A link to the following has been sent to PLP Candidate for Constituency #3, Lovitta Foggo
If there are reasons why many St. David’s islanders likely won’t vote for the PLP, one would have to be be the abysmal bus service, another would be the fact that after nine years the simple things still haven’t been taken care of.
Leaving work not long after 6, I headed to the bus terminal. A route #10 bus headed to St. Georges came 5 minutes after I arrived at the terminal. While all the seats filled, there were only 2 people left standing and it gave me the chance to read some of my latest book on the ride home. Arriving at the number one gate, however, has proven exactly why the PLP has alot of work still ahead of them.
The play by play:
7:05pm Arrived at the number one gate, expecting a short wait to ride into St. David’s
- Two buses marked “training” pass
- Two buses to Hamilton pass
- One bus from Hamilton to St. Georges passes
7:24pm and still no buses to St. David’s. It’s at this moment I decide I’m going to record this endeavor.
7:26pm another bus to Hamilton from St. Georges.
7:28pm a bus headed out of St. David’s to St. Georges passes, near empty
7:34pm a route 11 bus from Hamilton to St. Georges passes
Beginning to get impatient, I start examining my surroundings.
- One of the benches is broken and in horrible disrepair
- The board up on the wall is blank with no schedule or map posted to inform
7:38pm A minibus stops to pick up people who walked over to the road. I ask another individual what it takes to ride it and he informs me that it’s $4 to ride the minibus into St. David’s on top of the fee you pay to ride the public bus. Ridiculous
7:39pm Route 11 to Hamilton from St. Georges passes
7:43pm Another training bus passes
7:46pm Training bus again! And it’s driving in to St. David’s.
7:48pm The sun has set and streetlight in front of the bus stop turns off.
I quickly realize it’s one that’ll be annoyingly going on and off every couple minutes for the rest of the time I’m there.
7:49pm Route 10 to St. Georges passes
7:58pm a Hamilton bound bus passes
8:00pm, a St. David’s bound number 6 finally arrives.
8:01pm, I quickly realize that the bus isn’t going down St. David’s road, where I live closest and is instead headed down Southside
8:05pm, I hit the next stop button and disembark near Southside theater
8:08pm I’ve walked up behind the laundromat and thankfully see that the hole in the derelict fence is still there, which I pass through to get to St. David’s road.
8:18pm, I arrive home.
8:19pm The sheer comedic irony of life rears it’s head as I realize that Constituency #3 (St. David’s) candidate Lovita Foggo stopped and left a pamphlet by while I was on my epic journey home. One of her promises? Later night bus service but no mention of these issues.
If Ms. Foggo would like to earn the support of St. David’s islanders for the coming election, there are things she could do.
- Get a bus schedule and map put up in the bus stop
- Get the streetlight outside the bus-stop fixed
- Get the bench fixed or replaced
- Get the derelict fence removed or replaced with a proper gate or opening that allows people to walk through to the laundromat
- Get St. David’s bus schedule changed so that there are 2 direct evening routes from Hamilton to St. David’s to match the two direct morning routes.
Update (Friday Sept 14th, 10:00am):
I also attempted to send present Contituency #3 MP Susann Roberts-Holzhouser an email with regards to these issues however the email address listed on the UBP website does not work which is not helpful.
After some extra effort I’ve tracked down another email address for her and have sent along a link to this article.
Does this not show that Suzanne Holshouser, the current UBP parliamentarian for this area, has not effectively championed the causes of this area during her term? She hasn’t highlighted the issues, publicized the concerns, etc.
Sure, but what is your point? Should that be a reason to vote for the PLP? Because she hasn’t been complaining enough about how shitty of a job the PLP has done?
There isn’t much she really could do being that she isn’t in government and this is one of the key failures of our present system of parliament. Consituencies that have representatives who arn’t a part of the majority party are left to rot. Now suddenly that an election is on the horizon, candidates turn up who promise to solve all the issues that should have been solved in the last 4-5 years. It’s quite rediculus.
Anyway, I found her email address this morning and have sent her an email about the issues as well. There is no guarantee that she hasn’t already been harassing the gov to fix these issues. In reality, it’s not like this is front page news for a regular paper so it wouldn’t be surprising if she has been championing these issues.
What will be interesting is to see what each representative responds back with.
My point is that instead of condemning ms foggo and/or the PLP, blame should go to Ms Holshouser as well. Ms Holshouser has been very vocal on many issues so she has had ample opportunity to champion these causes.
You say “Should that be a reason to vote PLP?” No, not in isolation. But it could be a reason not to vote UBP. But for some reason, I dont think that option exists in your world.
You exist solely to condemn the current administration and to try and speak as to why the UBP should be the next government.
Reference the buss’s…….
this is world war 2 , system that is in place . and is kept in place buy the UNION the EMPLOYES and the PLP . it does not matter that you do not or other people in the comunity do not have a bus service .
you as a TAX PAYER , are supposed to adjust to their system and not complain. that is why the comunity BUY bikes and cars to put on the road because the bus system is run for the convience of the bus operators not the passengers.
there is only one way and one way only that this is going to change .
‘PRIVATIZE’ the busses .the bus drivers still need to drive . let them incoropraate the new bus companies. with smaller and more comfortable busses , like the ones that go to the airport.
also mini buss services , a couple operate now , why because people need them.
competition with bus services will give execellent service and bring the prices under control .
manny bus operators have and own taxi licences and cars.
no one will be put out of work , infact manny will earn more money than they do now , as they do in the taxi’s thats why they drive them.
THE PRESENT BUS SERVICE WILL NOT CANNOT AND NEVER WILL CHANGE.IT IS INCAPABLE OF DOING SO. private busses will find where the people want to go and at what time . they adjust because of the need.
can you imagine the GOVERMENT running the grocery stores,I know there are some whom think that they could , that is why they are now on the GOVT pay roll.
NNNN
LOL. Ken, clearly you only believe what you want to believe.
Number 1. I did not vote for Ms. Holshouser last election nor did I vote for any UBP candidate.
Number 2. Wherever you get the impression that I’m pro UBP, let me correct you by suggesting you read a few other pieces:
http://www.denispitcher.com/2007/09/will-the-real-d.html
http://www.dpitcher.com/2007/08/milkman-short-o.html
http://www.dpitcher.com/2007/07/ubp-catering-to.html
http://www.dpitcher.com/2007/08/hustle-truck.html
Number 3. There are many examples where I give incumbent MPs credit where credit is due:
http://www.denispitcher.com/2007/08/a-great-piece.html
Number 4. The reason why I chose to specifically point to this as a reason why St. David’s islanders are not likely to vote for the PLP is that Ms. Foggo happened to turn up to my doorstep that very evening.
I have yet to see Ms. Holshouser turn up to my door. Frankly I’m annoyed that I have to hunt for her email address in order to get in contact with her because the one on the UBP site doesn’t work. It’s likely that I’ll do a followup article to point out the actions taken by both Ms. Foggo and Ms. Holshouser, however, assuming Ms. Holshouser has already been made aware of these issues is presumptious. The government, however, I would expect should be conducting regular reviews of the state of the bus shelters and other parts of the island and thus I do hold the expectation that it should not have been allowed to get to this state.
I certainly am not contending that these are reasons to vote UBP instead of PLP, only reasons why those who actually care about the issues may choose to not support the PLP. Which may include spoiling their ballots rather than supporting the UBP if they’ve been equally as useless, which if you follow my opinion, I’m not fond of either party and might just do.
Ms Holshouser probably feels that she doesnt need to visit you because by your writings she feels that you are Pro UBP. Maybe you are unbiased, but 1 article in favor of Dale Butler does not make you anti – UBP or pro – PLP.
I have said it before that you tend to be supercritical of this administration, but maybe it is because you werent as politically aware during the former administration.
Ken,
“Ms Holshouser probably feels that she doesnt need to visit you because by your writings she feels that you are Pro UBP.”
If she does she’s a fool and certainly won’t get my vote.
You’re very tired. I knew you’d jump on the single reference to Dale Butler’s piece.
I defend the hustle truck program here:
http://www.dpitcher.com/2007/08/hustle-truck.html
After condemning the poor evening bus service to St. David’s, I retracted many of my remarks upon discovering that the real failure was the lack of the gov.bm website having been updated with the new schedules. I then spoke favorably of my experiences and made recommendations for improvements.
http://www.dpitcher.com/2007/07/st-davids-eveni.html
Indirectly I defended the appointment of Davida Morris and young representatives in general. Something the UBP has failed to do:
http://www.dpitcher.com/2007/07/why-we-need-you.html
I was the first to congradulate the Premier for joining Facebook. A post which was syndicated by the Progressive Minds blog and served a seed for an article in the gazette.
http://www.dpitcher.com/2007/05/the_premier_on_.html
Now, as for your comments “you tend to be supercritical of this administration, but maybe it is because you werent as politically aware during the former administration. ”
BINGO. The first election I was old enough to vote was the 2003 one and guess what? I didn’t vote UBP.
Don’t take this as a means to claim that I should have been politically aware back then as very simply I wasn’t. Frankly if I had my choice I’d have absolutely nothing to do with politics. I have very little desire to get into politics aside from the fact that I personally feel that our island is going in the toilet due to poor governance on the part of both the UBP and the PLP. I don’t like politics, if I could stay far away from it and work solely on my career, I would, my problem is that I care too much about Bermuda to watch it go down without doing something.
Everything in today’s politics is about race. If I join either party, it becomes a racial affiliation and suddenly I’ve taken sides and will forever be stuck to the side I’ve chosen.
I’d run, but between building my career, my meager savings and regiment it simply isn’t realistic. Thats not even if you consider how patetic our present electoral system is and how it guarantees that I’d fail anyway.
So, I write. It’s a passion. Nobody forces you to read what I write. If you don’t like it, don’t read it. Nobody pays me to write, nobody buys my opinion and frankly it costs me money each month to even host it let alone the many hours I put in writing.
Even beyond this I write in my own name. I don’t hide from my opinon. I tell it like I see it which is more than could be said for many.
If anything, I note that you always criticise me for always criticising the PLP and you’ve never written one positive thing about anything I’ve written.
What does that make you?
It makes you a liar because i have told you more than once that you write well and have good points on certain issues but it is your apparent lack of objectivity that will be your downfall. And that channeled in a more positive manner, you could contribute a lot to the community.
Ken,
Looking back over your comments you are correct and I do apologize.
However, I did ask you to point out my lack of objectivity and instead you attacked when suggesting.
“You exist solely to condemn the current administration and to try and speak as to why the UBP should be the next government. ”
I don’t speak as to why the UBP should be the next government. I have not seen nor heard anything that makes me anxious to have a UBP gov in power as I can’t see how they’d be much better. If anything, I’ve been consistant in lacking the same objectivity towards the UBP.
Do me a favor and point out how many articles I’ve written positively about the UBP?
I fail to see how being critical of the PLP instantly makes me a UBP supporter. Or being critical of the UBP makes me a PLP supporter. This is the thing that most annoys me about the Bermuda political system, it’s always the Us vs. Them and I’m very tired of it.
Why can I not claim that the PLP is less likely to have support of the voters if the Bus shelter, lights, fencing and overall transit system for St. David’s are in the state that they are? Is it not true that there will be people who won’t vote for the PLP because of it? Do I not offer solutions of what could be done as opposed to simply complaining?
I even went out of my way to write Ms. Foggo to give her a chance to address my concerns. When she does, I’ll give her a fair airing and hopefully if she does so well, I’ll write in support of her.
Quite frankly, I’m growing very tired of Bermuda politics much less writing this blog. It is very taxing and I often wonder what the point of caring about the bigger picture really is?
If you believe it’s so easy to constantly write objectively with a new piece on average every 3 days while having a full time job, regiment and other commitments to the community, I welcome you to give it a try.
I’ll bet you that it’s alot harder than you might think.
What’s ironic Denis is that Ken accuses you of lacking objectivity and having an anti-PLP bias but fails to realise that he is in reality anti-UBP with a strong PLP bias.
The fact that you can communicate well and offer an informed opinion supported with facts and figures is just too much for some people.
I’m afraid you’re damned if you do and damned if you don’t.
u people can never give wat other people want wat the hell i wrond with u
“This is the thing that most annoys me about the Bermuda political system, it’s always the Us vs. Them and I’m very tired of it.”
Got it in one. This is exactly right.
Ken’s posts are evidence of this “if you don’t glowingly massage the current administration, you’re a huge UBP supporter/opressor” mentality.
“I fail to see how being critical of the PLP instantly makes me a UBP supporter. Or being critical of the UBP makes me a PLP supporter. This is the thing that most annoys me about the Bermuda political system, it’s always the Us vs. Them and I’m very tired of it.”
Denis sums up in a nutshell a prevailing sentiment among many people in the online community (as well as many others) and I agree with the above statement 100%.
The original post was in 2007 and I think that nothing’s changed even slightly. Us versus Them.
No, now its changed so that we have a third option. If you are critical of both the UBP and the PLP then you must be a BDA supporter. Obviously.