Bus Riders Union Questionaire
List of Questions
- The Environmental and Public Health Crisis of Los Angeles County: Recent studies show that 9% of children across Los Angeles have asthma, an estimated 14% in Los Angeles’ urban schools have asthma, and 18% of pediatric patients at St. John’s Well Child and Family Center, located in the heart of the 2nd Supervisor District, have chronic asthma. Over the last 20 years the hospitalization rates for children with asthma in Southern California has increased 70%. Recent studies show that an increase in the ozone level can lead to an 83% increase in school absences and long-term exposure to ozone leads to the underdevelopment of children’s lungs and consequently long term health impacts. Los Angeles City and County is the most auto dependent region in the nation with 75% of trips completed in single occupant vehicles. Currently, MTA’s Long Range Transportation Plan identifies funding for countywide bus-only lanes until 2030. In order to curb the public health and environmental crisis that Los Angeles is currently facing:
Will you support Bus Only Lanes in Los Angeles County to cover the entire length of major transit corridors with Rapid Bus lines including:
- Crenshaw Blvd
- Vermont Ave
- Western Ave
- Wilshire Blvd
- Florence Blvd.
- Olympic Blvd.
- Venice Blvd
Yes __X___ No _____
Will you introduce a motion on the MTA Board to prioritize funding for Bus-Only Lanes by 2010 in the Long Range Transportation Plan?
Yes __X___ No _____COMMENTS: Crenshaw north of Exposition Blvd.
Fare Increases: On May 24th, 2007, an MTA Board majority voted for a 20% – 60% increase in MTA fares and passes for July of 2007 and 2009. MTA ridership has been declining since July and at the same time MTA staff is simultaneously calling for the elimination of 375,000 annual hours of service, with the majority of impacted bus lines in the Second District. Each fare increase leads to a 2-4% decrease in bus ridership. This represents 9,000-18,000 bus riders driven into old polluting automobiles while further reducing bus riders’ own economic viability. As you know, fare reductions are proven to lead to an increase in ridership; this has been demonstrated in MTA’s own history with the 50-cent fare of the 1980s. Given positive environmental impact of reducing fares as well as the positive socioeconomic impact on low-income transit dependent riders, the Bus Riders Union has always supported reducing fares to 50 cents, monthly bus passes to $20 and the student pass to $10.
Will you introduce a motion to reverse the MTA Board majority decision to raise fares in July 2009?
Yes _____ No __X___Will you support a moratorium on fare increases on base fares, monthly passes and discounted passes for the length of your term?
Yes _____ No __X___Will you decrease the transit base fare to 50 cents, the monthly bus pass to $20 and a the student discount pass to $10?
Yes _____ No _X___COMMENTS: ________________________________________________
The Legacy of the Civil Rights Consent Decree. The Bus Riders Union, with our important partnership with the NAACP-Legal Defense Fund and our allies were able to secure improvements of over $2.7 billion to the bus system and enforce progressive MTA policies on critical issues like equitable and affordable fares. Many MTA Board members made overtures to the Bus Riders Union and to the general public that they would protect the gains and resources of the Consent Decree (which their own legal counsel had also assured the federal courts). However, in essence we have seen almost the opposite of that commitment. Over the span of one year, bus riders have had to endure a 20%-60% fare increase, service modifications and reductions that have negatively impacted their travel pattern and now MTA staff is proposing to cut over 375,000 annual in-service hours by June 2008. If these cuts are approved it will significantly undermine the gains made under the Consent Decree--when we add the 90,000 hours of bus service cuts over the past year, approximately 50% of the resources added to the bus system through the enforcement of Consent Decree is at stake.
Will you work with us in your current position to oppose the 375,000 annual service hours being proposed by MTA staff for June of 2008?
Yes __X___ No _____Will you support a moratorium on system-wide cuts to bus system resources in order to protect the legacy of the Consent Decree?
Yes __X___ No _____COMMENTS: ______________The Consent Decree should be maitained to the extent possible, while providing excellent service throughout the County_________________________
______________________________________________________________________________The 5-Year New Service Plan: The BRU/MTA civil rights Consent Decree 5-Year New Service Plan is still under Federal Court Supervision. It’s main objective is to increase the access that the transit dependent have to educational, employment and medical centers by expanding the MTA fleet by 131 buses and creating important minimum service provisions for the Rapid Bus Program, including 10 minute peak period waiting periods and service span from 5 am to 9 pm. Unfortunately, MTA staff has been undermining these critical expansion requirements by exempting these service requirements on corridors like La Cienega, Vernon, Soto, Chavez/Garvey and Beverly and now seem to be cutting countywide service or reducing local service to implement Rapid Bus. In essence, bus riders are not seeing any true service expansion, which counters important federal court orders guaranteeing Rapid as net service expansion.
Will you support the decision of the Federal Courts that Rapid Bus implementation, the central component of the 5-year New Service Plan, be based on service expansion and not on MTA’s current revenue neutral policy?
Yes ___X__ No _____COMMENTS: ________________________________________________
Bus Service and Fleet Expansion: We are at a critical moment for the future of transportation in Los Angeles. With federal court supervision restricted, forces at MTA are once again attempting to move the agency in the direction of underfunding the bus system and prioritizing rail and subway expansion. This is despite the fact that the $11 Billion spent to build rail/subway since 1986 did not lead to the predicted ridership gain and bus riders continue to make up 90% of MTA’s riders. In other words, the bus system continues to be the lifeline for the transit dependent and represents the most economically and environmentally sound transit option.
Will you introduce a motion within your first year as a member of the MTA Board to expand the bus fleet by 500 buses with the necessary service hours to operate them?
Yes __X___ No _____Will you support a moratorium on Rail (light rail and subway) construction until such a first class bus system is achieved?
Yes _____ No __X___COMMENTS: ________________________________________________
Growing Number of Law Enforcement, Shrinking Resources for Social Services: Study after study shows that the most effective way to make our communities safe is to invest in the social service sector and with employment opportunities, not more policing. Studies have further shown that the majority of people in prison were either unemployed or receiving poverty wages at the time of their arrest. We ask you to take a stand for truly “safe” communities that supports important social services like the reinstatement of the emergency unit at Martin Luther King Jr Hospital and restrict the LA Sheriff budget that has gone up by 30% over the past years.
Will you support a moratorium on hiring additional L.A. County Sheriff in order to actively secure, protect and expand critical L.A. County social programs like health care centers?
Yes _____ No __X___COMMENTS: _____We need to balance all County services and provide adequate resources to each Department . A moratorium does not make sense, but a realistic look at the Department’s needs in combination with other Departments will dictate a proper budgeting scheme._______
The Safe Neighborhoods Act: Authored by State Senator George Runner and Assemblywoman Sharon Runner, the Safe Neighborhoods Act, which is currently collecting signatures,aims to increase penalties for alleged gang related crimes and increase spending on police and prisons. As the state that spends the most in incarceration and has the largest imprisoned population, with young Black and Latino men representing the majority of those incarcerated, it is urgent that legislation such as the Safe Neighborhood Act be defeated.
Do you oppose the Safe Neighborhoods Act?
Yes _____ No __X___Will you actively campaign against the Safe Neighborhoods Act if it qualifies for the June or November ballot?
Yes _____ No __X___COMMENTS: ________We need safer neighborhoods, particularly in the Second Supervisorial District______________________________________________________
Gang Databases: In 2003, approximately 47% of African American men in Los Angeles County between the ages of 21 and 24 had been logged into the Los Angeles County gang database, and more than a quarter-million Californians had been entered into the CalGang database by law enforcement personnel across the state. As you know, the Advancement Project’s research has shown the subjective nature of who is entered into the gang database--a person can be entered in the CalGang database if a law enforcement officer determines that the person meets only two of ten criteria. Even more concerning, law enforcement does not have to tell a person if he/she has been entered. Currently. there is no public process for determining if you are in a gang database until you are served with an injunction or given an enhancement on another charge. Furthermore, it is very difficult to remove your name from a gang database.
Will you support making the gang database public record so that an individual can identify if he/she has been placed on it?
Yes _____ No __X___Will you support the implementation of an expedited and non-punitive process for an individual to remove his/her name from the gang database?
Yes __X___ No _____COMMENTS: ____________There should due process to allow any alleged gang member to be removed from the database if the information is incorrect._____________________________
Cooperation of local enforcement agencies with federal immigration authorities: There has been an erosion of the important principle that local enforcement agencies do not cooperate with immigration authorities to enforce federal immigration laws. In Los Angeles County, two programs that have been implemented by the LA County Jail and the LA County District Attorney that have led to an enhanced cooperation with immigration authorities in a period where the federal government has failed to implement a just immigration policy and instead is criminalizing and rounding up suspected “undocumented immigrants.” These LA County programs purport to target “foreign born” offenders at local jails, yet there is growing number of so-called “collateral “arrest that have swept up and often deported innocent people. These practices are violating the human and civil rights of whole communities, engaging in the profiling and scapegoating of immigrants and deporting people indiscriminately.
Will you support revoking the MOU with ICE to permit immigration enforcement at L.A. county jails?
Yes __X___ No _____Will you support suspending the Los Angeles County District Attorney “Operation Winter Warning” program that cooperates with ICE that allows the federal screening of foreign-born immigrant in L.A. County jails?
Yes __X___ No _____COMMENTS: ______Local law enforcement should concentrate on local issues and not the responsibilities of the federal government who under fund their own law enforcement agencies_______________________________________________________________________
