(The following article by Dan Geringer was posted on the Philadelphia Daily News website on February 15.)
HARRISBURG, Pa. — Threatened by service cuts and fare hikes that would disrupt their lives, thousands of working people, seniors, students and disabled riders spent Valentine’s Day huddled in a cold rain to rally for permanent mass transit funding.
A thousand Philadelphia working people boarded buses and a SEPTA train to the rally, including Henry Nicholas, venerable leader of Hospital Workers Union 1199C, who went because “my union is the largest parent in the public school system. Our members have 37,000 school children.
“Seventy-eight percent of our child care, home care and nursing home workers, and 47 percent of our hospital workers, ride public transit to their jobs.
“If SEPTA raises fares 40 percent, as they threaten to do without permanent funding, our members are hit with a double whammy – their own fares and their school children’s fares. We have to stop that from happening.”
The Philadelphia Thousand joined hundreds of like-minded riders from Pittsburgh, Altoona, York and other transit-dependent communities to march around the Capital, mass at its east side fountains and hear Mayor Street lining out his thoughts, preacher-style.
He launched into a rhythmic mayoral rap about his recent adventures aboard SEPTA – starting with the “young brother” he met on the 124 bus going to work at the King of Prussia Mall on a Sunday morning.
If SEPTA cuts weekend service and raises fares 40 percent, Street said, the young man will soon decide “it’s not worth it.”
He told about waiting for the downtown bus at Broad and Master on a freezing, windy day, “looking wayyy up the street” to see if the bus was coming. “There wasn’t nothing coming. You hear me? Nothing coming!”
After walking down Broad to within four blocks of City Hall, Street finally saw the bus and “decided to give up the token” because he was so cold.
After recounting other SEPTA adventures that showed how mass transit is vital to its captive audience of workers who can’t afford to drive, Street addressed the unseen state Legislators in the Capital building. “All they have to do,” he said, “is make it right! Make it right! Make it right!”
He left to the 90-minute rally’s biggest ovation. But moments later, the following e-mail was sent to the Daily News from the Capitol:
“Around 10 a.m. on Monday morning, the mayor requested meetings with the Senate President Pro Tempore [Robert C. Jubelirer, R-Altoona] and Senate Majority Leader [David “Chip” Brightbill, R-Lebanon],” wrote Erik Arneson, Brightbill’s chief of staff.
“But he told one office he would only be in town for an hour – so no meeting was able to be scheduled – and was 45 minutes late for the other meeting, so that one never happened.
“This certainly leads us to wonder how much of a priority solving the mass transit issue is for the mayor versus the priority of being seen as a cheerleader at a large public gathering.”
Street’s spokesman, Dan Fee, did not respond to a request for comment but Lance Haver, the mayor’s consumer advocate, said, “If the founding fathers engaged in the same petty level of discussion, we’d all still be subjects of the Queen.”
The Philadelphia Thousand train went home on a high note as students from Phillip A. Randolph Skills Center burst into “Hit the Road, Jack,” “Beat It,” “Rolling on the River” and “My Girl.”
The rally was organized by the Pennsylvania Transit Coalition, an AFL-CIO-led statewide massing of 100 unions, activist groups, community and business organizations, and religious leaders.