THE CATS EXPERIENCE through FORUM 35

As part of Forum 35’s ongoing push to erase the invisible color line, a group of young men and women ventured into North Baton Rouge via the Capital Area Transit System. As a community leader, I’ve long been told of the importance of transit and the mind shift which occurs when one ventures on a city bus but have never been moved to act until last Thursday. In all my experiences, the $1.75 spent traveling each way (to and from The End Zone Bar) was the most valuable, community building experiment of my life.

The trip originated around 6:00 PM at the Transit Hub near the intersection of Florida Boulevard and 22nd Street. As our group assembled, it was striking how many assumptions one could make about who uses transit… moms with their sons and daughters, grandparents traveling home from a long day at work… some clean cut… some not so clean cut. Nothing is more humanizing than to people watch at such a place and realize that community members, too, have important stories to tell of who there are and how are city serves them.

A few minutes before we boarded Bus 41 which would take us toward Plan Road; the gentle reminder of Hurricane Katrina appeared by way of the Louisiana Swift Bus program which still shuttles people (and their bikes, work gear, luggage and other items) between the Capital City and New Orleans. After departure, my first frustration surfaced with the “pace” at which city buses travel and the frequency at which they “stop.” I’m the guy who’s been complaining about the “cycling” of the new downtown stop lights being worse than just having stop signs at each intersection… the guy who’s always making up for five minutes extra at the office by zooming around a few slow moving cars on I-10. I can’t imagine what it’s like to be at the mercy of not only the bus schedules but also the intermittent delays that come with this $1.75 per ride service.

The bus eventually eased onto Plank Road where at one of our first stops three Hispanic women boarded the bus… appearing to be in their late thirties, wearing brightly colored clothes, and strangely reminding me of why I’m proud to be an American. The ladies, speaking no English, quickly chose a fearless delegate to represent their $10 dollar bill to the driver of Bus 41 who only accepted exact change from everyone else. To avoid confusion and delay, the ladies where allowed on the bus to find change and pay at departure (which turned into only three very crinkled dollars) and an audible from the rear of the bus… “fucking Mexicans”… racism and classism clearly have few boundaries.

The cruise down Plank Road was deliberate and uneventful giving my eyes time to wander across the blight in this part of our community that I’ve seen a number of times on my way to Krispy Kreme donuts (really one of the few reason’s I’m ever there). We stop. An older, elegant African American woman prepares to de board the bus along with a young women who appears to be around the age her granddaughter might be. The elegant, mature woman is wearing a grey formal jacket with lapel pins… my friends who work at the Capitol waved hello to her earlier which causes me to assume they’ve seen her there. As she walked away with the younger women in toe, I thought two things: first, this woman is – walking — toward her home which is within the blight I’ve always disregarded; second, the life of this woman is strangely being reflected with less vibrancies to someone two generations away. Whose responsibility is solving the issue of blight in pockets like Old South Baton Rouge, Plank Road, etc? While I’d love to go with the easy answer – the people who live there… I have to realistically ask how much a women who takes the bus to work every day, not because she enjoys mass transit but because she must, can do to reverse the waves crashing in on her, her daughter and her daughter’s daughter’s neighborhood in our community?

The ride continued on to our destination, The End Zone, which was located in a shopping center at 6224 Plank Road. From our stop, we walked from the corner bus stop, across the parking lot of a large new gas station and to the front doors of an unassuming venue façade dominated by tented windows. As we walked in, I was transported to a number of bars you would find in Southdown’s Shopping Center or off O’Neal Lane…. With dark woods, marble, a gracious host/owner greeting our visitors, a great bar, and a number of daiquiri options (it is Louisiana). Thanks to CATS, The End Zone and Forum 35 for the fellowship which occurred inside… discussing our “ride to” experiences and meeting and greeting old and new friends. With a busy evening, the return trip came sooner for me and a handful of colleagues than most.

My five friends, a group which included only one African American, ventured back off to our stop to catch the next bus (which actually came about 30 minutes later than we thought – next time we’ll learn to read the schedule!). To paraphrase a voicemail left by a passerby for my African American friend… we looked like a black guy and a bunch of Caucasians doing some kind of experiment. The caller kindly offered to pick us up but we stay dedicated to our mission of a round trip by bus across Baton Rouge’s color line.

The return trip was as eventful as the first. There were many different people & lots of stops on a deliberate pace. My three Hispanic friends where waiting for the bus at the grocery store, arms filled with groceries, were passed up at a stop… I assume because they failed to pay full fares earlier. What struck me most about the return trip was the audacity of the conversation I found my group having admist many people whose means only allowed for bus transportation. (I recently read in The Economist that the first major purchase a family makes when they reach a household income over $5,000 is a car!). Our conversation (started by me) was about the new Iphone 3GS without regard for the fact that that phone really could be worth three months or more of ridership on the bus. I’ll never know if the other riders cared but I will regret that we didn’t take the experiment to the next level and spend time with the people who use mass transit day in and day out rather than take amongst ourselves about the latest technology available for cell phones.

We arrived back at the Transit Hub where I’d like to say I hoped on my bike and road back to my apartment a few blocks away. The truth is… I jumped in the vehicle parked near the station that transferred me to the station in the first place. I left enlightened and slightly changed. Will I use transit again?? If I have to. Do I understand the needs of a different part of our community? Better than I did before, but not completely. Will I stand up for better mass transit? Absolutely. Should you do it? As soon as possible!