To Heat or to Eat?

by Lisa Gray-Garcia

I was cold. The February wind whipped up and circled through the invisible holes in my pants. It was dark. I could barely see the phone I was holding. The chill was starting to get to me. I was standing in my house.

It had been 24 days since the PG&E worker had lumbered into the lobby of our apartment building carrying his globe-sized Orwellian time clock and asking everyone in a voice that reached up through six flights of stairs and out through the fire escape, "Where is apartment five? I’m here to turn off the utilities for nonpayment...."

I considered pretending not to be home. Perhaps that would delay the inevitable. But instead I chose a direct, desperate plea. I ran downstairs to the foyer, motioning to him furtively, trying not to look at the crowd of neighbors that had gathered.

"So, Miss Gray-Garcia, are you prepared to pay your bill or should I proceed with the shut-off?"

"But we asked for a five-day extension-my little sister is sick . We can’t be without heat...aren’t you a public utility?" His eyes stared down at me, then closed once before resting at half mast.and proceeded to pronounce very loudly, "We are a business..... Ms. Gray-Garcia, not a social service."

24 days later the suffocating odor of rotting milk products from our shut-down fridge permeated the air of our dark, cold hallway as I stood shivering with the phone receiver in one hand. Thirteen calls later to advocacy agencies had elicited one of two constant refrains, "We have no more funding for utility subsidies" or; You are no longer eligible- you already applied once..."

That experience happened last year, I was working - but still barely able to afford utility bills- now I am scared. As the executive director of POOR magazine, I am still low income- and as I watch an already high utility bill skyrocket to an even higher utility bill, I wonder how I and my fellow low income bay area residents will be able to pay these rates - most of us will not be able to afford the luxury of heat and lights- Most of us will in fact, be forced to decide whether to pay for rent and food versus the luxury of a warm shower or a light to read by-

I have listened extensively to the rhetoric of the corporations, trying to offer rationale after rationale for this situation- and profering the concept of "conserve, conserve, conserve- POOR folks have always conserved - we share bath water and limit our showers to 45 seconds- we turn off the heat and warm our hands over the stove- we buy blanket after shabby blanket- but that is definitely NOT the answer- We all know - even the least informed among us, that so much is so wrong with how this whole thing happened.

Consumer groups like Global exchange and TURN have offered the only light ( no pun intended) at the end of the tunnel, with a group of possible solutions for concerned consumers 1) "reregulate", i.e, to address the very reason the utility companies are proceeding with these actions is because of the "deregulation legislation" and to revisit that with a new form of "regulation" . 2) folks should organize and demand that their city create their own form of municipal power such as the kind that the city of Alameda has.
3)Finally, that consumers should in effect "strike" PG and E and Southern California Edison by paying their utility bills based on the old rates-

I am not sure which one or all of these things myself and all of the poor Bay Area families, elders and children will be able to do. Everything, including daily survival, will be difficult, as we sit shivering in our apartments, scared and confused and dreaming of a home cooked meal or maybe even a cold glass of milk