On April 4, the MBTA Advisory Board voted on a 23 percent fare hikes across the board, plus the elimination of four weekday routes. Pitched as a more palatable alternative to the two earlier proposals (35-43% hikes, cuts to over 100 bus lines), this proposal nevertheless represents an unacceptable burden on T riders, students, seniors, and the unemployed. It also leaves us with a $184 million budget deficit, which we’ll have to resolve with even bigger hikes and cuts next year.

On April 3, members of the Youth AffordabiliT Coalition occupied the State House steps to demand that the legislature intervene to cover the $91 million deficit for this year, as well as institute a long-awaited youth pass. On April 4, members from Occupy MBTA held a National Day of Action around Public Transportation and began a 10-day occupation of the State House steps to demand comprehensive transit plan for the entire state of Massachusetts. On our third day of Camp Charlie, we’re looking forward to a packed weekend of education and organization around the MBTA!

Here’s a quick rundown of what you can expect over the next few days.

Crash course on the MBTA budget crisis
TODAY, Friday, April 6, 3 p.m.
State House Steps
Over the years, the MBTA’s financial viability has been wrecked by Big Dig debt, forward funding, and interest rate swaps ($26 million owed annually to Wall Street banks; the MBTA now possesses a total debt load of $5.2 billion and counting. How did the MBTA get into this position? What are the current proposals on the table? How does this occupation fit into this plan?

Riding the Rails: Outreach Training
TODAY, Friday, April 6, 4:30 p.m.
State House steps
Take our message directly to T riders across Boston – no hikes, no cuts, no layoffs! This is about as direct as outreach can get. Spend a few hours learning how to talk to strangers, and help us start a longer conversation about the T.

Occupy MBTA Meeting + Open Strategy Session
TODAY, Friday, April 6, 6 pm
State House Steps
A comprehensive overview of where we are, what our demands are, why these dates are important, and so forth, followed by an action assembly to talk plans, strategy, and next steps. ALL ARE WELCOME — please come, a great place to plug in for the first time and learn more about this campaign, and figure out what you can do in the next eight days to really drive this message home.

Camp Charlie Potluck and Teach-In
Saurday, April 7, 1 pm – 4 pm
State House steps
Bring a dish to share and join us for an teach-ins about the fight to save the T and the broader struggle for transit justice. Interest rate swaps, debt cancellation, history fo the T, and more. For more details, contact: Josh Golin (golingolin@yahoo.com)

Joint Committee on Transportation Hearing on Bill H.4011
Monday, April 9, 10 am
State House, Room B-1
This is a big one. On Monday, Deval Patrick will offer a short-term solution to this year’s gap in the MBTA’s budget – a $51 million transfer from the Motor Vehicles Inspection Trust Fund at the MBTA. The proposal acknowledges a structural deficit, yet fails to make any provisions forlong-term funding of the MBTA. At the same time, he will be recommending that MassDOT amend its current lease agreement with the Rose Kennedy Greenway Conservancy Board to require the Conservancy to comply with open meeting and public records laws.

Both issues have obvious relevance of Occupy MBTA! Join us as we call on Governor Patrick to offer a comprehensive plan that builds force in the entire state — not just piece by piece correction.

WHY HERE? WHY THESE DATES?

Many people have asked, “Why ten days? What happens on the 14th?”

By law, the MBTA must balance its budget every year by April 15. But the MBTA can’t balance its budget — it has been chronically underfunded for years, with no allocation made to cover huge losses under Forward Funding and the Big Dig debt. The recommendation that came forward on April 4 — a 23% fare hike across the board, plus cuts to buses, with more to come next year — is an unacceptable solution, which leaves us with a $200 million deficit for the upcoming year.

The occupation is a people’s veto. We’re holding them to the date, but we’re taking it above the MBTA to the legislature, which got the MBTA into this mess in the first place and has the ability to do something about it. In three months of hearings, Governor Patrick, House Speaker DeLeo, and Senate President Murray have been woefully silent on this issue. If the MBTA is truly to balance its budget by the 15th, we need our leaders to step in to offer a real solution, both to this year’s crisis, and to the spiraling debt costs that the MBTA will continue to face in years to come.

How do we do that? With a comprehensive transit plan that benefits the entire state. With a one-year bailout to stave off devastating hikes and cuts. And with a commitment to do this without privatizing and selling it piece by piece. We’ll be here until the 14th. We hope you’ll join us!

www.occupymbta.org

TOWN HALL FORUM: JUSTICE FOR TRAYVON, “The Attack on Black Men & Boys”
Stop S. Bill 661 H. Bill 1568 at Hibernian Hall (Dudley Sq),
FRIDAY APRIL 6th 6-8pm

Topics to be addressed:
* Trayvon Martin case:

Justice for Trayvon
* Cases of violence against Black Men throughout the US; Lynchings, Draggings, etc.
* Racist Rhetoric, Racial profiling, Police Brutality, Murders, Violence, Mass Incarceration

On Saturday April 7th at 12:30 p.m. at Ruggles Station, there will be a rally in support of justice for Trayvon Martin. The march will go from RUGGLES to DUDLEY, ending in front of the Police Station, with a speakout near the old B2 barracks grounds. Please come and stand up against racism, racial profiling and corruption!

March 29 at Park Street Station: March to Save the T!

Organized by the Youth Affordabili(T) Coalition

Opening Rally
3:15pm
Park Street Station

Closing Rally
5:00pm
State House

The MBTA has two proposals for fare increases and service cuts to cover its 2012 deficit. Both proposals attack youth, students, seniors, disabled and families. We demand the MBTA stop the fare increase and service cuts! Instead, we need a more affordable T. Create the Youth Pass now! We didn’t create the MBTA’s Big Dig Debt or the failed funding system. We shouldn’t have to pay for it either! The Governor and Legislators need to step up and fund the T!

Youth Way on the MBTA is a campaign for youth transit justice, launched in June 2007. We have a right to public transit we can afford, quality service, safety and respect on the MBTA.

On Thursday, March 22, City Life Vida Urbana and the Chelsea Collaborative will hold two vigils in support of families who have are being forced out of their homes by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, who have refused to reduce principal for underwater borrowers and regularly evict homeowners, even when they can afford to stay.  Join us to support Lavette, Inocencia, and Mirna in their fight to keep their homes, and join our allies in the fight against foreclosure to say NO to punitive evictions!

Vigil in Hyde Park for Lavette Sealls
Thursday, March 22, 6-7 pm
19A Business Terrace, Hyde Park
Contact: Steve Meacham, 617524-3541 x310 or cell 617-909-6182
Brandon German 617-584-1468

Stop the evictions of the families of Inocencia Perez & Mirna Aguilar
Chelsea Collaborative – Speak Out to Take Back the Neighborhood from Wall Street Banks.
Thursday, March 22, 5-7 pm
79 Grove St, Chelsea
Contact: Eliza Parad, 617-889-6080 x112

Anti-foreclosure Canvassing in Malden with the North Side Bank Tenants Association
Saturday, March 24, 10am – 1 pm
Bread of Life, 54 Eastern Ave in Malden
Meet up at Bread of Life for a light breakfast and a quick training, then head out into the neighborhoods to reach out to those directly affected by the foreclosure crisis. We have a long list, and need all the help we can get! RSVP: http://www.facebook.com/events/253376834756625/ or email katie@occupyboston.org

The following op-ed is written by Lavette Sealls, whose family has been trying to negotiate with Freddie Mac to modify her mortgage more than 2 years. In the last 6 months Boston Community Capital (BCC – a non-profit lender) submitted two offers to buy this property. Their intention was to resell to Lavette at current value. The Sealls family is qualified to buyback, but Freddie Mac refused to negotiate.

On Thursday evening when most people are going home to dinner and their families, I’ll be fighting my eviction.

I moved to this condo in Hyde Park in 2007. I have worked all my life outside the home since I was 18, and I have been a single parent of two sons since 1990. It was my dream to own my own home and I worked hard to make this dream come true. I had been a life-long renter, but finally at the age of 49, I achieved the American Dream of finally owning my own home. Unfortunately, my timing could not have been worse. A year after I purchased my first home, the economy crashed, brought to its knees by greedy investors and predatory lenders. I was left with a home that I had paid $250,000 for and it is now worth almost $60,000 less than that.

At around this time, I experienced a personal tragedy that made it hard for me to keep up with my mortgage payments. I was also trying to keep my son in college. The financial pressures proved too much, so I went to the bank to try to negotiate a lower monthly payment. I completed two modification packages, which they did not reply to. Five months later, the bank foreclosed on my property.

I felt totally defeated. After so many years of playing by the rules, being a good citizen
and a good parent, I felt like my whole world was collapsing around me. It would have
meant a lot if the bank would at least talk to me, but they refused. This was a bank
(Freddie Ma and Fannie Mae) that received $120 billion in taxpayer bailout money, and here they were treating me — a long-time taxpayer – as if I didn’t exist.

I might have given up, but an organization named City Life/Vida Urbana canvassed my
neighborhood, letting residents know that there were ways to fight for your home. With
help from City Life, I wasn’t alone. With their support, I began to fight back.

Meanwhile my home’s value had plummeted. The bank wouldn’t do a principal reduction with me, but they sold it to Freddie Mac for $192,000. Why were they okay taking theloss with Freddie but not willing to take a second chance with me?

I’ve lived in Hyde Park for 20 years. I love Hyde Park, and I felt committed to staying in my home. I approached a non-profit bank, Boston Community Capital, and they agreed that I was creditworthy and that they would make an offer to buy my home from Freddie Mac and sell it back to me. We are blessed to have non-profit agencies like this that help keep qualified people like me in their homes, thus keeping communities and families intact.

But Freddie Mac refused both of BCC’s offers. Maybe they thought BCC was not
offering enough? No. The reason they refused the offers was purely punitive. They did
not want BCC to sell the house back to me. Here we have a mostly taxpayer-funded
agency that appears to be more intent on making me homeless than on simply offloading a property to a willing buyer. Shouldn’t we demand more of our government? Shouldn’t an agency like Freddie Mac be doing its best to keep me in my home paying a fair price? When the economy crashed and the banks teetered on the verge of failure, the government stepped in to rescue them. That is to say, “we” (as taxpayers) stepped in to rescue them. I’m not asking to be rescued. I’m just asking to stay in my home and pay a fair price for the privilege.

So that is why on Thursday evening, I will be standing alongside City Life members and
concerned community members to make a public statement that we won’t stand by while government agencies like Freddie Mac punish homeowners, weaken our communities, and steal our dreams.

Lavette Sealls is a 55-year old mother of two and grandmother of one. She is a member of City Life/Vide Urbana, and she invites you to Business Terrace in Hyde Park for a vigil at her home on Thursday, March 22 from 6:00 to 7:00.