(The Philadelphia Daily News posted the following story by Jim Nolan on its website on May 23.)
PHILADELPHIA – Many of the angry activists present yesterday wanted to give SEPTA management and board members the boot.
Instead, they gave them the shoes.
Soft-soled. High heels. Flats. Sandals.
Some two dozen pieces of footwear were tossed at the feet of transit officials yesterday at a contentious and disorderly SEPTA board meeting – a symbolic protest by elderly, poor and disabled riders to the agency’s proposed fair hikes and elimination of vital bus and rail routes.
“This is what’s going to happen if you cut the C bus,” said activist Barbara DiTullio, of the Save Our Transit Coalition, an umbrella group of activist organizations opposed to SEPTA’s proposed plan to close a $55 million funding gap in next year’s operating budget.
“The C bus itself is significant for the elderly and the disabled,” DiTullio said, indicating the group could file suit under the Americans with Disabilities Act to prevent the cut in service.
The C bus, which runs along Broad Street, is one of 15 bus routes scheduled to be eliminated as part of SEPTA’s proposed cuts. It is also one of nine routes out of the 15 that provide full accessibility to disabled riders.
“How can you do that?” wondered wheelchair-bound Michelle McCandless, addressing the board. “You’ve got to give us a way to get around.
“Do any of you get around by using these buses?” she asked the board, seated silently behind a u-shaped dais cordoned off from the audience. “Or should we just get in the back of your car?”
Also on SEPTA’s budget chopping block are four regional rail lines – the R1 Airport, R2 Warminster, R6 Cynwyd, R8 Chestnut Hill West – and four Subway-Surface Trolley routes.
“Cut your salaries!” cried activist James Shrode.
“They’re already cut to the bone,” responded SEPTA Board Chairman Pat Deon.
“You need to resign,” Shrode added.
SEPTA officials say the crisis has largely been brought on by the state, which has not increased its subsidy to SEPTA in six of the last seven years, even as operating costs and inflation have gone up.
“We’re with you,” Deon said to the group, amid chants and catcalls from the audience, which included representatives of elderly groups and seven people in wheelchairs.
“We don’t want to cut services and raise fares. We understand the sensitivity,” Deon said. “We understand the issues. But we need support in Harrisburg. It’s not something we want to do.”
Clearly, though, the SEPTA board, which includes members from surrounding suburbs, the city and the state, has become the focal point of riders’ frustration.
“There are some other ways to cut costs,” DiTullio said.
Over the last several weeks, SEPTA has held public hearings on its budget proposal at locations throughout the region it covers, drawing waves of protest.
Yesterday, Pedro Rodriguez, of the Alliance for Retired Americans, ripped board members for failing to show up for the public hearing in Philadelphia early this week.
When Deon tried to curb him from speaking until the end of the meeting, a chorus rose up in the room.
“Let him speak! Let him speak!” The cries were punctuated with the sound of a horn generated from a wheelchair bound audience member.
Some activists saw the proposed cuts as motivated by class and race.
“Why do you want to cut service in the poor neighborhoods?” asked disabled speaker Eileen “Spitfire” Sabel, who took the C Bus to get to yesterday’s meeting at SEPTA headquarters at 12th and Market streets. “Not one of you has a disability. Not one of you is even black. Am I right?”
“The last time I checked I was,” responded board member Jettie Newkirk – one of two black board members – inspiring the only lighthearted moment of the debate.
“We’re a transit agency. We believe in transit,” Deon said after the meetings. “It kills us to make these cuts.
“We agree with them. We understand their frustration.”
Perhaps that’s why Ernestine Kinsey Marshall’s suggestion resonated with both sides of the room.
The president of the Golden Age Club of Retired City Workers proposed that SEPTA sponsor a fleet of buses to drive riders upstate to state the agency’s case.
“You need money from Harrisburg. We will fill [the buses] up for you and follow you there,” she said to applause. Putting her best foot forward, shoe on.