Down in Summit County, the Metro Regional Transit Authority is rolling out a promotion to get prominent elected leaders to ride public transit. As part of “Official-ly Onboard,” — good name — Akron’s Mayor Dan Horrigan, Cuyahoga Falls’ Mayor Don Walters and Summit County Executive Ilene Shapiro will all take rides with Metro’s Executive Director Dawn Distler throughout the day Monday.
The goal is simple, said Metro: to highlight the importance of public transit in the community.
“There’s no better way to get around,” Dawn Distler said in a statement. “We’re excited to host what we hope will be the first of many Metro rides with officials working in the county we proudly serve.”
Metro’s communications director Molly Becker did not immediately respond with additional details, but the promotion seems pretty straightforward to us.
In Cleveland, RTA spokesperson Linda Krecic told Scene she was unaware of any promotion of that kind with city or county leaders, at least in recent memory. The most public instance of an elected official riding RTA was when former Councilman Zack Reed rode the bus as his primary transit mode after his driver’s license was revoked for repeatedly driving under the influence of alcohol. He became a vocal advocate for allowing buses on Public Square as he geared up for a mayoral run. (For the record: Mayor Jackson’s former chief of staff and current Gateway board chair, Ken Silliman has been frequently spotted walking and riding RTA.)
Public transit is a pressing regional issue, and one that residents are clearly eager to find solutions for. Local city and county leaders should consider using the power of their office, their bully pulpits, to demonstrate that they are officially on board too.
This article appears in Dec 5-11, 2018.
Happy RTA has cleaned out a lot of its trash by getting rid of that hack Joe Calasleeze. He was fat overpaid piece of shit. RTA needs to upgrade their rail system.
There is a great scene in the 1962 movie “Advise and Consent” where a United States Senator is seen boarding a streetcar on his way to the capital building.
I can’t imagine any senator, of either party, taking public transit in Washington today.
Jeff Hess
Have Coffee Will Write
Invest even more taxpayer money into RTA??? I dont think so! They cant even manage the millions they get currently. Did everyone already forget about the decades of financial management and illegal activities by the board members, including CEO Calabrese, lifetime employee and thief Dixon, etc??? And not to mention all the many six-figure salary employees, all with very large pensions. -No thanks, my taxpayer money has been squandered enough already!
If you need further evidence, look no further than Taxin Jackson, as well as Budish, for their continual financial mismanagement and downright tax thievery that goes on throughout City Hall and the county! Oh, and Im sure everyone will just Love sending more property tax money to the county starting next month, after Budish and his cronies massive property tax increases on homeowners for 2019! These thieves should ALL be in jail!!!
So Dump!
Do a better job of assembling a board.
Don’t penalize the people who need the RTA because people who never ride the RTA stole money.
Improve oversight first.