Transportation and Urban-Suburban: A Look Inside

Transportation and Urban-Suburban: A Look Inside

By Mariella Santiago, Georgia Pressley, and Jaylin Owens

HENRIETTA, N.Y- Within Rochester’s Urban-Suburban program, voices arise in a sea of bustling bus traffic.

The sun rises over Depew Street in Rochester, N.Y. on March 5, 2024. (Georgia Pressley)

Dark skies turn light blue as the sun rises over the City of Rochester. Buses and trucks race down the streets as residents bumble towards the curb, waiting to be picked up. It's a cold landscape. Trees are bare, residents are bundled, trash litters the cracked sidewalks, and the breeze is bitter. A boy in a bright red backpack locks the door behind him and heads to the end of the street to wait for his ride to school.

Antonio Brown, 18, poses for a portrait while waiting for a bus to school in Rochester, N.Y. on March 5, 2024. Brown takes the Regional Transit System which, in addition to bussing Rochester residents, also busses children in the Urban-Suburban Program. (Georgia Pressley)

Antonio Brown is a senior at Pittsford Sutherland High School and has been a part of the Urban-Suburban district student transfer program for six years. The people in the program that he knows joined in their elementary school years, becoming a part of the school community earlier. To Brown, his middle school route was better than his current route. In those years the route was direct, one yellow bus that took him straight to school. Upon transitioning to high school, the school district relies on the Regional Transit System, known as RTS, to get to and from school.

Antonio Brown, 18, boards the bus to school in Rochester, N.Y. on March 5, 2024. Brown take the Regional Transit System which, in addition to bussing Rochester residents, also busses children in the Urban-Suburban Program. (Georgia Pressley)

Antonio Brown, 18, takes the bus to school in Rochester, N.Y. on March 5, 2024. Brown, a student in the Urban-Suburban Program, is a senior at Pittsford Sutherland High School. (Georgia Pressley)

Passengers and other students sleep on the bus, resting in the early morning bustling traffic. The route is scenic, taking passengers through the downtown area of Rochester. Brown’s mother does not own a car, he takes two buses to get to school, turning what would originally be a 15-minute drive into an hour.

The Regional System Transit Station in downtown Rochester, N.Y. on Feb 21, 2024. The Regional Transit System which, in addition to bussing Rochester residents, also busses children in the Urban-Suburban Program. (Georgia Pressley)

Antonio Brown, 18, transfers buses on route to school in Rochester, N.Y. on March 5, 2024. Brown, a student in the Urban-Suburban Program, is a senior at Pittsford Sutherland High School. (Georgia Pressley)

“My brother goes to school in the city, the education there is way worse,” Brown commented. “To get a good education there, you have to get into AP classes, and even then it’s not certain. The education here is better.”

The bus twists and turns through the city. Outside the window, the concrete city, doused in morning light, turns into grassy suburban streets. Brown's second bus drops him in Pittsford, a five-minute walk to Pittsford Sutherland High School. The uphill street tells a different story than the city. A gravel sidewalk crunches under his feet as he walks up to the suburban school. Brown passes residents walking idly about, tending to their garden, walking their dogs, enjoying the uniquely warm winter day. Brown looks down onto the city, which is visible from the top of the hill. He enters the school, arriving just in time for his first class.

Antonio Brown, 18, walks from the bus stop to school in Pittsford, N.Y. on March 5, 2024. Brown, a student in the Urban-Suburban Program, is a senior at Pittsford Sutherland High School. (Georgia Pressley)

Antonio Brown, 18, walks from the bus stop to school in Pittsford, N.Y. on March 5, 2024. Brown, a student in the Urban-Suburban Program, is a senior at Pittsford Sutherland High School. (Georgia Pressley)

Rochester’s transit system has been a main source of transportation since 1969. They provide services to more than 17 million customers annually and consistently report increasing levels of customer satisfaction. Since students have to ride public transit to school, there is a level of uncertainty that is not present for students who would take a school bus. Customers report its dirtier buses and lines being canceled. Students in the Urban-Suburban Interdistrict Transfer Program express that they have faced inconvenience after inconvenience.

Miguel Velázquez, the Chief Executive Officer of RTS, reports that the Urban-Suburban program is a district program. This means that the suburban school district has to opt in to receive students from the urban school district to diversify their schools. Rochester City School District is responsible for the transportation, and they can contract with anyone. The district chooses to partner with RTS to provide the buses by forming a paid contract. They both meet, the school district lets them know which schools they need to get to, and RTS attempts to provide. If the bus system is able to provide the service they do, but if not, some students are left without the program.

“They do what they can,” said Jaylen Wims, a recent graduate of the program. “It got me where I needed to go, but because it was RTS, it’s not the greatest. It’s as simple as getting a new bus or a dirty bus, and it was usually dirty.”

Jaylin Wims, 19, poses for a portrait at Pittsford Sutherland High School in Pittsford N.Y. on March 4, 2024. Wims is a graduate of the 2022 class from Pittsford Sutherland High School. (Mariella Santiago)

According to Wims, the conditions of the buses tend to vary. Wims reports that he has to be careful with the poles and handrails on the bus. Wims remarks that he didn't even know there were actually garbage bins on the bus until high school because no one made use of them.

“We do maintenance on a day to day basis, focusing on different areas: the cleaning of the buses, overhauling engines, replacing or rebuilding, changing oil, coolant, car maintenance, and body work,” says Velázquez.

London Mitzu, a bus driver for urban and suburban areas, explains how he felt about students riding the bus with adults. From a personal perspective, kids should get used to driving public transportation because it prepares them for life when they grow older. Mitzu explains that the worst experience he had while driving a bus was breaking up an altercation between some adults and a minor. Based on this situation, Mitzu explained the risk of why it can sometimes be unsafe for students to ride with adults on the RTS bus.

The Urban-Suburban program is a student transfer program run by Monroe One Boards of Cooperative Educational Services (BOCES). According to their website, Monroe One’s mission is: “To voluntarily decrease racial isolation and enhance opportunities for students in the Rochester City School District and in the suburban districts of the Greater Rochester Area.” In its simplest form, they are trying to decrease the effects of segregation in the City of Rochester. To accomplish this mission, pupils residing in the participating districts may apply for transfer from the Rochester City School District (RCSD) to suburban school districts or from suburban districts to the RCSD through the program.

Like many American cities, Rochester has a history of racial and economic segregation that still impacts the city and its neighboring towns to this day. The city is home to the most segregated school districts in the country. This disparity is due in part to the redlining within the city of Rochester. In the 1930s, red lines were drawn around low-income areas in many major cities, including Rochester, by the Federal Home Owners' Loan Corporation. The corporation would grade neighborhoods across the country to decide whether home mortgage refinancing would be insured by the government. They determined that areas with large percentages of Black, Latino, and lower-income residents were deemed “hazardous” by the maps. People of color who wanted to move to higher-income areas in Rochester were denied, and forced to stay where they lived. Redlining is now illegal, but its effects are still seen.

There is a stark divide between the Rochester City School District and its neighboring Penfield School District. The Rochester City School District is made up of 47 schools and 24,050 students. According to the district’s last report, its minority enrollment is 91%, with the remaining 9% being white students. Six out of ten students are economically disadvantaged and are eligible to participate in the federal free and reduced-price meal program.

The Penfield school district is 80% White, 5% Black, 6% Hispanic or Latino. By bussing students from low-income areas to higher-income areas for education, the program hopes to see more integrated educational facilities in Rochester and its surrounding areas. Seeing this divide, people have decided to take action. One can never truly erase the effects of racism in a country that was built on top of it. Understanding where improvements can be made, educating the population, and working towards destroying metaphorical barriers can create a more equitable society in the future.

Pittsford Sutherland High School in Pittsford N.Y. on March 4, 2024. Pittsford Sutherland High School is a suburban school that accepts students from the city of Rochester, N.Y. through the Urban-Suburban Program. (Mariella Santiago)