Changemaker Catalyst Award recipient Carlo Vescovi is a History major and Urban Studies minor at Tulane University. His interests in transportation led him to intern at Ride New Orleans, a non-profit organization that advocates for world-class transportation in the Greater New Orleans area. Carlo hopes to use his education and changemaking experience to pursue innovative solutions to issues of urban development, such as public transportation.  

At 6:50 AM, I stepped into the WWII Museum, whose broad windows glowed with early morning light. I walked to the small table at the doors of BB’s Stage Door Canteen Theatre, where the staff and administrators of Ride New Orleans were setting up. Though RIDE is a small organization, its members work tirelessly to advocate for the transit riders of both Orleans and Jefferson parishes. The operations at RIDE are three-pronged: one part lobbying agency, one part grassroots organizing and community outreach, and one part research and analytics. Each aspect is crucial to the successes of their mission. Members regularly attend City Council and RTA Board meetings, asking important questions and voicing key problems. RIDE has monthly public meetings, focus groups, and frequently engages with the community to establish the maximum variety of perspectives and behaviors. Lastly, RIDE researches and publishes metrics on job and health care access, as well as RTA performance. It was this last operation that brought me to the WWII Museum that morning. RIDE was releasing its State of Transit report, an annual assessment of public transportation in New Orleans, with a breakfast and panel of leading authorities. We fanned out copies of the glossy report as guests began to arrive to the Canteen theatre.

By 7:30, the room was buzzing with excitement. A panel comprised of a city councilor, several members of the RTA Board, city planners, and the executive director of Ride New Orleans had gathered on the stage. As the report was introduced, the room quieted and the panel began to present. Each member spoke carefully and pointedly, discussing the progress that the RTA has made over the past year. One member explained excitedly that one of Mayor Latoya Cantrell’s first policy initiatives was the creation of a city-wide Department of Transportation, that oversees both the RTA (in Orleans parish) and JeT (Jefferson parish). Hopefully, he remarked, this newly formed body would increase regional connectivity, as well as attaining a more macroscopic view of the system’s flaws and successes. Another member of the panel, a city councilor from the Lower Ninth Ward, discussed the correlation between employment and transportation. As those of lower socioeconomic status get pushed further and further from the urban core, away from viable employment, the need for public transportation becomes even more dire. The room murmured with agreement. Finally, Alex Posorske, the executive director at Ride New Orleans, shared his closing remarks. The RTA is in an excellent position to successfully remake the transit system over the coming years, he explained, but it is absolutely imperative that the agency stick to its proposal. Any impulse to spend money irresponsibly or outside the scope of the agreed upon plan would be disastrous.

“The table is set, the good silverware is out,” he said. “But if we want to sit down to eat, there’s still a lot of work to do.”

The crowd filtered out, snatching copies of the State of Transit report off the small table in front of me. Some of my research and analysis was contained in that report, and I’d spent all summer supporting RIDE in any way I could. I couldn’t help but feel immensely proud of my work. I shook hands with the other staff and made my way out of the museum, heading home to grab an early lunch. I stood in the now beating hot sun on St. Charles, waiting for the no. 12 streetcar to arrive. Vainly I searched for some sort of transit shelter to get out of the heat as a 10 minute wait turned to a 20 minute wait. As I unbuttoned my shirt, my stomach rumbled and I couldn’t help but think of what Alex had said. If we want to sit down to eat, there’s still a lot of work to do.