FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE NOVEMBER 3, 2005

For more information, please contact: John Paul Jones, Neighborhood Capital Budget Group‘s “Campaign for Better Transit (CBT)” at 312 -939-7198 ext. 3868; or
Minister Cy Fields, Interfaith Organizing Project (Landmark MB Church)-Campaign for Better Transit Task Force: 773-722-7555

TRANSIT ADVOCATES HONOR CIVIL RIGHTS PIONEER ROSA PARKS BY CALLING FOR EQUITABLE PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION AT COMMUNITY TRANSIT SUMMIT

While the public won a reprieve from the Chicago Transit Authority’s “Doomsday” Budget in 2005, NCBG’s citywide task force of transit advocates, the Campaign for Better Transit (CBT), continues to organize for greater equity in CTA’s service and capital spending priorities and against CTA’s 2006 fare restructuring proposal that punishes cash-paying transit riders.

To assure public involvement in the debate about CTA’s 2006 budget and the broader debate about an equitable and sustainable transit funding strategy for Northeastern Illinois, the Campaign will convene transit riders, labor unions, State Legislators, disabilities rights advocates and environmental groups to develop a community-driven vision for public transportation that honors Rosa Parks’ legacy and demand for equality:

DATE/TIME:
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 2005 - 9 A.M. TO 12 NOON

LOCATION: PLUMBERS HALL, 1340 WEST WASHINGTON

The Summit will take up the continuing challenges and needed reforms facing the metropolitan region’s transit system:
• Identifying and advocating for the transit priorities of Chicago’s neighborhoods
• Scuttling CTA’s plan to raise cash-paying riders’ fares and eliminate their transfer privileges
• Scrutinizing CTA’s proposals to privatize many functions of the agency
• Evaluating the transfer of capital dollars to balance transit agencies’ operating budgets
• Monitoring the transition of paratransit services to Pace in July 2006
• Advocating for the timely completion of the Illinois Auditor General’s audit of the CTA

When Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on the bus 50 years ago, she launched a national movement to claim equal rights for all Americans. Today, disparities in transit service and investment persist in our regional transit system. NCBG has documented yet another example of disparity in the way the CTA treats the riding public: Its system of fare card sales outlets. At the same time that CTA claims to be trying to protect the most economically distressed transit riders by “only” raising fares on those who pay cash, CTA currently provides very limited access to its fare card sales outlets in communities of color. NCBG’s analysis of the locations where CTA’s fare cards are available shows that access to fare cards for the most vulnerable and cash strapped riders, the working poor, the disabled, and the occasional rider, is much more limited for African American communities on the City’s south and far south sides. NCBG will distribute its analysis of the fare card sales outlets to the public and elected officials at the November 12th Summit

Community leaders will develop a Community Transit Plan for “BUILDING ACCOUNTABLE AND EQUITABLE PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION” from the public’s input on November 12th to present to the region’s transit agencies, RTA, the Chicago City Council, Mayor Daley, and State Legislators by December 1st, the 50th Anniversary of Rosa Parks’ historic act of defiance against discrimination.

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