#TransformTransit
Today representing Empire State Indivisible, I spoke at a press conference and rally pushing Senator Schumer to transform our transit system. Following is what I said.
I started with an addition to my prepared remarks, saying I live in Queens, a borough with hard-to-break car culture due in-part to subways that do not service the full borough and, where they do service, stations that are too often not accessible.
Then I moved to my prepared remarks.
My name is Danielle Brecker, I am a co-lead organizer of Empire State Indivisible. The Indivisible movement is predicated on holding those we elect to serve to account. Today that is our U.S. Senator, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Schumer.
For the last six months Empire State Indivisible has focused on pushing Senator Schumer to organize his senate Democratic majority caucus to pass the For the People Act and end the filibuster to transform our country for a better future for all of us.
Today we join with the Riders Alliance to push Senator Schumer to fight for the funding needed to prioritize our transit system in the federal transportation aid program being negotiated right now; to put an end to subway and bus cuts; and to fast-track the funding needed to build the reliable, resilient, and accessible transit system that New Yorkers need. We are calling on Senator Schumer to transform our transit system. Make no mistake this will transform our city for a better future for all New Yorkers.
When our subway was originally built there was an underlying, unspoken higher purpose of building prosperity, opportunity, community, and social equality for all New Yorkers. This was not always directly stated and never perfectly realized but these ideals were there, just underneath the surface like the subway itself. It seems everyday New Yorkers, the riders, understood long before the politicians that our New York subway and full transit system has transformative potential. Today, we remind Senator Schumer of that transformative potential and call on him to transform our transit system for the people, the riders … all New Yorkers.
And I am asking you to literally call. Call Senator Schumer’s Manhattan office at 212–486–4430. Leave a message or speak to a staff member. State your experience riding transit and your expectation that he fight to transform our transit system so riders like all of us no longer experience problems but a system that is reliable, resilient, accessible … ready for the future.
