[Image Description: PPT Digital Organizer Clair Hopper smiles in front of a field of sunflowers on a sunny day]
Learn a little more about Clair by reading her bio and some interview answers below.
Clair Hopper is thrilled to join Pittsburghers for Public Transit in an official capacity! Clair has deep family roots in the area and moved to Pittsburgh in 2021 from Houston, Texas, where she first got involved with climate and transportation justice. Like many Houstonians, Clair’s first exposure to community organizing was through disaster relief, when Hurricane Harvey interrupted her junior year of undergrad and opened up the world of mutual aid and solidarity through crisis.
Clair made a career transition from arts education to climate and transportation justice when Houston’s worsening storms impeded her students’ ability to access education. At the same time, she joined Stop TxDOT I-45, a grassroots movement to prevent the expansion and relocation of 23 miles of Houston’s deadliest highway–a move that would displace thousands of Black and Brown Houstonians while irrevocably harming the region’s climate and environment.
With Stop TxDOT, Clair coordinated communications and assisted with direct action planning and research efforts. She also organized a walk and rally to build solidarity between communities affected by the proposed expansion, and in 2021, helped coordinate a large free food, water, and cash distribution effort in those communities after Winter Storm Uri collapsed Texas’s power grid. She will never forget the lessons learned during this terrifying and beautiful time: that even in the most destabilizing crises, beauty and transformation can be found in caring for our neighbors.
Clair came to Pittsburgh to pursue a master’s degree in Environmental History, writing a thesis on the past, present, and future of urban “renewal” and community development in Pittsburgh. Clair developed a chronic illness in 2019, and her organizing is deeply informed by her lived experience of inhabiting a sleepy, pained, disabled body. She knows that our ability to care for each other stems directly from our ability to care for ourselves: rest, sweetness, and intentionality are what build our communal roots strong enough to weather any storm.
The PPT team is excited to have you on board! What drew you to the work PPT is doing?
When I moved to Pittsburgh, I knew I needed to find a home in transportation activism, and PPT was right there from the beginning! I was so excited to find an organization that was rooted in not only transportation policy, but also disability justice, economic justice, racial justice, and environmental justice–in other words, a truly intersectional justice project. I am also so inspired by PPT’s longevity as an organization, and their commitment to decentralized, democratic organizing.
I had the opportunity to deepen my connection with PPT through a 2023 service term (administered by Repair the World Pittsburgh), where I helped design and administer a process for crafting a truly member-led strategic plan. It was thrilling to see how directly members can influence the decisions PPT makes, and I knew I wanted to make PPT my political home.
What work are you excited to do? What victories do you think you’ll help us win in the coming months?
I’m so excited to do communications work again–I love to write and design, and even better when I get to write and design for people and a cause that I love!
It’s been a hell of a first couple months with PPT–about 2 weeks after I first joined the staff, PRT announced its proposal for once-in-a-generation service cuts that could decimate our system if the state transit budget isn’t increased. It’s been an absolute whirlwind, and I’ve thrown down with the rest of the team to coordinate rallies, lobbying efforts, and community agitation around this critical fight. I’m shocked and delighted to see how much progress we’ve made in the past weeks; since I’ve joined, we’ve grown our network of supporters by about 10,000 people! So, to answer the question–I think we’ll win transit funding for all PA!
What’s your experience with transit? What routes have you ridden during different parts of your life? How has the experience varied between cities where you’ve lived and visited?
I’ve been in too many bad car crashes and know too much about climate change to want to drive if I can at all avoid it. My disabled body loves the bus–it is such a relief to have a lift when I’m too nauseous or in pain to walk, bike, or drive to work (or the store, or the doctor’s, or wherever). I also love getting to know my neighbors, and every city looks its best when seen through a bus window!
In Houston, the bus system is excellent–despite lots of systemic walkability issues, the buses are frequent, reliable, easy to decipher, and can get you across a city almost the size of Rhode Island for $1.25. The bus helped me explore my city, learn my way around, and grow my independence as a college student. It was also a radicalizing experience to navigate Houston, a place with massive four-lane streets even in residential neighborhoods, as a pedestrian. I was often the only person walking on the sidewalk, sweating profusely and praying a driver didn’t squish me. No better way to learn the life-or-death consequences of the built environments we choose to make! Even though we don’t face the same type of challenges in Pittsburgh, I learned that it’s easy to organize for a better city when you live the shortcomings firsthand.
What inspires you? What gives you energy that you want to share with others?
This might sound counterintuitive, but the thing that gives me the most energy and inspiration is rest.
When I first got sick in 2019, I had to learn the hard way to slow down–walk slower, do fewer things, say no to opportunities. This was such a painful lesson to learn. But it came with a beautiful lesson, too. If you’re not running at a thousand miles an hour, you notice what makes your corner of the world wonderful. If you walk slowly through Frick Park, you notice that there’s mushrooms everywhere, and you start to wonder what their names are, and then you start to learn more about the natural world that sustains you. If you introduce rest into your organizing, you have time to reflect on what’s working well, what patterns your work is reinforcing, and importantly, which directions you can grow in. That’s the energy that makes life delicious to live, and that’s the energy I aim to bring to my work.
What is your favorite pump-up song?
Molasses by Haitus Kaiyote–Makes me want to dance when I’m sick. Reminds me that life can be gorgeous even when it’s painful!