I’m really disappointed in my home city just now.
I’ve always looked at Seattle and said “That is my favorite city” but today, I’m not super pleased.
You see, King County didn’t pass a statute to keep public transit funded. Before that, the City Council voted to clamp down on Uber and lyft in order to support the taxi unions.
As a former disabled resident of Seattle, this really bothers me. This past summer I was at home to spend time with a dear friend who has brain cancer, (she’s still alive and kicking ass, by the way), and I used both the bus system, and uber extensively to spend time with friends, and to do work while I was in town.
When I’m in Seattle in a couple of weeks for Accio Burlesque, many of those options will no longer be as available to me as they once were. I don’t currently live in Seattle, but my family does – and I have many friends who don’t drive in the Seattle area. This is a crushing blow to the independence of people with disabilities in Seattle, and for everyone.
Public transit is one of the most important pieces in the mosaic of creating equality for people with disabilities. Being able to take ourselves to appointments, to be able to socialize. Public transit makes it safer for people to go out drinking with their friends. Public transit makes the world better.
We’re not living in the era where people with disabilities are hidden behind closed doors, we do not live in a time where we are institutionalized just for being who we are. We shouldn’t be punished for the state being unable to manage funding for our transit.
And people with disabilities arne’t the only ones who are being screwed by this. People who rely on public transit are having their lives affected, and I’m glad the Federal government is stepping in to remind the State of Washington that they have obligations to keep.
Public transit should be exactly that: Public and non restrictive.
Seattle, I know you can do better. Shape up.
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