L.A.’s bias toward rail and against buses is racist, argues Eric Mann

When are public-transit rail projects a bad thing? When they come at the expense of a strong bus system that low-income working people of color depend on, argues Eric Mann. He’s knee-deep in the fight over Los Angeles’s public transit, working with other grassroots activists and the Bus Riders Union to fight a big increase in bus fares; the city’s transit agency has raised the fares to help pay for cost overruns on expensive but relatively little-used rail lines. Mann tells the tale in Gristmill.