PGHIMC - Pittsburgh Independent Media Center

Sleeping on the Sidewalk to Keep Our Transit Rolling
by Stephen Donahue Saturday, Jun. 28, 2003 at 2:01 PM
sdonahue412@hotmail.com

For Pittsburgh Indymedia: Port Authority riders press their demands for public transit funding by keeping a 25 hour fast/vigil in downtown Pittsburgh. (One participants narrative)

The first thing that I noticed upon awaking early Tuesday morning (June 24) was that I was covered with dew. The next thing that I noticed was that I was cold. I already knew about the sidewalk, it was hard. It had been my bed all night. " Well", I said to myself, "join the club, lots of folks sleep on the sidwalk each night."
I was not alone that night. There were 13 of us who spent the night of Monday June 23 on the sidewalk in a little traffic island park near the Pennsylvania State Office Building in downtown Pittsburgh. We had planned on spending the night on the sidewalk in front of the State Building but we were run off of there at 6PM Monday evening. We were told that we could return at 8AM on Tuesday.
The thirteen of us who spent the night outside were just a small contingent of the larger number of bus and trolley riders in Pittsburgh/Allegheny County who were doing a 25 hour fast and vigil in support of our public transit. Around 50 public transit riders and activists gathered on Monday morning at 11AM for a press conference and rally to kick off the vigil and fast. After the press conference folks split up. Some walked the streets getting signitures on a petition to the governor, some held posters as human bill boards. Some went home. Some returned to their jobs. The idea was that everybody could do this vigil and fast in a way the worked for them.
We had decided to put our bodies on the sidewalk for 25 hours so as to make it very clear to Governor Rendell and to the State General Assembly that we are very serious about our demand that they fund public transit so as to prevent any more service cuts or fare hikes.
Many of us in the bus/trolley rider's group, Save Our Transit have been rallying, marching, writing letters, leafleting, getting petitions signed, doing post card campaigns, making phone calls and traveling to Harrisburg for over two years now all in a failed effort to get the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to adequately fund public transit. In response to this inadequate state funding, the Port Authority, which must operate with a balanced budget has had to increase fares and cut service twice in the past two years. By placing our bodies on the sidewalk we wanted the send the message that this had better not happen again!
This 25 Hour Fast and Vigil for Our Public Transit was a ratcheting of our actions. Should the Governor and the General Asembly fail to increase operations funding for our public transit, then the Port Authority will once again, now most likely in November, be forced to raise fares and cut service by 20%. Proposed cuts include the loss of all service after 9PM each day and also the loss of all Sunday service. Many of us who spent the night on the sidewalk of that traffic island park between Penn Ave. and Liberty Ave. discussed what to do should this happen. Such major service cuts would disrupt the lives of many in this city and county. Some of us should these major cuts actually happen will do some disrupting of our own.
Somebody said it during the press conference at the start of the fast & vigil, "Up to now we have been behaving sheep but should these service cuts and fare hikes really come down, then we will buck like rams!"

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