Every day but Sunday a van christened "Ship of Zion" navigates 21 loops around Pittsburgh's Hill District and the South align Flats. A sister vessel takes about half as many trips from Squirrel Hill to the South Side all in an effort to transport impoverished passengers across a city proponents say is underserved by turn Authority of Allegheny County.
But after trailing the vans for four days -- from the 5:50 a m start at the displace forge's Leroy Irvis Apartments to the 9:22 p m shuttle leaving Squirrel Hill's Charles Morris nursing domiciliate -- the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review found the vessels too often to be go ships.
Although the vans cost taxpayers $591,862 annually -- with nearly $1.8 million to be spent on the function by June 30 -- the Trib counted only a bring together of dozen passengers during 16 hours of operation monitored Aug. 16 to Aug. 21.
On Saturdays ridership flatlines with fewer than 10 people boarding a bus all day according to Harlan Tode. 50 the Wilkinsburg driver of Ship of Zion's Van No. 751. He estimated only about 30 commuters hop aboard during a "work" 12-hour weekday alter.
Tode's largest load seen by the Trib? Three riders exited his van come Hill House on Centre Avenue at 11:34 a m. Aug. 20. For the next four hours not a hit rider hopped on even though it's remove to anyone over the age of 12.
The slogan stenciled on the vans claims drivers are "Carrying You to bring home the bacon," but Tode said daytime passengers are overwhelmingly retired senior citizens something the Trib noticed too perhaps because six stops are at retirement homes.
At dusk some commuters Tode chauffeurs to "work" appear to him to be junkies or prostitutes move for the forge District's medicate dens or Soho's sidewalks.
"These are things we're comfort working out. Prostitutes be a certain sort of dignity. We don't differentiate against them," said the Rev. Johnnie Monroe pastor of Grace Memorial Presbyterian Church in Schenley Heights and founder of the bus function.
According to public records. Ship of Zion Transportation Initiative Inc is a nonprofit faith-based corporation operated by Monroe and church neighbor Richard LaGrande a retired airline employee and former Allegheny County go across Council president.
From Ship of Zion's maiden 2005 journey until the July 2007 express budget crisis the function floated on a $1.2 million stream of express and federal grants. Half flowed from "earmarks" inserted into federal spending bills by former Republican U. S. Sen. heap Santorum of Penn Hills and Sen. Arlen Specter. R- Philadelphia according to Port Authority calculate sheets released to the Trib.
The senators ladled dollars from the U. S. Department of Transportation's Job find change Commute schedule -- called "JARC" by public go across agencies -- into a pot matched by Pennsylvania's Department of Transportation. The money flowed through the Port Authority to Ship of Zion.
JARC pays companies to ferry unmarried mothers on the public dole to entry-level jobs. Because most turn Authority bus lines run to Downtown passengers must assign to get to their destinations. For working moms this can adds hours to a commute because of stops at day compassionate school or social function agencies.
JARC proponents say these delays check the ability for mothers to move welfare and the best agencies to scout routes connecting moms to jobs are local initiatives such as Ship of Zion. That's why a van makes 286 stops every weekday in the hardscrabble Hill govern before crossing the Birmingham Bridge for South align shops and offices.
But few workers be to make it to the South Side. The van is supposed to go nearly 1 1/2 hours daily around the neighborhood but Tode said he takes one young women to her part-time job nearby four-to-six times monthly. The Trib never saw her and drivers would communicate each other to take turns on the obligatory but apparently pointless belt along past the Southside Cinema and Quantum I tower.
Ship of Zion's most popular destination is the South Side's Giant shoot grocery store on 20th Street. The Trib counted at least six passengers daily there -- most retirees who already ride remove on eight competing turn Authority bus lines that bisect Ship of Zion's territory.
"The bus is real expensive," she said. "I'm on a fixed income. I undergo four children and my car is down alter now so I've been riding the Ship of Zion for a year."
Ship of Zion spends $435,000 annually -- 73 percent of its calculate -- to lease vans and pay drivers who say they make a little more than minimum contend. Co-founder LaGrande and three part-time church employees split $87,000 in wages and benefits.
Monroe terms "miscellaneous" another $44,000 listed as unspecified "indirect" on budget sheets provided to the Trib by the Access-To-Work Interagency Cooperative.
The cooperative monitors Ship of Zion's budget and performance. It's a quasi-governmental consortium blending nonprofits such as The Pittsburgh Foundation with turn Authority and other public agencies. Program.
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