This is cross-posted from Blue Hampshire, with some explanatory notes
Manchester is the largest city in the state, with one of the most underfunded, poorly managed public transportation systems that I have had the misfortune of having to use, in three countries and six states. We've been pretty much cut off from the rest of the state as far as public transit goes, ever since we destroyed our train station in the Sixties and replaced it with expensive coach services, which we further cut back to zilch last year - if you don't have a car, and you need to get out of town, tough luck! And if you need to get around in town, good luck! The MTA was in bad shape before last year, when they cut routes and shortened service hours.
But they're about to make it even worse - and they haven't warned us who use it. (Seriously, try to find a notification on the website.)
Here's what I posted at Blue Hampshire - and yes, I'm furious: I already have to walk most places, simply because the bus routes that serve the poor West Side where I live are already few and far between (there's essentially one, and another that I have to walk a mile to reach the stop for, that skirts this side of the river) and yet the city makes it equally hard for poor people with cars, with limited parking and draconian fines. And they don't properly plow or sand the sidewalks, so even for me, who am fairly vigorous, it can be a dangerous endeavor even getting to a bus stop. And our stops are poorly marked, and routes/times are not posted. I say this for the Californians and other residents of places lucky enough to have functioning public transportation systems, so you will understand what we are contending with - and how much better and more useful it could be.
I'm reposting this here since there are quite a few New Hampshirites who may not be on Blue Hampshire, and others who may be able to offer us ammo for the debate, based on their own experiences with public transportation etc in their own hometowns around the world.
Manchester alderman kneecapping city - again
by: bellatrys
Thu May 07, 2009 at 06:50:57 AM EDT
I know that Concord is pretty much the be-all and end-all of discussions here, but there are some important goings-on elsewhere in the state as far as progressive causes are concerned.
I just found out from the MTA staff two days ago that the aldermen - not content with curtailing what little we had of public transportation in Manchester last year - are about to completely gut the bus system, getting rid of Saturday services and cutting other routes still further.
Of course this wasn't well-publicized...but who cares about poor people who have to take the bus, in NH?
bellatrys :: Manchester alderman kneecapping city - again
There will, however, be another meeting for the public to weigh in - the first one was held on Tuesday in the middle of the day, which does damn-all for those of us who have to work for a living and have no cars, also with no notification (I didn't even see any notices stuck in the bus shelters, this time, unlike when they hiked fares and tried to stop the Saturday routes last year.)
But there will be a second meeting on Tuesday, May 12, at Memorial High School at 6pm, I am told by the MTA drivers and other workers.
Of course, getting there is going to be a challenge for those of us who have to take the bus, since the buses stop running in this town at 5:30 on weekdays, meaning that I'll have to pay a cab to get there, which I can ill afford, being a member of the full-time (but no benefits) working poor.
But it's crucial enough that I plan to make it there, since I'm already mostly housebound, being as walking 5 miles in ice or blazing heat is not always possible, even for me, as a hardy 40-year-old but one with asthma issues and other physical ailments (for which I cannot, of course, afford to get medical treatment.) If the Saturday buses are killed, then that means no more Barnes & Nobles for me, ever. No more A-Market, no more grocery shopping period, since there's no longer even a disgusting, third-rate supermarket on the West Side. No more A.C. Moores or Michaels for my hobbies, no more Best Buy.
And that means that all my remaining purchases will be done online. I buy much more online than I used to, when I had a car, because Manchester's public transit was already such a hassle - and that means money not supporting the city. I'd like to buy locally, but the locale isn't making it possible for me. I'm poor, so I don't buy much, but there are a lot more poor people than there are rich folks, and collectively we do buy a lot - it's called "Bottom of the Pyramid Economics," look it up. And when we stop buying - well, very few businesses can survive by catering to the top 10% alone.
I know that the needs of honest-to-goodness local poor people don't matter much, even to progressives, in this state - anything beyond tossing some money at useless charities hosting fancy dress balls or feelgood-a-thons is out - but it can be looked at as a green and even more an economic health issue: when every other part of the country is looking at ways to reduce auto traffic, oil dependence and pollution, to make neighborhoods more accessible and encourage people to want to live in them, here Manchester is - once again, while the city center is imploding under Republican governance back to what it was in the 80s - shooting itself in the other leg.
If people can't get around easily, if shopping and doctors' appointments and everything else are an increasingly-enormous hassle (and given Manchester's horrible, ever-worsened parking situation, the lack of public transport stands in stark relief) - if businesses can't get cheap workers, and young people have no incentive to stick around because they can't afford to pay rent and own a car (like me) and can't even get to work, now, via bus - then the propertied old conservative dudes who make up city council and their landed-gentry conservative clients whose concerns are the only ones that matter, won't be so rich any more, because the city tax base will keep on eroding as nobody wants to be here, "tax advantage" or no.
I remember what the 1980s were like, under Republican "management", because I was working in downtown Manchester back then. The acres of shuttered fronts, the trash everywhere, the streets devoid of shoppers and workers. I know that Real Pinard and others of the city council actually do look nostalgically back on those days, being Old Men Yelling At Clouds by profession, and wanting a dead city to match their own moribund souls.
But does anyone else want to go back to that?