COVER STORY : A VIEW FROM THE BUS : As They Anxiously Await Ruling on Proposed Fare Hikes and Elimination of Monthly Passes, Many Poor and Minority Residents Are Already Convinced That They Will Bear the Brunt of Whatever Decision Is Reached.

By 5:45 a.m., Pearl Daniels is waiting for bus No. 206 at Normandie Avenue and 6th Street so she can head to work in West Hollywood.

For Daniels, 60, the daily routine includes a transfer to another bus at Normandie Avenue and Sunset Boulevard so that she can get to her job as a telephone operator at the Hyatt Hotel on Sunset by 7 a.m. When she gets off work at 3 p.m., Daniels hustles across the boulevard to catch the No. 3 bus and begin her hourlong ride back home.

For years, buses have meant as much to Daniels as do cars to the throngs of solo motorists who clog the Southern California freeways each rush hour. But these days her reliance on public transit has Daniels so fearful of a proposed 25-cent bus fare hike and the possible elimination of monthly bus passes that she rarely spends money riding a bus for anything other than work.

“If I can help it, I don’t go out,” said Daniels, who lives on Ardmore Avenue in Koreatown. “I don’t hop on the bus like I used to. “

Throughout Los Angeles, remarks from people whose livelihoods depend almost entirely on buses show that Daniels is far from alone. Several riders, of whom transit officials say there are an estimated 475,000 daily in the metropolitan area, said they are on edge because their lives would become significantly more difficult under the proposed hike by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which calls for one-way fares to increase from $1.10 to $1.35.

While the fare hike issue is still in legal limbo, it has raised fears that the higher fares may cause some poor residents to miss medical appointments, cut back on grocery shopping, jeopardize job opportunities or become reclusive. The fears already have manifested themselves in cries of protest at MTA meetings from advocates for the poor and even resulted in a hunger strike that left two men seriously ill during the summer before it was called off.

Advocates for riders emphasize that about six in 10 regular riders have household incomes of less than $15,000 a year, and therefore any increase would prove a financial burden on the majority of riders. Most riders board buses more than once each day, resulting in a total of nearly 1.2 million boardings daily.

MTA officials, meanwhile, are trying to convince anyone who will listen that the authority’s first bus fare hike in six years is essential to combat a $126-million operating deficit that if left unaddressed is bound to result in service problems down the road. Besides, they say, tokens would remain available to bus riders at 90 cents each.

All sides are anxiously awaiting a decision by U.S. District Judge Terry J. Hatter Jr. on whether the fare hike would unfairly burden poor and minority residents, who make up the vast majority of bus riders. A hearing is scheduled Oct. 17 on whether a trial should be held on a lawsuit accusing the MTA of discrimination in pushing for the fare hike.

Undoubtedly, many poor and minority residents in Los Angeles already are convinced they are being taken advantage of regardless of Hatter’s ruling. Lawsuits and spreadsheets aside, many riders believe they will bear the brunt of whatever decision is made.

Daniels, waiting for a bus home from work near social hot spots such as The Comedy Store and House of Blues, said she thought the impact of the bus fare issue would be better understood if officials paid attention to the problems riders face each day. Indeed, the faces of those who depend on public transportation can be forgettable for those who zip past bus stops in cars. One moment, you see people waiting, then the stoplight changes from red to green and you are gone.

It is easy to forget the tired elderly woman who sits on a bench in South-Central surrounded by plastic shopping bags, one or two of them serving as pillows for the young boy with her. There is no way to know without asking that the young mother who is waiting for a bus with her infant is trying to get to a baby-sitter and then to her job as a seamstress Downtown. The serious, middle-aged man standing in the shade is heading for a medical appointment.

And once on a bus, riders can lose virtually all individuality. For many, it is the vehicle that people normally focus on from outside, not the riders.

Several bus riders attributed what they say is second-class treatment of riders to the notion that individual car ownership is an ingrained part of the Los Angeles culture. In other words, there must be something wrong with you if you do not own your own car and must ride a bus.

Right now, Daniels said, there are probably many riders who feel worried or trapped and are saving every quarter for their most important rides.

“That’s the way I feel. You can’t get out when you want to,” Daniels said. “They isolated me a lot already.”

Daniels, who decried the filth of some buses and the criminal activity that sometimes occurs on buses, said nonetheless that she normally feels comfortable riding them. But lately, stops at the market for milk, shopping trips, weekend rides to the park and visits to friends or family have been scaled back drastically, she said.

“The upkeep of a car is too expensive,” said Daniels, who makes about $17,000 a year at the Hyatt. “The bus is the only way I can go because the old car I had was always going down and I was on the bus anyway.”

Ameer Rashid, who was waiting for a bus recently on Jefferson Boulevard off Crenshaw Boulevard, said he does not own a car and that those seeking a fare hike should be more concerned with improving mass transit services.

“I think people who ride the bus think it’s high enough already,” said Rashid, 56, who relies on buses about three times a week to get to medical appointments or to do research for a local developer. “The fare would be OK if the buses ran more often. Right now they don’t run that frequent in this neighborhood. To talk about a fare hike is ridiculous. They ain’t had better service in six years. You’ve got to get what you pay for.”

That sentiment was echoed by Kim Hyun Kyung, 18, who was among about a dozen people waiting for a bus at Western Avenue off Olympic Boulevard one day last week.

“It’s too hard for the citizens,” she said, referring to higher fares.

The reliance many residents have on the system is most obvious at bus stops like the one at Spring and Temple streets by City Hall.

One afternoon, as buses came and went, the number of people waiting for their rides never seemed to get below a dozen or so. The flow was steady as buses headed for different parts of the county pulled up, loaded passengers, and pulled away every few minutes.

Janet Gonzalez, 22, stood holding her 3-month-old daughter, Stephanie.

Gonzalez said the proposed fare hike is frightening to her and her husband because they are struggling to make ends meet. Both earn low wages mending clothes, and their daughter requires a baby-sitter, she said.

“It worries me a lot,” Gonzalez said in Spanish. “It is a big problem because salaries are low, especially for us Latinos.”

Andrea Greene, a spokeswoman for the MTA, said officials sympathize with residents who may face hardship if the fare hike goes through, but options such as buying 90-cent tokens in packets of 10 are designed to ease the impact on the poor. A balanced MTA budget is mandatory by law, and although the proposed fare hike has drawn the most public attention, plans involve other cost-cutting measures such as reducing services on lines carrying few passengers and cutting administrative positions within the agency, she said.

“I think a lot of people are afraid of the unknown,” Greene said. “Our passengers would be saving money by buying tokens. All we can do is keep on talking to community groups and spreading the word at schools and at public meetings.”

Some riders, however, fear that using tokens would become too expensive if frequent stops and transfers are necessary--a common occurrence for the thousands of riders who make one or more connections to get across the city. Bus riders who make frequent transfers tend to rely on the $42 monthly pass, which allows for an unlimited number of rides and transfers.

Besides the basic fare increase, the MTA proposal includes the elimination of regular monthly passes and increasing the fares on special monthly passes--from $10 to $12 for monthly passes for senior citizens and the disabled, including blind passengers who formerly traveled at no charge; from $25 to $30 for college and vocational school students, and from $18 to $20 for schoolchildren. Zone charges of 50 cents would apply on express bus lines and the Blue Line trolley. Transfers would remain at 25 cents each.

“I can certainly understand. Just the sound of a fare raise is scary to people,” Greene said. “But we are in line with what is happening across the country. What else can you buy now at 1988 prices?”

Still, selling the plan to those who sit waiting for buses when they are dead tired, sick, late for a job interview or just eager to visit a friend is tough. It is not as though all riders want the same thing. For example, some vehemently oppose the higher fares while others are more interested in making sure the regular $42 monthly passes are not lost.

“I don’t begrudge them an increase, but keep the passes,” said Michael Pell, 44, a senior clerk typist for the Los Angeles Police Department who rides buses regularly from Melrose and La Brea avenues to Downtown and back. “It’s good for the rider and it’s good for the system. It’s good for keeping buses on time.”

After a Sept. 12 hearing on the case in U.S. District Court, about 30 people gathered outside to oppose the fair hike and criticize authorities for their financial support of a new, expensive regional rail system.

Many bus riders and community activists are convinced that racial bias is a key factor influencing the call for higher fares.

Various activists and riders insist the transportation authority has funded rail projects that largely benefit affluent white commuters, rather than poor or minority riders. MTA officials dispute that accusation and now it appears that the discrimination will be decided in federal court.

In the meantime, MTA figures show that nearly 47% of all bus riders are Latino, about 23% are black, about 19% are white, close to 9% are Asian and the remainder are of other ethnic backgrounds. In addition, more than 61% of all riders have household incomes under $15,000 a year; about 23% earn between $15,000 and $30,000, and a little more than 10% have household incomes between $31,000 and $50,000. Less than 5% bring home more than $50,000, the figures show.

Miguel Llorente, who earns a total of about $9,000 a year and shares an apartment in Hollywood with his brother, travels from bus to bus in order to work two jobs and remain an active community volunteer.

Llorente, 22, works helping develop housing, business and youth services, and each day travels first to one local organization in Inglewood for a few hours and then to another local group in South-Central.

Easygoing and quick with a smile, Llorente said any increase in bus fares could jeopardize one of his part-time jobs and would undoubtedly reduce the amount of volunteer work he could do to help youths in troubled neighborhoods. Tokens may be an option, he said, if the MTA comes through with its plan to create more purchase sites.

Llorente said he believes he could land higher-paying work, but for now is willing to sacrifice better wages for the satisfaction of working at improving urban conditions at the grass-roots level.

“I have to struggle a lot but I’m working for the community right now,” he said. “My thoughts are that the people of the MTA should understand that there are a lot of people like me who cannot travel at these higher prices. We just cannot afford it.”