While car commuters languished in rush hour traffic, City Commissioner Amanda Fritz was on the steps of city hall, griping about her own commute to a crowd of 100. To get to work on time, says Fritz, she has to catch the last express bus on SW Barbur at 8:16 AM and come quitting time, she hopes her meetings get over in time to catch the last quick bus home at 6:16 PM. Some meetings, like ones at East Portland’s David Douglas High School, are simply impossible to get to on public transit for someone with a tight schedule, said Fritz. Also recall that she spends her commute wait time scraping graffiti off the streets with her bare hands.
The crowd of 100 bus riders organized by a dozen different local advocacy group, including OPAL, the Urban League, and Jobs with Justice, gathered on City Hall’s steps to protest the five cent fare hike that kicks in across TriMet today and the rollback in many buses system-wide next week.
“It doesn’t matter how many gazillion dollars we spend on streetcar and rail, you’re just not going to be able to get everyone where they want to go with fixed rail,” Fritz told the crowd. But she struck a friendly tone with TriMet, ending, “We want to support TriMet. We the bus riders love buses and want TriMet to make them better.”
Michael Andersen over at Portland Afoot noted today, there are ways for TriMet to soften these cuts. If TriMet’s bond passes this November, they get $50 million to spend flexibly. General Manager Neil McFarlane could put that toward paying for the new Orange Line to Milwaukie or “he could promise to put it toward restoring the last year of service cuts to existing bus and MAX lines,” writer Andersen.
More pictures from the rally below the cut.
- Longtime transit activist Jim Howell and Representative Jefferson Smith
Thanks for the shout, Sarah.
TriMet might argue that the $50 million will only show up gradually over 20 years. But so, of course, would the bills for maintaining or restoring service.
They can only use that Tri-MET bond for capital projects i.e. buying busses or upgrading bus stops. It cannot be used for operating costs, or fare roll back.
Amanda Fritz has a powerful grip but I would not call them Bear hands. She does use a scraper on that graffitti.
Well, it’s not like anyone really needs to get anywhere in a little town with 25% unemployment, anyway.
Go by basement hookah!