Midlands Transit Riders to hold press conference April 8, 2015

Midlands Transit Riders Association

P. O. Box 263, Columbia, SC 29202

MidlandsTransit@gmail.com

April 1, 2015

For Immediate Release

Dear (insert name):

The Midlands Transit Riders Association is proud to announce that it is celebrating its Second Anniversary as a non-profit organization operating working with the Comet Transit Service, area municipalities and businesses as advocates  for transit riders.  We will do this  at a press conference that will be held at the Transit Center parking lot on Laurel Street. The Press conference will be held  on Wednesday April 8, 2015, at 2:00 p.m.

The founding of our organization on April 3, 2013 was and continues to be a catalyst for positive social and economic change within the Columbia-Midlands Area. While working with the Comet Transit Service, area municipalities and businesses over the past year, we have accomplished several goals, including some which we had not foreseen as achieving within a time period that they were achieved. The board of the Midlands Transit  Riders Association would like to share these accomplishments with the  press and public, as well as various plans and goals to improve on these improvements, and more effectively the public transit system an important part of economic development in the Midlands area.

The Midlands Transit Center continues to make it our mission. To make sure  that all citizens in the Columbia-Midlands Area to see the transit system as a tool for economic development that helps to decrease unemployment and homelessness, so that prospective businesses and residents will want to become part of, and add to the growth of the Metropolitan Columbia Area.

Officials from the Comet and area municipalities have been invited to this event, including those who we hope to acknowledge for their efforts in advancing the transit system, over the past year.

If you have any questions, or need any more information, please feel free to contact me at 803-960-8785. or via e-mail at keithhseymour@bellsouth.net.

Respectfully Yours,

Keith H. Seymour

Midlands Transit Riders Association

Vice President and Communications Chairperson

Public Transit Important to Economic Development of Local community

Political, Community Leaders Need to Realize Benefits of Encouraging Better Transit System in

Lowering Unemployment, Creating Jobs

By: Keith H. Seymour

Recently, I attended a Columbia City Council Meeting, where the theme of this meeting, and all of the presentations, had to deal with “Columbia's Economic Development.” As I sat there in that meeting for over four hours I heard the City of Columbia praising and encouraging every civic and business leader in the room in the area of bringing various groups to the table to discuss the “Economic Development of this City. Upon being given my chance to speak, I stated my total disgust with City Council for not considering those involved with public transit in Columbia, important enough to be include in any of these discussions. Now, I realize that someone reading this might wonder what having a a viable bus system has to do with the positive development of Columbia's economic development. So, I am going to put it in perspective by pointing out a few facts and some common sense conclusions.

At the this very same meeting, when addressing the economic importance of mentor programs such

as “My Brother's Keeper,” existing in the Columbia Ar Ea, Councilwoman Devine pointed out that

African-American males in Columbia have more than a 20% unemployment rate, which is”higher than the state average of 17%. In addition to this, shortly before Councilwoman Devine made this statement, Councilmen Runyon and Boudouragh, and City Manager Wilson were discussing the possibility of keeping the emergency homeless shelter open for an “additional' forty five days. Several minutes was spent on the increasing homeless problem in our area.

It does not take a genius to figure out that if a better transit existed, therefore allowing more people to be employed, and others to have access to better jobs, in addition to more discretionary income being spent on restaurants and entertainment venue, more people would be employed. Lower unemployment has the potential to lower homelessness in this town. This would make the city more attractive to businesses, tourists, and new residents that the city is trying to bring to this city in the name of economic development. The fact is that when Sunday and later evening routes were cut between 2008and 2009, people began loosing their jobs, while others were turned down for jobs because they could not work on a Sunday, or past 7:30 p.m. The city has even lost prospective businesses and many of its citizens have left Columbia for places such as Charleston, Greenville, Atlanta, and Charlotte, and other communities, whose economic development has coincided with the increase in their transit system. These other transit systems have succeeded and continue to succeed because their communities view the public transit system as “tool of economic development,” rather than a “system to transport the poor and minorities It would there behoove the political and business leaders in this town to change their attitude, and become more “active” in working with those working to enhance and increase our local transit system.

The late Ike McCleese, former president of Columbia Chamber of Commerce, and an avid proponent often pointed this very fact out to several of our political and business leaders. Until this attitude changes,and more people tell our political and business leaders to think more like the late Mr. McCleese, Columbia will be stuck with an inefficient transit system that helps to perpetuate unemployment, homelessness., and tax paying citizens making an exodus from this city, causing a greater economic burden on those who remain. This will remain true regardless of how many new stadiums are built, minor league teams created, how many additions are made to museums, or how much money the city spends on improving storefronts.

Keith H. Seymour is the First Vice President and Communications Chairperson of the Midlands Transit Riders Association, a non-profit organization that advocate for a more efficient Transit system in the Columbia-Midlands Area. He may be reached t keithhseymour@bellsouth.net or at 80-960-8785.

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Columbia Transit system is broke, buses about to be cut

Bus System to be cut seventy-five percent in 2011, with possibility of going out of business in 2012.

By: Keith H. Seymour

The Central Midlands Regional Transit Authority (CMRTA) recently announced that following the failed referendum to pass a penny sales tax in Richland County to repair roads, and support the transit system, that bus services will likely be cut no less than seventy-five percent. This will include the Dial A Ride Transit (DART) service for the disabled. According to Joyce Dickerson CMRTA chairperson, and Richland County Councilperson, the DART services, which travel three-quarters of a mile further than the regular buses, may only legally run at the same time the regular buses are in operation. This means that if the cuts take place on April 1, 2011, the DART system will only be available to the disabled between 5 a.m. until 10 a.m., and 2 p.m. until 7 p.m., with total elimination of weekend service. Up until this time the bus system has been supported the ten dollar additional automobile property tax that was adopted in 2006 that will cease to exist as of June 2011. As well as a one time federal grant received by the CMRTA in March.

CMRTA board members and others in favor of the penny sales tax pointed out the rise in unemployment and the inability to attract business that occurred within the the Charleston area, when they voted the same way, a few years back. Many of those opposing the penny sales tax were business people in the “Five Points,” and Vista” area, and CMRTA board member Tommy Windsor, who opposed it on the grounds that it would hurt business. However, the Columbia Chamber of Commerce came out in favor of the penny sales tax, stating that if the bus system was cut, fewer people would be working, which would in turn mean that businesses would be making less money. Among those losing jobs, if the cuts take place on April 1, 2011, will be transit employees. Specifically, forty bus drivers, twelve DART bus drivers, four mechanics, and ten supervisors and staff members. If these take place, they will only allow the buses to run until September 30, 2011.

According to CMRTA board member, Frannie Heizer, who gave the budget briefing during the executive board meeting that took place prior to the regular public meeting, the firing of the sixty-six transit employees would by itself, be a gross loss of 2.2 million dollars to the community. “This is what those people who voted against the penny tax have done to this community. I just hope they can sleep at night,” said Dickerson who has since become a a very vocal supporter of the sales tax, since her and Richland County Council's 2008 vote to disallow a referendum on the penny sales tax.

According to South Carolina State Law the penny sales tax may only be included on a referendum during a general election year. However, even if a penny tax referendum passed in 2012, the money would not be likely allocated to CMRTA, until early 2013, and the CMRTA and its member municipalities would need to find the money to fill that unfunded period of time. On the other hand, if a 2012 referendum fails, the bus system will without a doubt dissolve, due to lack of funding.

On December 20^th, Richland County Council, the City of Columbia, and the CMRTA will be holding a public meeting at the Richland County Public Main Library, from 5:30-7:30 p.m. The purpose of the meeting will be to public input, before voting on the proposed changes in late January 2011. Meanwhile the CMRTA is finding ways to raise money to avoid the cuts. Among the ways that this is being done are the sale or leasing of land on River Drive, selling the eight additional buses and trolleys owned by the CMRTA, and possibly applying to the secretary of state for non-profit status, so that the CMRTA may raise funds through grants and donations. Also, beginning January 1, 2010, all bus riders will be required to pay an additional seventy-five cents for each transfer, the five CMRTA administrative employees will be furloughed for one day a month, for the state amount maximum of ten months, and off duty City of Columbia Police officers will no longer be used in addition to t he regular security guards at the transit station, where recently released prisoners are dropped off.