Contact: Esperanza Martinez (323.420.6806)
Thursday, May 20, 2010 (11 am - Los Angeles, CA) The Bus Riders Union will kick off a Hunger Fast for Justice to urge MTA Board to reject the proposed 2010 fare increase and 380,000 hour set to be cut from bus service scheduled for July 1st during the worst recession in 70 years. Five key BRU leaders will occupy a section of the Historic Placita Olvera and will embark on a Fast for Justice with the support of dozens of BRU members and allies. Our objective is to "bring the fare increase home" to literally and symbolically demonstrate the devastating impacts that a dual MTA proposal of a fare hike and service cuts will have on our members and our people -proposals that will take food from their children's mouth, clothes off their back, push them closer to homelessness, and force them to make horrific choices between medicine, rent or bus fare.
Bring the fare increase home because the struggle to stop the fare increase and service cuts will also be a litmus test for the political leadership in the City and County of Los Angeles. Thus far, given the lack of leadership by key MTA Board of Directors such as L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, L.A. Councilmember Jose Huizar, L.A. DOT Director Rita Robinson, L.A. Supervisors Mark Ridley-Thomas and Gloria Molina all whom benefited from the gains of the civil rights movement and who represent the largest number of bus riders and low income neighborhoods has been shockingly regressive. If no action is taken by them to stop these proposals, they in fact, will be colluding and implementing policies that inflict racial and economic harms on their own constituents. We urge these key officials and the rest of the MTA Board of Directors to make a dramatic shift in direction and insist that they provide real leadership to block and reject the MTA fare increase and service cuts!
Our Sacrifice as a Form of Active Resistance is Nothing Compared to the Devastating Effects these Proposals Will Have on Our People. Los Angles bus riders are "profoundly poor" as described by MTA reports, surviving on less than $12,000 a year- grossly below the federal poverty line. The majority of bus riders are women, many of which are single mothers with children-they are working class families who live on the margins, balancing their budgets on nickels and dimes. They are primarily Latino and Black and for a family of four a "measly" $26 increase for two monthly passes (total annual expense of $1,800 for two adult bus passes) coupled with a rent increase, hikes in utilities and a loss of a job can and will mean choosing to skip meals, medications and other critical basic necessities at home.
This is the Tipping Point - MTA Directors Let's Stop the War on the Black and Brown Families on all Fronts. The proposed fare increase and set of service cuts are not just a boardroom decision. The consequences seep into the very streets and homes in the districts whose interests MTA Directors are supposed to represent. The BRU will launch this fast in the midst of an attempt by Governor Schwarzenegger to eliminate CalWORKS, the California Welfare program, to cut off over 150,000 families from Day Care programs and the recent proposed lay-off of over 700 LA City employees. Let us be very clear, this fare increase does not take place in a vacuum; it takes place within the context of a massive shift of public resources into private hands and the continued build up and prioritization of war, prison and police expansion. These attacks are racialized and exacerbate the feminization of poverty.
MTA has a moral deficit, not a budgetary deficit - on May 27th MTA Board will vote on proposed fare increase & service cuts. It would only take $25 million dollars to stop this fare increase. MTA budget has grown by $ 1 billion over the past two years and it will keep growing. MTA secured their third transportation sales tax in 2008 (Measure R) - generating now over $2 billion annually from these three sales taxes; these regressive sales taxes hit the pockets of bus riders the hardest. The backdrop of this fare increase and service cuts come in the heel of a recent MTA Board vote that unanimously supported Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's "30/10 Plan" (which should be called the Rail Boondoggle Bondage Plan) which would "borrow $8 billion" from Washington DC to build ill-advised and ineffective rail projects that can only cannibalize vital bus resources, impose additional draconian measures on bus riders, and kill any real viable and sustainable transportation plan to reduce auto use, air toxins and green house emission in the region. In Los Angeles, the only practical solutions toward a sound ecological transit plan are fare decreases, bus service expansion, bus only lanes and auto restrictions.
Bus Riders Union Fast for Justice
May 20, 2010 11 AM
Historic Placita Olvera (corner of Alameda and Los Angeles)
