Residents of Hilltop Parkview Manor in Duquesne have been without a bus for too long. This fall, they fought to have service restored so that they would not have to face a long walk on dimly-lit, steep, and dangerous streets to their nearest bus stop. Check out the Post-Gazette article from the testimony at the board that quotes Debra Green, one of the resident leaders of the campaign: “Deb Watson of Duquesne and her neighbors in the Hilltop Parkview Manor Apartments don’t think it’s too much to ask that Port Authority route a bus to the complex. The alternative for the 600 residents is a hilly, mile-long walk on busy streets with no sidewalks and limited streetlights. Ms. Watson, who uses a cane, and several other residents with a variety of mobility issues lobbied the Port Authority board Friday to return direct service to their complex on Duquesne Place Drive. Right now, the nearest bus stop is either on Hoffman Boulevard or Route 837.“It’s terrible,” Ms. Watson said. “We have to walk in the middle of the street in the winter. We really need a bus.” And now, thanks to their efforts, they have one! The Port Authority has announced that the 59bus will now stop at the apartments and will start service there in June of this year. When we fight, we win!

At this month’s Port Authority Board meeting, PPT presented a final list of organizations and individuals that have signed on to the demands letter around the BRT. PPT has been working closely with Just Harvest around this campaign for the past several months. Here is the letter in full with the signees listed at the bottom of the page:

   BRT ORGANIZATIONAL SIGN-ON LETTER

To the URA, the City of Pittsburgh, Allegheny County, and the Port Authority of Allegheny County:

        We the undersigned organizations, institutions, social service agencies, businesses, managers, and elected leaders are deeply troubled about the impact of Pittsburgh’s Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) plan on our communities. In its current design, bus riders of the 61 A, B, and C routes will see a 45% reduction in frequency of service, and riders of the 61 A, B, and C will be facing the additional financial and physical burden of mandatory transfers in Oakland to travel to Uptown or Downtown.  Bus lines are lifelines. For many of our residents in the East End and Mon Valley, the halving of their vital transit service frequency will be the difference between keeping and losing their jobs, and keeping or losing childcare. Riders in these communities are disproportionately transit-dependent, and many riders are the service workers and customers that are the economic engines of Pittsburgh’s largest employers. Paying an additional $2.00 for CONNECT card users or $5.50 for cash users each trip in additional transfer fees is prohibitively expensive for most households and will also have devastating impacts on residents’ access to basic services and needs, including food, healthcare, connections to family and places of worship. Finally, this is further disinvestment in communities like Rankin, Braddock, Duquesne and McKeesport, which have been hardest-hit by deindustrialization. Access to transit is essential for stimulating business development and resettlement, and this plan threatens progress that has been made in this region.

        The community engagement and meetings in the lead-up to the federal BRT grant submission lacked survey data and meeting input from riders and residents of Mon Valley communities who would be hurt by the BRT. There must be greater efforts to evaluate transit service alternatives for Braddock, Duquesne and McKeesport residents. We also insist on further robust public engagement with residents of the Mon Valley in any BRT service modifications that will impact their transit. The improvement of transit in the Oakland-Downtown corridor should not happen on the backs of residents in the Mon Valley, who are disproportionately of the low-income, minority, senior, and disabled communities, as well as those that do not have access to a car. Port Authority needs to follow their own equity mandate in their service guidelines and their obligations under federal law, and not invest significant capital money in creating greater hardships for protected classes and low-income riders.  The BRT should instead be used as an opportunity to reconsider how our transit network can better serve the needs of all our county residents.

We insist on the following:

1. That there be no cuts to frequency on the 61 A, B, C lines, nor changes to early morning/late evening service.
2. There must be direct, all-day service to downtown from all impacted communities.
3. Any newly-created transfers from 61 or 71 routes to BRT lines must be free.
4. Additional CONNECT card vendors and kiosks should be added in the Mon Valley to address gaps in access.
5. Capital money should be allocated towards expansion of the MLK East Busway into Braddock into Monroeville or McKeesport.

We look forward to on-going discussions how the BRT project can be a catalyst towards improving transit connectivity and access to vital services for all, without any communities left behind.

Sincerely,

Wilkinsburg Borough Council

Rankin Borough Council

East Pittsburgh Borough Council

North Braddock Borough Council

Swissvale Borough Council

Duquesne City Council

North Braddock Cares

Swissvale Economic Development Corporation

Swissvale Community Action Committee

Woodland Hills School Board

Nickole Nesby, Mayor of Duquesne

Mayor Betty Esper of Homestead

Mayor Thomas Whyel of North Braddock

Mayor Marita Garrett of Wilkinsburg

Fawn Walker-Montgomery, McKeesport Councilwoman

Braddock Carnegie Library Board of Trustees

Director Kate Grannemann Coluccio of Swissvale Library

Pittsburgh Human Rights City Alliance

Pitt Human Rights Initiative

NAMI Keystone Pennsylvania

Howard Levin Clubhouse

Metro Community Health Center

Pittsburghers for Public Transit

Just Harvest

ACCESS Mob

Aunt Cheryl’s Cafe in Braddock, PA

Carl’s Cafe in Rankin, PA

Women’s Law Project, Western PA Office

One Pennsylvania

350 Pittsburgh Climate Action

The Thomas Merton Center

Sequal Consulting

Pennsylvania Interfaith Impact Network

Women and Girls Foundation

Casa San Jose

The Alliance for Police Accountability

Planned Parenthood of Western PA

Dave Swanson, Pastor of Pittsburgh Mennonite Church

Thank you to all the drivers and transit workers that do all they can to get us to our destination safely! Shoutout to Sue Scanlon and Tom Conroy for being awesome bus drivers and for all the work they do with PPT, Larry Bernard and Paul for showing us around the Manchester Main Shop, and Jonah McAllister-Erickson, Alison Keating, Jay Walker, Andrew Hussein, and Toni Haraldsen for helping flier yesterday!

#transitworkerday #tdad #pghtransit

Images: Left image shows PPT member Alison Keating handing coffee to workers at Manchester Main Shop; Right image shows PPT members Jay Walker and Andrew Hussein handing out fliers to riders downtown 

Link to RFP for Lexington and some more information around the site.

Kudos to the residents for insisting on mixed-income development and for highlighting in every community meeting that affordable housing is a necessity!

We support the Port Authority’s TOD guidelines and the P4 metrics that are also included.

PPT had a large contingent at the Transit Rider Bootcamp hosted by Americans for Transit. It was an amazing and inspiring learning experience, and we got to hear from other transit justice organizations across the country!

From a great article in WESA:

Some concerned about BRT’s effects on the Mon Valley and other communities have said they think the project violates the Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, which outlaws discrimination by federally funded government agencies. Before a public transit agency makes any major service change, it has to conduct a Title VI assessment. A Port Authority spokesperson wrote in an email that because no service changes have yet been decided on, Port Authority has not made that evaluation. However, an Environmental Justice assessment is currently being conducted. The analysis considers health, social and economic impacts.

Laura Wiens is director of the nonprofit Pittsburghers for Public Transit, or PPT. She told a recent meeting of the URA board that she was troubled by how the service cuts came to be included in the proposal in the first place.

“I think…the process is a real problem,” she said. “We [PPT staff and members] have been at the Port Authority, we have been at County Council, and these folks should not have to fight after decisions are made just to mitigate the harm that you’re proposing to inflict on them.”

From the Post-Gazette:

“Pearl Hughey and her grandchildren recently watched a movie about Rosa Parks.

She told Allegheny County Council members Tuesday night that the youngsters asked her a lot of questions about what happened on that bus in Montgomery, Ala., in 1955.

‘The one thing I found myself explaining to them is that the way things that they saw in that movie were how things were then,’ Ms. Hughey said. ‘You can now get onto the bus, ride where you want, sit where you want. I ask you: Was I wrong or was I right?’”

*Image of trees, Hazelwood Green (Almano) site, bridge and the Cathedral of Learning by Darrell Sapp, photographer for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

A public meeting to discuss the possibilities for the Mon Oakland connector raised some serious concerns about the lack of transparency around goals, the fact that this service threatens to compete with Port Authority rather than enhance it, and that there is no talk about the impact of autonomous vehicles on transit jobs. There is also no public discussion about costs to taxpayers (particularly the cost per rider), and the lack of accountability inherent to public-private partnerships.

PPT member Jonah McCallister-Erickson was quoted in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette about the project. “Jonah McAllister, spokesman for Pittsburghers for Public Transit, likes the idea of faster connections for Hazelwood, Greenfield and Oakland, and says the plan has gotten better after two years of citizen input. But he’d like to see more involvement of the Port Authority because public-private partnerships ‘could slowly starve the greater system,’ Mr. McAllister said.” 

The City of Pittsburgh is calling for feedback about the proposed “Mon-Oakland connector” at this email address: 4milerun.mobility@pittsburghpa.gov by March 6th. The website also has a presentation with their proposed routing and a chart showing the City’s preference for autonomous microtransit vehicles over buses.

We encourage folks to write to 4milerun.mobility@pittsburghpa.gov, particularly to ask why the Port Authority is not being invited to be a key planning entity in this process.

*Picture of around 40 61 A,B, & C campaign stakeholders and bus riders seated in the Braddock Library in a semi-circle, planning next steps for the fight to protect local bus service.

Last week, Next City wrote an article about Pittsburgh’s BRT plans and the concerns around cuts to the Mon Valley, quoting Laura Wiens as saying “’As transit advocates, there are certainly things to like about BRT”…’We definitely like the idea of bus only lanes and transit signal prioritization and electric buses. The sidewalk and pedestrian infrastructure improvements all make sense to us.’

But, she continues, ‘Our concern is it’s a huge capital investment project that’s undermining transit service for our most transit-dependent riders.’”

And three Pittsburgh news outlets raised the issue of proposed cuts to the 61 bus lines last week to the Port Authority and municipal representatives, unprompted by PPT or Just Harvest actions:  the Trib, Post-Gazette, and WESA all asked about the impacts of cuts to local bus service with the BRT project. The campaign has taken on a life of its own!

Si se puede!