The Bus Riders Union (BRU) (also called (SDP) and ) is a
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...
civil rights
Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and political life ...
social movement organization
A social movement organization (SMO) is an organized component of a social movement.
SMOs are generally seen as the components of a social movement. The movement's goal that can be much more narrow, or much broader, than the SMOs' goals.
Descrip ...
established in
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the wo ...
in 1994. Led by a planning committee, its multilingual membership is drawn from the predominantly low-income, African-American, Latino and Asian
mass transit
Public transport (also known as public transportation, public transit, mass transit, or simply transit) is a system of transport for passengers by group travel systems available for use by the general public unlike private transport, typical ...
ridership of Los Angeles County. The BRU's central focus has been policies of the
Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority
The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (LACMTA), commonly branded as Metro, LA Metro, and L.A. Metro, is the state agency that plans, operates, and coordinates funding for most of the transportation system in Los Angeles ...
(LACMTA) that it identifies as racial discrimination. The BRU attracted international attention when it successfully sued LACMTA under
Title VI of the Civil Rights Act in 1994 and its example has inspired similar efforts to organize mass transit passengers.
Formation
The Bus Rider's Union is a project of the Labor/Community Strategy Center (LCSC) that began as an outgrowth of the LCSC's Labor/Community Watchdog
environmental justice
Environmental justice is a social movement to address the unfair exposure of poor and marginalized communities to harms from hazardous waste, resource extraction, and other land uses.Schlosberg, David. (2007) ''Defining Environmental Justice ...
campaign against air pollution in the L.A. Port area. The BRU was founded by the LSCS's director,
Eric Mann
Eric Mann (born December 4, 1942) is a civil rights, anti-war, labor, and environmental organizer whose career spans more than 50 years. He has worked with the Congress of Racial Equality, Newark Community Union Project, Students for a Democrat ...
who is also co-chair of the union along with Barbara Lott-Holland.
The LCSC began organizing bus riders in 1992 and, as it expanded its tactics from grassroots organizing to include legal action, it built "across geographic and ethnic lines" to bring together "a multiethnic, progressive coalition."
In 1996, it filed a civil rights lawsuit in association with the
Southern Christian Leadership Conference
The Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) is an African-American civil rights organization based in Atlanta, Georgia. SCLC is closely associated with its first president, Martin Luther King Jr., who had a large role in the American civ ...
and
Korean Immigrant Workers Advocates
The Koreatown Immigrant Workers Alliance 한인타운 노동연대 (KIWA, pronounced kee-wah), also known under its past name Korean Immigrant Workers Advocates 남가주 한인 노동 상담소, is a multi-ethnic immigrant worker civil rights mem ...
against the
Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority
The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (LACMTA), commonly branded as Metro, LA Metro, and L.A. Metro, is the state agency that plans, operates, and coordinates funding for most of the transportation system in Los Angeles ...
, alleging that the LACMTA was using federal funds for public transit in a discriminatory manner.
A feature-length documentary titled ''Bus Riders Union'' (2000) directed by
Academy Award
The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment in ...
-winning cinematographer
Haskell Wexler
Haskell Wexler, ASC (February 6, 1922 – December 27, 2015) was an American cinematographer, film producer, and director. Wexler was judged to be one of film history's ten most influential cinematographers in a survey of the members of the Int ...
, captures the early years of organizing through to the signing of the consent decree.
Civil Rights Consent Decree, 1996-2006
Represented by
Constance Rice
Constance L. "Connie" Rice (born April 5, 1956) is an American civil rights activist and lawyer. She is also the co-founder and co-director of the Advancement Project in Los Angeles. She has received more than 50 major awards for her work in ...
and others from the
NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund
The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (NAACP LDF, the Legal Defense Fund, or LDF) is a leading United States civil rights organization and law firm based in New York City.
LDF is wholly independent and separate from the NAACP. Altho ...
, LCSC, BRU, Southern Christian Leadership Conference and Korean Immigrant Workers Advocates were able first to obtain an injunction preventing LACMTA from eliminating the monthly pass in 1994. In 1996 after a high-profile media and grassroots campaign against LACMTA's policies of "transit racism," LCSC, BRU ''et al.'' agreed to sign with LACMTA a
Title VI consent decree.
The plaintiffs argued that LACMTA was using disproportionately more of its federal funds on the suburban-oriented rail service and its wealthier,
whiter ridership, at the same time as it was spending disproportionately less on the bus system and its much larger, lower-income ridership, predominantly made up of
people of color
The term "person of color" ( : people of color or persons of color; abbreviated POC) is primarily used to describe any person who is not considered "white". In its current meaning, the term originated in, and is primarily associated with, the U ...
. As of July 2007, 17% of LACMTA's rail riders were white classified as white non-Hispanics. In contrast, only 10% of bus riders were classified as white non-Hispanics.
Martin Wachs
Martin Wachs (1941–2021) was an American professor emeritus of Urban Planning at the University of California, Los Angeles and of City and Regional Planning and of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley. He ...
and Richard Berk of UCLA, and James Moore II of USC were among the professors of transportation, planning and statistics who provided expert reports and other assistance to the plaintiffs. The former chief financial officer of LACMTA's predecessor agency, Thomas Rubin, also provided key assistance to the plaintiffs. LACMTA agreed to settle the case on the eve of the trial, "when it faced extensive public disclosure and media coverage of its discriminatory, inefficient, and environmentally destructive transportation policies."
The consent decree required LACMTA to:
* retain the unlimited monthly-use pass and reduce it from $49 to $42; reduce the biweekly pass from $26.50 to $21; and to create a new weekly pass for $11
* purchase 102 buses to ease existing overcrowding on the buses
* commit to reducing overcrowding levels by specified goals and specified times, working under a court-appointed Special Master with BRU in a Joint Working Group over the life of the decree
* create new bus services designed to connect
people of color
The term "person of color" ( : people of color or persons of color; abbreviated POC) is primarily used to describe any person who is not considered "white". In its current meaning, the term originated in, and is primarily associated with, the U ...
and the poor to job and medical sites.
The LACMTA and BRU disagreed many times whether the LACTMA was in compliance with the new rules. Over the course of the decree, it appealed rulings based on the consent decree numerous times, including a final appeal that it took to the
Supreme Court
A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts in most legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, apex court, and high (or final) court of appeal. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...
, which was rejected in March 2002. In 2006, as the decree was set to expire, BRU ''et al.'' filed an appeal to extend it, but it was rejected by the
Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals
The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (in case citations, 9th Cir.) is the U.S. federal court of appeals that has appellate jurisdiction over the U.S. district courts in the following federal judicial districts:
* District ...
in 2009.
Controversy
The consent decree has been a controversial subject in local news media. Over the course of the decree, local columnists and news outlet OpEds have taken positions for and against the decree and various rulings associated with it.
Current activism
Recently, the BRU has branched out into other civil rights issues. The BRU was one of the sponsors of the
Great American Boycott
The Great American Boycott ( es, El Gran Paro Estadounidense, or es, El Gran Paro Americano, lit. "the Great American Strike"), also called the Day Without an Immigrant ( es, Día sin inmigrante), was a one-day boycott of United States schoo ...
demonstration in Los Angeles on May 1, 2006. The current campaign is "1,000 More Buses, 1,000 Less Police", as the BRU is advocating that policing be reduced throughout the city because of past abuses by the
Los Angeles Police Department
The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), officially known as the City of Los Angeles Police Department, is the municipal Police, police department of Los Angeles, California. With 9,974 police officers and 3,000 civilian staff, it is the thir ...
of minority civil rights.
The Bus Riders Union strongly opposed the fare increases that were proposed in 2007. While the turnout of members at the hearing was impressive, the strategy of having a fare decrease as their chief demand was ineffectual. The BRU has since taken credit for highlighting equity issues in the debate over bus fares, but has offered no substantive solutions to increase transit funding.
The LCSC has launched a Center for Transportation Strategies intended to expand its involvement with regional and national transportation issues as an outgrowth of a 2005 conference attended by activists from around the U.S.
Since 2004, the BRU has engaged in an ongoing advocacy campaign for the placing of bus only lanes along
Wilshire Boulevard
Wilshire Boulevard is a prominent boulevard in the Los Angeles area of Southern California, extending from Ocean Avenue in the city of Santa Monica east to Grand Avenue in the Financial District of downtown Los Angeles. One of the prin ...
.
Criticism
Criticism of the BRU points to the high use of some LACMTA rail lines among minorities to argue that the BRU legal case and its assertion of racism has no basis.
Critics also take issue with the BRU’s rhetorical or political style, contending that BRU organizers are overly combative and ideological. An additional line of criticism draws from
modal debates in the field of urban transit planning, asserting that rail should hold a higher priority than the bus, or that the BRU’s overemphasis on one mode is counterproductive.
In addition, criticism has centered on the BRU's non-bus related civil rights activities. A columnist in the ''
Jewish Journal
''The Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles'', known simply as the ''Jewish Journal'', is an independent, nonprofit community weekly newspaper serving the Jewish community of greater Los Angeles
Greater Los Angeles is the second-largest ...
'' criticized the BRU for publishing flyers comparing the situation of Palestinians to those of Jews in Nazi Germany, and questioned the BRU taking funds from the
Nathan Cummings Foundation
The Nathan Cummings Foundation was endowed by Nathan Cummings (1896–1985), founder of Consolidated Foods, later renamed Sara Lee. Cummings was also a prominent art collector and supporter of Jewish causes.
In his lifetime, Cummings made c ...
, a foundation "formed in the Jewish tradition".
See also
*
Bus Riders Union (Vancouver)
The Bus Riders Union (BRU) in Vancouver, British Columbia, was a non-profit organization that advocates for better public transit services in Greater Vancouver. It criticized TransLink for such things as raising bus fares and the approval of the c ...
References
External links
* Officia
Bus Riders Unionsite
{{authority control
Political advocacy groups in the United States
Non-profit organizations based in Los Angeles
Organizations established in 1994
1994 establishments in California
Public transport advocacy organizations