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Thursday • June 26, 2014 • www.baystatebanner.com
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MBTA agrees to pilot reduced fare for youths Yawu Miller
(l-r) Wyoma, Menelik Musa and Sheryl Royster dance during the sunny saturday afternoon at the Roxbury Pride Day/Juneteenth Celebration. (Leonardo March photo)
“Whatever happens to squeeze on one end of the system comes out somewhere else.”
Family, friendship rule the day at Roxbury homecoming Sandra Larson Under brilliant blue skies, thousands of people with Roxbury neighborhood ties gathered in Franklin Park Saturday for the annual Roxbury Pride Day/Juneteenth Celebration. Around countless grills sizzling with chicken, sausages, ribs, and hamburgers, old-timers and newcomers hugged, laughed, danced, relaxed and reminisced at the gigantic picnic that has become a must-do for many since the Roxbury HomeComing Committee began organizing it in 1997. “You get to see folks from your childhood,” said Tessil Collins, a retired Madison Park High School teacher who now runs an Internet radio station. “It’s like national
family day. It’s a great event for all of us.” Caesar Brown, 50, who grew up in the Cathedral development, and his friend Lloyd Moore of “the original” Orchard Park, attend every year. “We’ll see hundreds of people we know,” Brown said. “It’s always friendly. No trouble. Everyone is family here.” RHCC Chairperson Evelyn Thorpe estimated the crowd at “a couple of thousand” by the early afternoon, and she continued to greet a steady stream of arrivals at the welcome tent. Always held on the third Saturday of June and free of charge to all, the Franklin Park barbecue combines celebration of Roxbury community history and commemoration of June 19, 1865, the date
The MBTA will pilot a program allowing youths from age 12 to 21 to ride the MBTA at a reduced rate year-round, MTBA General Manager Beverly Scott announced at a board meeting last week. Scott said the pilot will begin next July. The move comes after youth and youth organizers staged a sit-in protest against what they said was the agency’s inaction on the youth pass. Teen groups have been advocating for reduced fares for teens for more than five years. Of the 30 protesters who staged a sit-in outside Transportation Secretary Richard Davey’s office two weeks ago, 21 were arrested. Last week, the protest remained on the sidewalk outside, with youth joining a gathering of Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 615 members protesting the MBTA’s proposed cut of 100 of the 300 janitors who currently clean the agency’s train stations. Scott said tight state funding is making for hard choices. “The whole issue of who pays and how much is one of the most complicated issues at any transit organization,” she said. “Whatever happens to squeeze on one end of the system comes out somewhere else.” Currently, youths attending the Boston public schools receive reduced-fare passes that enable them to ride the MBTA while school is in session, some for five
days a week, others for seven days a week. Youths who do not attend Boston public schools, who are not enrolled in school or who live within the two-mile walk zone of their school are not eligible for the passes. Scott said the MBTA may negotiate changes to the school department’s walk zone policy. “We’re going to work with the schools to find out what the distance is,” she said. While children under 12 can ride the MBTA for free, when accompanied by an adult, children from 12 on who do not have reduced-fare passes provided by their schools are required to pay the full $2 fare. Senior citizens ride the MBTA at a reduced fare, $1 for trains and $.75 for buses, in accordance with federal law. In the more than five years that activists have been advocating for a youth pass, MBTA officials have repeatedly citied funding as an issue. Youth pass advocates responded by proposing a pass program where local universities pay in bulk for passes for their students. In the MBTA board meeting last week, Scott said local college and university representatives she met with were supportive of the idea. “They want to work on a price point that generates revenue that could expand the program for youth,” she said. While Scott spoke to the board, youth organizers were outside the Transportation Building in Park
the last slaves were finally notified of the Emancipation Proclamation and freed, commonly called “Juneteenth”. Thorpe greeted friend after friend, inquiring about their family members, where they live now and their current activities. In between, she shared a few thoughts about the celebration. “It’s a family and friends get-together,” Thorpe said. “It started out mostly older folks, but now the younger generation is starting to come. It’s really anticipated now. People have their family reunions here. They come from all over the United States and from other countries.” Attendees echoed over and over what seemed to be common Roxbury, continued to page 13
— Beverly Scott
MBTA, continued to page 13
Busing forum bridges decades-old divide Yawu Miller For many whites in Boston June 21, 1974 marks the beginning of forced busing, the day Judge Arthur Garrity issued the ruling that put the majority of the city’s school children on yellow school buses. For many black Bostonians, the date denotes court-ordered desegregation, a key development in a centuries-long fight for equal access to education and public resources. “Busing is not the issue,” said Cambridge College professor Lyda Peters, speaking during a City Council hearing on desegregation
in Iannella Chamber last week. “Busing is a means of transportation.” The different phrases blacks and whites use to describe desegregation underscores vast differences of opinion about the tumultuous chapter in the city’s history – differences that still flare up in the public sphere. In April, when city Councilor Charles Yancey filed a motion in council to commemorate the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision, East Boston Councilor Sal LaMattina, South Boston Councilor Bill Linehan and at-large Councilor busing, continued to page 12
Dorchester Reporter Managing Editor Bill Forry and Cambridge College professor Lyda Peters listen as community organizer Lorrayne Shen testifies during a City Council hearing on the 40th anniversary of school desegregation in Boston. (Banner photo)
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