Ten Years Later: Penn Plaza Refugees Speak Out and Demand Action on Affordable Housing

It’s been ten years since the mass displacement of hundreds of residents of the Penn Plaza apartment buildings in East Liberty, at the intersection of Penn and Negley. The site where Penn Plaza stood held over 300 affordable apartments where families had lived for more than 40 years… While a Whole Foods and a massive parking garage now occupy the same site that used to hold hundreds of affordable apartments, the struggle continues to fight displacement and keep Pittsburgh home for all.

Pittsburgh’s Housing Justice movement has had some serious wins that have been propelled by the resident-led movement to fight the Penn Plaza evictions. On this 10-year anniversary of the evictions, past residents, neighbors, and supporters are getting together to honor the Penn Plaza story, reflect on lessons, and uplift housing justice demands.

Join us on July 28th, 6-8pm, starting in Enright Park in East Liberty for a rally and march through East Liberty. We will hear from residents who were evicted from Penn Plaza and remember the many who have died during (and because of) the displacement. We will walk down Penn Ave, stopping at the Kelly Strayhorn Theater where a black-led arts organization is under threat of displacement and other locations important to the Penn Plaza story. We will end at the corner of Penn Ave and Shady Ave where advocates were able to win affordable units that can house Section 8 voucher-holders, and demand that City Council pass an Inclusionary Zoning policy and make other important changes to ensure that other families will not experience the harms that the Penn Plaza refugees have lived through.

The Story of Penn Plaza

In 2015, hundreds of residents, many of them seniors, received a letter from LG Realty that they would be required to move within ninety days. It was clear that the company had planned this for years and would be forcing hundreds of long-time residents from their homes with short notice. Most of the residents had lived in East Liberty for decades and had built community and networks of support there. With the accelerating gentrification happening in the neighborhood, they could not find housing nearby.

This sparked community outrage and hundreds mobilized to defend their homes, communities, and neighbors, culminating in the Penn Plaza Support and Action Coalition, of which PPT played a key role. 

LG Realty failed to meet even the minimum requirements of the Memorandum of Agreement with the residents before the sale took place. They turned off heat in the bitter cold winter months, started removing windows and asbestos tiling while residents were still living in the property, and sought to create an inhospitable and hostile environment. Most of the residents ended up in unstable housing situations, displaced to areas far outside the city with limited to no transit options, and were left with immense trauma from their forced removal. 

Penn Plaza is the largest mass displacement in recent Pittsburgh history, but it is far from the only one. In 2009, on a site right down the street from Penn Plaza, the 519 unit East Mall public housing was cleared to make way for the Target. During that decade, East Liberty street vendors and local businesses were also cleared in favor of luxury retail brands, tech offices, and national chains.  Despite the lessons of the early 2000s, the displacement of low-income families has only continued to accelerate. Census data shows that 7,000 people of color left the City of Pittsburgh in just the four years between 2014 and 2018.

The Penn Plaza struggle has become synonymous with the harms of gentrification and the consequences of a lack of a just housing policy in Pittsburgh. It brought the housing struggle front and center and forced the city to contend with the fight for housing justice as a fight that will not be silenced and cannot be ignored. 

The Penn Plaza Fight and Affordable Housing’s Relationship to Transit

Transit riders across the city are being pushed out of the City and away from access to good transit because of the lack of affordable housing. This is bad for transit riders and our transit system.

The East Liberty Transit Center, a key stop on the MLK East Busway, is located less than a half mile from the former Penn Plaza site. The Penn Plaza residents, many of whom were core transit riders, were forced to find housing in communities that have worse transit access – like Verona, North Versailles, and Penn Hills. This means it is even harder for these people to get to jobs, healthcare, food, schools, childcare and the social connections that are the foundation of a healthy, thriving life. And it means that out transit agency loses riders (which results in lower funding from the state, which results in transit cuts and fare hikes, which again lowers ridership…and the downward spiral continues!)

PPT continues to fight for dense and plentiful affordable housing in neighborhoods that have the best access to transit, grocery stores, jobs, and education because it helps transit riders and it helps our transit system. When we prioritze the needs of our most marginalized communities, and support our public systems, we benefit everyone.

Organizing for Solutions

Since 2015, PIttsburghers for Public Transit, along with partners in the Pittsburgh Housing Justice Table, have been organizing for solutions to ensure that low-income transit riders can afford to live in the communities that they call home- and where transit access is accessible and robust. In 2017, we hired Penn Plaza leader Crystal Rivera-Jennings as our Housing and Transit Organizer. She developed and led a survey of displaced transit riders, asking about the impacts of displacement on costs, time, and access to critical needs, and showing that the combination of housing insecurity and transit inaccessibility caused riders to increase job commute cost and commute times to work, and to participate less frequently in social and community events. 

In 2019, PPT organized for and won affordable housing and free transit passes for the future residents at the Giant Eagle Shakespeare site in East Liberty alongside partners Just Harvest, Pittsburgh United and the Pittsburgh Food Policy Council. In 2021, we included demands around affordable housing and transit through equitable transit-oriented development and citywide inclusionary zoning in the Pittsburgh 100 Day Transit Platform for incoming Mayor Ed Gainey. These proposals were ultimately included in Mayor Ed Gainey’s transition plan, in which Pittsburghers for Public Transit played a key role. PPT is currently developing equitable transit-oriented development policy recommendations for the City of Pittsburgh as a member of the City’s Comprehensive Plan Steering Committee.

In 2025, PPT organized dozens of riders alongside members of other partner orgs like 412 Justice, 1Hood, The Human Rights City Alliance, Pittsburgh United and Lawrenceville United to win a positive recommendation from the City of Pittsburgh Planning Commission for citywide inclusionary zoning. Citywide Inclusionary Zoning would require new developments of 20 units of more to set aside a minimum of 10% of those units as affordable units (which could also be paid for with housing choice vouchers). This policy has been recommended as part of the solution to the affordable housing crisis for the last 10 years, with the first report calling for its implementation coinciding with the Penn Plaza mass eviction in 2015. 

>>Read Neighborhood Community Development Fund Director Mark Masterson’s op-ed about the need to implement Citywide Inclusionary Zoning NOW.

TAKE ACTION! Join us on Monday 7/28 at 6pm as we take the fight to the streets to hear from Penn Plaza refugees and recognize the trauma of their mass displacement, and fight to ensure the passage of real solutions to stop gentrification and displacement. 

We just wrapped up our Summer Membership Drive and we’re happy to report: our movement is stronger than ever!

We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again: 2025 has been a massive year for our movement for Transit Justice. With devastating cuts to transit funding and service on the table for everyone in Pennsylvania, we’ve had our work cut out for us–and despite all the challenges, our incredible members have risen to the challenge and helped us obtain massive wins.

What did we accomplish in this Summer’s Membership drive? 

• We have blown our strategic plan goal for membership growth out of the water! When we set our strategic plan goals in December, we had 335 active members; we now have 503, which is over 100 more than we had aspired to add! 
• Almost 50 new dues-paying members joined during the weeks of the drive (June 11th-July 9th)
• 192 people donated during our summer membership drive, bringing in a total of over $4,000
• New dues-paying members brought in over $1,500 during the drive 

We’ve brought over 350 transit advocates to Harrisburg from all over the state; we’ve gotten 4 bills introduced to institute expanded, equitable transit funding for all PA; we’ve conducted 2 paid organizing fellowships for Mon Valley residents and transit workers; and we’ve helped Pennsylvanians send over 200,000 letters to their state legislators to end the transit funding crisis. All of that work would not have been possible without the support and leadership of our incredible members, who were with us every step of the way making calls, sending letters, researching policies, and dreaming up our way to victory. 

That’s why we hold two membership drives every year, to help us grow that base of superstar supporters who help us fight the good fight. This year’s summer membership drive focused on dues-paying members, whose contributions enable us to carry out our programs, hire staff and fellows, and more. We owe a massive thank you to everyone who helped make this summer membership drive a success, from phone bankers to everyday members of the community who spread the word about PPT and our work. 

Thank you for helping us grow our organization! Now it’s time to keep up the fight–and we’re even stronger than we were before!

Want to keep up the fight? Here’s two actions you can take right now:

Join us for our next statewide call to learn how we win the transit funding we deserve!

Then RSVP for PPT’s summer party on 8/13 to kick back with us and celebrate this year’s wins!

PPT’s election for our Board of Directors will run from July 9th-August 13th. All PPT Members in good standing should cast their ballots for our next leadership team!

Please read this blog with bios on all the candidates before casting your vote. An overview of our election process is at the bottom of this blog.

We are excited to announce the following candidates who were nominated to join the PPT Board of Directors. PPT Members can vote for the next round of leaders who understand the importance of our work for transit justice in Allegheny County and across Pennsylvania – leaders who are looking to become more involved in directing the course of our campaigns, communications and actions.

Learn more about the nominees in their bios below and select the one who you feel can help usher our organization and movement into a new era of advocacy, grow our community and our member leadership skills. 

As a reminder, there are 7 Board Seats open for elections. All elected Board members will serve from August 2025 to August 2027.

All candidates are listed below in alphabetical order by last name. There is a photo and short bio for each candidate to give background on their past work for transit justice and other issues. Each nominee has approved and contributed to their bio.

PPT Members can vote for up to 7 of the following candidates to fill PPT General Member seats on our Board of Directors:

• 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)

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Teaira Collins (she/her)

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)

Tom Conroy has  both a strong Union background and entrepreneurship. 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

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)

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)

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)

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

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 labour, 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

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Overview of PPT’s Board Election Process

Pittsburghers for Public Transit is a grassroots, democratic, member-led organization that fights for racial justice and public transit as a human right. The election of a Board of Directors from and by our general membership is a cornerstone of what keeps us accountable to our members. The Board is responsible for strategizing and executing the organization’s campaigns, overseeing the staff and direction of the organization, and for financial oversight. 

The Board’s Executive Committee chooses how many seats will be up for PPT’s board election each year. Our bylaws say that our Board can be anywhere from 5 to 15 people and that 2 seats are reserved for transit workers connected to a local transit union. Earlier this year our Board’s Executive Committee decided to open 7 seats to be elected from our general membership, with a minimum of one transit worker to be elected to the Board this cycle.

Each spring, the PPT membership nominates fellow members to run for the Board of Directors. If those members accept the nomination, then they are invited to submit a photo and bio to be placed on the ballot, and they are invited to speak about their qualifications at the July General Member Meeting.

PPT Members in good standing can cast their ballots for two weeks in July. The nominees with the highest vote totals are invited to join the Board of Directors for a 2-year term.

How can PPT members vote?

PPT Members in good standing can cast their ballots from July 9th to August 13th using the form below. The nominees with the highest vote totals are invited to join the Board of Directors for a two-year term. As a reminder, all active PPT members commit to doing the following:

1. Agree to uphold PPT’s Transit Bill of Rights. 
2. Contribute their time over the past year and/or financial resources to help us grow our movement for transit justice. Members can contribute their time and help build power by participating in our monthly meetings, volunteer-led committees, campaign organizing drives, rallies and events.

If you are unsure of your PPT Membership status, you can check by email (info@pittsburghforpublictransit.org) or by phone ( 412-626-7353 ).

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PPT Members can vote below:

Image Description: NYC Mayoral Candidate Zohran Mamdani smiles at a podium reading “Zohran for New York City”. His hand is on his heart, and behind him are graphic blue, red, and yellow stripes. There is a crowd gathered and a colorful banner behind him.

The most dynamic public figure of our moment has lessons for us about transit organizing!

Two years ago, the then little-known Queens Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani had a conversation with the national coalition of transit rider unions – the TRUST – of which Pittsburghers for Public Transit and the Philly Transit Riders Union are members. He shared his observations from a grassroots campaign to win dedicated, expanded state funding from the New York State Assembly and Governor to stop a funding cliff and improve services and lower fares on the NYC Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA). 

Today, he is the Democratic frontrunner for mayor of New York City.

Check out Zohran Mamdani’s clip from 2023, addressing transit rider organizers from across the United States, on strategies for organizing (and winning!) statewide funding fights:

We are excited to hear the resonances between our current transit fight and the rider organizing in our neighboring state of New York! Some of the key lessons we took away from Mamdani’s talk were:

1. Be Bold: Lead With an Ambitious Set of Demands

Mamdani points out that we are charged with expanding the perception of what is possible to win, and in fact, it is that ambitious vision that energizes the public for the fight. 

We LOVE Mamdani’s observation that the public is eager to invest more to make our buses faster, more affordable and more available, and not just prevent further draconian cuts to our already inadequate public transit systems. It’s hard to motivate riders to fight to maintain a status quo that does not meet all our needs. That’s why Transit for All PA has been organizing for service restoration to 2019 levels for ALL communities statewide, and an additional 10% service expansion on top of that to all non- Pittsburgh and non-Philly regions. 

Riders and workers are inspired by this demand! As a result, just in the last four months, more than 15,000 people have joined the Transit for All PA campaign, with hundreds of people joining the Transit for All PA statewide calls to develop and ratify our collective agenda.   

2. Take the Budget Fight Out in Public from Behind Closed Doors and Call the Question on Where Politicians Stand

Zohran Mamdani urges riders to make the budget fight public, and to call for politicians to say where they stand on the advocates’ transit demands.

This year, we brought a whopping 350 riders and transit workers from all around the Commonwealth to Harrisburg, for a massive press conference and meetings with legislators from across the Commonwealth. Transit riders in communities large and small thronged the halls of the Capitol, bringing information and their stories to every single legislative office. They called the question on where each of those legislators stood on the issue of funding transit, to ensure that our systems would not merely survive, but thrive. 

Through rallies and legislative visits in all corners of the state, our weekly participatory research, monthly communications calls, and regular statewide organizing discussions with hundreds of riders, we’re building a culture of transparent and collaborative community organizing and daylighting the budget processes that profoundly affect our lives but are often hidden behind closed doors.

3. It’s All About Effective Conversations

Mamdani describes how organizers in NYC developed a powerful communications strategy to complement their campaign. He highlights the importance of these tools to help riders easily plug in to the organizing, and a simple and clear message that connects what is happening in the legislature to people’s needs and experiences on the bus. 

As Transit for All PA, we’re training all of our members to be organizers and effective communicators of our message: better transit is possible, better transit is necessary, and better transit is transformative. Good organizing starts with a good conversation, in which we ask questions to hear the needs of other riders, and to understand what their vision is for better transit. We then help draw the line between that vision and our shared statewide solutions, as well as the action that must be taken to achieve those solutions. 

Like Zohran Mamdani suggested, canvassing with QR codes that allow riders to easily fill out letters directed to their own legislators has been a powerful tool to allow folks to take action in the moment, and get plugged into longer term organizing efforts for transit funding. As a result, we organized tens of thousands of riders to send over 190,000 (!) letters to our state elected leaders to fund the transit service we deserve. We empowered riders from across the state to lead their own canvasses and connect with their own communities and legislators with a Transit for All PA organizing toolkit. 

Effective communications tools have been game-changing, but even more important are training our members as organizers and having a clear message to communicate. Through these efforts, we have successfully propelled transit to the top of the agenda in this year’s state budget negotiations. 

4. Organize with Transit Riders, Everywhere.

Mamdani points out that we are nowhere near exhausting the communities we should organize alongside to win the transit we deserve!

We must organize with transit riders in all 67 counties of Pennsylvania, because transit is available in some form – as fixed route buses or shared ride paratransit services for older adults and people with disabilities – and needed in all 67 counties. Our small town and rural neighbors have been denied quality transit service for far too long: we aim to change that. Through our monthly Transit for All PA calls with small cities and rural communities, we are building solidarity across geographies to understand every community’s distinct needs and develop a shared statewide funding solution. 

As Transit for All PA, we are also supporting a coalition led by and for disabled riders across the Commonwealth (Public Transit Access Coalition), to ensure that their needs are central to our demands, as well as a coalition focused on the intersection of social services access and public transit (Transit Resources to Access Care).

And finally, we cannot minimize the importance of solidarity and shared leadership with organized labor. Our transit worker sisters and brothers, who run our systems day in and day out, are the people who are most expert in the issues our current transit systems face. They are also the first to speak up about opportunities to make our transit service better. Moreover, there are millions of dollars in direct economic benefits generated from workers that manufacture the goods and services that support public transit. Those workers, too, have much to offer our organizing, and they have a lot at stake in this transit funding fight.

We see once again that ambitious goals can attract wide support, and that organizing – across geographies, across constituencies- gets the goods.

PPT won more funding for bus shelters–now we’re making sure it gets spent where it’s needed!

In 2024, we decided to raise the importance of transit rider comfort, safety, and dignity by launching a Bus Shelter Campaign. Our goal was to get more shelters installed at high ridership stops in low equity neighborhoods within the city of Pittsburgh. We first assessed the condition of existing bus shelters, then conducted site visits to stops without shelters. With PPT members helping to create new tools and in collaboration with Pittsburgh’s Department of Mobility and Infrastructure (DOMI), we successfully audited 25 bus stops and won the first-ever allocation of funds for Bus Stop Amenities in Pittsburgh’s 2025 Capital Budget!

This summer we’re hitting the pavement with our Bus Shelter 2.0 Campaign! Our goal is to help DOMI identify 25 eligible bus stops for the installation of the city’s remaining 10 inactive shelters (shelters located at sites that no longer serve a bus route) and provide DOMI and Pittsburgh Regional Transit (PRT) with additional information for future installations.

Two ways to help us win more bus shelters:

In order to help DOMI find the most eligible 25 stops, we need some support from you, the expert riders of our system!

1: Crowdsource bus shelter form

DOMI has asked for your expertise: what bus stops do you see in your communities that desperately need shelters? Is there a stop on your commute route that has a DIY bus shelter, like a chair, milk crate, or shade structure that someone has placed there on their own? Do you frequent a stop that has tons of riders, but nowhere to shelter them? 

If the answer’s yes, we have a new tool for you: a crowdsourced bus shelter form! Simply input your info and some basic information about the stop, and we’ll make a list to send over to DOMI. Bookmark this form and fill it out next time you’re waiting at your stop!

Please note: this form is NOT intended for immediate response or repairs. We will use this data to inform our future campaigns, not coordinate immediate construction or repairs. If your stop needs immediate repairs or attention, please contact Pittsburgh 311 by filling out their online form, or dialing 311 or 412-255-2621 on your phone.

2: Join an in-person bus shelter blitz!

Participants will meet at PPT’s office at the Friends Meeting House on July 30th, review materials, prepare, and then split into four different groups to audit eligible bus stops in four different regions of the city. The groups will travel by car to effectively audit a large number of stops.

Note that this event will not be accessible to all members; participants will be outdoors in various weather conditions and on different terrains. 

DOMI has asked for your expertise: what bus stops do you see in your communities that desperately need shelters?

DOMI has asked for your expertise: what bus stops do you see in your communities that desperately need shelters? Is there a stop on your commute route that has a DIY bus amenity, like a chair, milk crate, or shade structure that someone has placed there on their own? Do you frequent a stop that has tons of riders, but nowhere to shelter them? 

If the answer’s yes, we have a new tool for you: a crowdsourced bus shelter form! Simply input your info and some basic information about the stop, and we’ll make a list to send over to DOMI. 

Want to do more for PPT’s Bus Stop Summer? Join our in-person bus shelter blitz!

Join us on July 30th for an in-person audit of eligible stops for new shelters!

Participants will meet at PPT’s office at the Friends Meeting House, review materials, prepare, and then split into four different groups to audit eligible bus stops in four different regions of the city. The groups will travel by car to effectively audit a large number of stops.

Note that this event will not be accessible to all members; participants will be outdoors in various weather conditions and on different terrains.

Each session will be taught by our staff organizers, and are designed to be accessible to all skill levels. Please note: this training series is designed for Pittsburgh-area residents, and will cover content connected to transit justice in the Pittsburgh region.

Check out the descriptions below and register now! 

Organizing Committee Syllabus for June 2025 – December 2025:

June 24th, 2025

• Bus Shelter Audit Training – As a follow-up to our 2024 Bus Shelter Campaign the Organizing Committee will be gearing up for a Bus Shelter 2.0 Campaign this summer. During this meeting participants will review Bus Stop Audit forms and perform a mock audit at a nearby bus stop. RSVP now!

July 30, 2025

• Bus Shelter Audit Blitz – This will be an “in-the-field” meeting where four teams will travel to different locations throughout the City to assess bus stops to determine whether they meet the criteria for bus shelter placement. Space will be limited to a maximum of 16 people.

August 26, 2025

• Review of PPTs Democratic Process – This meeting will touch on PPTs member led structure and explore different volunteer roles at meetings and events. There will be a training focused on two of the roles members volunteer for the most: facilitation and note taking. RSVP now.

September 30, 2025

• Group Canvass – Take a walk with the Organizing Committee and engage riders at bus stops to spread awareness about who PPT is and the Week Without Driving movement in Pittsburgh, ask them to pledge to participate, and get their elected officials to join in. RSVP now.

October 28, 2025

• Phone and Text Banking – Phone calls and text messages are the backbone of many of PPTs actions and meetings. It’s how we engage transit riders on different campaigns, invite folks to our events and build community. In preparation for PPTs Winter Member Drive, come learn, or brush up on, your phone banking skills. RSVP now.

November 18, 2025

• PPTs Membership Process – “How do I become a member?” Review what it means to be a member led organization, how to help someone become a member, and how to ask someone to become a member. Just in time for PPTs Winter Member Drive! RSVP now.

December 9, 2025

• Review and Planning Session – This will be one big debrief of months of training and skill development. What should the Organizing Committee focus on in 2026? How can you help recruit new members to the committee? RSVP now.

What is PPT’s Organizing Committee? 

PPTs Organizing Committee is responsible for the tactical execution of our strategic vision. This involves leading membership training, canvassing, phone banking, and direct action. We focus on building strong relationships and community among transit riders and workers, emphasizing peer-to-peer skill sharing and leadership development.

The Organizing Committee meets on the last Tuesday of every month, in person from 6pm – 7:30pm at PPTs accessible office at the Friends Meeting House, 4836 Ellsworth Ave, Pittsburgh, PA 15213. For more information and how to get involved, email nicole@pittsburghforpublictransit.org. 

Transit riders are pushing back against cuts that are being proposed across the state. We have put forward a legislative package that would expand transit in every corner of Pennsylvania. Now we need your help.

The time to TAKE ACTION IS NOW! Use this form to email your legislators and ask them to support the Transit for All PA! funding package!

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Transit riders have put forward the Transit for All PA! legislative funding package that would EXPAND transit service across the state. The time is now to write your reps and sign on as a co-sponsor.

Whether the cuts that have been proposed in Pittsburgh, or in Philadelphia, or in other small towns across our state, transit riders are done with decline (if you’re from Pittsburgh and you want to get involved in fighting against the proposed cuts, check out our toolkit here). We organized throughout the spring to create a slate of ideas that would generate enough funding to expand service levels in Pittsburgh and every PA County. Then we organized and convinced our legislators to introduce them as bills in the House and Senate. Now we need to keep on organizing to make our dreams a reality.

Overview of Transit for All PA! funding package

Our goal goes beyond maintaining our current levels of austerity service. Instead, we at Transit for All PA are aiming to restore transit service statewide to 2019 levels, with an additional 10% service expansion in regions outside of Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. 

To do that, we calculate that $537 million is needed in new funding for FY 26. We are looking to uplift Governor Shapiro’s proposal to increase the allocation of the existing sales tax to fund public transit, but also to expand on it with commonsense and achievable tax reforms to ensure that we can stabilize, restore and expand transit to meet all our communities’ needs.

In order to reach this goal, we need to propose funding sources that will meet this need and which will increase year over year to meet inflation. Moreover, these funding mechanisms should be:

• Politically viable 
• Quickly enacted
• Not disproportionately burdensome to marginalized, disabled or low income populations
• Related to transportation
• Ideally non-competitive to other basic needs through the General Fund, and dedicated to public transportation

To find a solution, we underwent months’ worth of research and held lengthy discussions with hundreds of stakeholders statewide. We believe we can meet our goal with three collective funding mechanisms, together with the Governor’s proposed sales tax ALLOCATION increase.

PRT’s proposed cuts. How we stop them and win service expansion:

If PRT doesn’t get this funding, they have proposedd that the entire system would see a 35% decrease in service and a 9% increase in fares. Paratransit service would be cut a staggering 62%, and fares would increase 20%.

We know that transit is a public necessity, connecting people across our region–no matter their neighborhood, income level, or ability–to jobs, healthcare, food, and community. The state government’s budget proposal will revoke access to these lifelines for thousands.

Alongside our partner coalition Transit For All PA!, we’re calling on our elected officials to find a stable, alternative funding source for public transit–one that restores transit funding and service to pre-2019 levels across the state, from Pittsburgh to Erie to Philly and everywhere in between.

I’m a retired educator fighting with PPT for my small-town bus service. Will you join me by becoming a dues-paying member? 

My name is Joan Monroe. I live in Trafford, PA, a little borough east of Allegheny County. Public transit is important to me because it is the lifeblood of my community.

My community relies on public transit to access jobs, healthcare, family, and more – not to mention all those who take the bus to Trafford to shop and work! I started organizing Trafford to support transit in 2024, after Pittsburgh Regional Transit’s proposed Bus Line Redesign threatened to cut all our bus service. Then, in March 2025, PRT announced that without more funding from the state, it would have to slash all its service by 60% or more—with the worst cuts borne by senior citizens and people with disabilities who ride paratransit.

Even worse, since the funding crisis is statewide, every transit system in PA—including Westmoreland county transit—would have to make similar cuts, endangering their existence altogether. 

I wasn’t about to let that happen. I’m a retired union member, so I know the value of public services—and I know that if we organize together, we can fight for them and win. 

I knew I had to step up my organizing, and I knew PPT would help me do it.

With support from PPT’s statewide coalition, Transit for All PA!, I mobilized my community to contact our senator—who just so happens to be the PA Senate President Pro Tempore. Together, we even got a billboard put up in the middle of Trafford with her phone number!

This is why I am a member of PPT, and why I think you should join us.

Our Transit for All PA! Coalition is the only group that has proposed a real solution to this crisis—one that is realistic, achievable, equitable, and responsive to transit riders’ and workers’ needs. After just three months of organizing, we’ve sent 124,000 letters to our legislators urging them to protect public transit, and brought over 300 people to Harrisburg to rally with us for a better budget. I believe that, if we all pitch in, we can fight for transit funding that truly serves us.

That’s why I wanted to ask: will you support PPT by becoming a dues-paying member today?

It has never been more urgent to support PPT’s work.  You can join for just $2.75—the current cost of a PRT bus fare! That money goes directly towards advocacy for a transit budget that moves ALL Pennsylvanians—whether they live in big cities, or smaller boroughs and towns, like me. 

Everyone deserves access to public transportation. Will you help us make that dream a reality?

Transit for All PA! Rally and Lobby Day in Harrisburg!

Whether we live in big cities or small towns, public transit is a lifeline–it connects us to jobs, healthcare, community, and so much more. Public transit in Pennsylvania is under dire threat, but we can take action together to save and expand it.

Join Transit for All PA! for a day of rallying and meeting with state legislators to share our stories and tell them: Pennsylvania deserves transit that moves all of us!

• before 10am: Travel to Harrisburg
• 10am-11am: Rally & Press Conference
• Noon-1pm: Drop-in Lunch Hour
• 11am-3pm: Legislative Visits

Transportation

Transit for All PA! will be providing transportation from some communities to and from Harrisburg for this event.

Transportation from Pittsburgh

Buses to and from Harrisburg will be provided to attendees from Pittsburgh. Please meet at 4836 Ellsworth at 5:00 AM; the bus will depart at 5:30 AM. Stay tuned after registration for more details on how to reserve a spot on the bus.

Transportation from Philadelphia

Transit for All PA! will provide train tickets for attendees from the Philadelphia area. We will be taking the Keystone Line from the William H. Gray 30th Street. The train departs at 7:25 AM, so be sure to be there with plenty of time to board. Please stay tuned after registration for more details on how to reserve a ticket.

Transportation from Lancaster

Transit for All PA! will provide train tickets for attendees from the Lancaster area. The Keystone Line will arrive at the Lancaster Amtrak station at 8:42 AM, so be sure to be there with plenty of time to board. Please stay tuned after registration for more details on how to reserve a ticket.

Transportation from other communities

Transit for All PA! may also provide transportation from other communities in PA. We will determine which communities to charter buses to and from based on interest and funding, so please indicate if you would like transportation assistance when you fill out the form. Please stay tuned after registration for more details on how to reserve a spot.

Food

Everyone who RSVPs will receive a free lunch. Please let us know when you register if you have any dietary restrictions that must be accommodated. Reach out to info@transitforallpa.org if you have any restrictions that are not listed.

Accessibility

Please let us know when you register if you have any additional access needs (I.e., mobility devices, interpretation, etc) that must be accommodated, either during the rally or during transportation to and from Harrisburg. If you have accessibility needs that are not listed on the form, please reach out to info@transitforallpa.org.