We brought the ask for a fare freeze to the Mayor’s Office, CHYM leadership & the WeGo Board & leadership on 10/29 - TWO WEEKS AGO. The fact that none have appropriately responded to the growing crisis our neighbors face is incredibly telling. Thank you to CMs, orgs & individuals continuing to push.

Alhamdulillah, today Allah has blessed me with a new born baby boy whom I named Rakan.I hope he grows up in safety, peace, dignity and a good life. Far from death,destruction and wars.Thank you to everyone who asked. Here I am again, sending you love🙏🫶😍🌸 gofund.me/46ce1af1

I am Baraa of Gaza, we need your help The war has stopped but the suffering continues and the life in tents has not ended and our house has been destroyed. Please help me travel to build my future. Please do not be afraid.🙏🏻😭🍉 tinyurl.com/Help-Baraa

I received this email about Democrats caving to end the shutdown from one of the SNAP recipients I spoke to:

😍😍😍 cannot wait for this book from everyone’s favorite sports economist. (Okay, maybe not a favorite of team owners & their lobbyists but certainly mine 😂)

Fuck this. Stay tuned on how to join the fight against this.

On Tuesday, Council passed a resolution supporting the Mayor’s Office & partners in their SNAP response. An amendment requested Mayor’s Office work with WeGo to suspend fares. Amendment adopted & resolution passed unanimously with 33-0-0 vote. The Mayor returned the unanimous resolution unsigned.

ALL OF THIS. And also, as I’ve mentioned before, verbal & physical assaults on bus operators dropped FORTY PERCENT with fare free implementation in NYC & Kansas City. There is NO LEGITIMATE REASON to delay freezing fares. All we’re missing is the political will from @freddieoconnell.bsky.social

A family friend was telling us about what her husband shared about his experience in Broadview before he was deported back to Mexico. She's been sharing to friends and family because she's just in disbelief & horror what her husband told her. She wasn't able to talk to him until he was in Mexico.

We create so many unnecessary burdens for both the provider and recipient rather than doing the morally correct and bureaucratically efficient thing.

It probably did not help that last time they were not have any requirements to getting a journey pass through MAC.

WeGo said there’s stigma associated with showing a bus driver a SNAP card yet their IG story right now is them filming a line of SNAP recipients waiting for a Journey Pass at WeGo Central. Absolutely disgusting & indicative of how much they value positive PR over the dignity of our neighbors 🤬🤬🤬

This entire thing has descended into mass chaos and confusion. Every single part of this mess was completely avoidable. BAG THE FARE BOX AND FREEZE FARES NOW. Journey Pass roll out being expedited before being ready is NOT WORKING. So much conflicting information and confusion.

💀💀💀💀💀

Council just UNANIMOUSLY requested the Mayor’s Office work with WeGo to immediately suspend fares until WeGo’s next board meeting on November 20th or upon the resumed disbursement of SNAP benefits, whichever comes first. It’s past time for @freddieoconnell.bsky.social to step up for our neighbors.

This is classist bullshit. Also, none of this is for free! We subsidize WeGo’s operations & if they’re really going to be so devastated by a fare freeze for a period of time then let’s use OUR TAX DOLLARS from CHYM (just drew $104mil) to cover it. Homeless & poor folks pay sales tax just like us.

YEP! In NYC, free fare pilot resulted in a 39.8% decrease in verbal and physical assaults on bus operators. In Kansas City, 40% decrease with fare free. Stop the classist & racist dog whistles about safety and use the data we have from other cities. Anything else is disingenuous, bigoted BS.

There's evidence that eliminating the fairbox as a conflict point reduces assaults on operators.

God forbid our government & related agencies (on any level) just do the right thing. MAJOR shoutout to Erin & others who are pushing for this. It’s not a matter of funding, it’s a matter of political will. @freddieoconnell.bsky.social If you wanted to get this done, you could - we all know that.

There is a fare freeze resolution on the council’s agenda tomorrow. It is an amendment to @erinfor12.bsky.social’s SNAP resolution. Let your council members know:

Y’all please give if you can ❤️

Next up: "Charging people to use public libraries is more than just the important budget impact—it creates a relationship with the reader."

the cool thing about deeply thinking, planning, and studying … is we can keep doing it forever and never actually have to take any action on anything see also: housing

Household budgets are already strained and they're about to get *much* tighter as the federal government fails to fund family nutrition. Suspending fares until this gets resolved would provide relief and I hope WeGo will do it.

Sign onto the form @johnwesssley.bsky.social linked and use the below template to email leadership at WeGo, CHYM and the Mayor! We have to do what we can to ease the crushing burden of SNAP cuts on our most vulnerable neighbors. We take care of each other ❤️ docs.google.com/document/d/1...

And ICE is worsening this crisis every day by kidnapping immigrant parents and putting their children in state custody.

It’s an eventuality many of us knew would happen but it’s still, as Brian says, profoundly alarming to watch it play out. This is the inevitable conclusion to the criminalization of poverty and of people’s very existence.

Yeah I’d actually edit to say ESPECIALLY if they’re homeless. Come on y’all. Words matter and framing homelessness as some type of personal failure or special exception in 2025… is crazy. We’ve got dedicated parking lots for homeless kids to sleep in their cars. Homelessness is becoming the norm.

@iamstevenhale.bsky.social does it again! Great article that lays out the position of local safe streets advocates in plain language. These signs would be embarrassing even if the approach was sound. Unfortunately, asking people walking to be safe so people driving can be dangerous is contemptible!

lol

It’s past time for April Calvin to go.

Very cool write-up about a little thing a neighbor and I started doing in the neighborhood a couple of years ago. Major credit due to Urban Bicycle Food Ministry for the framework and inspiration!

These Woodbine neighbors are doing the real work 🙏🏼 so thankful for what they do to take care of our neighbors!

And still no conversation about how many units and houses sit empty every night waiting on a tourist. None.

NOT phenomenal news wtf

It is so far past time for April Calvin to go. She is operating with complete impunity outside of all established procedure. Who can get rid of her? Only @freddieoconnell.bsky.social . You might ask if he knows what’s going on & let me assure you, he does. He is VERY AWARE & continues to defend her.

On this Saturday night, for no reason, I am thinking about the various tax increases we’ve passed in the past 2.5 years that disproportionately affect our homeless neighbors. 1) titans stadium hotel/motel tax increase 2) CHYM sales tax increase 3) expanded downtown/gulch BID sales tax increase.

horrific but necessary reporting:

Tennessee & Alabama have tortured two Black men to death via execution in the past 3ish months. First Byron Black and now Anthony Boyd. There are truly no words to describe the suffering these men endured. Two different methods, both despicably inhumane & torturous. Abolish the death penalty NOW.

Codes enforcement is a way for developers to drive people out of their homes. They seek out less-maintained homes (by their standards) and report them to codes over and over again until they can’t afford to fix the problems or pay the fines, so they sell to the developers.

what the FUCK y’all the fact that this has become a widespread necessity is about as damning an indictment of our society as you can find. between this & normalizing school shootings & the genocide we’re funding & enabling… it’s clear that this country doesn’t give a flying fuck about kids.

What if in order to afford the bus pass you need to get the free bus pass you have a job that won’t let you leave in the middle of the workday to go get the free bus pass

This is great! I again ask why this wasn’t communicated & why a flyer was published that said “income eligible” & alluded to further documentation being needed if you aren’t a current MAC customer. Process, clear communication & accessibility matter. I HOPE the Nov. 6th signup is this basic too!

What if you can’t afford the bus pass you need to go get the free bus pass

❗️❗️❗️Community members, outreach workers, etc across this city are trying to get people there. Imagine if we just had a competent & efficient plan. None of this has to be this way. MAC could mail them out, they could say drop by anytime we’re open, they could be available at wego central, list goes on

Y’ALL THIS IS LEGITIMATELY EMBARRASSING.

WE ARE DOING FREE BUS PASSES FOR EVERYONE. BUT WE ARE NOT TELLING ANYONE ABOUT IT UNLESS THEY SHOW UP IN A THREE-HOUR WINDOW ON LESS THAN 24 HRS NOTICE. COOL COOL COOL

No good answers, only more questions.

Happy to hear @indeuh.bsky.social was able to get a pass without income verification! HOWEVER, why put “income-eligible” on the flyer? Why has that been repeated over & over in meetings & media if there isn’t income eligibility? Why say there are caps if they’re giving them to everyone who shows?

Try to avoid being hit by a car while journeying to see if you’re eligible for a Journey Pass!