The cheap and the poor -- commentary

This from Milwaukeean Eamon Guerin:

On your post "Sorting out the 'cheap'from the poor" you forgot to mention the worst of the public transportation problems in Milwaukee. We live in a city that makes public transportation to and from work almost unbearable because of the lengthy commutes that often do not take employees near their jobs.

The city then penalizes low-income people who may be able to afford one car by criminalizing parking ticket fines, creating a cyclical pattern of fines. These two problems need to be eliminated if low-income workers are to enter the work force and rise out of poverty in the City of Milwaukee.

The first problem is due to the continual cuts by Scott Walker, which make it nearly impossible for an entry-level employee to make it to work. I tried find a study the Public Policy Forum put out about two years ago, but the basic premise was that the highest density of low-income individuals, with the lowest car ownership rates are concentrated on the near south side (16th and National) and Walnut Hill.

The problem is that almost 85% of the new entry-level manufacturing/ warehouse jobs are being created in Menomonee Falls and Waukesha County. The study breaks down the travel times it takes these employees to get to work, and found on average it is over two hours excluding the walking from the stop that would be needed to get to the job. When you think of the time spent commuting no wonder the bus seems like a "novel" idea (8 hour work day + 2 hours to work + 2 hours home = 12 hour day).

The second problem is the criminalization of parking tickets in Milwaukee. Low-income households often lack a driveway to park in and as a result must park on the street. The UWM study Tyrone Dumas put out about a year ago points out that they receive the greatest number of tickets. To the low-income worker who needs a car to get to work these tickets present a huge burden. For a person who can barely afford a car, it would make sense that most of these individuals cannot afford to pay parking tickets without cutting into their already slim budget.

To make it worse the City of Milwaukee can make them criminals if they have two or more unpaid parking tickets, leading to arrests and suspension of licenses, and of course more fines, which takes us back to the original problem; they cannot afford the fine.

Sorry about my manifesto on the lack of true public transportation in Milwaukee, but this issue seems more relevant as we see crude oil hit $70 a barrel. When someone like Ald. Donovan votes against the BuySeasons moving into the Valley because he feels the jobs do not pay enough (even though most of the workers employed by the company come from his district and must now commute up to the Falls) and local officials cannot agree on a connector/ light rail despite federal funds, I cannot help but feel the average working citizen is getting lost in the big picture.

I feel we must begin to realize the future of a strong work force and economy is dependent upon a mass transit system that is effective and has routes that match employees to their employers.

This may not be the study Guerin was looking for, but this UWM study makes the point that public transportation is sorely inadequate for job-seeking low income people. Executive summary.