Bus Activists Join Fray Over NFL Team
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LOS ANGELES — The Bus Riders Union launched a campaign Thursday to urge the National Football League not to locate a team in Los Angeles until the Metropolitan Transportation Authority changes course and agrees to buy hundreds of additional buses to relieve overcrowding.
The “Don’t Play Ball With a Racist City--Get the MTA to Buy the Buses” campaign is an effort to pressure the MTA board to abide by special master Donald T. Bliss’ order to buy 481 new buses.
Using mail-in messages, they are urging NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue to support the demands for the additional buses to serve predominantly poor and minority bus riders. Implicit is a threat to boycott an NFL move to Los Angeles if the league doesn’t intervene in the long-running bus dispute.
Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan, chairman of the MTA, reacted strongly to the Bus Riders Union campaign. “It is ironic and really evil that they would deny having a new Coliseum, which would renovate an inner-city area and create numerous high-quality jobs for minorities in our city,” he said.
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