News & Views of Phillips Since 1976
Tuesday December 23rd 2025
Two in One Celebration! Peavey Park Phase 1 Grand Opening & Phase 2 Ground Breaking! July 9, 11 am (Franklin & Park Ave)
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Metro Transit – The squeaky wheel gets the grease
By JOHN CHARLES WILSON
Another slow month in the transit world”¦ However, there was one interesting piece of news for Route 2 riders. I went to an “open house” in June regarding proposed improvements to Franklin Avenue bus service, including cutting back on the number of stops to make the bus go faster, installing new (presumably better) bus shelters, and adding signal priority, which is a system that allows buses to request a green light sooner than would normally be the case. Unlike signal preemption, which is used by emergency vehicles to demand a green light immediately, signal priority requires a computer to make a judgment call as to whether granting an early green to the bus is better or worse for the overall movement of people through an intersection.
The most controversial part of this proposal from the bus rider perspective is probably the stop spacing. Metro Transit is proposing to have a stop once every four blocks on average instead of every two blocks. That will indeed improve the speed of the bus, but will also mean a longer walk to or from the stop, especially if your origin or destination isn”'t a major intersection or transfer point. Some people, however, have trouble walking long distances and would prefer a slower ride with less walking at either their origin or destination.… Read the rest “Metro Transit – The squeaky wheel gets the grease”
Keep citizen journalism alive!
Letter to the Editor Separating children from parents? “This is exactly who we are!”
BY DONNA NESTE
I have been glued to MSNBC, writing letters, and emails to the Justice Dept., Homeland Security, the White House, and calling lawmakers in Washington; since the horrendous, immoral and, frankly, evil Trump policy was put in place; of separating children from their parents at the southern border. While watching this unbelievable darkness descend upon our nation (again) and unfold on cable television, I heard the talking heads say time and time again, “This is not who we are.” Really? This is exactly who we are.
We have a history of separating children from their parents. We did it during our nation”'s “original sin,” slavery. We separated Native American children from their parents and put them in boarding schools. Stealing their land was not enough, we also had to steal their children. We imprisoned Japanese American families during World War II and we turned away a cruise ship, the St. Louis, with hundreds of Jewish people from our shores in 1939 fleeing Nazi Germany, all forced to return and most died in Nazi death camps. Hopefully we can take action to break this cycle of national child abuse.
Today, I sent a post card to Kirstjen Nielsen, the Secretary of Homeland Security, because the only way to contact her that I could find is by snail mail and I wrote: “Do you hear the babies crying in the middle of the night?”… Read the rest “Letter to the Editor Separating children from parents? “This is exactly who we are!””