Transportation is a huge issue even in a community like ours that has a transportation system. The transportation doesn't necessarily take people to where the jobs are. It doesn't necessarily take the children to where the schools are.
The commitment that our council has made has been for supporting money through its multi-year budget for the development of transportation for kids. Our public transit system was already providing free transit for children under five. We added $150,000. I know that it doesn't seem like a lot, but that covered the difference for kids between five and 12 years of age. Also, we've assigned an increase of about $1.2 million to our budget to look at low-income people and transportation.
One of the biggest challenges we have in our community is our ability to get around. What that keeps people from doing is accessing supports, services, food, clothing, and those kinds of things. We continue to need to make transportation.... In a community that for many people might be seen to be a “have” community, we have pockets of poverty. We have pockets of challenging realities. The growing divergence between the haves and the have-nots in our community really means that we have no choice but to put money into public transportation to support families, including children, who are part of families.