The Roving Activist’s Blog

Yesterday evening, August 23rd, RGRTA, our local transit authority, had a Customer Town Hall meeting. CEO Mark Aesch began the meeting with his usual rah-rah and tales of fancy. It’s amazing that he always starts these meetings out telling the same concoction of lies, half-truths, and spin. He forever talks of programs involving technologies that won’t be available until about 2010, or later, yet, he talks as if they’ll be rolling out in a couple of months.

The usual assortment of Rochester ADAPT, CDR, and RCIL folks were on hand, as well as some new folks from our group, and some seniors and folks with disabilities from around the Rochester region. Of course, the majority of people wanted to speak about Lift Line, and the extreme fares for those who live or do business in the expanded service area. Mark kept saying that there were those in the disability community and the media who are spreading misinformation and confusion. Oddly, when pressed about what misinformation was spread, he could not come up with a single incident of misinformation. It was obvious that he was trying to slam CDR without coming right out and doing so, but he would have had hell to pay had he done so. He also blamed the disability community for not raising money for the HONOR Foundation, a fund that RGRTA set up in order to offset the high cost of Lift Line rides. I found it amusing (NOT!!!) that he tries to portray people with disabilities as bums wanting a handout when talking with the media, but tries to come off all sympathetic when speaking to us face to face. Whether Mark realizes it or not, we are not fooled by his two-faced, slimey, oily, charming behavior. We know him for the snake in the grass that he is. I feel that his soul is as black and as cold as outer space, and that there is a black hole where his heart should be.

Mark has a habit of trying to avoid questions from ADAPT members, and will often make us wait until the very end of the meeting to get around to our questions. I swear that he is trying to wear us down, and make us give up on getting our questions in. Sometimes, that, in fact, does happen; either the person is exhausted from raising his or her hand all that long time, or the person must leave because their Lift Line ride has come. Rasheem, an Independent Living specialist with RCIL, got lucky because Mark had never seen him before, and managed to ask several good and pointed questions about Lift Line services, the high expansion service area fares, and if there was so much extra funding, why was the cost being taken out on the backs of the poorest people? I am positive that Mark won’t forgert Rasheem! 

Several othr people who were not with our group asked similar questions, or made statements against the fare increase for the expanded service area, which goes into effect September 4th.

One question that I asked was this: Does RGRTA have a policy of blaming people who use wheelchairs for late buses and people missing their connections? I asked the question because of an incident that happened to me on August 8th. At 10:29 am, I called the customer service line to ask about bus schedules so that I could get to a doctor’s appointment later that afternoon. Dan, the gentleman who took the call, advised me to take an earlier bus than I had originally planned because, “one wheelchair, and you’ll miss your connection.” I informed Dan that I used a wheelchair, and sarcastically thanked him for his disrespect of people who use wheelchairs. He tried to make excuses and explanations, but I immediately reported him.

Mark Aesch’s response to my question was to laugh, and say, “no, we don’t have such a policy.” He then went on to say that perhaps, Dan was trying to be helpful. I was incredulous, and asked if he, Mark, thought that Dan was being helpful by effectively blaming all people who use wheelchairs for the tardiness of buses, and wondered aloud how many other people he’d imparted his sage advice to. I went on to tell him that I have repeatedly timed myself when getting on a bus, and found that it takes me less than 30 seconds to get on the bus, and into the securement area. Mark’s response was his mantra for the evening that he spouted whenevr someone complained about rude bus drivers and other staff: “We hire from the human race, and people sometimes have bad days.” Unlike others in the audience, I challenged Mark on this, saying that I could understand if the problems that people with disabilities experienced were the exception, rather than the rule, but unfortunately, these incidents happen far too often to be isolared incidents of people having a bad day. I reminded Mark that I have repeatedly spoken to him in these types of meetings and elsewhere, regarding the culture of disdain and disrespect for people with disabilities that permeates the entire agency, starting at the top. I asked him, “How are you going to address this?” “What are you going to do about this?” As expected, Mark had no answer.

After only two more questions, Mark ended the meeting, remarking that he had nineteen pages of notes. I’m sure those nineteen pages will go into the circular file, or into some forgotten corner of his desk drawer, since I have, to date, not seen any changes in RGRTA’s policies or practices, especially as it relates to customers with disabilities.

One item of interest was a gentleman who remarked that he noticed that the buses were cleaner. I wondered aloud whether he used the buses in the city or the suburbs, because all of the buses that I ride are filthy and smelly. I tell you, Mark practically creamed his jeans in ecstacy, and gushed all kinds of mushy and self-congratulatory platitudes to this gentleman and the audience. Mark, and Bruce Philpott, who runs the bus stuff, were later heard to say that they were going to give the guy a free all day pass for his positive statement, since he was the only one who wasn’t slamming RGRTA. Hmmm. I could spout all kinds of catty, snide, and nasy remarks, but I’ll hold my tongue for now.

As I left, I stopped to speak to Rick, a supervisor in Bus Operations. He is one of the few, indeed, the only staff at RGRTA with whom I have a good relationship. He doesn’t tolerate his drivers disrespecting any customer, including customers with disabilities. It was he whom I was alluding to when I stated publicly at the meeting that there was a few nice bus drivers, and one shining light at RGRTA. Of course, I didn’t get a fee pass for my positive remarks, but I don’t care, since I’m no cheap date, and It’ll take a complete culture and policy change, starting with the replacement of the entire Board of Commissioners, as well as upper and mid-level management. If that leads to a climate of true cooperation and respect for people with disabilities, that will be thanks and reward enough for me, and I will be the first to sing the praises of RGRTA. Until then, the battle continues…

This entry was posted on Friday, August 24th, 2007 at 10:52 pm and is filed under Activism, ADAPT, Rochester, RGRTA. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.