Fewer buses = more poverty and more crime, expert says
by: April Thompson
MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Memphis Area Transit Authority’s cuts are cutting into people’s livelihoods.
We wanted to know more about the problems with MATA, so we talked to the people who ride MATA buses.
“The bus route get changed, gets cancelled or something else happens, or the bus never on time, then you got more and more problems,” said MATA rider John Young.
Demetrius Alexander says, “A lot people lose their jobs based on the bus cause a lot of buses not on time.”
And that may also have a direct impact on one of Memphis’ toughest problems: crime.
“I see it all the time,” Young said. “I mean, if a person loses its job, next thing you know, he’s got trouble at home. He can’t provide for his family. Wife and kids are gone. They can seek better, you know, and he goes into depression and a negative attitude. Of course he’s going to rob, steal, cheat, do whatever to provide for his family.”
What Young said is echoed by University of Memphis Researcher and Professor of Social Work, Dr. Elena Delavega.
“Crime is often the result of lack of opportunity, lack of work opportunity,” Delavega said.
For decades she has tracked poverty trends and has found a direct correlation between poverty and crime.
“In a city with such levels of inequality, equality, unfairness, lack of opportunity, lack of access, it’s a city with a lot of anger,” Delavega said. “We’re carrying a huge load of anger in the community. And this anger is often expressed in the form of crime.”
She says peaceful communities are ones with a sense of justice and fairness, and Memphis is a community divided.
“There are people in Memphis that do not have access to anything that would make life worth living,” she said. “They live in very isolated, abandoned communities without the public transportation, and this results in people not having access to jobs, which means they don’t have access to the incomes that are necessary to sustain life.”
Delavega says better public transportation benefits everyone, since mass transit also solves another dilemma even for the middle class: the high cost of car ownership.
“Owning a car cost anywhere from $500 to $1,000 a month. So a family of four, if they need to have two cars, we’re looking at $1,000 to $2,000 of their family income going for transportation only,” she said. “Public transportation, promotes economic development, promotes health and well-being in the community, and reduces crime. It is the best investment we could make.”
Delavega says Memphis needs a centroid-type hub, taking you to any part the county quickly.
“System we could go from Whitehaven to Collierville in 30 minutes, that would be incredible. Now, what we need is for the entire region to fund that, we need to think regionally,” she said.
She says crime that is a by-product of inadequate transportation affects the suburb, too.
“The problems are regional. The crime is regional. Their cars would be stolen, much more likely in a situation where people are desperate and angry because of the unfairness,” she said.
► You may not take a public bus, but the Memphis Area Transit Authority’s success or failure still impacts you.
WREG Investigators have spent months digging deeper into the transit authority and its $60 million deficit. We pored through records, listened to hours of meetings and pressed for answers as we work to find out what went wrong. Hear from riders and our top leaders who fear what would happen to the entire community if it’s not fixed.
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