we deserve. We know that just over the last 9 months, over 30,000 people have taken action with us in every single legislative district in the Commonwealth, to win a budget that funds transit for all PA. That includes multiple rallies in Pittsburgh, Philly and Lancaster, an ALL-DAY lobby day in Harrisburg, public testimony to PRT about the impact of the cuts, over 400,000 emails sent to legislators, postcard campaigns, op-eds, canvassing riders, phonebanking, petitioning with transit workers, and developing funding research and advocacy videos with us. We want Pittsburgh Regional Transit leaders to hear how you have played a key role in this fight, despite working a full time job, or raising children, or managing a disability, or however else you could have chosen to spend your time.
That Pittsburgh Regional Transit needs to ACT NOW to make our transit service better – more reliable, more available and more comprehensible. While we no longer have to fear the immediate threat of more service cuts and fare increases, transit service (and communication about stop changes) continues to be poor. You should share stories about your recent experience with transit service or communication about stop changes. We regularly hear about buses that are chronically late or that don’t show up, overcrowding on routes, schedules that don’t match up for a transfer, service cuts that have made a route unusable. PRT continues to make decisions about service changes everyday that affect the availability and usefulness of the system- we need them to use that power to build a system that works for us.
Pittsburgh Regional Transit Board members and leadership need to know that even though the service cuts are on pause, their work is only just beginning. Riders deserve better transit than what we have today, and PRT has the power to deliver it – through better scheduling, by reinvesting funding that they have been squirreling away from cuts into more service, by having clear signage and communication to operators when bus stops are relocated.
Through all of our actions, we’ve shown that we’re committed to our transit system; now we need PRT to prove that they are committed to us.
Congratulations to the new PPT Board Members, elected by our general membership to lead us 2025-2027!
Pittsburghers for Public Transit is a democratic, grassroots, member-led union of transit riders and workers.
Each Spring into Summer, our members participate in a democratic process to determine a new group of leaders who will join our organization’s highest decision-making body: our Board of Directors. Our Board of Directors is responsible for guiding the direction of PPT’s campaigns and organizational development. The democratic, participatory process that our members choose our leaders is at the heart of our organizing. It keeps a core team of enthusiastic and committed members at the helm.
At our July Monthly Meeting all nominees have a moment to introduce themselves and make their case for why they should be elected to join the Board of Directors.
The ballot stays open from our July Monthly Meeting to our Summary Party in August. During this time all PPT Members in good standing have a chance to submit their ballot.
Votes are all tallied and winners are announced to serve a 2-year term!
And now….drumroll please…with all of that grassroots democratic process and participation behind us, PPT is excited to welcome this amazing community of new and returning Board Members!
Teaira Collins (she/her)
Tom Conroy (he/him)
Alisa Grishman (she/her)
Gabriel McMorland (she/her)
Paul O’Hanlon (he/him)
Paul Vereb (he/him)
Abhishek Viswanathan (he/him)
These leaders will all serve from 2025 to 2027! Read a little more about these leaders below!
Teaira Collins (she/her)
Image description: Teaira Collins holds a megaphone while speaking at a PPT rally in 2020
First elected to lead 2023-25. Reelected to lead 2025-2027.
Teaira Collins is a lifelong transit rider, a Hazelwood community leader, a mother and foster mother, and now a grandmother to six grandchildren. Ms. Teaira met Laura Chu Wiens while at Port Authority testifying for improved transit service in Hazelwood, and has since become a leader in PPT’s Our Money, Our Solutions campaign for weekend service on the 93 and the extension of the 75. Ms. Teaira spoke at the City Council Capital Budget hearing press conference about the Mon-Oakland Connector alongside Barb Warwick, and on behalf of PPT during the Poor People’s Campaign Jubilee Caravan. She recently traveled to Atlanta on behalf of PPT on a delegation to connect with other Human Rights organizers across North America, and raise the important connections between public transit, housing, healthcare and food access. She is very active in the community, volunteering with The Mission Continues to help veterans and with the Hazelwood Family Support Center to uplift young mothers. Ms. Teaira also runs her own non-profit to advocate for those like her son Judah and other families with children who have Down Syndrome, and fundraises for the National Kidney Foundation to help research related to her daughter’s health.
Ms. Teaira’s motivated to fight for more and better transit service alongside the need for more funding, and has been leading annual lobby and visits to legislators in Harrisburg to educate them on the impact and need for transit funding. She is dedicated to continue organizing for a free low-income fare program because it is needed now more than ever for all communities. Ms. Teaira Collins has been:
A Hazelwood leader in PPT’s Our Money, Our Solutions campaign to create a resident-based mobility alternative to the Mon-Oakland Connector. She was integral in winning weekend service on the 93 for Hazelwood residents during that campaign.
A PPT organizing fellow for the FairFares campaign and helped sign up dozens of riders for the pilot program
A Volunteer and community advocate for The Mission Continues, Hazelwood Family Support Center, PPS PTA, and for people with Down Syndrome and Kidney Disease.
A Member of the Pittsburgh Food Policy Council Board of Directors
Tom Conroy (he/him)
Image Description: Tom wears a blue collared shirt on a light colored background and is looking at the viewer with an open expression.
First elected to lead 2025-2027.
Tom Conroy has both a strong Union background and an entrepreneurial spirit. Tom was a bus operator for PRT for 19 years, the last six years of his employment as the union Boardman at Collier garage which gave him a seat on the board of ATU local 85. He was also the shop steward at a small union medical supply company for Teamsters local 249 for a year in the mid-1970’s. He helped my wife manage a successful hair salon from 1980 until she retired in 2022. They both took many classes and seminars on not only the technical side of our profession as barber/stylists but also classes on communication and people skills.Tom Conroy was involved with PPT when it formed. He attended the rallies to bring back service to South Baldwin, helped at a neighborhood workshop to organize those residents to fight for restored service. He’s travelled to Harrisburg several times with PPT and Local 85 to protest and rally for funding, and testified at PRT board hearings and attended a city hearing for affordable housing. He’s recently attended marches to support our immigrant community and to fight back the MAGA agenda. He completed the Organizing Fellowship with PPT this past winter/spring, and intends to remain a member of the organizing committee. Tom was also a past member of the ACLU (now signing back up!), and is becoming active in the newly formed block watch in his community.
Alisa Grishman
Image Description: Alisa is smiling and wearing a blue shirt with buttons and butterflies with her brown hair pinned back, with pink flowers and landscaping in the background.
First elected to lead 2025-2027.
Alisa has been a member of PPT for many years now, and has participated in many campaigns including the Fair Fares Campaign and Transit For All PA! She has served on the Board of Directors for four non-profits, so brings a lot of experience from that sector as well. She hopes to continue PPT’s efforts to be inclusive and equitable in all that it does.
Alisa led the effort to make PRT revise its views on allowing open strollers on buses, leading to their creation of their first official policy on priority boarding for people with disabilities. She participated in multiple Harrisburg trips with Transit For All PA! to secure funding for the continued working of public transit in the state. Alisa has spoken at PRT Board meetings, amongst other events, to help pass the Fair Fares program. She is the founder of Access Mob Pittsburgh, a disability justice organization that seeks to improve the lives of people with disabilities through positive advocacy such as education and economic incentives. Alisa co-hosted the Week Without Driving with PPT, BikePGH, and AARP to bring awareness to the 30% of people who don’t drive and advocate for better sidewalk, road, and transit accessibility.
Gabriel McMorland (she/her)
Image Description: Gabriel McMorland smiles, looking down, with a blue ribbon on her shirt
Gabriel served on PPT’s Board while Director of The Thomas Merton Center, PPT’s Fiscal Sponsor 2017-22. Then she was first elected to lead 2023-25, and reelected 2025-2027.
Gabriel is a white trans woman, who is also blind and transit-dependent. She has been active with PPT since 2015, and was previously on the Coordinating Committee from 2017-2022. Gabriel was very involved with the Don’t Criminalize Transit Riders campaign and early service campaigns, and on the current campaign around scooters and sidewalks. She was the Community Organizer at The Thomas Merton Center from 2014-2017, and TMC’s Executive Director from 2017-2023, doing work that ranged across racial justice, ecological defense, labor solidarity, immigrant rights, and other moves towards liberation. She is also a musician, and played bass in the live performance of Wheels on the Bus at PPT’s end-of-year celebration.
Gabriel invests time and leadership into PPT because she needs PPT to succeed. She has seen many times how PPT includes the sidewalks, curb cuts, and crosswalks as part of the overall transit system, and how PPT has centered people with disabilities to ensure that everyone’s needs are served. She believes that the outcomes of PPT’s work are practical, tangible, and truly affect peoples’ lives: PPT enacts its radical values of racial justice and worker justice, and makes them real through organizing. Gabriel’s vision for PPT is to ensure that organizing and leadership development continue to be at the heart of PPT’s work.
Paul O’Hanlon (he/him)
Image Description: Paul O’Hanlon sitting in his wheelchair with a purple checked shirt outside in a garden.
First elected to lead 2021-23. Re-elected 2023-25 and 2025-27.
My name is Paul O’Hanlon, I’m a retired lawyer. From 2001 to 2014, I worked for a disability rights law firm, and before that I was the Senior Housing Attorney and Housing Unit Chief with Neighborhood Legal Services Association in Pittsburgh.
I caught the “transit bug” in 1991. At that time Port Authority began the long process of becoming accessible to passengers in wheelchairs. Since that time I’ve been involved in advocating for the best, most accessible, area-wide and affordable public transit.
I have been involved in a number of advocacy issues in Allegheny County, particularly around housing, accessible public transportation, and voter engagement.
Paul Vereb (he/him)
Image Description: Paul is smiling in front of a leafy green tree, wearing a pinstriped blue collared shirt and looking at the camera.
First elected to lead 2025-2027.
Paul is a retired transit maintenance supervisor who stressed safety and efficiency while employed at PRT and he understands the importance of keeping transit affordable and reliable. Paul realizes the need of effective transit for people who rely on our system, and the personal and communal affect any changes could have on our region. He also brings a worker’s perspective to the table. Although Paul’s retired, he’s a firm believer in riders and transit worker’s rights, safety, and the pursuit of a thriving system.
Paul recently participated in the PPT Fellowship program which included a rally/press conference concerning the Bus Line Redesign. He’s rallied in Harrisburgh with ATU Local 85 and spoken to Representatives and Senators in support of sufficient funding for transit. He partcipated in the spring training, giving an important and often overlooked worker’s perspective. He circulated a petition to save our routes, jobs, and service, while visiting the garages during Transit Worker Appreciation Day, garnering nearly 100 petition signers to fund transit.
Abhishek Viswanathan
Image Description: Abhishek is smiling in front of green leaves and white flowers, with long flowing dark hair and a beard, and a colorful diamond patterned shirt.
First elected to lead 2025-2027.
Abhishek is a lifelong transit rider (in various cities and countries) and he’s invested in making Pittsburgh’s transit system accessible, equitable, and exciting to use. He have been working with PPT for several years in various capacities, always ensuring that transit riders and workers are the main priority. His background is in data science and I have used my skills to create maps and tools for riders to better understand the impact of changes to the transit system. Abhishek also introduces his students to local transit datasets so they can work with data that is grounded in services that thousands of people (including many of them) use daily.
Abhishek also has experience with labor, environment, and anti-carceral-tech organizing in Pittsburgh. His vision for PPT is to bring more riders and students into the fold, amplify rider and operator voices through data storytelling, and use our broad base to push for increased accessibility and affordability. He also hopes that through intersectional organizing, PPT can connect with other social justice organizations to build a city that we can all thrive in.
Some key campaigns in which Abhishek has played a vital role include
Securing equitable infrastructure, particularly for improved bus shelters
Evaluating the Bus Line Redesign to ensure it works for All
Developing the Riders Vision for Public Transit
Developing a Transit Fellowship in the South Hilltop
Banning Facial Recognition and other surveillance at CMU
Image Description: PPT members on a Bus Stop Audit stand in front of a pink, green, yellow and red mural of two women’s faces with the word “Allentown” above them, on Beltzhoover Ave.
DEADLINE: September 22, 2025 11:59pm EST No matter what place you call home, everyone in Allegheny County deserves safe, accessible, affordable, and reliable public transportation. However, a lack of investment in our public transit, environmental crises, increases in the costs of housing, and social inequity have led to many of our friends, families, and neighbors struggling to get to the places they want to go and disconnecting our communities rather than bringing them together.
But we can take action to reverse it! That is why Pittsburghers for Public Transit (PPT) will launch a paid fellowship program for transit riders who live in communities located in the South Hilltop October 2025-March 2026.
About the Fellowship
Fellows will explore public transit access, infrastructure, financial barriers, and equitable development. Examples of these topics include: the opportunities and need for more bus shelters and safe, accessible sidewalks to transit, improved service through Pittsburgh Regional Transit (PRT’s) Bus Line redesign process, winning and enrolling South Hilltop residents into Allegheny Go, and the zoning/land use relationship connecting access to housing and quality transit.
The fellowship will consist of weekly modules based on current PPT transit justice campaigns, within classroom learning and field work. The fellowship will begin in October 2025 and end in early March 2026.
Fellows will receive compensation for participating in the program for five hours per week for 12-15 weeks until completion in March 2026, with breaks for Thanksgiving and winter holiday periods.
The Hilltop region this fellowship will work with includes all of Mt. Oliver Borough and the City of PIttsburgh neighborhoods of South Side Slopes, Mt. Washington, Beltzhoover, Bon Air, Carrick, Knoxville, Mt. Oliver, Allentown, Arlington, Arlington Heights, and Hays.
Timeline Overview of the South Hilltop Organizing Fellowship
September 22nd: Application deadline
September 29th: Fellows are confirmed
Week of October 6th: Program begins
Classes 1-2: Transit Service
Classes 3-4: Bus Stops and Shelters
Classes 5-6: Allegheny Go
Classes 7-8: Land Use and Development
Class 9: State Funding
Share-out Meetings with Government Reps
Graduation Party
Classes will include a break for the Thanksgiving Holiday November 23–30 and a winter holiday break December 14 – January 4.
How to Apply
Do you live in the South Hilltop and want to improve public transit for your community?
Questions? Contact Nicole Gallagher at nicole@pittsburghforpublictransit.org
Image Description: 3 PPT members smile at the camera on a Bus Stop Audit in Beltzhoover. In the background there is a trolley passing by and a colorful mural.
Image Description: PPT member and staff, one in a pink shirt and one in yellow, high five while smiling at the annual PPT summer party.
Last Wednesday, 100 PPT members and friends gathered at the lovely Olympia park to enjoy yummy food, excellent music, and–most importantly–the company of some of the best organizers, friends, and neighbors Pittsburgh has to offer.
We’ve always felt that organizing for our community’s rights and dignity is easiest when we bake in opportunities for joy and authentic reconnection. Our party was a night of dancing, laughter, and taking stock of the incredible progress we’ve made over the last year.
Progress like:
Hosting two paid organizing fellowships focusing on Mon Valley residents and transit workers (like the amazing Kristen Greene and Tom Conroy, who both shared a bit about their experience)
Launching a new paid organizing fellowship in the Hilltop community (stay tuned for the application, and please apply if you’re a Hilltop community member!)
Incredible growth in our statewide campaign, to the tune of over 25,000 new supporters (yes, our statewide campaign manager Amtrak-ed in from Philly to party with us!)
Check out our gallery of pictures below, and our Flickr album if you want to see more pictures from the event. Major thanks to member Marcelese Cooper for documenting the event!
