Board members walk out of their meeting amid shouting protestors. Full gallery below. (Photos: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)
TriMet’s seven-member board of directors voted to enact a 30-cent fare increase at their meeting in downtown Portland today by a vote of 6 to 1; but not before a raucous crowd of protestors led them to adjourn the meeting several times and ultimately finish the meeting behind closed doors with several security guards standing outside.
The banging of protestors’ arms against the walls of the room could be heard clearly in the livestream. “Cowards! Face us! Cowards! Come out!” they shouted.
The meeting was held at the University of Oregon campus in Old Town. It opened with public testimony — much of it opposed to the fare hike ordinance (number 374) that was on the agenda). The first person to testify was Oregon State Representative Khanh Pham. “Unfortunately, this fare increase appears to be a temporary budget bandaid that ultimately hides the larger systemic problems that TriMet must begin to tackle to be the transit agency of the 21st century that we need,” Pham said.
Meanwhile across the street from the meeting in Waterfront Park several dozen people assembled for a rally to protest the first TriMet fare increase in 10 years. The rally was organized by nonprofit OPAL Environmental Justice Oregon and their Bus Riders Unite campaign. The rally-goers strategized, put on “No Fare Increase” t-shirts, held up signs and heard speeches. They timed a march over to the meeting just as the fare hike ordinance was to be voted on. Almost as soon as the ordinance was introduced, protestors who filled the meeting room began shouting their disapproval. Just minutes later, TriMet Board President Dr. Linda Simmons and her colleagues got up and walked out of the room. This was the first of several recesses taken because Simmons felt the yelling from attendees was not compatible with an open, public meeting.
A protestor shouts at TriMet Board Member Ozzie Gonzalez as he leaves the building.
Once back from recess, TriMet General Manager Sam Desue shared his remarks and the shouts from audience began again. Slowly at first, then they gathered frequency as a TriMet staffer made a presentation about why they felt the fare hike was justified. As the staffer went through her slides, protestors offered live fact-checks and opinions in strong disagreement. When it was finally time to hear how each board member would vote, they got through three sets of remarks before Simmons called another recess.
Board Member Kathy Wai (a community organizer with Asian Pacific American Network of Oregon (APANO) who represents Clackamas County), was the only member to vote against the increase. “I think this is a premature vote that will dampen the future of collaboration — and I mean real and true transparency and collaboration between communities that are going to be the most affected,” she said.
Here are a few more snips from Wai’s remarks:
“I’m really, really concerned that this price increase is not going to do anything to address the stagnancy that we see in ridership… And I don’t think any of us are really realizing that public transit is a key problem-solver in the climate crisis that we’re currently facing… I feel like TriMet needs to be a major player in getting people out of their dang cars and onto our buses and our trains! I really feel very passionately that we need to be a bolder leader in addressing the climate crisis… There are a lot of issues I think in our current service and what we’re trying to deliver to the public, that I just feel like it’s not really meeting my expectations as a board member.
I don’t think that we need to do this right now. It’s not the right timing. And we need to really listen to the community, so I’m going to be voting with my heart and my conscience and I’m going to be a no.”
All of the other board members voted in favor of the fare hike.
I have more to share from the meeting, but I’ve got to get over to Bike Happy Hour! I’ll update this story more and have a larger recap ready by tomorrow morning.
For now, enjoy my photo gallery and the Twitter thread below for videos and sounds of how it all went down.
