The Sioux Falls City Council will be holding a special meeting at 5 PM on Tuesday to approve FREE youth ridership on the city busses for the summer. I don’t suspect any city councilor to vote against this.
Great Job! This is what happens when the city council shows great legislative leadership in getting things done for our town. It also shows they recognize a need in our community and support sustainability in transportation. I will say today that I am truly proud of my city and leadership in these efforts and thank city personnel for their timely and diligent cooperation.
And a big hand to citizen and youth advocate Cathy for getting the ball rolling on this!
I’m surprised too. It’s just not like the city to do something for the people. There’s gotta be a catch.
This is a nice thing to do and from a cost standpoint is really a non-issue, a rounding error, in our city budget, but could provide a nice benefit for kids. When I was growing up, my parents had bus passes for some years and I was able to use it to go to the city library, to pools, and various other things when I was an older elementary school age and middle school, instead of being stuck at home. And, it will benefit all children, not just a narrow constituency. Given its low cost, I don’t mind as a taxpayer funding it.
The other thing worthy of note is THIS is an illustrative contrast to the previous ‘special meeting’ the city council held. This is what the intent of the ordinance to hold a special meeting surely is – a meeting held at a DIFFERENT time than the usual REGULARLY scheduled meeting with a very SPECIFIC agenda item (or items) that need to be addressed.
Now how about putting some money into increasing rides for the Paratransit passengers that have been kicked off, because they can follow instructions and are mobile, but aren’t mentally able to do the things they were taught for riding the fixed route buses, because their memory isn’t that good, or their reading/listening comprehension isn’t real great, and because of speech impediments they are hard to understand. Just a really long winded thought.
No adult needed ?
When the Mayor signs this he will look good.
Joan an SE, they are going to put an age limit on it and I believe parental consent.
Jeff, I believe his honor will be out of town on Tuesday, so his signature will probably not grace the document. He will ultimately get zero credit on this one, and he shouldn’t, you’d be surprised to hear the councilors that lead the charge on this, let’s just say they weren’t Democrats.
I also heard the Siouxland Libraries and even Pam Homan endorsed the idea. Homan actually praised it.
Unless it has changed students used be able to ride the buses all summer for $25.00. I would be willing to bet there were scholarships for low income kids. I knew a low income woman that managed to buy the passes for her two kids.