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“Laura Wiens of Pittsburghers for Public Transit applauded the incremental progress the Port Authority has seen in winning the $500,000 grant for the agency’s first electric bus, but said there are multiple funding sources available that could help build a large scale fleet of electric buses. She mentioned that Pennsylvania is receiving about $118 million in a settlement from auto manufacturer Volkswagen. Wiens said some of that money could go to purchasing electric buses.
“Transit can dramatically reduce our carbon footprint,” said Wiens. “We hope to see a more robust effort.”
— Ryan Deto in the City Paper. Read the entire article here!
Thanks to all the hard work of the Don’t Criminalize Transit Riders Campaign over this past year, the Port Authority has walked back their initial proposal of having armed police check fare payment on the T!
Over the last year, we’ve had dozens of people testify at the Port Authority, more than 30 organizations and neighborhood groups sign onto a letter opposing criminalization of transit riders. The Pittsburgh School Board sent a separate letter talking about the impact to youth. We had hundreds of postcards that we delivered to Rep Dom Costa’s office and thousands of petition signatures. We had lots of immigrant transit riders say that they would no longer take the T, because it would become an immigration checkpoint rather than a safe and effective way for them to live their lives.
Going forward, there will continue to be work to do around this issue, because the severe criminal consequences for fare evasion remain in place, even if they are rarely enacted. Our coalition will continue to push the Port Authority to ensure that riders and drivers are at the table to advocate for changing the laws on the books to create a more humane civil fare enforcement policy in the future.
Pittsburghers gathered outside the City’s and Heinz Endowment’s “P4 Conference” to highlight the hypocrisy of talking about inclusion, equity, and a city for all while offering billions on incentives to attract Amazon HQ2 to the city.
Amazon HQ2 stands against everything the P4 says it supports and against the interests of the hundreds of thousands of residents that call Pittsburgh home now.
A couple of hundred tech jobs moving to East Liberty caused massive displacement.
If we call what happened in East Liberty a tragedy, then bringing Amazon here is a crime.
A few hundred tech jobs in East Liberty created a crisis of housing speculation, gentrification and displacement. Imagine that 50 or 100 times over, and our city will have a housing crisis and the displacement of tens of thousands of residents in a matter of a few years.
Amazon HQ2 will exacerbate the already existing housing crisis, push transit dependent riders to areas with little to no bus service, make the city unlivable for most of the residents who are here, and will privilege the new, wealthy, tech workers who will be relocating here at the expense of long time residents.
Questions the city doesn’t seem to have answers for: Who will be prioritized for transit infrastructure projects? Will they be projects that increase connectivity for tech workers, or ones that create better connectivity for seniors and low income workers that depend on public transit?
#Amazonhasnohomehere!
We got to the heart of why we do what we do at PPT and the ways in which transit connects to almost every other aspect of people’s lives. Bus Lines are Life Lines, and the fight for transit justice is such a critical part of of the fight for a better, a more equitable, a more just society.
We are constantly fed a narrative of scarcity– we are left in a position of scrambling for crumbs from giant development needs or mitigating some of the harm that those deals will inflict, all the while told that these are the two options we have: crumbs or nothing.
But these deals are made with our money, our land, our cities. What if we used these resources to actually meet the needs of our communities? What if we actually used our resources so communities could have clean water, healthy food, clean air, affordable housing?
Photo Credit: Margaret J Krauss, WESA
Port Authority Heeds Public, Makes Changes to BRT Plan
New plan, federal grant application will better serve Mon Valley communities
Rankin, PA — On Thursday night, at a standing-room only meeting in Rankin, Port Authority of Allegheny County presented its new bus service plan for the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system. Hundreds of riders, bus drivers, anti-hunger, public transit, and disability advocates, and a wide range of Mon Valley organizations, businesses, elected officials, and other stakeholders have mobilized for months to raise concerns about proposed frequency cuts to critical bus lines serving the Mon Valley and mandatory transfers for Mon Valley riders to reach downtown.
After assuring the audience that there would be no cuts to the frequency of the 61 ABC buses, nor forced transfers in Oakland, Port Authority CEO Katherine Eagan Kelleman affirmed the public nature of our transit system, “We don’t own this service, we run this. You own this service,” she said. “If it doesn’t meet your needs, we did it wrong.” Mon Valley Initiative, Just Harvest, and Pittsburghers for Public Transit applaud this example of leadership that reiterates Port Authority’s accountability and responsibility to the public.
As one woman in the audience said, “People tell us that we’re lazy, but we want to work. It’s very hard to get a job when there is not a bus to get you there!” Public transit plays a critical role in providing low-income under-served communities access to jobs and fresh food. Those involved with efforts to get Port Authority to listen to those communities say they will continue to insist that those most affected by service decisions be at the table for decision-making. Several audience members pointed out that the original plan had been developed without Mon Valley stakeholders after ignoring years of input by those who rely on public transit the most.
Mon Valley Initiative was among the groups that joined Just Harvest and Pittsburghers for Public Transit to advocate for bus riders in Homestead, Swissvale, Braddock and Duquesne, as well as other under-served communities that would have been adversely affected by the original BRT proposal.
“A robust public transit system is important to the Mon Valley’s future,” said Laura R. Zinski, chief executive officer of Mon Valley Initiative, a regional community development organization based in Homestead which also partners with local community development groups in three counties.
“We’re glad that so many Mon Valley residents spoke out about their need for transit, and we’re grateful to the Port Authority for responding to their concerns,” Zinski said. “We look forward to working together with Port Authority, Just Harvest, PPT and other stakeholders on these issues.”
Just Harvest, Pittsburghers for Public Transit, and Mon Valley Initiative urge Port Authority and our city and county governments to revise their criteria for service and development decisions to include equitable access to healthy food, affordable housing, schools, health care, living wage jobs, and other vital needs and human rights, so that we do not have to keep fighting these battles for basic fairness. We urge our public agencies and elected officials to honor and enforce civil rights laws not only in words, but through deliberate and inclusive planning as well.
We stand with the hundreds of people who made their voices heard through phone calls, postcards, letters, rallies, press conferences, and at PAAC, URA and County Council meetings. “There can be no clearer and more convincing example of the power of collective action to protect people’s well-being. When we fight together, we win!” said Helen Gerhardt.
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MON VALLEY INITIATIVE is a non-profit community and economic development organization that works to unite the communities and restore the economic vitality of the Mon Valley.
JUST HARVEST has been improving government’s response to hunger and poverty in Allegheny County since 1986, by improving public policy, increasing community food access, and building community power.
PITTSBURGHERS FOR PUBLIC TRANSIT is a grassroots organization of transit riders, workers and residents who fight for accessible, affordable and equitable public transit.
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Read more about this here:
Pittsburgh Post Gazette: http://www.post-gazette.com/news/transportation/2018/04/12/Port-Authority-to-preserve-Mon-Valley-service-in-rapid-transit-plan/stories/201804120200?utm_campaign=Echobox&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook
Pittsburgh Trib-Review: http://triblive.com/local/allegheny/13529291-74/mon-valley-bus-riders-cheer-port-authority-decision-not-to-cut-any
WESA: http://wesa.fm/post/starting-scratch-new-brt-proposal-quells-fears-about-service#stream/0
If we expect to have a livable future in Pittsburgh, we’ve got to believe that we deserve better. In this case, it means keeping Amazon out.
Our resources are our land, our taxes, our infrastructure and roads, our beautiful housing stock, our working-class mythology and culture. Not only are the corporations coming here to take that from us, our elected officials are giving it to them. And then we’ll not be able to live here anymore.
– Laura Wiens
There was an excellent panel this weekend hosted by the Community Power Movement and the Human Rights City Alliance to talk about the impacts of large corporations on public institutions, resources, and democratic processes. The panel was moderated by Michelle King, and the panelists were Kelauni Cook from Black Tech Nation, Rich Lord from the Post-Gazette, Chris Potter from City Paper, and PPT’s very own Laura Wiens!
Check out the video shared by Public Source shared by Public Source to see the excellent discussion.
Some excerpts from Laura Wiens:
“There is a silver bullet narrative that goes along with [autonomous vehicle (AV)] technologies. To hear the companies tell it, AVs will eliminate congestion and air pollutants, provide faster and better transit access for underserved communities, eliminate parking lots and provide more available housing space and generate higher tax revenue from land use, increase safety, reduce operational costs, and give us new leisure time as we transition into our LED lit AI future.
But I’m going to paint a more realistic scenario, absent some pretty serious regulatory sticks. In 5 years, rich people in Fox Chapel are going to buy their own autonomous vehicles, have their cars drive them downtown and drop them off at work, then have the cars go home to park in the garage and wait to pick them up, driverless, at the end of the day. That’s double the emissions, double the congestion, in gas-powered vehicles…. Where they don’t operate, on the other hand, are Penn Hills, Duquesne, North Versailles, East Pittsburgh, and Braddock, and if folks from these communities can’t now afford to do their daily commute by Uber, they sure as hell won’t be able to afford an autonomous ride in a more expensive car in 5 years.
Maybe most importantly, the leisure time that AVs will usher in is that special timelessness of unemployment, and the inability to do wage work to care for your family and your basic needs. 1 out of every 15 workers in the US works in the trucking industry. In 39 out of 50 states, truck driving employs more people than ANY OTHER JOB. And add to that all taxi and Uber and Lyft and Access, and bus driver and delivery and sanitation driver jobs, and you’ve got one hell of an unemployment problem. Which is also a tax problem. We’re been promised 400 jobs from an Argo plant producing AV vehicle parts here in Pittsburgh. 400! How many of those tens of thousands of 55 year old truck drivers with a high school degree are going to become machinists? It’s hard to understand why the City of Pittsburgh insists not only in running headlong over the same cliff that we fell over in the late 70s and early 80s, but insisting on being the first to do so as well.”
…The problem is not Uber or Amazon, per se. Capitalism will do capitalism, and it’s the nature of these companies to disguise their harms in order to maximize profits. I lay the blame squarely at the feet of our elected officials and our public agencies who that are doing this work for them. Our City in January hosted a “Mobility Showcase” that was basically a several hour-long advertisement for AVs and other tech. Can’t those companies rent the convention center themselves?
At last week’s Port Authority meeting, Port Authority CEO Katherine Kelleman announced that Port Authority will most likely be walking back the proposal to have armed police officers checking for fare payment.
PPT and the Don’t Criminalize Transit Riders Coalition is glad to hear this news- this policy would endanger the lives of thousands of riders of color, immigrant riders, disabled riders, youth riders, and low-income riders who use this service everyday. No to armed fare enforcers! No to $300 fines! No to the criminalization of transit riders!
The official announcement about the policy change will come at the end of April. Check out PPT’s DCTR Campaign Page to see all the work that’s been done around this proposal!
The tremendous amount of work that the BRT campaign has put in has changed the conversation in the city and highlighted the importance of equity in transit decisions. We’ve gotten tons of support and media coverage the past several months, and the the community response has made the Port Authority reconsider its initial proposal.
They have announced that a series of public meetings will take place in the next couple of months, during which they will present their modifications to the service proposal and hear feedback from the community. The first meeting will be on April 12th at 6pm at the Rankin Christian Center.
Please come out if you can! And keep an eye out for the full schedule of meetings that will be released soon. If you have any questions, please email chandana@