TLC Member and Ally Celebration!

From Owen Duckworth, TLC

On Wednesday, October 26^th, 2011, TLC gathered together a number of active members and leaders from partner organization to do something we’ve been meaning to do for a long time…celebrate! After a drawn out fight during the legislative session, the state government shutdown, and finally a budget deal, we felt that we needed to celebrate the hard work that our staff, members, partner organizations, and elected allies put in over the course of the year. Even as transit funding as a whole was cut, we were able to lessen the cuts through our advocacy and organizing work and we certainly were successful in preventing the draconian cuts that would have eliminated a large chunk of Metro Transit service and increased fares.

We were joined by 30 plus members as well as a number of allies from partner organizations and two elected officials. It’s likely the first time since the legislative session that many of these people were in the same room together, and potentially the first time many of our members and partners were able to interact in a less formal environment than say a meeting or committee hearing, or a rally at the Capitol. In order to show the diversity of groups who worked on transit funding, we brought up a number of speakers to address the crowd, thank them for their time and energy and talk about what’s next for transit in the region.

Longtime TLC member and activist Kathleen Murphy reminded the group about the importance of transit to our communities and the need to continue to keep focused in 2012 and beyond. State Senator Scott Dibble and State Representative Alice Hausman talked about the importance of citizen involvement at the State Capitol during the legislative session and that despite challenges, they were optimistic about the ways in which transit is being discussed as a core part of transportation infrastructure in the state and nation.

Michelle Sommers, President of the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1005, spoke about the importance of transit to both riders and operators, and the growing strength of the relationship between Local 1005 and TLC. We couldn’t thank Michelle and ATU Local 1005 enough for the work that they did during session, as their members worked long hours collecting postcard petition signatures against cuts to transit and informing riders about the risks to their service.

Andrea Kiepe, organizer for Transportation for America (T4A) lead the group in an action to make calls to Senator Amy Kloubuchar about the importance of getting a Federal transportation reauthorization bill that prioritized multimodal transportation funding. She particularly stressed the need to share the importance of transit, bike, and pedestrian infrastructure with members of Congress in the next few months as conversations of a bill are being shaped in Washington D.C.

As we wrapped up our celebration, we had to first thank former TLC organizer Michelle Dibblee for her time as the lead organizer, especially for the long hours she put in during the 2011 session and her work to grow TLC’s grassroots power and capacity. We closed our program with Executive Director Barb Thoman talking about our work coming up in 2012. Getting bonding money from the state to build the Southwest LRT and ramping up our campaign for more funding for transit in the region are primarily what’s ahead for transit advocacy here at TLC in the coming year.

Frequently in this line of work we get caught up in thinking about the next piece of work, next campaign, or next fight that we have on our hands rather than stopping and celebrating what we’ve accomplished. Given the number of people involved in our work it was due time to thank everyone we’ve worked and partnered with to help protect and expand public transit in the Twin Cities region. Whether our members and allies were in attendance on October 26^th or not, we want to thank everyone again for their hard work and energy!

Members, be on the lookout for upcoming campaign work in the next couple of months!