Where Do We Go From Here?: MTA Approves Fare Hikes

Eric Mann

Abstract:

On Thursday, May 24, 2007, despite 1,500 angry bus riders taking time off work to come demand that fares not be increased but decreased, 9 out of 13 MTA Board members voted for a major increase in bus fares, led by board members Gloria Molina and Yvonne Braithwaite Burke. The monthly bus pass will go from $52 to $62 as of July 1, 2007, to $75 on July 1, 2009 and $90.00 on July 1, 2011. Thus, two years from now, bus fares will increase by 42% while working people’s salaries will likely not rise at all. The daily bus pass, presently at $3, will raise to $5 on July 1, 2007—an increase of 67%.

This vote capped two months of one of the most public struggles in L.A. County, one that nearly everyone had been exposed to due to the Bus Riders Union’s work in spreading the word through a huge outreach campaign to the mass media and through our daily on the bus and in-the-high schools organizing. Our lawn sign campaign, "Mayor Villaraigosa: Stop the MTA’s Racist Fare Hikes" was as the Mayor said on TV, "all over the city." Our sustained media coverage during the last month of the campaign achieved one of our main objectives—first, "saturation" across L.A. county, and second, "consciousness-building," that is, we got word to large numbers of people that there was going to be a "racist fare hike" and then we challenged them to decide what they thought about it and what they wanted to do about it.

The low-down:

The MTA approved fare increase is a major attack on the civil rights and lived daily experience of Black, Latino, Asian/Pacific Islander, and all working class bus riders.

The MTA fare increase is a major attack on the environment and a significant setback for the movement to reduce greenhouse gases and reverse global warming.

The massive public turnout of 1,500 people, from the poorest bus riders to middle class "choice riders" but overwhelmingly Black, Latino, and Asian working class people was a major breakthrough for the movements of resistance in Los Angeles, and for a broad united front for civil rights and the environment.

The challenge for all us is given the hostility of the MTA, and every other arena of government, and the reduced options in the federal courts, where does our movement go from here. How do we take a truly remarkable breakthrough in our organizing to keep people motivated and in a strategic and tactically relevant direction?

We at the Bus Riders Union wanted to take a minute to say thank you to all of the Friends and Allies that came to support bus riders last Thursday at the MTA, as well as all the great work that everyone did leading up to the MTA vote. We also wanted to give you a first take on what happened, what passed and what are next steps.

What Happened on May 24th?

No doubt, the May 24th MTA fare increase public hearing is an important chapter for the movement of resistance in Los Angeles, where over 1,500 BRU members, allies, students, seniors and disabled activists, religious and environmental leaders and hundreds of bus riders stood up, loud and clear, against any MTA’s fare increase and transit racism. Yet soberly, we are clear that at the end of the day, a MTA Board majority locked-in a multi-year devastating fare hike. If not reversed, this will be a major blow on the civil and economic rights of Latino, Black, Asian and all working class bus riders and the environment. Worse, the emboldened MTA majority, determined to undermine the major gains of our 10 year Consent Decree and our 2,500 new Compressed Natural Gas buses, is hell bent on building every rail line they can, cutting bus service, raising bus fares---even if it means bankrupting the agency.

To begin with, MTA CEO Roger Snoble floated a maximum pain plan with a proposed $120 a month bus pass. Eric Mann and Manuel Criollo warned the public in their op-eds in the LA Times and La Opinion that Roger Snoble was trying to set the bar of pain so high that anything less would seem like a "compromise." But in fact, we have no illusion; the fare increase led by MTA Directors Gloria Molina, Zev Yaroslavasky, Yvonne Braithwaite Burke, Pam O’Conner and John Fasana from $52 to $62 to $75 to $90.00 is not a compromise. It is the draconian attack we feared, it is the essence of the Snoble motion. It is the attack on civil rights and the environment we most feared.

The Mayor’s Compromise Motion

Mayor Villaraigosa and his three appointees Richard Katz, Councilperson Bernard Parks and Lee Alpert led a strong fight against MTA’s major fare increase proposal. We had wanted them to back our proposal for fare reductions but we had no votes on the board, and they were pushed hard by us but still felt they had to come up with some fare increase. The positives about the Mayor’s compromise proposal were:

It increased fares by 5% a year, (still way too much) but significantly lower than Molina’s 20% every two years (remember the mayor’s would still be 10% every two years.)

He also proposed to borrow funds to buy buses, by using "debt service" and bonds to do what the MTA does to buy and construct trains – which would have freed up funds for bus and rail operating money.

He also proposed—God forbid—cutting back on rail service, as close to a revolutionary idea that the MTA board had ever heard— much to the horror and outrage of the board majority.

The Mayor only got 5 votes for his proposal, and then one board member, Long Beach City Councilperson Bonnie Lowenthal, shifted her vote to the Molina motion and completing the 9 votes needed to inflict hell on bus riders. The Mayor fought for his position, but given his long history of being a great vote getter in the assembly, we wonder why he couldn’t get one more vote to block any fare increases. One reason is that virtually every board member, including the Mayor, is very committed to rail projects, so a vote to block any bus fare increases would be a vote to slow down rail construction considerably—thus, there are not other votes on the board to even "share the pain" let alone stop rail and build up the bus system which is what we demanded.

After five hours of gripping, moving and forceful testimony by hundred of riders, activists and advocates against any form of an MTA fare increase with over 400 speakers signing-up and over 350 speakers actually giving their testimony – the MTA Board majority, led by MTA Chair Molina and Board Member Yvonne Brathwaite Burke (each a beneficiary of the civil rights movement and now turning it on its head) introduced their proposal, not even a comma or a period was altered from their pre-agreed motion to increase fares. Even after listening to the heart rending testimony of Black and Latino and Asian bus riders literally begging the MTA to not increase fares—saying that with family incomes of $12,000 to $20,000 they cannot make it on their present income, the MTA voted through their motion. Once again 500,000 daily bus riders are being asked to pay, through 60% fare increases and thousands of hours of service cuts, for the expansion of rail construction and operations.

Transit Racism – Alive and Well!

We are living in a period we call "the second counter-revolution" the system’s backlash against the Civil Rights movement, liberal social programs, and the anti-Vietnam war movement. Institutional racism is being solidified in all aspects of society—with the rollback of civil rights laws and protections. There is even fear among organizers working in Black, Latino, and Asian/Pacific Islander communities that openly using concepts like racism and national oppression, and demands like reparations, open borders, or in our case, an anti-racist demand to shut down all rail construction, will isolate them and generate a backlash. This has led to the leadership of the Democratic Party abandoning anti-racist proposals, who have often conciliated to right-wing conservative rural and suburban voters.

In this context one of the achievements of our "Billions for Buses---Fight for Environmental Justice, Stop Transit Racism" campaign has been to re-open the marketplace of ideas, or to break down its doors, to inject a coherent, popular anti-racist discourse. Many mainstream reporters (and you can get copies on our website) have been able to report, "Today, the Bus Riders Union is opposing the MTA’s proposed fare hikes. They say this will punish low-income Black and Latino riders and subsidize the MTA’s expensive rail projects. The BRU contends that rail projects cater to a wealthier, white ridership and thus they call the fare increases racist."

Even the Mayor had to respond to our lawn sign campaigns, telling the media, "The Bus Riders are putting up signs all over town saying Mayor Villaraigosa, Stop the MTA’s Racist Fare Increase and they are singling me out." While he did not like it, we were in fact not calling him a racist, but asking him to stop the MTA’s racist policies, and to give him credit, while he may not have liked the pressure, he did respond and did challenge the policy.

Ultimately, We are pursuing both a politics that is able to identify the structural source of the "problem" and at the same time call on our elected officials to combat a policy that will engrain institutional racism, such as a merciless fare increase that would be shouldered by 86% Black, Brown, Asian transit riders – this is and always will be a racially discriminatory policy.

The Approved Fare Increase by MTA Board Majority

The MTA is moving to jack up fare cost rapidly -- the first increase of 20% will be in less than 5 weeks and within 2 years the total increase will be 42% and a locked in additional 24% increase in 2011, with an option for an additional increase for year eight.

Director Molina’s fare increase proposal also included that MTA staff "study" (euphemism for a green light) the cutting of service on the 25 "lowest performing lines". This lines aren’t bad lines, but according to MTA mathematical equations used to justify cuts, these are lines which only operate at 75% of capacity (30 passengers on each bus), verses the lines that now are operating at 125% or 150% of capacity busting from the seams, massively overcrowded and offer a more "worthy subsidy" of just pennies to carry Black and Brown bus riders on MTA larger lines.

Thrown out are the arguments for fare reductions, the expansion of bus service, or MTA coming to grips with the enormous subsidies that they provides to many half emptied suburban trains and rail lines, the bankrupt and racially discriminatory transit policy to emphasize rail construction over bus services, or the actual mass scale suffering that these increase will have on bus riders who are barely surviving with family incomes of $12,000.

Building the Strongest and Broadest Coalition in Our History

We constructed one of the most strongest and broadest coalitions against the MTA fare increase – which included civic and religious leaders such as Reverend Lewis Logan of Bethal AME, Father Bill Delany from Saint Agnes Church, Andy Lipkis director of Tree People, Michelle Prichard from Green LA, Reverend William Monroe Campbell from Mount Gilead Baptist Church, Nativo Lopez from the Mexican American Political Association, David Petit from the Natural Resources Defense Council, leaders and members of SEIU SOULA 2006, SEIU 6434 Home Care Workers, the Korean American Federation, Maternal and Child Health Access and scores of ally organizations from LA Community Action Network to Communities for Better Environment to LA CAUSA Youth Build to KIWA to SCOPE/ AGENDA to AWARE to Community Coalition to IDEPSCA to name only but a few, all the while Westchester High School and Cleveland High School led dozens of students and teachers from across the city taking over MTA lobby that included students and teachers from Camino Nuevo High School, LA City College and Central High School.

The MTA palatial building was shut down by the Los Angeles Fire Marshal as several hundreds filled the MTA main board room, the overflow rooms, and the MTA lobby packed with 200 people chanting and demanding their right to enter the MTA board room and speak. BRU leaders and organizers led a people’s public hearing at the MTA lobby in two languages. The messages were loud and clear, not a penny more, stop transit racism, stop MTA’s rail obsession and instead of raising fares, lower fares.

An important breakthrough in expanding our message and reach was won through very meticulous media work, bus organizing and e-organizing work. These last two months, we opened an important front in our organizing plan through media work – we were able to build momentum, shape public debate and build a master narrative for the public through dozens of news stories from TV, radio, print, blogs – you name it. Our bus organizing and mass outreach through flyers, posters, banners and those pesky "Mayor Villaraigosa: Stop the MTA’s Racist Fare Increase!" lawn signs – we reached critical mass in saturating neighborhoods in South LA, East Los Angeles, the San Fernando Valley and Pico-Union/Westlake. Our e-organizing through our website
www.busridersunion.org [1], weekly e-mail blast, opening new fronts in myspace and youtube, all to reach the critical mass and build momentum for our movement.

What NOW?

We are pursuing every civil rights and environmental response, including legal challenges. We are working with the Natural Resources Defense Council and Howery LLP to explore our legal options on MTA’s latest move to increase fares. Howery LLP is representing us, as we prepare to present to the Ninth Circuit in June. Our lawyers are in the final leg of finishing our legal arguments and presentations to reverse last year’s decision to not extend the civil rights Consent Decree to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal. This challenge is to stay MTA’s hand in their attempt to destroy the gain of the Consent Decree. We will exercise all our option to stop MTA’s plans.

More importantly, we will be building from our momentum on the buses – how all this will play out will be the next phase of the struggle through intense internal discussions inside our leadership bodies and discussions that we will be engaging with our allies and our base on the buses of Los Angeles.

We made history on May 24th – now we have to move to our next set of options – collecting legal testimonies from bus riders – documenting the irreparable harms these fares will have on their families and calculating the amount of possible ridership loss and increase auto use that will be triggered by this hikes. We will of course be gauging the riders outrage at these new approved fare hikes and look at all tactics to reverse this outrageous and painful increase.

Where You Come In: Join us for a Bus Riders

Union Citywide Meeting on Saturday, June 16th

We are in for a long hot summer of action in the courts and out in the streets. Our first move, we hope you will join us for "Where Do We Go From Here" Citywide meeting on Saturday, June 16th at 9:30 am at Immanuel Presbyterian Church to continue growing this movement. There are many organizations and activists that we have never worked so closely with as we have during this fight. We need to continue and expand this work to stop and reverse these fare increases. We are continuing to explore a girth of options and will keep you up-to-date. Again the 500,000 daily bus riders and their families thank you.

In Solidarity,
Bus Riders Union Planning Committee