Same

Stepping onto the light rail train in Minneapolis on the way to the airport before 7:00 a.m. yesterday, I noticed 4 or 5 men sleeping in their seats. 


Immediately behind me, a young man entered the train. 


He was ill-clad, not much over 20 and developmentally challenged. 


He turned to me with a look of panic on his face.


His speech sounded garbled. 


His demeanor somewhat timid. 


He drooled on this chin as he spoke.


"Could you give me $2.50 to make my fare?" he asked. 


Turns out you can ride a day pass for $6.00. 


The young man fumbled with money held in an open hand.  He tried to count it again and again, even as the train rumbled along.


I handed him a five dollar bill.  He thanked me and headed toward a seat to count his change again and again. 


A couple of stops down the line he exited the train.  I watched as he put his money in the ticket machine and received his day pass. 


Now, I turned my attention to the others on the car. 


Two men were urged off the train by transit officers under threat of a $180 ticket--one left thanking the officer again and again for not writing him up.  The officers had stepped onto our car to do their morning work.


The officers interviewed another young man with a bicycle.  They checked him for warrants.  Not sure how his situation ended, as he remained on the train when I got off. 


Most striking of all was an older gentleman with long, white hair. 


He sat in a corner. 


He held his head in his hands and moved his head back and forth, as if to declare a categorical "No!" on all of life as he knew it. 


The ride to my plane made me feel like I was home already. 

Success story from Turner Courts!

Needing some good news?

Check out Janet Morrison's recent post about a real victory for the Turner Courts housing development located in the Rochester Park neighborhood in South Dallas: http://janetmorrison.blogspot.com/2008/05/slow-down-breathe-deep-and-let-bus-come.html.

To get more of a sense for how the victory feels at the community level visit Ms. Sylvia's blog at: http://www.lovethyneighbors.blogspot.com/.

Community leader, Michael Davis also posted some good words at his blogspot: http://www.dallasprogress.com/.

Sweet, sweet progress!


Thanks to Dallas City Council Member Dwaine Carraway for his involvement and leadership and to the neighbors at Turner Courts who refused to give up about bus service into their community at night.

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Dark streets and no transportation

I don't know if you can relate to what follows. Again, it comes from Ms. Sylvia's Love Thy Neighbor blog that I posted here on Monday.

Our own Dr. Janet Morrison provides this entry. Reading this really puts me in touch with what some of my friends face every day here in inner city Dallas, Texas. Most of us take basic city services for granted. In many neighborhoods the basics just aren't being covered. I'd love your reaction. You can visit the blog that features community writers at http://www.lovethyneighbors.blogspot.com/.

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Have you noticed how dark it is as you drive down Bexar Street by Turner Courts?

I didn't really notice it before, but now that we've had Daylight Savings time, it seems much more apparent. Probably because it's dark when the kids leave the After-School Academy...and it's darkest right there.

As I drove down Bexar, I noticed the street lights right along Bexar and the one on the corner of Bexar and Parsons are both really dim. I wonder how many more are like that. If anyone else is interested in doing anything about that, let me know. Maybe if we get several people together, we can get Dwaine Carroway, our city council member, down here and we can talk to him about it.

The other thing that bothered me is when I found out the DART buses don't run down there after dark anymore. That is something like 6:00! What about people going to or getting off of work?? That's not right. I heard it's because people have been throwing bricks or eggs and such at the buses (maybe some of that would decrease if our street lights worked). If that's true and people are doing that, I wouldn't want to drive in that either.

BUT...we don't need to just accept it! We need to do something! What can we do? Could we form some sort of watch group and communication with the police for kids/people who do that? Can we talk to DART? Maybe this is another issue for Dwaine Carroway. After all...he is OUR city representative!

We can't expect him to do it all by himself. We have to work together. But at least we could start the conversation. Who is interested?? Let me know or let Sylvia know and she can get in contact with me.