Our current busing crisis

It has been an infuriating couple of days here.  The city started using a bus company that, clearly, wasn't prepared for the start of school last Thursday.  The routes they planned were completely unrealistic.  For the first two days last week, Hugo's bus arrived over two hours late at our place.  This week, after a weekend we were told  the bus company was to reconfigure new routes, the bus didn't even show up at our apartment!  Outrageous!

I wrote the following missive based on a story in the New York Daily News for my Facebook update this morning:

I so rarely bitch, but:

Buses 2+ hours late, in some cases not even showing up! And it is happening to the neediest, least-able children in the NYC! And what does Bloomberg have to say about it all?

“My understanding is that they’re actually doing a pretty good job, But there’s always going to be . . . a story like that. There’s 1.1 million kids.”

We're talking about children here, we're not bean-counting! We're not weighing the percentages here! Nor is it just one story! Nor is it reasonable to expect parents (who have to get on with the process of earning a living in our very expensive city) to put their lives on hold until the bus company can "figure it out."

I mean, it would not be OK if a set of parents decided they were going to drop their child off at school 2 hours late on a regular basis. It would not be ok of a set of parents strapped their child to a seat for two to three hours, in a room on a daily basis and ignored the child's needs for food, water, bathroom breaks (let alone most of these particular children CANT EVEN EXPRESS THEIR NEEDS VERBALLY). Those parents would be brought up on charges, but for you, sir, the bus company is doing a "pretty good job."

Sorry, Mr. Mayor, if I don't share your cavalier spirit.

 

Whereas I could only vent on Facebook, Jennifer, on the other hand, turned up the heat and started making calls to reporters and colleagues.  One of the fruits of her labor, shown below, was this TV news interview between me and CBS 2 here in the city (here's the accompanying story)  As well, Jen did a radio interview this evening, you can hear that here: link.

The best news though, is that appears to be working and we may actually have a bus at our place to pick up our son!  Kudo's to Jennifer for moving mountains (on top of everything else that has to get done in the day) and hopefully bringing visibility and hopefully swift resolution to this busing crisis--not just for us, but for all parents struggling to get their kids to school

** Revised note:  A bus came today for Hugo promptly at 7am, he was the only child on the bus.  It is true Hugo did get a bus ride to school, hoping the rest of our Astoria area friends join him. **
The stream has a couple pauses but will play out.