Power to the People has good news to report regarding the Title VI civil rights complaints that our organization filed in May to the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) and the U.S. Dept. of Transportation against the MTA, TDOT, the Metropolitan Planning Organization and the Regional Transportation Authority. (Title VI is part of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which forbids discrimination by agencies receiving federal funds.)
The FTA has contacted Power to the People and asked that we meet with MTA officials at the FTA's southeast regional office in Atlanta to discuss our complaint.
This is an important development, which took almost three months. Lorenzo Ervin, PTTP's vice president, who wrote the complaint, initially sent it to the FTA regional office in Atlanta. When there was no response, he refiled the complaint, this time sending it to FTA headquarters in Washington, D.C., which then directed the regional office to investigate our complaint.
The date for the meeting in Atlanta has not been finalized, but it will probably be Sept. 10 or 11. If you are a member or a supporter of the Nashville Bus Riders Union (created by Power to the People) and would like to attend this meeting, please let us know as soon as possible. (Our phone number is 720-5468). PTTP does not have the resources to rent a car or a van. However, there is a shuttle service that runs several times a day from the Nashville airport to the Atlanta airport, via Chattanooga. The round-trip cost per person is $138. It might be possible to get a discount if several people make the trip
If you have a car and are willing to drive to Atlanta, let us know. We will reimburse your charges for gas.
To refresh your memory, among the allegations in PTTP's complaints are:
The MTA did not properly advise riders of the (then) proposed fare hike and service cuts and failed to hold meetings in South or North Nashville, where large Hispanic, immigrant and African-American communities are located. By MTA's own admission, low income people and people of color make up the majority of bus riders in Nashville.
MTA, TDOT, MPO and RTA do not properly advise low income and minority riders of transit agency meetings and planning.
The four transit agencies practice economic discrimination by forcing low income and minority riders to pay for fare hikes, while allowing state employees to ride free.
The Music City Central hub now under construction is in violation of federal environmental and discrimination laws (e.g., environmental racism).
Furthermore, the MTA has eliminated transfers, and the bus fare in Nashville is now the highest in the southeastern region of the United States.
The MTA will hold public meetings in late August regarding the opening of the new Music City Central hub. Unlike the meetings held in May to discuss the fare hikes and service route cuts, at least one of the August meetings will be in the black community in North Nashville. For the complete meeting schedule, visit www.NashvilleMTA.org.
The MTA would not be holding these meetings were it not for the pressure coming from the FTA's investigation of Power to the People's Title VI complaints.
At this point, it's not possible to tell what the outcome of the meeting in Atlanta will be. Nevertheless, the fact that the FTA is calling for the meeting is a victory for bus riders in Nashville.
