Boston City TV, MA City of Boston Press Office, 29 Mar 2021

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From YouTube: Transit Is Essential Press Conference

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Boston Mayor Kim Janey, MBTA riders, small-business leaders, and advocates will speak out in support of fully funding subway, bus, ferry, and commuter rail in the MBTA’s upcoming budget and restoring service as soon as possible.

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Here we are come.

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uh Thank you. Everyone who's here today, joining the transit, is essential coalition and asking the mbta to restore service as quickly as possible. I'm stacy thompson, the executive director of the livable streets alliance, and I can say with certainty that everyone here today wants one simple thing: a fully functioning tea that supports us, bringing back our economy, bringing back massachusetts and we're not there yet the transit is essential. Coalition is comprised of more than 60 organizations across the region.

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We are excited today to bring voices from labor to bring the rider voice to bring the advocate voice, to bring the human voice to something that um we've been talking about in terms of dollars and cents right like we are so proud that our federal delegation brought hundreds of millions of dollars to our transit system, but I don't want to talk about those dollars anymore. I want to talk about the people who are impacted by these service cuts and the necessity to bring it back.

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So today we are going to hear, from a few advocates, we're going to hear from boston, mayor kim janey we're going to take some questions and have a great event. Thank you. Everyone, the first speaker who will be joining us today, is olivia nichols. She is a fierce transit advocate from green roost, which is located in chelsea olivia. I'd like to invite you to the.

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Podium good morning, my name is olivia nichols. I regularly ride the green line and the 111 bus into chelsea, where I'm an organizer with green roots, an environmental justice organization in chelsea and east boston.

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Public transit is a key component of environmental justice. The residents of chelsea and east boston are majority immigrant, low-income residents and communities of color.

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We believe that all communities deserve safe, affordable, reliable and accessible public transit, and that is why we have been actively opposing the mbta's service cuts. Since the fall of last year, we say no to service cuts, because our members, residents of chelsea and east boston, rely heavily on this transit service and have continued to throughout this pandemic.

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These two communities are among some of the hardest hit by covid, and the pandemic is still deeply affecting families every day. The folks of chelsea and east boston, many of whom are essential workers, have put their lives on the line, risking their health and health of their families.

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It is extremely concerning to see buses passing by that are full beyond capacity, because the majority of people riding buses and trains have no other option.

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Not only that but reducing service on buses, like the 112 in chelsea and on the blue line that runs through east boston is already impacting people right now a lot of times. This is the only lifeline that people have so instead of restricting crucial access to transportation in communities that are truly transit dependent. What we need is a low income fare. What we need is full transit service restored.

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Now we're urging the fmcb to support the mbta's plan to get back to 100 percent bus and subway service, and we will keep fighting for the public transit system that our communities deserve until that is achieved. Thank you.

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Thank you, olivia, I'm going to invite in our next speaker, lima, tsueda lee is the executive director of community labor united and also is representing the public transit public good coalition. Another amazing coalition of fierce transportation advocates lee welcome to podium.

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Thank you so much stacy good morning. Everyone great to see you all thanks for being out here, um honored to be here again. My name is lee matsueda, the executive director of community labor, united and a proud orange line and bus rider happy to partner with transit is essential on this event.

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Today and speaking on behalf of public transit public good mayor janie, I just want to say: congratulations really look forward to working with you and your administration, and I have to also acknowledge, though the riders and essential workers, both those that depend on the t and operate and maintain it. In the midst of the pandemic, people have spoken up. They've spoken up, they've shared their story about the impact of these uh proposals.

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They've talked about uh what it would mean to them, and their families they've picked up the phone they've sent emails, they met with their elected officials and together our collective words and action have really spoken volumes. We've inspired leaders, I believe, to step up and continue this fight for the transit system. We need and deserve to our congressional delegation, who've been out here on different events and rallies.

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Thank you for listening. Thank you for your efforts. They released federal dollars to our communities during this time of really great need, and it's been clear that this funding and they've been saying this. Nearly a billion in this most recent round to the t has to be used to get back to full service and keep our workers in their jobs, jobs which are critical to their families and the maintenance operation of our system.

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um In closing I'll just say you know it wasn't that long ago, where you know we were talking about uh 800 jobs at risk. You know we were at a press conference in in city uh government center mayor janie, you were there labor leaders, transit, advocates, members of the city council, stood together to demand a stop to the proposed cuts at the mbta and at the time um you know, we said 800 jobs. uh Last week it was down to 40 commuter rail jobs.

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Now that number is down to zero and by coming together and organizing centered in the experience and stories of impacted workers and riders, backed by the strong support of our elected officials and transit advocates, we've made such progress progress that we have to build on much like has been said before me, so today we're just going to urge the t board to take action, restore full service swiftly. It can't happen fast enough and it's going to be critical to maintaining safety on the t for essential workers and all riders public transit is a public good.

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Thank you very.

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Much thank you so much lee um we're now going to turn it over to one of the hardest hit. A representative from one of the hardest hit industries: uh brian moy, who is the owner of china, pearl ruckus, shoujo many of my favorite restaurants. I'm going to turn things over to you, brian thanks.

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Thank you, mayor janie and everyone in the transportation department for this essential coalition for joining the fight to protect public transportation. My name is brian moy. I am right down the street in chinatown and I am proud to be a boston small business owner and a leader in the massachusetts, restaurant, united, a grassroots advocacy group, formed to help independent restaurants and our workers during the pandemic.

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As you all know, the past 12 months has been the hardest in the restaurant industry. In the ever history, hundreds of businesses closed permanently, and many more have been trying to hang on by a thread just trying to get by.

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Hundreds of thousands of restaurant employees have been furloughed laid off and their or their hours have been slashed very dramatically.

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It has been a long and heartbreaking year, but we know, without with the right support with smart planning, we can bring back our restaurants and the energy vitality and community that comes with it. Of course, that means getting vaccinated and continuing to stay smart about prevention, so that we can get back to normal life as soon as possible, but it also means restoring public transportation services weekend services evenings so that our workers and our customers can come back to us and can depend on a reliable, accessible service now and in the future.

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For restaurants. This is absolutely critical. We literally cannot reopen if our employees cannot come to us. If our customers cannot come to us during our normal business hours, we will not be able to survive.

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Public transportation is essential for our survival here in boston and all across the region. Chinatown in particular, has become a major portal for restaurants of the suburbs. Company vehicles come every day to pick up supplies.

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Restaurant employees come from the different suburbs that house many asian populations such as quincy and malden. This is where they start and end their day with the mbta accessing to chinatown and accessing back home.

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So, on behalf of our industry, workforce and community, I am proud to join these leaders in calling on the mbta and the administration to make a strong declaration in support of public transportation, full restoration of services and continued investment in the system. Thank.

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You thank you brian. uh Our next speaker is uh dwayne tyndale. He is the executive director of ace located in nubian square uh dwayne come on in you. I don't need you to give me.

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Good morning, aces in roxbury and a lot of good things come from roxbury.

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um There's a problem solution and consequences to these cuts. The problem is the negative impact of cut services on black and brown communities, the communities that suffered the harshest during this covet pandemic and the impact on the entirety of the protective classes as a whole.

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The solutions are that any further service cuts should be done under racial equity lenses that, before the cut, the mbt will show the impact on our communities and last the consequences.

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Asia will continue to organize locally, regionally and nationally and continue to use regulatory and legal strategies to bring enforcement on the mbta to bring back the services to our communities. H will aggressively pursue the legality of community impact cuts. Thank you.

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All right, it is now my thank you dwight. It is my distinct pleasure to invite uh mayor janie, up and and before I I want to give her a little more of an introduction, because the first time I met mayor janie was when she was running for the council and we sat down in nubian square to talk about transit. We talked about her experience. We talked about what she might do as a counselor and then now is the mayor. I am not surprised that she is here today. She has always been a transit champion.

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Alongside of us. It is my great great pleasure to introduce mayor kim janey.

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Good morning, everyone can you hear me okay good morning. I want to thank and recognize stacy thompson executive director of liberal streets, as well as co-chair of my mayoral transportation and climate justice transition committee for hosting today's press conference. Thank you so much. uh Thank you to dwayne tyndall of ace lee masueta from community labor, united chris dempsey, at transportation for massachusetts.

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I also want to shout out olivia who I took the train here with this morning, and I want to acknowledge and lift up all the advocates workers and businesses who have called for the restoration of the mbta service cuts.

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I also want to express my deep appreciation to the members of the massachusetts congressional delegation, senator markey, senator warren rep, presley and rep lynch, who have all fought very hard to fund our public transportation infrastructure.

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I also want to recognize mary churchill, who is my chief of policy. She is here this morning and she's also a tea writer greg rooney, who leads our transportation department, as our commissioner and viniq gupta, the director of transportation planning, as well as my chief of staff chris osgood.

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I am here today to continue my strong advocacy for public transit. Now, more than ever, boston needs a transit system that works for everyone, the people who start our groceries clean our schools and staff. Our hospitals rely on buses and trains to get to work.

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We count on essential workers to get us through this pandemic and essential workers count on public transportation, mbta service cuts, shortchange the needs of boston's workers and ignore the sacrifices they make each day to keep our city running service cuts, make buses and trains more crowded and undermining our efforts to stop the spread of covet 19..

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We know that social distancing helps to keep us all. Safe cuts to transit service only deepen the inequities of our public transit system.

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For example, black bus riders in boston spend 64 more hours per year on their buses as they navigate routes with large access gaps in communities of color. These kinds of disparities have persisted for too long.

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We all benefit when transit is fair and accessible to everyone from reduced traffic and cleaner air boston deserves better. Thanks to the advocacy of the massachusetts congressional delegation, the mbta has secured another 435 million dollars in operating support. In light of this new funding, I am calling for action.

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Mbta services should be restored as fast as possible.

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The mbta should set set up a transparent schedule for the restoration of service and service should come back first and those communities hardest hit by covid and where service has been cut most severely.

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Restoring public transportation is essential to our recovery, reopening and renewal. As a city, it will make boston more fair and more equitable. Moreover, the mbta should continue its capital investments that advance this goal from zero emission buses to a more frequent fairmont line. The city stands ready to be a partner.

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In fact, today I am launching a public transportation pilot to support employees in five main streets districts. This initiative targets the heart of our city, nubian square jackson, square hyde, square and canary square in jamaica, plain mission, hill, east boston and fields, corner main streets districts for the period of march 29. Through april 19th. We will provide nearly one thousand workers with free charlie cards pre-loaded with sixty dollars each. We will also provide these workers with free two-month blue blue bike passes.

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Workers in these locations can sign up at boston.gov, backslash, freeride or simply text free ride to.

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866-396-0122, this transit pilot and other new approaches will play a key role in boston's recovery, reopening and renewal.

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I've been a regular I've, been in regular communication with the mbta general manager, steve pofftec and I've asked him to join me and standing up for mbta riders. We must restore the service cuts and, let's get all of boston back to work. Thank you so much happy to take a few questions for me and for the advocates who are joined here this morning.

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Reiterate what you want to hear from the tea board this morning and what specific action steps you'd like to see from this board.

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We need to restore the cuts. We need to focus on a system that is transparent in terms of the rest, restoration of these cuts, and we have to prioritize communities that have been hardest hit when we're restoring these cuts.

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In terms of a recovery that is equitable, we have to lift up workers and make sure that they have access to reliable transportation.

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That is essential to an economic recovery that is uh equitable, and so we have to lift up workers and help them in this pandemic. We've heard from businesses here this morning and we know how difficult it has been for everyone, and by doing this, we hope to uh ensure that there will be more equity, as we not get back to normal, but get to a more equitable boston, and so this is essential here.

A

People are signing up for them. Is that something that you can see continuing.

G

Well, we will have to certainly uh figure out the funding for that, but it is definitely important to center our workers in our recovery, reopening and renewal and make sure that our economic recovery is is equitable. And so we will do what we can to partner to continue to partner, with advocates that are here and to partner with our state. Colleagues, at the legislature, as well as with the mbta itself.

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It has been a good discussion. It has been a good discussion. I've been in contact with him throughout the transition, as well as while I've been mayor this past week and I'm asking him to join us in restoration of services and prioritizing the cuts in hardest hit communities.

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I am very hopeful. I am very hopeful.

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One more question: are we good great well, thank you so much, it's been a pleasure. Thank you and many thanks again to the coalition members who are here uh this morning. Thank you for your continued advocacy for for workers and putting that human face to these cuts. Thank you.

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You thank you so much my.

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Pleasure. Thank you.

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I'm thank you so much mayor janie. We are, uh I you know. I could. I can't say it better, and this is my job. We need to restore service, we need more than a budget. We need to bring the tea back. um I am going to very quickly just some closing remarks. um I want livable streets has been partnering with transportation from massachusetts to bring the transit essential coalition together, and I could not do this and often can't say it as well as chris dempsey.

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So what I like to do is invite chris and just to provide a few closing remarks um and then we'll stop uh for a quick photo and any other questions from the the crew here. Thank you.

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Thank you stacy. My name is chris dempsey, I'm the director of the transportation for massachusetts advocacy coalition.

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I want to start by saying how great it is that the city of boston has a mayor who rides the tea and not only rides the t, but does it with her style and rocking those nikes like that which not every mayor in america can do, but kim janey can pull off. Our message today is very simple.

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Four things number one transit is essential. Our essential workers have relied on the mbta to get to work over the last year. They are our health care heroes, our grocery store heroes, and they need the tea to get to work. We need to bring that service back for them number two.

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The money is there to restore service immediately. The federal government has provided the mbta with two billion dollars over the last 12 months. The funds are there. Congress has been very clear that they want to see service restored and we want to see the fmcb. Take that vote. That's number three. We need to see clarity from the mbta's control board that this service is coming back as soon as possible.

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We want them to vote today to restore service as soon as they possibly can and number four. The massachusetts economy only works when our transit system works, that ridership is going to come back. We want it to come back. What makes massachusetts so special.

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What makes the city of boston so special is that we bring the smartest people in the world together in small spaces like downtown boston, kendall square, the longwood medical area, downtown worcester, that only works when we have a thriving transit system, and so we must bring this service back, because transit is essential to the massachusetts economy.

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Thank you so much for being here today. Thank you to the speakers from small business. The restaurant industry, community members, folks from labor advocates like stacy thompson and olivia nichols, and especially to mayor janie great, to have her here today and great to have an mbta rider working in city hall. Thank you. So much.

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As you can see, that's why I let chris dempsey close every event that we do together, um I'm going to invite the speakers together for a quick photo mask on with the mayor and then I'll open it up to any other questions with all of you.

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