Bus Rider's Association Brings Change

The Santa Cruz Bus Rider's Association brought some successful defense work to protect bus riders from the "harsh cuts" that initially threatened to us riders and our bus system. These cuts started out looking like they would be a kind of a conflagration that would burn down much of our bus system, taking a lot of jobs and bus line with it. We were alarmed, naturally.

Initially the planned cuts amounted to as much as 40% of the bus routes serviced by Santa Cruz Metropolitan Transit District, or "Santa Cruz Metro". By the last meeting of the Board to hear public comment and to decide on the actual cuts that would take effect, on June 24th, 2016, the threat had been reduced down to about 15% of the bus lines. These percentages are rough figures, and not to be taken as an exact number or precise and verifiable fact.

We will return to the facts later in this article. We are many, many kinds of people wanting, needing and living together, including all kinds of animals and plants and even ostriches. That's a fact, of a sorts, albeit, of a metaphorical kind. We all want and need to go places, too. And we are working to assess the facts about these percentages, and other facts.

One of the bus drivers presented these percentages, to this author yesterday, on July 7th, in a casual conversation. The board presented other percentages at the meeting on June 24th, that will be mentioned further on in this article.

The defense of our bus routes was in many ways successful, but that success owes to the willingness of the bus drivers to accept a deferment of a 2% raise that these generous drivers voted for and which they sacrificed. The largely defensive effort by the Santa Cruz Bus Rider's Association, or "BRA", which had some success in defending against the cuts, also owes to the collective community work and participation that bus activists, students from the two local colleges, and riders from all parts of the community, including the disability rights activists, and many other persons active and who contributed and participated fully of their own accord and not in any way because the BRA had anything to do with their completely independent actions. Barrow Emerson maintains and is likely to have made incredible attempts at outreaching, and garnering successfully a large degree of public input. Thank you, Barrow, and cheers to everyone in the community who participated in any of the aspects of public comment.

Other involved groups and management personnel contributed vigorously and often financially, or by giving time and acceptance. The variety of people who made contributions or promised them, can be hard to name, it ranges from students at Cabrillo to UCSC transit authorities who are pledging to do a sizeable chunk of dough, workers, riders and community groups from Watsonville to create an at least partial dialogue that happened in the heat of the impending cuts situation, and staved off impending worse percentages of cuts from occurring. Even the management of the METRO has agreed to accept some cuts and limitations to their salaries, as we have heard them say. Therefore, the community of people, including bus riders from all situations around the county came together to address the crisis. The effort had heart. It definitely generated heat, seems to have minimized our community's losses. Now, what shall we do? To get to where we are now, let's go over more about where we have been.

The SC Bus Rider's Association was formed in about late April to early May, and worked independently, but also in close association with the bus driver's union throughout much of the short and intense campaign to save bus routes, jobs, and address environmental concerns. The diversity of the interests/political points of view managed to create a steady stream of actions, as we came together with a focused goal to defend against the cuts, and get people out to meetings. As the short campaign went on sometimes passionate dissension and intensity within the group dynamics brought out our weaknesses.

To a large extent the activism was sparked and was a spontaneously generated uprising by the fact of the cuts being announced and the METRO board meetings occurring. There were breaks and successes of the Bus Rider's Association group, and of the communities participation.

Ultimately, it was the natural unity of the Bus Rider's Association group's collective focus that allowed us to agree on two demands. We went from there to wading through, often in smaller units of the larger group (3 people here, one over there...meeting with other folks here or there, hashing out this agreement, or contract like the one that went to vote at Cabrillo, which is still under discussion last that I hear, or that conversation, another doing research, everyone addressing various facets of the progressing situation. The Santa Cruz Bus Rider's Association sort of convulsively came apart amid pressures, and then sputtered into the 24th of June's meeting with the METRO board.

At this point, into the second week of July, our Bus Rider's group effort has died down into embers and we have gone in different directions into the cooling places of summer.

Community activists worked independently during the months of February and March of this year to get riders to take notice of the cuts being announced. Bus driver's also helped to get the word out to riders. The METRO board and management had made the announcements mainly on placards posted in the buses. These placards posted a notice to riders about the "harshness" of the cuts that were initially planned.

After seeing that many people were turning out to the board meetings, yet had no real collective voice, or organization, some of the individual activists recognized the need. It had clearly presented itself by April. At the METRO board meetings and at one of the public comment events that were set up by Barrow Emerson, there were a plethora of people very vocally and vociferously waging their dissent and concern about the cuts being proposed, but no real group organized for the rider's to advocate from a platform of power. Some groups, such as the homeless and physically frail were not able to show up often at the meetings, this writer noticed. It became clear that a collective group of bus riders and bus advocates needed to come together, if we wanted to have a decisive effect on the matter.

We put out a limited and somewhat abrupt call for a group to form, and we got one, initially comprised of 5 people. We came together at the Bagelry for our first meeting we were there were to defend the bus lines, jobs, and further threats to our environment. Later when excellent forces like our disability organizers joined in, we realized that this was really about our survival, intense quality of life issues, and our freedom to travel by bus and public transit. This meant having the ability to travel at all for some of us.

METRO jobs that employ not only drivers but other kinds of positions like mechanic's jobs were eventually saved. A few drivers came to the bus rider's group's meetings as group participants and became active, valued contributors within the group. We were all new, at getting a Bus Rider's Association together, sometimes our fears and concerns and personal issues got the better of us. We did have success though it is limited and time-bound for just a time.

We are taking a breather, (so to speak).

Some communities were still not fully served by the Bus Rider's Association's effort, or the efforts at outreach that came from other people, and the management of METRO. These people never did get much of a voice for advocating for their needs, or much representation at all.

These communities, as I understand it, especially in the rural-most areas served by METRO, such as those in certain mountain communities in the outlier areas, especially, will find themselves out of bus transportation in September when the cuts go into effect. Riders out there, please be informed.

Not having outreached well enough to these communities, among other communities and people that were not outreached to, enough, was one of the failures in this effort of the Santa Cruz Bus Rider's Association. We ended up not doing enough outreach in some areas and not enough on some buses and there were things that just did not get done, like organizing riders in those outlying routes. We are regretful and discouraged about this fact. The shortness of the time frame to address the bus cuts was partly to blame, however, the personal failings of one of the group members, who may just be this writer was also to blame.

This author although, only one person speaking here for only myself and not the group, wishes to apologize for this failure, and extend the hope that people in places in the County of Santa Cruz like, Davenport, Boulder Creek and other places in South County, such as those areas in outlying parts south in south county, and around and in Watsonville, among other places that may have had their bus lines cut, will look into what might become of their much needed transit service. One of the board members asked a question on the 24th. It was the only question that he asked that this writer recalls.

It was asked after laws that protect low income people were presented by the management that pertain to the rights of certain groups, such as low-income groups. These laws protect these groups from cuts to their bus lines. These laws, called, generally, Title Vi, of an amendment of the Civil Rights Act require that the cuts to transportation (that receive federal funding), not affect certain groups in a disproportional way or in a way that may be prejudicial in the sense of being disproportionately having an effect against any specific group. An assertion had been by this author, and was posed to the presenters from METRO on this point of Title Vi asserting that she had some knowledge that indicated that some of the people who lived out in these outlying areas, may not have heard enough or anything about the cuts. This board member asked the presenter on Title Vi, as to whether the METRO board could potentially be sued for matters that would fall under Title Vi. This board member was concerned and was reassured, it appeared by the presenters answer that the METRO board would not be liable to be sued, successfully under this provision of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 which protects and covers people who were formerly served by bus routes before the cuts, and who will lose their bus service.

This is an amateur assessment and summary by this writer, and I include it here as a point that should be checked out further by us bus advocates, and be noticed by people who may be deprived disproportionately of bus service when the cuts are actually implemented. We hope not.

The facts are that the METRO claimed on the 24th of June to have reduced the amount of total service that was going to be cut down to 10 or 11% from an initial planned set of cuts that would have amounted to anywhere between 25% to 33 or 35%. So, there are so more facts that we here stated.

At very least, we will need to examine what happens when the cuts are implemented in September, and to prepare for these changes. Alex Clifford has requested that people come to him with any questions that we and anyone may have. Hopefully these statements will be followed up by actual availability and visits allowed by him. We are therefore, encouraged and not too wary.

The "BRA" group formed very quickly and under pressure of a fast pace that the CEO and the Board set for public comments and decisions pertaining to the impending cuts. This bus rider's group that ultimately formed, this author thinks, was a fiercely defensive effort with a focused core group that came together in crisis, took actions quickly in order to meet the demands we were under, and may have been short lived. We will have to see.

We were committed, somewhat small but numerous enough to mount an effort that had representation in Watsonville, up into the mountains and at Cabrillo College, had environmentalist representation, and diversity of class backgrounds, and ages -to an extent, as well as participation by disability rights activists, at least one indigenous person, one professor who is writing his dissertation, students, and also at least one bicycle rider who took and takes the bus, and other kinds of intersectionalities. The wider community that we hoped, aspired and attempted to represent, numbers in the tens of thousands, and we regret that we were not better at reaching out and including them.

We really did only have a few weeks, and to be exact, about 5 or 6 from the first really inclusive meeting of any kind which happened on the 18th of May.

At that first larger meeting outside of the initial group that had come together, about 12 to 15 people showed up, at the Louden Nelson Community Center that evening. Most people stayed for various lengths of time, and at the end of the meeting, we set the date for the next meeting and we were off to wage the first Santa Cruz Bus Rider's Campaign alongside the Bus Driver's and other groups in the community, like Bus Rider's by Choice, Campaign for Sensible Transportation and others.

There did exist though a much larger number of people, who did not come to our meetings, who came to some of our events, followed our actions, and did what they could to support our effort. Some of these "intersectionalities" as the UCSC intellectuals like to call all of us coming together were trees, plants, animals and insects, including sea life and scientists. Getting us to agreement about our demands and to form conclusions based on research and about other matters was a little bit like the proverbial herding of cats.

The situation that is now somewhat at a lull point, gives us a little bit of summertime to pause. But the possible danger is that the pause could allow for the fire and the threat to start up again. I believe it is time for Santa Cruz people in general, car drivers as well as committed mall shoppers, as walkers and bus riders, public transit enthusiasts, all of us, to really wake up to the reality of the fact that our current economic system, and not just greenhouse gasses, is killing us, slowly and imperceptibly, possibly, but killing us all the same. We all need more practice, especially this author, of getting out of our own way by recognizing the other in us, and undoing our classism, specifically with the intersectional realities of racism, and not excluding other- isms, like gendered forms of prejudice and other xenophobic realities that are facts. We do need to quicken our collective pace and address our lack of experience, and intensify our education and abilities so that we are able to work collectively and more inclusively. We all need and I do mean myself here, more practice at this, inclusivity, and what that which we, individually, are not more practiced and accomplished at.

The threat of the cuts was a kind of strong indicator of even greater threats that I understand are impending to our lives. What was great about the Santa Cruz Bus Rider's Association which faced huge obstacles and fierce time constraints, was that we did come together and for a short time we worked together under duress. With the UTU, local 23, the Campaign for Sensible Transportation, and many other groups and talented, willing people in our wider community, like the Brown Berets and other union people in Watsonville, Live Oak, and many, many places, including homeless people like a certain Pastor who attempted to get to the ceremony that christened the new Transit building, all doing what we could, we put out the conflagration, we had a really beneficial result. Now, are we able to learn from what happened, such as the mistakes that this author made (always making so many errors), and learn and forgive and move truly forward? We need to do this, and we have a tax measure now that will go to the ballot, that we will need to fully dialogue about as we never have before, and consider how it will impact us, and what are our options? Certain embers are still burning.

The METRO accountants and financial managers have unsettling concerns about the "uninked" deals we have struck, such as the potential funding agreement of the UC bus lines. The questions of lack of funding and the numbers, the percentages of the cuts are only one type of number, that we only sort of know about, we feel and think. Alex Clifford and the Board were more explicative and transparent and helpful than ever in the last weeks and at the last METRO meeting of June 24th. Still, our hopes are still big, our fears are still smoking as well as some of our anger. We need to form action groups to meet our changing needs in the community. First we need more dialogue.

The threats to our lives, and our communities exist and our need to build resilience persists. We are somewhat informed, but we are failing to really more fully understand what many communities, already know, because their villages and livelihoods are already underwater. One of many of these subsistence communities is a indigenous fishing community, the Kivalina, of Alaska.

One of their tribal leaders, a woman- came to UCSC to speak about climate change not too long ago. She spoke and showed us slides of her community which is completely out of a home, displaced by melting ice. They are no longer able to fish on the thick ice that they used to and from which they did procure their livelihood. Now these wonderful people must move again (the government already moved them once before- an ordeal they bore with incredible dignity and resilience.

How long are we going to ignore the change that is coming to Santa Cruz and that we are driving by driving this outdated economic system of large scale movement of goods over tremendous distances so we can have "cheap" products that cost in lives, so much life? How long are we going to let the few with status and wealth, or even the very few with immense interests in the oil economy and related industry's set the pace? These people are our friends, yet we all need to identify the ostriches who are confronting change by sticking their head and necks into the ground. We need to make sure that we are helping each other really solve our problems and not simply leaving the denial to the ostriches. Some of us who are extremely annoying activists hope that you will not give up on me or the ostriches amongst us. Sometimes we really do need to drag each other along kicking and screaming.

What kind of transportation system do we want to strive to create? How can we think about and imagine this while we attempt to grasp how to change our economic systems of exchange and livelihood to be sustainable and truly, absolutely inclusive? What kind of housing and where shall we build it that meets our actual demands for the present and future and is not only limited to family-style from the sixties and earlier or slightly later, but still from a model that is outdated, and are we going to think about transportation that is walking, bicycling and alternatively focused, that intersects and encircles our living places?

In other words, how can we include rich people, and the others who are engaged in thinking like rich people who make a good deal of money or status, in an other-people's movement? La Otra Campana was a movement that I loved the name of, for each of us, the other is always, the "other". The METRO Board and it seems that even Alex Clifford and Barrow Emerson, and other management personnel, came together with the community and listened and responded with true concern and assistance. What role, if any (?), shall a Bus Rider's Association play in the overall Santa Cruz-Watsonville County- area, which includes several other cities and many diverse communities? As a group that was united in the crisis, there were political and experiential differences that various members of the Santa Cruz Bus Rider's Group brought to the table along with ourselves at our meetings. We have decided to take a pause and we need to reconsider, as all of us must do.

What we are going to do together about our transportation pathways and options? How do we adjust our transportation methods and options to ways of living sustainably together as we address mitigation for climate change realities. How can we enable each other to understand and come to terms with adaption?

Adaption and resilience to new modes of life, inclusiveness, resistance, and even a refusal to change, these realities dictate a need to create change of our economic structures and structures of decision making in a manner that first of all happens, that is that actually occurs. Secondly, all of us in our total community, visitors, too, homeless, too, even the rich must be included, that is, EVERYONE. That is the reason that I am grateful for Barrow Emerson, the METRO management and Alex Clifford for accepting cuts to their salaries, too. Thank you, Everyone, for all you did.

Transportation is a critical and central component in all of these considerations, and most centrally, it does or does not connect to our disparate and extremely diverse lifestyles. We humans are developing into a phenomenally diverse body of homo-sapiens trans-everyway, scooter, skate-boarders, rider-cyclists are just the beginnings. We have boats and trains and so many ways, let's do this!

These differences allowed us, in the BRA group and will allow us to bring together a multiplicity of points of view, of needs, of dispositions that reflected our variety of persons. Riders in Santa Cruz are exactly that: a hugely diverse group. One of our group members framed the "crisis" as austerity measures that are being pressed down upon the working people and those of low-income to make the sacrifices that essentially serve the management and the more wealthy interests. These kinds of frames of perception may help us to see more clearly, like a pair of glasses into a picture that is difficult to see clearly because we are not privy to the entire picture, any one of us.

Let's get down to do more dialogue. At one of the only meetings between METRO management and the Santa Cruz Bus Rider's Association group, Mike Rotkin agreed, and Alex a little less easily, and he did seem agreeable, though to meet with the public and not have a METRO agenda of legal-type presentations and that kind of meeting with us. At this kind of meeting, we could almost certainly get a lot more dialogue happening between members of the public, various groups and a great variety of individuals. Even many other groups outside the bus driver's union may be able to ask management questions and increase conversational interactions with the management and METRO board, groups other than those groups who have already had lots of meetings with Alex already, such as the bus driver's union UTU, local 23. Thanks go to Eduardo Montesino who earned his hard won success, by way of an apparently tough, thoughtful and sustained effort, and who had many meetings with Mr. Alex Clifford, and other consultants to get to where the driver's union agreed with management's efforts to save METRO from the financial deficit that we are all, according to those who work and represent us, in.

This brings us back to a situation about facts. We need, we are told, and I am also talking about certain kinds of facts or realities, to pay attention to the facts. We can not always know all the facts, we end up having to take each other's word for it, and trust each other. Or we end up sometimes having to hear from obnoxious-seeming activists or people that we would rather not hear from, or see, or interface with, however, this is the fact of community, we are all here stuck together. We need to get better at coming together, staying together and really dialoging, meeting, hanging out together and even, changing our ways. This author wants your help, asked for your help, and got it.

I need to change. Now, this author wants to ask for your forgiveness, your increased interest and even asks of the ostriches, How is the sand? Hopefully, unlike the ice, it is still there, is it? How's that going for you? We are having a vegan and meat laden barbecue, all over the City of Santa Cruz, at the San Lorenzo river, and down at the beach, all along Pacific Avenue and in Watsonville, and everyone including ostriches are invited, and we are all coming together. Everything is free out of donated contribution, we would like for you to come and eat together, share the warmth and pass the pipe. Want to get your head out of the sand for that, or if you are looking for grub in the sand and that is why you are sticking your head into it, would you please bring it to our meal to share?

Let's eat and talk and disagree and agree more together, please.

Thanks to everyone in the community who came together.

Lemon Tree