Feb 18, 2008
Akron rocker Chrissie Hynde rode a bus in Akron this morning to add some star power to the campaign for a sales tax increase for Metro Regional Transit Authority.
Public transportation is ''what makes a city a city,'' said Hynde shortly after she arrived in downtown Akron with other tax supporters, carrying a mix of homemade and official Metro RTA signs promoting the tax issue on the March 4 ballot.
''If you feel you have to have a car (to get around), you feel trapped,'' she said.
People who use cars to get everywhere, ''forget what it is to walk and enjoy the city.''
Hynde, who is rail thin, said other countries have lower obesity rates because of their high quality public transportation systems.
Hynde rode the bus this morning with about 15 members of the recently formed Greater Akron Partnership for Sustainability (GAPS).
Hynde and group members want ''to raise awareness about the important role public transportation plays for revitalizing downtown Akron,'' GAPS founding member Lisa Bostwick said prior to the bus trip.
Hynde's new restaurant, VegiTerranean at Northside, is on the north edge of downtown.
Some group members said they see public transportation as a key way to cut down on greenhouse gases.
Hynde also sought to bring attention to how threatened cuts should the tax fail would affect riders.
Bus officials have said they will have to reduce service and eliminate all weekend buses this year if the issue doesn't pass.
Standing inside a bus shelter in downtown Akron, Hynde began interviewing riders for the benefit of media representatives.
The group got on the bus at Highland Square in West Akron and rode east on West Market to a stop by the Federal Building on South Main Street in downtown.
Hynde talked with a few riders and then joined a brief demonstration, near the bus shelter, that included chants about the demise of free bus transfers a few years ago.
Metro's director of planning, Kirt Conrad, said that earlier cutbacks led to the agency doing away with the transfers. Now, riders must pay $1.25 each time they get on the bus, or pay $3.00 to ride all day. Previously, riders could transfer to a connecting bus for free.
Metro RTA is asking for a permanent 0.25 percentage-point sales tax increase that would raise about $18 million a year.
The proposal would double Metro's tax to 0.5 percent and would raise the total sales tax in Summit County to 6.5 percent.
The agency's current annual budget is $29 million, meaning that if the tax issue passes, Metro's budget would jump 62 percent. The agency hasn't received an increase in local tax revenue since 1990.
Cuts planned for next year include the elimination of a curb-to-curb service, SCAT, which serves people with disabilities and anyone 62 and older.
If the tax issue passes, Metro officials have said, the additional money would prevent the cuts and help reverse some service cuts made over the last several years.
By Katie Byard
Beacon Journal staff writer
