Archives for August 2013

Memphis Bus Riders Union (MBRU) made history this August in what seemed like an impossible feat: pushing the City Council to pass a resolution diverting funding from the Economic Development Growth Engine, a local government board designed to “serve a leading role in administering current economic development incentive programs” to the Memphis Area Transit Authority in order to restore funding MATA lost from Mayor A C Wharton’s FY 2014 budget cuts.

Earlier this summer, MBRU urged the Council to restore the $2.4 million to MATA’s portion of the city budget before it was passed in July. As budget deliberations came to an end, a scant $606,000 was restored. Throughout the budget hearings MBRU organizers warned the administration and the Council that this would not be enough to stop the massive cuts to bus service. Yet again, Memphis foots the bill for a corporate buffet while rationing public services in a so-called budget crisis. Growing public dismay made it apparent that in spite of the odds, more action must be taken.

As MATA prepared to host public hearings on the upcoming route cuts, MBRU kept pushing the City Council to take another look into the budget and find the funding for public transportation. Bus riders increased the pressure with calls and emails to the Council and the Mayor’s office, and mobilized over 200 riders to the public hearings. All these efforts effectively shifted the conversation to focus on the problem of city funding and tax breaks for multi-million dollar corporations while public services are being decimated. As MBRU organizer Bennett Foster stated in a press release by the local Sierra Club “This resolution to amend the budget and restore some funding for MATA has the potential to protect a great deal of service hours, frequency and even entire routes that are proposed to be terminated this summer. Changes planned for the 10 and 43 could create a veritable wall between residents of North and South Memphis and the developing downtown area, not to mention the added hardship for bus riders from all over the city who must transfer downtown to get anywhere out east. The City has an opportunity to take action now before it’s too late.  With unemployment at 10.3%, rampant poverty and the Mayor’s  perpetual cuts to public services the question is whether the livelihood of poor and working class Memphians is worth taking another look at this budget. We think it is.”

Local media outlets began to focus on the upcoming cuts to bus service. Council members Lee Harris, Janis Fullilove and Wanda Halbert felt they had enough support to bring a resolution to committee that would amend the budget by taking $469,000 from EDGE and putting that money into MATA operations. With so much community support the council passed the resolution with eight votes!

MATA’s Board of Commissioners met the very next day to vote on the proposed cuts to service. With over $1 million in funding won back by MBRU, our supporters and a great deal of public input from dedicated riders, MATA’s new route proposal saved the 11:15 line up, entire routes such as the #6 Northaven, #15 Presidents Island, #5 Central, #82 Germantown Parkway, and #2 Airport. Stated in the board’s meeting agenda “In order to be responsive to the many comments received regarding direct service to the VA Hospital and Memphis Towers… the #2 route would remain as it exists today in the Medical Center area. The #36 Hacks Cross route would also remain…”. The proposal passed unanimously. Sadly, all of this comes at a time when state and federal funding for public transportation is being drastically reduced. North and South Memphis, which already lack adequate bus service, will still suffer from less service than anywhere else.

Memphis Bus Riders Union has plenty of work ahead. But with these seemingly impossible victories under her belt, an affordable, equitable, safe and efficient mass public transit system doesn’t seem so unattainable. Stay tuned as the struggle continues!

Our next monthly meeting is Saturday, September 7th from 12 to 2pm at Memphis Center for Independent Living, 1633 Madison Ave. Please join us!

For more information call (901) 205-9737 or email us at MemphisBRU@gmail.com.

Manna House, located at 1268 Jefferson, is a house of hospitality in the Catholic Worker tradition that provides showers, clothing, coffee, and sanctuary for poor and homeless persons in Memphis, Tennessee. Recently, Saint Vincent de Paul soup kitchen, which served a hot meal everyday to people in the crosstown area, including most of the guests of Manna House, closed and has no scheduled re-opening date.  Volunteers at Manna House and the soup kitchen are will fill in the gaps as best they can, however, preparing and serving serving close to two hundred sacked meals everyday is not an easy task.

Manna House, a dedicated advocate for people experiencing homelessness,  has been a strong ally and supporter of the Mid-South Peace and Justice Center and H.O.P.E. (Homeless Organizing for Power & Equality) for a long time, and we are calling on our members and friends to help them meet the needs of the men and women they serve daily.

If you are able to assist by providing turkey and cheese sandwiches on wheat bread, and/or bananas please contact Lisa Anderson with Room at the Inn at 901-246-8052.  Food donations can also be dropped off directly to Manna House at 1268 Jefferson Ave., Monday – Friday, between 9:30 and 10am

Thank you in advance for your support!  You can read more about Manna House in the Thursday, August 15th edition of The Commercial Appeal, Wendi C. Thomas: At Manna House, the homeless receive hospitality, not charity.

• Soulsville Contact: Mrs. Betty Taylor, btaylor7221@att.net
• South Memphis Alliance Contact: Ian L. Randolph,  IanRNDLPH@yahoo.com
• CPR Coordinator: Melissa Miller-Monie,  melissa@midsouthpeace.org

The Community-Police Relations (CPR) project is a groundbreaking partnership between citizens and law enforcement officers that is challenging both groups to overcome their differences and distrust to work together on the deepest problems of our community.

The forums give you the opportunity to share your story and vision for Community-Police Relations, and will be used to develop and implement recommendations toward positive outcomes through dialog  Be a part of the conversation as the community sets the vision of how we will deal with crime and violence in our city.

Don’t forget to like CPR Community-Police Relations Memphis on Facebook

What Happens at the CPR Forums?  Keep it Here, Keep it Real, and Keep it Safe!
Four central questions are posed to forum participants:  What is your vision of community and police relations? What are the barriers preventing you from reaching your vision?  What are the solutions to reach your vision of community-police relations? How do you reach your solutions to accomplish your vision?

After each forum, participants are invited to be a part of the Community Engagement group representing their community. The Community Engagement group will later join the CPR Core Group to discuss recommendations toward reconciliation.  The first Community Engagement Forum will be held Saturday, August 31st.

UPCOMING:
Hickory Hill Forum
Monday, September 30th, 6 – 8p (5:30 sign-in)
Hickory Hill Community Center, 3910 Ridgeway Road
Outreach Contact: Mr. Sonny Robinson, bongotiger1@gmail.com

For more information about the Community-Police Relations project, please contact:

Melissa Miller-Monie, CPR Organizing Coordinator
Phone: 901-725-4990, Email: melissa@midsouthpeace.org

The CPR Team- Bridging the Gap between Community and Police Relations: Mid-South Peace and Justice Center, Community Leaders, Memphis Police Department, Shelby County Sheriff’s Department, Playback Memphis, and a third party facilitator.  

MATA Public Hearings Bring Attention To Priority Crises

Memphis Area Transit Authority has historically been able to accommodate the trend of eastwardly moving jobs for its riders, 90% of whom are people of color, a majority, women who earn below poverty level income. MATA’s most populated and often overcrowded route is the 50 Poplar which acts as a pipeline for transporting workers from the North End Terminal downtown to jobs in East Memphis. However, most of these riders are not from neighborhoods around the North End Terminal. They travel inbound from distant neighborhoods some tens of miles away. The buses that get them to the North End Terminal are lifelines for these riders. Due to recent cuts in local and federal funding, MATA will be reducing these routes drastically.

This July MATA hosted two public hearings in one week for residents to comment on proposed cuts to bus service. Each hearing drew over 150 people and many went on the record giving their own proposals and concerns about our shrinking bus system. Memphis Bus Riders Union did weeks of canvassing to make sure that as many people as possible could plan to attend this opportunity to speak face-to-face with MATA officials. But MBRU organizers had no illusions that these public hearings would address the real problem of budget cuts. “We’ve got people in low income communities who are already under served, who are going to be cut off from their jobs, cut off from their grocery stores, cut off from city services these are people who already are down in society,” explained Shahin Samiei, Memphis Bus Riders Union. “City council has been cutting MATA’s budget for years now and this is the problem, this is the outcome,” added Samiei.

In response to a great deal of coverage from the local news outlets, some council members made statements of their own. Councilman Harold Collins and TN State Rep. Joe Towns addressed the public with promises to prioritize public transportation in the future. “Maybe we stay with the commitments we have now, but going forward I think it should be an adjustment made on the PILOTs and the length of them and the amount of percentages the City of Memphis relieves,” said Memphis City Councilman Harold Collins about MBRU’s proposals that funding for public transportation could be found in the millions of dollars Memphis gives away in tax incentives to corporations like International Paper and Electrolux. Councilman Lee Harris, who’s district continues to suffer from lack of bus service said in an interview that the City Council needs to “form a separate transportation committee just to make sure we didn’t get into a bind like this one where we’re shocked and surprised that there’s going to be such dramatic cuts that are going to effect hundreds and hundreds of families, not to mention, the 40 or 50 folks at MATA that are going to be laid off as a result of this.”

Memphis Bus Riders Union is urging the public to attend the MATA board meeting Wednesday, August 7th at 3:30 pm at the Central Station, 545 S. Main at the corner of GE Patterson. MATA’s board of commissioners will be voting on the proposed changes. We hope the board will consider postponing the vote as we push Mayor AC Wharton and the City Council to release enough funding to restore MATA’s budget and stop the cuts.

G.O.T. PODER!

Grassroots Organizers Training for Power, is a unique training in the Mid-South, the only one offered in Spanish for developing community organizing skills.

MSPJC’s fourth annual grassroots organizer training for the Spanish-speaking community will take place Friday, August 9th through Sunday, August 11th. This three-day, 16-hour training has been vital for the growth of Latino grassroots organizers in Memphis and the Mid-South. In this year’s training, participants will have a unique opportunity to share and grow with a respected local and state activist of the Latino-Immigrant community of Tennessee!

Información en Español aquí.

Please spread the word about GOT PODER! to Latino and bilingual organizers, activists, allies, friends and members.  For more information or to register, please check G.O.T. PODER, contact Gio López at gio@midsouthpeace.org, or call 901-725-4990.

Please help us to make G.O.T. PODER possible for all who need it.
Any donation in any amount counts!

90% of our participants come from families with low-income; and most of the time, scholarships are requested. MSPJC knows that we can’t deny this training to the people who need it the most.  Participants are asked to contribute towards the cost for this training. We use a sliding scale based on their annual income, from $30 for individuals to $300 for organizations or other entities.

It costs MSPJC $200 per person to do the training. This includes materials, 16 hours of training, simple snacks, breakfast and lunch on Saturday, and follow-up support from a network of the mid-southʼs best organizers and activists.

You can help us to continue offering this amazing opportunity to the Latino community at a low-cost by making a generous donation to G.O.T. PODER!

You can make your donation safely online, by phone, or check payable to MPSJC, 3573 Southern Ave., Memphis TN 38111, memo: “G.O.T. PODER”

• When donating online, please mark the option “In Honor of…” and write “G.O.T. PODER” in the box labeled “First Name”  to make your donation specific. You can use the email address gio@midsouthpeace.org Thank you so much!