PGHIMC - Pittsburgh Independent Media Center

URBAN NEGLECT IN ELECTION 2004
by stephen donahue Friday, Oct. 29, 2004 at 9:55 AM

After November 2 our city and our public transit will still be in a shit load of trouble.

A few days ago I went by a rally for Mr. Kerry in downtown Pittsburgh in an attempt to drum up support for increased public transit funding. Some might know that here in Allegheny County the public transit system is about to crash. Some of us are trying like hell to keep it running.

Well, standing at the corner of Stanwix Street and the Blvd. of the Allies, it was a hard sell. Folks walking into the rally just would not take a flier. Many turned their faces so as not to see me. Many others told me that they agreed but still took no flier. Many more told me that they were not from here but had come in to help get Kerry elected.

After a spell, I left. As I did I began to wonder how much money the politicians were spending to flood our city with campaign workers from out of state; from so called “safe states.” Soon I began to get mad as I thought that on November 3 all those people will be gone and the campaigns will be over but on November 3 our public transit will still be on a bob sled ride into fucking hell and our city will still be broke.

So what is a city to these politicians? A city is just a place with lots of potential votes. It is a vote warehouse. For the past several months I have watched the election pimps prowl our urban neighborhoods, especially our “poor” urban neighborhoods in search of votes. Now the phone rings off the hook every evening with calls mostly from the Sierra Club asking me if I am going to vote, or if I want to help turn out the vote. I see posters in my “poor” neighborhood telling me that I can get paid $40 for working on Election Day. Does it strike anybody as being a little dishonest when so much effort is made to turn out the “poor” vote even when the politicians never say the word “poor” anymore?

After all the votes are counted and after all the carpetbaggers are back home what will be left here in Pittsburgh? On November 3 we will still have a city that is under full siege by privatizers and free marketeers and on November 3 our public transit system will be another day closer to its demise.

So what is the point? Well, as we used to say on the farm, don’t shoot your wad on November 2. Save some for November 3, 4, 5…

For those political party animals that still have some spunk after November 2, you can join a bunch of bus and trolley riders from around the area at a Rally and March for Public Transit on November 4. That is the day that the Port Authority will take public comment on the plan to end all weekend and nighttime service, eliminate 70 bus routes and increase the base fare to $2.50. If you are free that day come to the State Office Building, 300 Liberty Avenue at 10AM. Bring banners, signs, whistles, horns and drums. We will march over to the public hearings and remind the politicians that what happens between elections is more important that what happens on Election Day.

Our city is ignored except for its potential to send warm bodies into the voter booth. Well, bus and trolley riders do more than just vote, so politicians beware.

add your comments

urban neglect in election 2004
by Stephen Donahue Tuesday, Nov. 09, 2004 at 2:56 PM
jedpurple@hotmail.com

I am a lifelong resident of Mpls, Mn. and I feel a very common emotion out here. It isn't necessarily transportation, but anything that you can actually POINT TO, within the urban city limits.
With the party rumblings about moving centrist, following this election, I haven't felt this abandoned since the "white flight," which followed our urban school closings in the 1980's. Yet no one seems to want to talk about it in the national media. They don't even call us cities anymore. In context to elections, we are "tiny clusters of blue."
You have a kindred spirit in the Midwestern, heartland, Stephen Donahue. Let's hope for an "Urban Strategy" in 08. Instead of stabbing the urban liberal in the back, maybe we can finally thank them for staying on our front lines in more than "spirit."

add your comments