Tweet storm sets out to bolster mass transit
Rep. Garcia leads calls for $32B in pandemic relief funding for public transportation
U.S. Rep. Jesus “Chuy” Garcia is leading calls for emergency funding for mass transit to be included in the next congressional pandemic relief package. (Zoom)
By Ted Cox
A Chicago congressman is leading calls to provide relief to public transit in the pandemic, including a planned “tweet storm” Tuesday on Twitter.
The advocacy group Transportation for America is one of the organizations leading the campaign, calling for supporters to tweet using the hashtag #SaveTransit. U.S. Rep. Jesus “Chuy” Garcia of Chicago joined the campaign Tuesday, after leading calls in Congress for $32 billion in pandemic relief funding for public transportation last week.
Garcia and U.S. Rep. Jerrold Nadler of New York wrote an opinion column last week touting the support of 110 of their House colleagues in calling for the $32 billion in funding, which they called “the minimum sum needed to adequately support our public transit” as estimated by the Transit Center and the American Public Transportation Association.
“As members of Congress representing Chicago and New York, the two of us understand better than most the crucial role that public transit holds for our constituents,” they wrote. “With one in four Chicago commuters using public transit every day and nearly six out of 10 New Yorkers relying on the MTA’s subways and buses to get to work, it’s fair to say that public transit is a crucial lifeline for those living in our cities. And it’s not just Chicago and New York: across the country, people in the U.S. ride public transit 34 million times every day.”
Citing that ridership of public transit was down between 70 and 90 percent in the pandemic, they warned that services could be cut in half or fares tripled — a calamity for riders who rely on it to get to work. Garcia and Nadler pointed out those are largely essential workers, many of them African Americans or Hispanics.
“If Congress fails to provide this funding, the negative impacts will be widespread,” they wrote. “Throughout the pandemic, we have seen essential workers courageously continuing to go to work every day, assuming huge personal risk as they place their lives on the line for the rest of us. Many of them rely on public transit to transport them to our hospitals, health clinics, and grocery stores. If we want to make sure that these essential workers, including our public-transit workers, are protected during the pandemic, we must make major investments in deep cleaning and personal protective equipment. Without congressional funds, transit agencies can’t afford to implement those stringent safety measures. And without those funds, cutbacks in services will result in overcrowded buses and trains, making social distancing even more difficult to achieve.
“For America’s Black and Latino communities, a failure to fund public transit would further deepen the impacts of systemic racism,” they added. “With Black and Latino Americans comprising 60 percent of transit ridership, public transit cuts are keenly — and disproportionately — felt by these communities, already so hard hit by COVID-19.”
Garcia and Nadler argued that a robust public-transit system is essential for an economic recovery from the pandemic and has an exponential effect on the larger economy, with every $1 billion invested in public transit driving $5 billion in Gross Domestic Product.
They shamed Republicans for not even including funding for public transit in their proposal for another COVID-19 relief package. Transportation for America echoed that, while adding that even the HEROES Act, which passed the U.S. House in May only to be ignored by Senate Republicans, “provided less than half of what transit needs.”
At what was termed a “virtual” public rally for mass transit last week, Garcia was quoted as saying: “Public transit is not an option. Public transit is a lifeline. The working men and women at all transit agencies across the country roll up their sleeves and go to work every day. They enable the rest of our essential frontline workers to get the job done. Now it’s our turn.”
In addition to the social-media campaign, Transportation for America is also asking for voters to lobby their representatives and senators in Congress for the emergency funding.