By-Laws

  The MTRA was getting organized.  We put together a membership brochure and were allowed to put them in the transit station, so that riders could pick them up.  There was a form that they could fill out and put them in a locked box at the station.  We also had a board in the transit station to post announcements.  Our goal was to keep the riders informed about changes, because the bus system was a little lax.  We heard from riders that they didn't know what the changes were.  We also asked the riders what changes they wanted, and if there were any complaints about service that we could address.  We got a post office box to facilitate letters sent to us from riders and concerned people.  We also got a bank account.

 We had invited those who had signed up to join the MTRA to a membership meeting to elect officers.  Even though we had gotten around 50 members at that time, only about 10 showed up.  I was elected the President, because no one else wanted to do it.  My friend, Keith, was elected Vice-President.  We also elected a Secretary and Treasurer.  

 Because we were becoming an actual organization, it became necessary to have by-laws.  All the money to run the MTRA was coming out of our own pockets and a few donations, so we could not afford an attorney to draw up the by-laws.  We heard about a program through the University of South Carolina's Law School that helped non-profits.  They only accepted three groups each year.  We were accepted to participate.  

 Keith and I went to the Law School and met the two students who would help us.  Both were second-year law students.  We spent a few months hashing out the by-laws and making them legal under South Carolina law.  It became rather tedious, but we wanted to have them done right.  The Dean of the Law School went over the by-laws to make sure they were accurate.  Our Board got copies of our work to make suggestions where needed.  At the end of working with the Law School, we had what we thought was a good framework for the MTRA.  There were a couple of people on our Board that raised concerns.  They were mad, because they felt left out of the process.  Keith and I explained to them that we had formed an Ad Hoc committee to get this done.  We invited one of the objectors to the Law School, and we met with the students that had helped us.  She appeared to be satisfied with it.  Our Board poured over the wording of each section, and we voted on it.  It was unanimous.  Then, we called a special general meeting of the members of the MTRA to approved the by-laws.  By now, we had about 100 people join.  We sent out invitations via email and snail mail.  The meeting was in the public library downtown on a Saturday afternoon.  About 15 showed up.  The by-laws were presented for a vote.  It passed.  Now, we had a roadmap on how to do things.  Thankfully, I was getting some mental health counseling during this time.  I couldn't have done it without that.

Presser

  I am very proud of my brother.  He has done some amazing things for our state and elsewhere.  Most of the things have been behind the scenes.  John does better, when he doesn't get the credit.  He has been a speechwriter for a Governor and a Senator.  He has run political campaigns.  He was the driving force to get Olympic teams from other countries come to Columbia and train before the 1996 Atlanta Games.  He carried the Olympic torch.  One of the only things he has done out front was when Governor Hodges asked him to be the Director of Parks, Recreation and Tourism for the State of South Carolina.  John was the PRT Director during the 9/11 attacks and had to build back the Tourism industry after that awful day.  He has a passion for sports, especially Golf and Baseball.  He just retired from being the President of the Restaurant and Lodging Association for SC and had to deal with the issues surrounding the pandemic.  John is a problem solver.  

 In our family, John asked us early on to support his work for him to succeed.  His candidates were our candidates.  His passions were our passions.  He was known all over the community for his successes in getting things done.  I had learned a lot from him over the years about working with others in a constructive manner.  You can get a lot more done working with people instead of being angry.  It had taken me a long time to get to that point.  Just ask those folks I went to college with.  Back then, I was vicious.  I didn't care whose toes I stepped on.  I got in trouble for some of it, but it was worth it.  As I matured, I found that wouldn't work in the "real world", so I toned it down while still being persuasive.

 My family name is known by many people.  Some knew my father as a man of faith.  Some knew my uncle in Charleston for being a doctor.  Some knew my uncle in Greenwood for being the founder of The Museum.  Some recognized the street name next to Lander University.  Some knew my brother from his work.  Some knew me from my acting and retail work.  The Durst name was known.  My father used to tell me:  "Don't forget who you are."  He was talking about my last name.  Early in 2013, I went to the SC Secretary of State's office to get an application for non-profit status for the MTRA.  When I walked in the door, the secretary asked my name.  I told her, and her mouth dropped open.  She said, "You're a Durst?!!"  I said that I was.  She told me that we were related.  It turned out that she was from Batesburg, where there are a lot of Dursts.  We aren't closely related, but I let her think so.  She rushed through my application, and the MTRA was approved on the spot.

 In the early days of the MTRA, I had a conversation with my brother about what I wanted to do to be an advocate for the bus riders.  At first, he had some misgivings about my participation.  He knew of my history of being a bulldog.  I could alienate people with my rhetoric.  I told him that we were going to have a press conference one afternoon behind the Transit Station.  We had invited local TV stations and print media to come.  Some showed up.  We got on the local news and reported the next day in the paper.  When my brother saw the coverage, he gave me his blessing and a word of advice.  "Stay positive".  By being positive about issues, rather than negative, people will listen.  I listened.

MTRA

  After the passage of the penny tax for transportation in Richland County, the Progressive Network thought it would be a good idea to form a grassroots group representing the bus riders in the Columbia metropolitan area.  We met to form what would be called the Midlands Transit Riders Association.  The core group consisted of one person gifted in public relations; one person who could represent the disabled community; one person who had experience in mobilizing people; and me.  I was named the interim president of the group.  I knew I needed someone who knew people on the city and county councils, so I asked a friend from the Andre Bauer campaign if he would be interested in joining our group.  He said yes.

 I attended a couple of board meetings of the bus service and found that they were more interested in getting money for the system than the riders.  I asked to speak at one of their meetings and introduced myself as the president of the MTRA.  I explained to them what we wanted to do, and they were interested.  One of the board members thought it would be a good idea to include us to give a report each month in their board meetings, and to give us a non-voting seat on the Service Standards Committee where operation proposals would be hashed out before taking them to the Board to be voted on.  One of the Board's members ran into my friend at a newspaper office.  My friend was black, as was this Board member.  He told my friend that he didn't like a "silver-spoon white boy" representing bus riders, since the majority of riders were black.  He also called my friend an "Uncle Tom" for working with me.  When my friend told me that, I had to go home and research what "silver-spoon white boy" meant.  I was horrified.  I made it clear to all of the Board members, without singling him out, that I was chosen to lead the MTRA because of my talents, and because I had lived in Columbia most of my life and knew the needs of the community.  

 The first order of business was to get Sunday bus service back.  It had been cut out before the passage of the penny tax to save money.  I went to the Executive Director of the bus service and told him that we wanted Sundays back.  He asked why?  I told him that I knew of some women who had lost their jobs at hotels in Columbia, because they couldn't get to work on Sundays.  I also said that I wanted to get back to church.  Thanks to the TV ministry, I could watch my church on Sundays.  However, there were many people who didn't have that luxury.  His response to me was that there is a church within walking distance of everybody in Columbia.  I suppose that is true, but it wasn't my church which was nine miles from where I lived.  I put together a coalition of church and business leaders to lobby the bus service for Sundays. We also went to a neighborhood gathering in North Columbia and asked people what they wanted the bus service to do.  The overwhelming majority of people said Sundays.   It worked.  We got Sundays back.

 One of the advantages we had with the MTRA was that the Executive Director and the Route Planner did not know about Columbia.  One had come from Knoxville and the other from Tallahassee, so they were not familiar with the area.  That helped out a great deal, as we began to formulate a list of wants.

Chance

  It was the Fall of 2012.  There was going to be an election that year for a lot of things, but one in particular interested me.  It was the vote on a penny increase on the sales tax in Richland County.  It had failed in 2010, and it was on the ballot again.  The penny would go to improve roads, public transit, and bikeways in Richland County.  I had heard that there was going to be a voter registration table at the Transit Station in downtown Columbia, and I felt that I needed to help.

 I got down there and found an old friend from my anti-war days.  It was Brett Bursey.  He was in charge of a group called the Progressive Network, and they wanted the penny tax to pass.  Brett had been very active in the anti-war movement during the Vietnam era.  He had a group of people going around the station to sign up people to vote.  We started talking about the old days, and he said that he wanted to start a group of activists to represent the bus riders in Columbia.  I told him that I was interested in that project.  He said that there was no one on the Central Midlands Transit Authority Board of Directors who rode the bus, and he felt that a grassroots group could affect the needs of the riders.  It sounded like a good idea.

 We worked that afternoon and got a lot of people registered to vote.  We explained the need for a penny increase for the good of all.  I had planned to just be down there for an hour.  I spent all afternoon talking to people and getting a sense of why they rode the bus.  Most didn't have a car, like me, and some only had one car in their family.  I remembered what I heard God say to me three years before, as I was in the midst of killing myself.  He said, "Stop!  I have more for you to do."  I now knew what He meant.  He and I were going to work to get the bus system in Columbia to a better level of service.  At that moment, I didn't know how we were going to do it.  But on the way home from the Transit Station, I talked to God and asked Him to show me what I could do.  I saw the need.  I had been seeing the need, while I was homeless.  I realized that He had been preparing me for this moment.  I could use my skill sets of public speaking; knowing people in the community who could help; and being able to speak the language of the politician.  I knew about cause and effect.  I knew what I had to do.