Looking at the broader picture may make you wonder about priorities. The City School District's transportation policy provides busing only for kids who live more than 1.5 miles from school - neighborhood safety isn't factored into who gets bused and who doesn't. | Meanwhile, just a phone call away is a team of paid "Red Shirts" waiting to walk nervous adults to their cars. | "It's just starting to pick up," says Trish Lambiase, program manager of Downtown Special Services. "We're getting five or six calls a night." | The Red Shirts are retired and off-duty law-enforcement personnel who operate downtown. Call 732-8808 between the hours of 6 and 9 p.m. Monday through Friday, and a Red Shirt will pick you up at your building, walk you to your car, and stay with you until the car starts. | The Red Shirts are not armed, Lambiase says, but they do have a direct radio line to the RPD. | The program, she says, offers peace of mind more than anything. | "Downtown is very safe, but some people, especially in the suburbs, have the perception that it's unsafe," Lambiase says.