To the editor:

Residents voting on Questions 2 and 3, regarding funding for Lawrence’s bus system, the T, need to understand one thing: Failure to approve these measures will mean that that city ceases to have an operable public transportation system come Jan. 1.

I repeat: The commission has no backup plan. If the sales tax vote fails, taking the bus will no longer be an option.

The City Commission, in choosing to put funding for the T under a sales tax initiative vote, is foolishly risking the loss of a crucial public service. I disagree vehemently with their decision to remove funding from the property tax rolls. However, I will vote in the affirmative for the T because I also believe, strongly, that public transportation is a core public service that no city of our stature dare be without.

If the T initiative fails, the city of Lawrence will be turning its back on the working poor, the disabled, the elderly and the youth of our community. Further, without a public bus system our city’s traffic problems will grow worse. As a community, we will be abandoning public transportation, which is a necessary and fundamental tenet of true sustainability.

With global climate change, rising energy prices, and falling home and stock values, we have real problems at our doorstep.

To abandon the T at this point in history would an incomprehensible mistake.

Please, on Nov. 4, vote to support funding for the T.

Laura Routh,
Lawrence