Position: bus operator (BDOF) for the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transit Authority, twenty-seven years. Metro is the third-largest public transportation system in America, with more than 4,400 bus and rail operators moving one and a half million riders a day. I drive two four-and-a-half-hour shifts a day, five days a week, and carry anywhere from 1,000 to 1,200 passengers daily on my route, Line 200. My first shift begins at 4:41 A.M.; last shift ends 7:53 P.M. Part of the Metro “Local” bus line, 200 starts in Echo Park, a Mexican neighborhood, skirts along the edge of Los Feliz, an area for rich and famous whites, down a sharp turn onto Western Avenue, back across on Wilshire, through MacArthur Park, down Alvarado, and ends fifty-four minutes later in Exposition Park, a black part of town on the outskirts of South Central. Aside from that short stretch through Los Feliz, Line 200 is an urban route with ninety-nine-cent stores, fast-food restaurants, and oases of crowded parking lots.
What do You think about The Madonnas Of Echo Park?
