Vanessa Alvarez – FL

I moved to Kissimmee, FL about 15 years ago and have been active in the community with Vamos Puerto Rico and helping our community recover from the destruction of Hurricane Maria.  My husband is a Kissimmee Commissioner and is serving as Mayor Pro Tem but we look like everybody else and live like everybody else.

I work at a convenience store and take the bus to and from work every day.  I have to be at work at 7 a.m. most days so I get up at 5:30 a.m. to take the 6:30 a.m. bus. The ride is only 10-12 minutes if the bus comes on time. When the bus doesn’t come, which happens often, I have to wait 45 minutes to an hour for the next bus, and then I am late to work. I have to call to let them know and then provide proof that the bus was late. The bosses don’t understand and don’t like it. 

My daughter, Nina, also relies on the bus to get to work for her job as a Medical Assistant at Advent Medical Group, near the hospital.  She has to walk over a mile each way because there is no bus service from our area, even though it is a major employer with people working there around the clock.

My sister-in-law, Belinda, who lives next door, also relies on the bus to get to work at Walgreens.  The bus trip kills about 2 hours of her day, when a car ride would be 10 minutes each way. That is time she could be helping her 10 year old daughter with homework. 

She works until 8 p.m. so relies on the app to find out when the bus will be at her stop but too often the bus will go right by without stopping.  Then she has a half hour wait in the dark until the next bus. 

Sundays are even worse. There is no bus service at all, so when she is put on the schedule to work on Sundays she has to take a cab. The other day, when she had a doctor’s appointment, she took the bus as close as it would get her and then still had to pay $7 for a cab the rest of the way and $16 for a cab ride to get back home. 

A lot of workers I know rely on the bus to get to work. And many people I know work an overnight shift and are often stuck. There are too many places like hospitals and Disney in Orlando that need people to work all night. We need bus service 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. 

At the convenience store, they are cutting workers’ hours. Workers are stressed about how they will pay their bills on top of worrying about being fired for being late when the bus doesn’t show up.  And for me, when a bus doesn’t show up, I wait at a bus stop with no shelter and not even a bench to sit on.

We need more investment in transit so buses run more often, are available around the clock, and workers have a comfortable place to sit down after working all day.