From:
To: City Council;
Subject: Keeping the budget in support of the #24 Shuttle Date: Saturday, June 24, 2023 10:50:45 PM
Hello City Council Members,
I wish to first acknowledge the work you are all doing in support of Sebastopol. I imagine it is difficult to make a budget, robbing Peter sometimes to pay Paul, as my bookkeeper mother used to say, adding, to make it all stretch around.
My priority in writing to the council at this time is strongly to request that the council keep the # 24 Sebastopol Shuttle bus free by providing the needed budget. This is a priority in my view, given Seniors, as I have observed over-my-eight year-old ridership on the #24, are the primary ridership of the bus and the most in need of free service.
Contrary to a letter written by a Burbank resident to the City Council Members and printed in the Burbank email thread, the majority of the #24 Shuttle ridership are seniors from Burbank Heights & Orchards (BHO) who are doing their shopping chores, not riding the shuttle for the mood lift, or too fend off depression. Sure, this may come into play, but primarily we ride the shuttle to be able to get our groceries and/or go to the dentist, doctor, theater, the Barlow, and Heaven knows where else! Please take this basic need of the vital BHO Senior Community into significance as a priority in determining your budget.
Thank you Council in advance for revisiting the distribution of funds in your budget, and redesignating, out of seasoned, reasonable consideration, the necessary funds for the shuttles' continued free service.
I feel qualified to present a reasonable argument in our ridership favor based on my public transit advocacy work over many decades, including working with former Mayor and City Council Woman, Sarah Gurney on supporting the #24 Shuttle over the last years in Sebastopol, specifically in regards to the BHO Community Seniors. Sarah has expressed valuing the BHO Community Seniors and recognized the low, to low, low income of many of the Seniors at BHO, while inflation has skyrocketed the cost of food and other commodities, evincing strong evidence of the needed free shuttle. I am fairly certain that the BHO community would be in agreement with me about the vital need to keep the #24 Shuttle free, and that there is unity in the Burbank Community wish that the City Council extend the funding in support of the free shuttle; as well as that Burbank Elders have accessible transportation to get to town.
Keep in mind, also, that many elders no longer drive. Additionally, it is much more difficult to find volunteer/or paid drivers within or without the community. The shuttle is extremely vital in this regard and to some extent as an urgent transport to transfer to the #20 bus to Santa Rosa and to Kaiser Hospital. Which I most certainly have done on numerous occasions. I do not drive at all; I have a disability and on behalf of the disabled, I am making this stand as well.
Best,
Roberta Llewellyn
Sebastopol, 95472
.