Image of Commuters on the T: Photo Credit Darrell Sapp/Post-Gazette

The Pittsburgh Public School board joins the Coalition against Policing on the T to endorse a civil fare checking process, with civilian fare ambassadors. Our gratitude is extended to Moira Kaleida, school board representative of Brookline and Beechview, for drafting the powerful letter, to which all board members signed on. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported on their views, directed to the Port Authority:

“The board of Pittsburgh Public Schools is the latest group to oppose Port Authority’s controversial plan to have armed police check fares on light-rail vehicles.

In a Nov. 17 letter to incoming authority CEO Katharine Eagan Kelleman, the nine school directors echoed concerns from earlier this year that the idea could lead to deportations and confrontations between officers and immigrant students who may have language difficulties. Nearly 3,800 public, charter and private school students in Pittsburgh take public transit.

‘We have immigrant and refugees from all over the world who now call Pittsburgh their home. Using the current proposed system, PAT would essentially be creating a fare-evasion to deportation pipeline,’ the letter said.

‘Many of our students experience trauma on a daily basis, have had negative interactions with policeor simply cannot understand what is being said to them. Having someone who holds a gun confront a young person can be scary and may escalate the situation.'”

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Also, notably, incoming Port Authority CEO Kelleman is quoted saying that she was asked about her position on this policy as part of her job interview process:

“I would be shocked to find out that the Port Authority board is really focused on the law enforcement criminal aspects. That’s not our jam,” she said in an interview.

“It should be the goal for any transit entity to remove as many barriers as possible to use the service … If fare enforcement turns into a barrier, what have we accomplished?”

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Find the whole article here.

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For your support, we’d like to send you these gifts (see main image above for pictures and designs):

• For a donation of $35, we’d like to send you a beautifully designed shirt by Christina Castillo, a local artist and organizer in Pittsburgh (We’ll be in touch with you for t-shirt sizes)
• For a donation of $50, we’d like to send you a t-shirt, a PPT button, and a transit haiku written by a talented PPT member just for you!
• For a donation of $100, we’d like to send you 2 t-shirts, 2 PPT buttons, and a transit haiku written just for you!
• For a donation of $1,250, we’ll send you an awesome piece of art made by artist Nathan Van Patter, a wooden piece showing riders waiting at a bus stop
• For a donation of $3,000, we’ll send you an amazing 3-D piece, also by Nathan Van Patter, showing a streetscape with a Port Authority bus at the center

Also, save the dates for some upcoming events and fundraisers:
Come support the Smokestack and Lightning Benefit Concert to help raise money for both PPT and Casa San Jose on December 1st at 7:30pm at the Quaker Meeting House (4836 Ellsworth Avenue)

Join us for our Holiday Happy Hour at Mixtape on Thursday, December 14th at 5pm. We’re excited to be partnering with this great local bar that pays its workers a living wage. All “tips” from this month and that event will be going to PPT!

The Port Authority has hired Katharine Kelleman, former head of the Hillsborough Area Regional Transportation Authority in Tampa, Florida as the new CEO for Port Authority. Although we are disappointed that there was no public selection process, we welcome Ms. Kelleman to Pittsburgh.

(Photo by Margaret Krauss, WESA News)

Great turnout at the URA Lexington Park community meeting! Thanks to all the North Point Breeze, Homewood and PPT members that turned out to support affordable housing on the site. We will continue to advocate for community members to have a seat at the URA table to decide on the conditions set in the Request for Proposals (RFP) for developers, and to choose the developer for the site.

From WESA’s Report: Homewood, Point Breeze North Residents Push for Greater Involvement in Future Development: “For too long, development has driven poor people out of neighborhoods, said Mel Packer of Pittsburghers for Public Transit.

‘We have destroyed affordable housing,’ he said. ‘We have the chance here to develop a model community of mixed housing.’ ”

We know that transit assets like the MLK East Busway are often the first sites of displacement and gentrification in cities, and that the housing costs along the stops of the East Busway have been escalating in recent years. Rising housing and rental costs mean that low income transit riders that depend on public transit to get to jobs, food, childcare, family, and places of worship are being pushed out to affordable housing in the county, often to places that have little to no access to transit.

We want to ensure that people that depend on our buses, and particularly long term residents, are able to stay in their communities and near good bus lines as development happens. The URA is going to hold a community meeting on Thursday Nov 2nd at Construction Junction (214 N Lexington St Pittsburgh, 15208) to talk about the future of the Lexington Industrial Park site. It is 16 acres of prime land that is adjacent to the Homewood Ave busway stop. This is an opportunity to begin to address the crisis of affordable housing in the city, by building affordable units that allow residents to live, work and play in the community without needing a car to get around. It is also critical that this site not be full of market rate apartments that would sharply drive up the cost of rentals and homeowner taxes for adjacent businesses, tenants, and homeowners.

In 2014, the URA did a community study of development around the Homewood Ave station  in collaboration with PCRG. These were the guiding principles for equitable development that emerged through that community survey:

• The community should be involved from the beginning and throughout the process

• People who live in the community should get to stay there

• Development should create a strong and durable community that attracts and welcomes new residents

• Publicly-held land should benefit and support the economic stability of the neighborhood / public first

• Local business owners should have the opportunity to grow their businesses and new businesses in the community should be supported

• Transit should get people to jobs, education, goods and other opportunities

• Policies that support these principles should be permanent and not tied to a specific project or administration

We are calling on the URA to adhere to these principles, and to specifically include mixed income housing as part of this Request for Proposals (RFP) that it will put out for developers.

PPT has put forward the following proposal for the site, and we are encouraging residents to support this model:

Why have moderate density affordable housing on the site?

-To maintain diversity in the neighborhood of both income and race

-To begin to address the affordable housing unit shortage of 20,000 units in this city

-So that people that rely on public transit have good access to our best transit assets, and to incentivize more people to use alternative modes of transit to cars

-So that neighboring businesses like the East End Co-Op, the Construction Junction and subsidiary renters, and other smaller organizations are not priced out.

-So that neighbors that are tenants aren’t forced to leave because of rising rents, and homeowners on a fixed income not be priced out because of rising taxes.

What is a reasonable, positive and achievable proposal on the site?

How do we help ensure extended affordability?

1. The URA could have a ground lease on the site, with affordability provisions, and lease to a developer who would comply with these conditions OR

2. If a non-profit developer were to develop the site, after the 15 year tax credit period ran out, they could have the right of first refusal to buy the site from the investors, to continue to maintain affordability

3. Talk to the URA about how tenants could have equity on the site, potentially by having the residents be offered an affordable buyout option after the 15 year tax credit ran out, to turn into a cooperative ownership structure.

Some Developers that do Attractive, Responsible Affordable Housing in the City include:

Action Housing

Trek Development

Telesis Corp.

Complementary Uses?

It would be good to have ground level retail that supports local jobs and supports local needs.

Organizer Krystle Knight from the Thomas Merton Center shares survey responses from Latinx transit riders, who would be reluctant to use the T if Port Authority police were checking fares, and if public transit was serving as an immigration checkpoint.

Powerful testimony on Friday, October 27, in the Port Authority Board Room about the consequences of implementing the Bus Rapid Transit plan at the expense of riders on the 61 and 71 buses. Currently the Port Authority is anticipating a 45 % cut in frequency on the 61 buses, and mandatory transfers in Oakland for riders to go downtown, which could cost an additional $1 or $2.75 each way.

For Facebook live video of the testimony, click below, shared by our friends in Just Harvest:

https://www.facebook.com/JustHarvest/videos/10155004352087517/

https://www.facebook.com/JustHarvest/videos/10155004379572517/

Nearly 40% of Braddock commuters take public transit to go to work. This will further disadvantage communities that have been hardest hit by disinvestment and the collapse of the steel industries.

Coverage of the BRT testimony by the Pittsburgh Post Gazette can be found here:

“For some Port Authority customers, the agency’s decision to push for a Bus Rapid Transit system between Oakland and Downtown Pittsburgh is serving the “haves” at the expense of the “have-nots.”
Through a series of neighborhood meetings and last week’s authority board meeting, dozens of Monongahela Valley residents have sharply criticized the agency for an expected reduction in local service and an added transfer in Oakland if they want to travel from their communities to the Downtown area. They view the project as improving service for mostly white, middle-class riders and cutting service for lower-class, mostly black communities that don’t have other transportation options.”

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If you are a resident of Rankin, Duquesne, Braddock, or McKeesport, please take this Port Authority survey so that the Port Authority can implement service that will actually address your transit needs.

Full room at the Duquesne BRT meeting yesterday! Thanks to everyone who came out to say “NO” to more cuts to service.

The BRT meetings in Braddock, Duquesne, and McKeesport over the past several weeks have been packed, and residents raised many important concerns around the current proposed BRT plan. As it stands, riders on the 61 A,B,C in the Mon Valley will lose their direct route to downtown and have forced transfers in Oakland. Riders and residents made it clear that the BRT benefits some at the expense of riders out in these neighborhoods, and the current plan is NOT equitable!

If you live in Braddock, Duquesne, McKeesport or Rankin, please fill out this survey here so the Port Authority knows your transit needs and uses.

Thanks to all who came out yesterday to oppose armed police checking fare payment on our public transit. We’re asking Dom Costa and the Port Authority board: which side are you on? Your constituents say “NO” to the criminalization of transit riders.

Transportation not Deportation! Public Transit, not a Checkpoint!

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Crystal Jennings leading chants at the Don’t Criminalize Transit Riders rally and speakers Brandi Fisher from the Alliance for Police Accountability, Alma Brigido, and Jordan Malloy from Fight for Lifers West shared some powerful stories and speeches about why the community has rallied against this terrible policy.

Thanks to Christina Acuna Castillo for the artwork and Dean Mougianis for the video!

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Please join us for our October PPT meeting on Tuesday, October 17th at 7pm at 1 Smithfield Street downtown. Hear updates about our campaigns and actions over the past month and ways to plug in in upcoming events.

For more information, please call (718) 309-0853