Jackson Free Press

Christmas often brings out the best and worst in people. During the holidays, we are so laden with do-lists, events and shopping that we don't always take time to look at the underlying issues in our city.

In the past year, Jacksonians have celebrated the opening of the Standard Life building, King Edward Hotel (at the end of 2009) and seen several popular new restaurants come online including Parlor Market, Lumpkins and Babalu. But to really measure our success, we need to measure how many people are rising out of poverty, how many Jackson Public Schools students are graduating from high school and how many jobs are available.

During public hearings this week, JATRAN riders packed meeting halls and pleaded with council members to not let budget constraints damage their way of life. JATRAN is one city service that predominately serves low-income citizens. If Jackson City Council members vote to cut several JATRAN routes on Dec. 28, it is certain that we will create more economic disadvantages for the community members least able to cope—including those on fixed incomes and the disabled—who depend on the bus for transportation.

Jackson Mayor Harvey Johnson Jr. told city council members last month that the city must cut routes and lay off 21 employees because of a $1.5 million arbitration agreement providing mandatory wage increases for JATRAN employees. The city is also proposing to eliminate Saturday service and reduce the number of buses from 27 to 12 during peak hours.

While JATRAN is not the most profitable venture, it is a vital service for many city residents. If people can't get to their jobs, the city will lose additional sales tax revenue, and it will spur the need for more government services such as food stamps and welfare. That's moving backward, not forward.

In a city where 30 percent of residents live below the poverty line, we have to do more to create growth from the bottom up. While we push for new developments, $80,000 arena studies and more convention-center events and hotels, we must also encourage city leaders to examine other small cities' public-transportation models.

The city council should vote against the proposed JATRAN cuts. For Jackson to reach its true potential and create equal opportunities for everyone, we must invest wisely in all areas of the economy, not just in those that make a lot of money for a few.

Previous Comments

ID

161352

Comment

Instead of just cutting back, they need to look at more efficient ways of operating routes. Look, for example at routes 10, 11 and 12. Route 10 is a bizarre shell of a former hourly route dating to the 1950s designed to carry domestic workers TO affluent sections of northeast Jackson. Route 11 was designed as a "park & drive" commuter route FROM the same general area. Route 12 is just an extension of Route 1 to serve the County Line commercial area. So, essentially you have three utterly confusing, poor performing routes all headed into the same general direction of 39211. Common sense dictates that all three routes could be more efficiently combined into a single, better performing route, and the vehicles and labor saved could be utilized to create logical routes that people would actually USE--like an hourly shuttle between Union Station and the airport.

Author

ed inman

Date

2010-12-25T17:08:36-06:00