Riders Say “JAIL NO!”
This was perhaps my most successful campaign meme during my time at OPAL. Using the Trimet Riders Club logo, on a stock image of a prisoner entering a cell, the viral post on Facebook and Twitter generated 1400 local petition signatures in under a week (including contact information for organizer follow-up). The narrative strategy here was to turn up the pressure on Trimet while our members were organizing for fare discounts and service improvements. The agency then wrote a blog in response titled, “No, we’re not building a jail,” making it very apparent that they’d felt the public pressure. Following this viral campaign, more than 125 people showed up to demonstrate and testify against the #TransitJail – and not a single testimony offered support for the proposal. The Board of Directors refused to change course, and approved the budget. This foreshadowed major changes needed on the Board in the year to follow.
Did you hear the news? Trimet snuck an $11M transit jail into their new budget.
Bus Riders first heard the news on February 22nd. We held internal meetings to ask: what’s the Bus Riders Unite response? At March 22nd’s Trimet Board Meeting, we were heard.
“A budget is a moral document,” testified BRU’s David Bouchard. David was one of the authors of the BRU Low Income Fare Equity report. “We can tell where your values are by what you fund.” BRU’s advice? “TriMet needs to implement community involvement strategies and an equity analysis … well in advance of the budget’s adoption.”
BRU’s Action Planning Team (APT) activated members to show up at the meeting. Keith Scholz, Chair of APT, noted that Trimet is finally adding one North-South route in East Portland, but only during weekdays. “Transit is needed seven days a week. If you were to ask what community wants, they will tell you they need better, more affordable service, not a Transit Police Facility.”
Nic Phillips, BRU rep to the Transit Equity Advisory Committee, laid it out. “This center will be located steps from the Rose Quarter and two stops from the Lloyd Center, which, as detailed in PSU’s report on racial disparity, are the #1 and #5 enforced and policed stops on the system, respectively.” She went on to call the area, “a several blocks long trap for those of us out here struggling to survive.”
OPAL’s Executive Director Huy Ong was last to speak. “I wasn’t expecting a fully funded low-income fare to be written into the budget. That would require a level of bold leadership I have yet seen from this board. What I did expect was some hint that a low-income fare is being seriously considered… Instead we see plans for a $11 million transit police station. Did you think we wouldn’t notice? Did you think we wouldn’t care?”
We’re going to keep the pressure on Trimet to fund service and equity, not militarization of our transit system. Because it’s our transit system. We want you with us. Get involved.