[caption id="attachment_522" align="alignright" width="100" caption="Photography by Inye Wokoma / ljo Arts Media Group"]
[/caption]Katheryn Flake and Betty Lowe are neighbors in their Rainier Beach apartment building. Katheryn is a retired office worker who moved to Southeast Seattle eight years ago, because of what was then ‘excellent bus service.’ Betty is a lifelong Seattle resident. She recently lost her job as a teaching assistant due to school budget cuts. Both women have been outspoken advocates for accessible and affordable public transportation for Southeast Seattle residents.K - People look at others who ride the bus as in disparity because they don’t own a car; they think bus cuts don’t affect them. But it does affect you. When you get all these cars on the street and you’re sitting at a traffic light, through 5 or 6 lights and can’t go nowhere, it does affect you!B – It affects us all!K - And the cost of gas is phenomenally high, and all the pollution – we’re killing our own selves, just because we have a car and can drive.… Today when we’re talking about bus service and Light Rail in our community, I like to go way back to the 1960’s when the great bus boycott came about. People of color got tired of going in the front door, putting their money in the box just like everyone else, and then having to go sit in the back… Both of my parents worked outside the home, rode the bus, and had to walk a mile to the bus stop because the bus did not come into our neighborhood. During the great boycott, those people would stand at the bus stop but they would not get on the bus. The people with automobiles would come and pick them up and take them to a transfer point close to downtown… And that went on for three years – not for three days, or three months, for three years. If people would do what they need to do we could make a big change in Metro. If you hurt that pocketbook, they gonna do what you want!B- You know Metro hasn’t always been Metro as we know it. In the 60’s, when my mother was cleaning houses on Mercer Island, and in Bellevue, a private company called Metropolitan Transit used to run the buses to the suburbs; and they were some of the raggediest buses you have ever seen. So we don’t want a private company running our bus system.K – No we don’t. But the cuts that have already happened to buses is a disservice; it’s just terrible for the South end. They need to treat our community just like they are treating the Eastside. People live here, and they would like to have a say. When they put up those signs saying, ‘This bus stop will be closed,’ I told people ‘YOU have the right to pick up that phone and call’… They have taken out so many bus stops, and it’s too far for mothers to walk with their babies and for seniors.So we stood out there at the bus stop with cell phones and everyone who came by, we had them call. And because they only put the signs up in English, we tried to help everybody understand. The next day they moved that sign. B – Like Katheryn, when I see something that is wrong, I’m going to say something. I’m here – and for all those women who ride the bus, I’m going to fight for them too!Got Green will be celebrating the International Day of Action on Climate Change on September 24th a little differently than other actions nationwide by releasing a report on what low-income women and people of color have to say about their priorities for the green movement- to change the climate of our communities.Click here to join Got Green on Saturday, September 24 from 12-2 PM at South Lake High School in Rainier Beach (8601 Rainier Ave S, 98118) as we release our report, Women in the Green Economy: Voices from SE Seattle. Free healthy lunch and childcare provided.