Meet Seattle’s “Bus Chick”

Wednesday, March 4, 2009 30 Comments

Carla Saulter is part of a car-free, transit-riding family who pens a very eclectic blog called Bus Chick, Transit Authority, which you can find on the Seattle Post Intelligencer's website.

As you'll see, Carla is all about riding transit and inspiring others to. And the bus has indeed figured prominently in her life: she met her husband riding the bus, it has provided her with a creative outlet for stories and interesting anecdotes, and she named her first child for one of the greatest heroines in bus history!

I was bowled over when I heard that Carla actually went by bus to the hospital to give birth (not to mention to also come home afterwards!) It was then that I knew she was one of the heroes of the world and I needed to profile her. I just wish I lived closer to the Bus Chick family so I could hang out and ride the bus with them more often.

http://dgalvan.blogspot.com David Galvan

She makes it seem so easy!
http://ubrayj02.blogspot.com ubrayj02

At the risk of sounding too pro-middle-class, this is the type of transit user I wish our system was being designed and maintained for in L.A.: an employed, educated, mom and her kid(s).

When I think about the sad conditions on the buses in L.A., and I picture this middle-class woman and her baby riding the bus in those conditions, I immediately feel that conditions ought to be improved. Whereas, when transit is viewed as simply a working- or lower-class subsidy for those too poor or legally unable to drive, I think many people don’t give a hang about conditions on our buses.
http://www.thebusbench.com browne

I complain about bus conditions, because they are freakin insane. Freakin insane and when I do this people act as if I’m being negative, because I find the conditions of the bus laughable. I take it, I will continue to take it, because I hate the car, but I’ll be damn if I act like it’s ok the way it is now in LA. It is so not ok.

People who are cheerleaders for Metro and think the bus is fine or even ok are out of their freakin mind or have some low expectations.

And it doesn’t sound classist Ubrayj, I know what you are trying to say, it came off awkward, but yeah I get it and I hope Metro gets it.

Browne
http://www.thebusbench.com browne

Just watched the video. So awesome!!!

Browne
http://www.livablestreets.com/people/trorb Clarence Eckerson Jr.

Thanks for the kudos. Ubrayj02, I definitely understand what you are trying to say….one thing I will say about buses in L.A. – on my trip this past week, I got to ride a lot more of the Metro system and it seems to be going in the right direction, better but in need of a whole lot of improvement.

I did get to ride the Orange Line BRT several times and was actually bowled over by it. A real success. I will have a Streetfilm on it in the near future, but anyone in LA who hasn’t been on it, I say go check it out ASAP. That is real BRT (and a bike path along side to boot!)
Marcotico

David, Ubrayj, and Browne,

I was just talking about this with my wife last night. The dilemma that transit advocates face is that we feel like we are forced to choose which socio-economic class of transit use we should advocate for! This is a function of transit projects having to fight for funds project by project whereas roads get to distribute guaranteed allocations.

Sometimes it feels (and this is just my take mind you) that we have transit advocates on one side who want to cheer for Metro and hope that it gets better with encouragement. They want high end service to appeal to drivers, so that hopefully, if upper middle class and even wealthy people start seeing transit as an option, they might help push through broader transit improvements, which may eventually result in enough money for all modes. A lot of them have traveled to Europe and seen the London and Paris subways in action and think why can’t we have this.

On the other side of the spectrum there are transit advocates who call bull***t on that idea. They say that transit service for the very poor, needs to be addressed first, and then built from the ground up. Metro needs to address improvements in service levels, and ground coverage with the tools we already have at our disposal. There already is a huge transit need, and they don’t need to waste resources on begging yuppies to use it, just so we can pat ourselves on the back at how cosmopolitan we’ve become.

This is a HUGE oversimplification, and it is a spectrum of thoughts and action. But as long as transit technologies have to fight over limited resources I think this is a problem we (on these types of forums) do have to struggle with.

P.S. I think I just brought the discussion going on the “homeownership” post over to this one.
http://www.livablestreets.com/people/GarySe7en Gary Kavanagh

In response to fellow commenters, funding priories I think gets at the heart of all of these issues. If we gave buses the kind of priority we give freeways, it wouldn’t have to be a fight for service versus quality, we should have both. Also I’m sure there are ways Metro could be more frugal and cut less necessary spending (cough cough glossy brochures on how to report a suspicious package next to a different glossy brochure on how to report a suspicious person), that could be better spent say on cleaning up bus stops.

I get off at Santa Monica and Vine sometimes to see my girlfriend, and there is always just mounds of garbage laying all over the bus stop and over flowing trash cans. Middle class folks are not going to take to buses in significant numbers when some of our bus stops look like land fills. On one occasion at a different stop I was talking on the phone waiting for a bus and a homeless man spouting nonsense began picking garbage out of the can and throwing it toward me, the only other person around. If he was trying to hit me, he was missing terribly, but creating a huge mess, and I told him to stop littering. He didn’t listen. For a lot of people well off enough to have a choice, if they experienced something like that, they may reconsider ever taking the bus again.

This woman’s story is really inspiring though, and I hope we can improve service to inspire more people to make a switch to transit oriented living.
http://dgalvan.blogspot.com David Galvan

Well, I think we could probably all agree that, in order for Bus Chick’s transportation life to be more typical for middle-class people in L.A., we’d need either 1.) better and more extensive service than we have now, or 2.) a more compact, less sprawling city.

#1 will be a gradual uphill battle, and there will be long periods of time between major steps of improvement. A new light rail opens here, a new rapid line or bus line becomes available. . . and it will likely improve at about the same rate as the city keeps sprawling outward, so the service per unit populated area might stay about the same averaged over the county.

#2 is actually possible if people choose on an individual basis to alter their lifestyles. This is hard, but at least individuals have some real control over this: With the economy down, times are tough, but home values are also low and getting lower. One thing I’ve heard several economists say will help more than anything to rescue the housing market (and thus a big chunk of the economy) are the up-and-coming young couples who are now considering changing from renting apartments to buying homes that, were it not for the housing bubble popping, would normally be well out of their price range. This means people looking around for new homes in this buyer’s market actually have a chance to more easily choose where they want to live, and how close they’d like to live to their work. I’m imagining people buying, living, and working in subset neighborhoods like Culver City, Santa Monica, North Hollywood, etc. Within these smaller areas, the problems of using public transit are minimized because the trip times are not as long. Bus Chick’s lifestyle is perfectly achievable for those who live close to work and are in the right neighborhood of L.A..

Again, this requires a lot of flexibility and forward thinking (and just plain luck) on the part of young middle-class couples, and doesn’t mean much for the lower class, but still.
http://www.thebusbench.com Browne

We should have bus stop clean ups, like they do with the LA River. I mean in general I feel that the CBS Deceaux should take care of all of the bus stops, but just documenting how filthy some of them are and its not just the people. I’ve been to bus stops where the trash can was over flowing with trash and what do you do when you can’t throw your trash anywhere.

Yeah and then the other day the same bus that left me because I was busy reading a newspaper (but I call bs on that I looked down for five seconds and she was late) anyways this same bus driver who left me two days later picks up this obviously insane person. A person who did not even have the money to get on the bus, crazy, spitting, cursing and I’m not for not letting people on, but really, you leave me because I’m reading (and it was spiteful that bus driver knew I was waiting for that bus) and yet you pick this person, a person that is spitting and cursing and acting like they are reenacting the Exorcist?!!

Ok…now I’m just venting…

But basic customer service, I in general hate talking crap about drivers because they are so far down the food chain and their behavior is a reflection on management, but you know god damn they really piss me off sometimes. The petty bs, that’s what really gets me.

I think sometimes they don’t want middle class people to take the bus, because then they would have to do their job, because you know we do stuff like blog and video tape them and complain.

Browne
Spokker

Browne, in your opinion what bus system meets your standards of cleanliness? I ride the OCTA and I feel their buses are quite tidy.

However, I would never expect LA’s buses to be as clean. It seems that how clean buses are is largely a product of how much your riders respect their transit system. MTA has a responsibility, but so do riders. If riders can’t respect their transit system, then it’s an uphill battle.

You mentioned a person who was crazy in your post. How is a bus driver supposed to stay sane themselves when they have to deal with these people day after day? I don’t blame them for losing pride in their jobs.
http://www.thebusbench.com browne

You know the riders do respect the transit system in LA, but no one feels there is a priority in cleaning them. I have been to bus stops that have trash cans that are filled to the brim with trash, what’s that about?

Seats that are dirty, because no one has bothered to steam clean them or do what they do to keep them clean. You don’t clean something for five years they are going to be gross.

It’s all about priorities they spend millions on the Sheriff who do nothing but eat donuts, but how much do they spend to clean, probably next to nothing.

And I take the bus. I don’t litter. I respect the bus and the train, and as I’m riding the bus and train I don’t really see people going out of their way to be disgusting, but I do notice I never see anyone cleaning the bus or the bus stops (except if they are near a rail.)

I am going to keep complaining about the condition of the busses, trains and the waiting areas around them and even though I will continue to take them because I think cars are killing the planet, I am also going to continue to complain because I’m not so stupid to think that the conditions are normal.

In New York busses aren’t gross.

Now if you can get photos of people littering and taking pisses on the bus then feel free to blog that and let us know, but as of yet I haven’t seen any outrageously disgusting behavior by the average bus rider. Yeah some people who are mentally insane get on the bus, but usually they don’t have anything with them but their special attitude, but as you know we can blame Reagan for that for shutting down our public mental health hospitals, so now instead of people getting the help that they need they are allowed to wander around near the neglected bus stops.

You know why they don’t wander around the bank, because people care about the bank. Maybe we should not ever clean the trash along the freeway or clean it at the same level as we clean the busses and we will see who is the most dirty.

Look Spokker the busses in LA are disgusting and I’m not going to be ok with that. Maybe you have a different value system where things that stink are totally acceptable, but I guess I’m just a princess because I think you should steam clean the seats once a year or something and maybe if you have problems with homeless people peeing in the elevator to possibly provide a bathroom instead of the solution of spraying that spicey nutmeg fragrance on top of the pee, because pee and nutmeg just smells like nutmeg scented pee. Now since the average transit rider is not homeless then why should the average transit rider have to deal with that kind of nastiness.

We shouldn’t it’s gross and Metro should fix it.

If homeless people were peeing in dressing rooms of Banana Republic, Banana Republic would fix it.

Its not just the people’s fault, I know you don’t want to ever blame corporate jerks for anything, but sometimes it is people at the tops fault.

Before we continue this discussion our economy is in a freefall whose fault do you think that is?

Browne
Spokker

“Its not just the people’s fault, I know you don’t want to ever blame corporate jerks for anything, but sometimes it is people at the tops fault.”

You seem like the kind of person who thinks they can completely figure another person out when they’ve only expressed one or two opinions.

No, I don’t hold the belief that I never want to blame corporate jerks for anything. I think that Metro could do a better job. But at the same time, I think people could have more respect for the transit system. Then there are just elements that are characteristic of a large city that you can do little to nothing about.

You’re right that I do not have photographic evidence of bad behavior from transit riders. I do not write a blog and I do not carry a camera around. I wouldn’t take a picture of someone on the bus or train in the first place for fear that they might beat the shit out of me. Perhaps you are so gung-ho about exposing Metro that you don’t look at what your fellow riders are doing.

On line 20 on Wilshire Blvd. I have seen a couple bring on a bag with bread, meat and cheese and start making sandwiches right there on the bus. I’ve seen the usual transit antics, from people screaming for no reason to people trying to hock worthless trinkets on the subway. Hell, even on “average passenger annual income of $75,000″ Metrolink a guy refused to detrain when a conductor asked him to after failing to provide a ticket, and the cops had to be called to forcibly take him off in a violent display. I saw a dude on Amtrak who was plastered yell at staff before he was thrown off the train.

I have a solution to these problems, but I don’t think you’re going to like it. If you want more security and more janitors at stations and bus stops, Metro is going to have to pay for them. A fare hike may just be in order. Of course, I’m probably racist for proposing that.

“If homeless people were peeing in dressing rooms of Banana Republic, Banana Republic would fix it.”

Banana Republic isn’t charged with providing a service or product that they can only charge 28% of operating costs for. They take cheap ass Chinese clothes and sell them at a horrendous markup. A farebox recovery ratio of 28% is actually low in this industry.

I mean, Jesus Christ, I support mass transit and all but at some point you get what you pay for. Toronto Transit charges $2.75 for its base fare. Even the OCTA charges $1.50 these days.

“Before we continue this discussion our economy is in a freefall whose fault do you think that is?”

It is the fault of the highest paid executives to the stupid homeowners who took loans they couldn’t afford.
Spokker

There are problems with all modes of transportation, even driving. How many drivers complain about potholes that fuck up their cars while they exclaim, “Where are my tax dollars going?!” Graffiti is a huge problem on freeways and maybe Caltrans is slow to fix it, but hey, that’s the big city. The people who are charged with cleaning up graffiti do the best they can. There’s not some vast conspiracy to allow things to get this bad whether you’re driving, flying, railing, or busing.
http://www.thebusbench.com browne

How do you know I wouldn’t want a fare hike? You get what you pay for. I am well aware of how it works. Now in LA that’s a bit of controversial thing, because in general the people riding the bus don’t have money, if a fare hike where to happen they should subsidize very low income people, the elderly and the disabled. Now if Metro’s bottom line was dependent on its level of service then yeah it would run better. I would support a fare increase that forced Metro to be accountable for human being level of service, people tend to care about the people who directly cut the check. The Tap cards their care and consideration with that had to do with Metro getting Homeland Security funding.

But right now I don’t think would be a great time for a fare increase, unfortuantely doing the go-go early aughts when Metro could have upped its game they did nothing and now the have nothing to entice people to ride public transit with except the Red Line and the Gold Line.

I recognize the Red Line is a great thing. The Red Line is what got me on public transit, if it weren’t for the Red Line I would have never got on a bus, ever.

Maybe they could take baby steps and make sure that CBS Deceaux cleans and keeps ups all of the bus stops in downtown LA equally. Every bus stop should look like the one outside of city hall.

Have you seen the bus stop in front of Union Station right where Metro’s officers are? Disgusting. I mean really at least keep your front lawn clean, how hard with that be?

At this point I would be willing to try anything I even voted for that stupid Measure R, thinking it might do something.

But on the otherhand I think there is money already there and there has to be a switch in regards to priorities in LA. Do they want a car dependent populations or do they want good public transit?

Daily public transit riders save the city money in not using their roads and parking in their lots and polluting their air, we should get something too, like a tax credit for not owning a car. I think a tax credit for not having a car in addition to a fare increase could work. If people with Toyota Priuses got a tax credit at some point, then people with no car at all should get at least twice the credit that Toyota drivers got.

Electric and hybrid car drivers can get 2500-7500 dollars in tax credits. I want that.
http://www.energy.gov/taxbreaks.htm

Me not owning a car gives me more dispoable income, income that if they gave me a tax credit that I could spend on more crap and that would help the country. My extra money could help all of you…lol..

So fare increase sure, but I want a tax credit for my good work in honor of the planet.

Browne
http://dgalvan.blogspot.com David Galvan

RE: tax credits for not owning a car:

You already gets that. It’s called not paying a vehicle registration fee, insurance fee, vehicle lincense fee, and cost of ownership. Do you really think people need another incentive to not own a car?
Spokker

“How do you know I wouldn’t want a fare hike?”

Great. Let’s start a campaign to raise the fares in Los Angeles.

“Have you seen the bus stop in front of Union Station right where Metro’s officers are?”

Yes, there was a homeless man sleeping in it the last two times I saw it. Maybe Metro put him there to piss you off. I poked him and said, “Hey, you’re negatively impacting this Metro bus stop!” but he didn’t seem to care.

“But on the otherhand I think there is money already there and there has to be a switch in regards to priorities in LA. Do they want a car dependent populations or do they want good public transit?”

If any priorities have shifted, they have shifted away from the personal automobile and toward mass transit, albeit slightly. Last Summer shocked Americans into realizing that cheap gas isn’t going to last forever. There is more talk than ever about expanding passenger rail transit. Where rails aren’t appropriate, there’s talk of BRT and rapid buses.

Even before this shock, there has been a great revival of old right of ways that used to serve this county. It’s been slow-going, no doubt. But the spark is there. The tide is turning.

There’s plenty of bad to focus on but there’s also plenty of good. There are many accomplishments that our transit agencies have made, most notably Metro.

“Electric and hybrid car drivers can get 2500-7500 dollars in tax credits. I want that.
http://www.energy.gov/taxbreaks.htm“

Well, I disagree with the hybrid car tax incentives. I don’t think those cars do *that* much good, but it’s not a real major issue with me. It’s an incremental improvement but eventually I would like to see a tax incentive to get people buying electric cars when they become affordable. By then I hope the hybrid car tax breaks are over and done with.
http://ridethepinkline.blogspot.com Dan Wentzel

“How do you know I wouldn’t want a fare hike?”

—————–

I’d take a fare hike on the Big Blue Blus for expansion of an already great service.

Right now the Big Blue Bus is 75 cents. I would gladly pay $1.25 per ride and be at parity with the cost of Metro ride if I could have free transfers within the system and extension of Line 14 north to Getty and South to Fox Hills Mall and later service on Friday/Saturday nights.

As it is with 75 cents, Big Blue Buses are so much cleaner and pleasant that a Metro bus. Why is that? Shouldn’t the cost of cleaning a Metro bus and Culver City bus and a Big Blue Bus and a LADOT Dash be the same?
http://www.thebusbench.com browne

“Perhaps you are so gung-ho about exposing Metro that you don’t look at what your fellow riders are doing” Spokker

Are you insane? We have a post up right now talking about how transit riders need to learn to walk on the freakin’ elevator. BusTard is way more polite than me. I wanted to title it “Walk you lazy bastards!!” But we have to be considerate and fair. We even had posts about people sitting in handicapped seating, taking over the whole area…but that’s too easy. That’s too easy to talk about just that far on the ground type of stuff when Metro is spending millions towing cars off the freeway.

I got a picture of a guy for an upcoming post who brought a wheelchair on board, took up the handicapped seating and then went to sit on the back.

I also talked about the sexism of some of the male passengers, so don’t think I don’t talk about passengers and the messed up things that they do. Oh and my pleasant walk in downtown when people call me bitch and throw trash at me for not being nice about their catcalls. I just don’t find littering one of the obvious things that they do. If I saw someone littering and being disgusting I’d take a picture of it and post it on my blog.

I have no loyalty. I’m just documenting what I see. It’s not my fault that Metro does so much more for me to document.

And chances of me rallying Metro to make fares more are slim, maybe you can ask BusTard about that, but as of now I believe they would just steal my money. I would like to see it reorganized with more accountablity to the people before I would give it more money.

Browne
Spokker

Oh, but you got an entire page devoted to Snoble and his retirement. You’ve got a graphic with his face cross out. Why not devote an entire page to Tyrone the fucking car thief or Carlos the drug dealer, you know, the people who really make the blue line a shitty experience?

No, Snoble is the white devil and more deserving of criticism. Yawn.
http://www.thebusbench.com browne

And the pothole and graffiti thing. I don’t know where you grew up in LA, but in Los Feliz we got stuff fixed, so I expect that same level everywhere I go. Yeah in some places that doesn’t happen, but fortunately for me I know they can happen and they do happen if the people in control get that you’re not playing.

Browne
http://dgalvan.blogspot.com David Galvan

“And chances of me rallying Metro to make fares more are slim, maybe you can ask BusTard about that, but as of now I believe they would just steal my money. I would like to see it reorganized with more accountablity to the people before I would give it more money.”
–Browne

. . . so. . . you WOULDN’T want a fare hike, then.

Extremism rarely solves any problems. The conditions of the bus are not ALL MTA’s fault. It’s the second biggest city in the country, and MTA buses cover a huge area and serve over a million people a day. There is going to be some wear and tear.

And it’s hard for MTA to re-organize or improve its service if people are unwilling to give it the funds to do so. You have come out and said you thought L.A. would be better off had Measure R not passed. You’ve implied strongly here that you’d oppose a fare hike because you feel MTA would just steal your money. You want them to step it up and improve their services, but you are unwilling to give them any more resources to do so?

Why do you think MTA exists? To steal your money? What do they owe you? They transport you around using mostly taxpayer’s money, augmented only a little bit by the minimal fare you pay them. Sure, there are things they could do better, but on the whole they provide you a valuable service at a bargain price.
Spokker

Browne, are you happy that newly appointed Metro CEO Art Leahy used to be a bus driver and has actually seen what the frontlines are like or is he just another backstabbing liar who hates brown people?
http://www.livablestreets.com/people/ubrayj02 Umberto Brayj

Can’t the new CEO be both?
http://www.thebusbench.com browne

Spokker what’s up with the ethnic names and the racial stereotypes attached to them (unless those are stories, you need to provide a link.)

This is way not ok. This is some racist bs and this is exactly why I don’t dedicate sensationalized stories for the population who don’t see anything in the communities that go through the Blue Line but:

“Tyrone the fucking car thief or Carlos the drug dealer” you the total jerk.

Have you ever had your car stolen in South Central? Have you ever bought drugs from South Central? Oh have you ever gone to South Central?

I’m going to answer for you no, no and hell no, so bite me.

Stop trying to imply that it’s a race thing in regards to me. It’s a class thing and race is part of that. I’m waiting for your opinions on Santa Monica and their fight against METRO currently going on.

Spokker you are not very bright. You think a petty thief is the same as a guy who gets paid more than a quarter million plus perks (housing and transportation perks, they need to provide him with a bus pass and make him ride that thing) to run Metro like a piece of shit. And it’s a piece of shit.

That’s right I have a page dedicated to him going away, it was funny, get over it. He is not going to invite you OC bus guy to any parties because you defend him on a blog.

And David my response to you will be part of a post, so no need to waste time here.

So now I talk about Metro being shitty, not only am I crazy for saying that because apparently David and Spokker think it’s entirely ok, but now I’m one of those “entitled” minorities asking for a handout…you guys are pieces of work, scary pieces of work, but still pieces of work.

Browne
http://www.livablestreets.com/people/calwatch calwatch

OK… back on the topic, yes there are a lot of people who can’t do what the Bus Mom does. Last week I was sitting in my master’s class and somehow the topic turned to the budget and the proposed VMT being imposed, and here you have all of these college students in their early and mid 20′s bitching about something that is at least a few years from fruition, even if it was politically possible. Many of them are young women who have young kids or will have young kids soon, bitching that either raising the gas tax or creating a VMT fee will make it hard to raise a family.

I agree with Browne that public transit is a big time sucker of your life when you have a kid and have to take them to the doctor, to school, groceries, etc. What I don’t know, though, is how this can ever be mitigated. Cars provide freedom and convenience. But they also cause pollution and congestion. Raising prices is one way of reducing pollution and congestion, because you price people out. But then you’re telling all of those middle class moms, sorry, you’re going to take the bus to take your sick kid to the doctor? And how can you ever build a transit system that is COST EFFECTIVE to the taxpayer and/or rider to serve all of those purposes? Or tell people that they have to live like they were in Wichita Falls or Greenville in terms of the number of choices for schools, daycare, friends, etc. than living in a supposedly Global Tier One city. It’s an interesting conundrum.
Spokker

“You think a petty thief is the same as a guy who gets paid more than a quarter million plus perks (housing and transportation perks, they need to provide him with a bus pass and make him ride that thing)”

No, not really. One guy is committing a crime and the other is doing his job. One should be in jail and the other should be relaxing with his family after a lifetime of achievements and mistakes. Maybe if Tyrone the car thief wasn’t stealing cars off the park and ride lot at Florence Station he could someday grow up to run Metro too.

You know what I support? Free bus/rail passes for riders attending classes at LA City College. If they’re not good enough try Pasadena City College too. Tuition is free for those who qualify (if I can qualify so can Tyrone!) and books can be checked out for free in the school library.

Speaking of Snoble’s pay, I would hate to think of you as someone who is always counting other people’s money. What should the CEO of Metro make? What should his perks be? Low ball it all you want, but I’d think you’d have a hard time finding any qualified people to run the organization.

“to run Metro like a piece of shit.”

Says you. Snoble didn’t have much to work with. Leahy won’t have much to work with either. When we continue to sit in piss on the bus try to remind yourself that only 28% of your fare goes to steam cleaners. It kind of puts everything in perspective.

“I’m waiting for your opinions on Santa Monica and their fight against METRO currently going on.”

Are you talking about the maintenance facility? If so, it’s like we want the benefits of mass transit but we don’t want to put up with the stuff that makes it, you know, go. It’s like they’re being NIMBYs to themselves.

“He is not going to invite you OC bus guy to any parties because you defend him on a blog.”

Oh, I never expected that. It would be nice though :)

Metro definitely has its strengths and weaknesses. I just don’t like it when a bunch of uppity tinfoil-hat-wearing bloggers imply that a man (and he’s just a man by the way, with strengths and weaknesses) is leading a racist transit agency to disenfranchise the very people they are supposed to help.

You can say white people this and white people that, and yet I can’t talk about the wacky shit that goes on in South Central LA. I can’t even really go to South Central LA. I’ve always wanted to see Watts Towers. I would love to explore the Blue Line more in-depth than I already have (I’m a train nerd, after all!). I would love to see for myself how it could be improved.

And it isn’t just my anxiety. My Hispanic friend who lives in Maywood clings desperately to his shitty Camry because he just can’t deal with the Blue Line anymore. He tried. And he’s only traveling from Slauson.

It is what it is. But it isn’t all Metro’s fault. Maybe if you spent more time urging your community to do the right thing instead of making excuses for them and less time smashing up cars, you’d make more of an impact.

No, but I’m racist.
Spokker

Finally, some evidence that buses were cleaned: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4841942.stm

Maybe Snoble forced him to retire because he was black.
http://www.thebusbench.com browne

Spokker I don’t think you’re racist. I know you are trying, but you’ll never have enough money to be racist.

And what’s this talk about: “my people” please clarify what you mean?

I am not sure what that mean in regards to South LA.

I often am critical of “my people” when I refer to what people do (in a critical but constructive manner ) when I’m talking about the green movement and alt transit, because those are “my people.” I was raised with vegan, hippie, pseudo-liberal yuppie parents. I don’t think the people I am talking about (of course not Roger Snoble, but when I talk about they hypocrisy in the green movement) have anything to do with you.

I don’t think you’re like anyone that I talk about at all.

Are you so delusional that you actually think that me talking about Roger Snoble and the top people at Metro some how relates to you and your life…talk about someone being upppity. You are quite uppity my friend if you would dare to compare yourself to the CEO of Metro who makes a quarter of a million dollars a year just because you are both white. You think you are like the people who I talk about who happen to be white, but are rich and powerful.

And that’s it right? But you’re just a white guy. Are you a rich white guy? Are you a white guy with some lots of degrees? Do live in a big house? Did you to exclusive schools? Are you like the Kennedys? Are you parents important (you know beyond the being important to you)? Or are you just white?

Because when I talk about things I’m not referring to just the race part, you do get that right?

Wow…I mean that’s kind of funny, but wow, oh now I get the Watts statement…ok then.

I have an idea I will go on my speed dial and call every black person in south central and tell them to make sure not to litter.

And you get on your speed dial and tell all the Bill Gates, Rupert Murdoch and Warren Buffet to help fund some rails, expanded bus lines and some separated bike lanes.

We’ll meet up here next week to discuss our progress.

So every white person knows every other white person? And you all feel some kind of kinship, so you could just go up to members of Skull and Bones and they’d be cool with you, wow. All of this time I thought class had something to do with it, but it’s just race.

Wow, I didn’t know that. I’m going to talk to BusTard about that. He told me you all didn’t know each other, he’s probably just lying to me, so he can keep his connections to himself.

Browne
http://dgalvan.blogspot.com David Galvan

@calwatch:

I think cars are going to remain a necessity for most mothers with kids. The change I think people may consider making is having the breadwinner, be it the husband or the wife, whoever is making the most money at a job they have to commute to, will be taking carpools or public transit to their job. Compromises will have to be made.
Spokker

“And what’s this talk about: “my people” please clarify what you mean?”

I never used that term here. I said your community. Since you’ve walked these areas that are so disenfranchised by Metro, that you’d consider them your community. A community can be as simple as a group of people that you care for. It can be a real place or a virtual one.

But if I made any incorrect statements about your community, I cheerfully withdraw them.

“You are quite uppity my friend if you would dare to compare yourself to the CEO of Metro who makes a quarter of a million dollars a year just because you are both white.”

I’m not white. And I don’t think I have to be white to disagree with your opinion of Metro or its outgoing CEO, a man who has made mistakes and also helped steer a transit agency to do great things.