The First Community Action Meeting


The first Community Action Meeting for M.A.T.R.A.-STL held May 2, 2009 was a great success. The goal of generating awareness and support for the funding for public transit was realized through the attendance of 55 citizens, representatives from Metro and state politicians.

This meeting provided the opportunity for and open and engaging forum to explore the benefits and needs of a well funded, accessible and comprehensive public transit system. We are happy to report that this meeting generated 275 signed letters to Jefferson City in support for Metro Transit funding. These letters were one of the reasons for the recent historic turnaround and reinstatement for the proposal for supplemental funding. Keep checking the website. We will keep you posted.

We would like send out a special thank you for the following officials who attended our first meeting:

  • State Senator Jeff Smith, district 04 - Western St. Louis City
  • Representative James Morris, district 58 - North and Midtown St. Louis City
  • Representative Jeannette Mott Oxford, district 59 - South St. Louis City
  • Representative Tishaura Jones, district 63 - Downtown and South St. Louis City
  • Representative Bert Atkins, district 75 - North St. Louis County
  • Eleanor Miller, Representative Jill Schupp office, district 82 - Northwest St. Louis County
  • Ray Friem, Vice President and Director of Metro Operations

We had many written comments submitted; I am in the process of entering them into the database for easy reference later, and distributing to the proper people to get your questions answered and your comments heard. Some comments were unclear and I will be contacting those persons for clarification.

We are working toward SOLUTONS for a stable source of funding, a better transit system, and NOT someone to blame for this mess (There is enough blame to go around, starting with you). If you have any comments, questions, suggestions, or SOLUTIONS on ways, we can achieve this goal. Please feel free to contact us.

Again thank you for making the first of many more meetings to come of M.A.T.R.A.-STL a better success than I could have imagined.

Edward Williams
Founder and Organizer
Metropolitan Area Transit Riders Alliance – St. Louis (M.A.T.R.A.-STL)
www.MATRASTL.org
7411 S. Grand Avenue
St. Louis, MO 63111-2614
(314) 338-5153