Chainbreaker Collective

Chainbreaker members have a lot to celebrate in the New Year. We spent 2011 organizing for sustainable communities, protecting our buses and distributing bicycles. We won some important victories for our community. Last Spring, we successfully stopped sweeping fare hikes and service cuts to Santa Fe Trails. In November, we again mobilized and secured $2 million to replace aging buses. These victories were only possible because of the tireless work of Chainbreaker members, allies and bus riders like yourself!

But we still have a lot of work ahead of us. Hard economic times hurt working families the most. Many of us continue to be pushed farther to the outskirts of Santa Fe from centralized neighborhoods that were once affordable. Often times these areas lack access to jobs, schools, healthy food centers and recreation. The public transportation systems that exist in these areas lack the funding to be viable alternatives to driving, locking us into a future of car-dependance. Increased commute times by car hurt not only our environment, but our pocketbooks as well. Transportation costs can take up to 1/3 of our income. That means that many of us are working more than a week out of every month just to pay to get to and from work. That is an injustice!

Unfortunately, at a time when more people are relying on public transportation, many of our elected officials are responding with threats of cuts to transit. We'll continue to organize for a better bus system in Santa Fe by fighting cuts and organizing to expand service. We'll also organize to defend the Rail Runner from any upcoming attacks that may be coming.

Now we are working to make sure that we stop future service cuts before they start!  On Tuesday, March 6, voters will be asked to vote yes or no to support working families and start to bring the South Side up to the same standard as the rest of the city by funding 3 bonds.  A bond is like a loan that the city takes out to pay for building infrastructure that voters slowly pay back with money from property taxes.  Chainbreaker members are hard at work knocking on doors and riding buses to register voters and spreading the word about the bond questions and what passing them will mean for our community.

If all three questions are approved, the South Side will get its first regional park and fire station.  The city as a whole will benefit through more bike trail connectivity and environmentally friendly upgrades to city buildings and arroyos.  If all three bonds pass, they'll create over 150 new construction jobs.  Construction workers are some of the hardest hit by this economy.

But far more is at stake than that.  If this bond passes, we'll send the message to the politicos that Santa Feans believe that essential services – like alternative transportation – are worth funding and that South Side residents deserve the same quality of life that the rest of the people in our city enjoy!

Unfortunately, many members of our community are left out of the election process. Our neighborhoods are often overlooked by traditional voter campaigns. It seems they believe that we aren't worth talking to because they think we don't (or can't) vote. We know that voting is only a small part of the solution, but we also know that we deserve to have our voices heard.