Transportation

By Raymond L. Rhodes 

The recent Los Angeles uprising is not the inchoate and criminal cry of a statistically minor underclass that could not climb the ladder of the American dream. It is rather a defining moment in American history, an event which, for those who choose to see, breaks through our denial of the increasing disparity between the haves and the have-nots. "Fixing" the underclass by "rebuilding Los Angeles" misses the point completely. The foundation of any true "rebuilding" of Los Angeles is the economic, social and psychological empowerment of all its people.

By Mutsumi R. Mizuno 

This time, the question is not whether Rosa Parks can sit at the front of the bus – it's whether she gets to ride the bus at all. While discrimination in transportation is no longer a matter of overt racism, many poor working people find public transportation services inadequate. And because the costs of owning and driving a car are high, private automobile transportation is not an easy option.

Special Issue (Vol. 6, No. 1: Fall 1995)

Our transportation system can tell us a lot about U.S. society. It can tell us about racism, economic injustice environmental stresses are exacerbated, leaving those most and environmental degradation. The patterns of our complex historical development as a nation - economic, social, cultural, political, environmental – are embedded in a transportation system many people take for granted. It is a system destabilizes urban core communities and does not serve the needs of many people of color, women, working, poor, young, elderly and disabled people in urban, rural and Native American tribal communities alike.