March 12, 2007
BLOOMBERG DOESN'T SPARE US THE HARD REALITIES OF LIFE
No, the Mayor gives us the full complement of truth with both barrels, whether we can take it or not. Like on his weekly radio address last Friday, when he announed that making bus and subway rides free would be good for city residents. NY1's headline:
"Mayor Says Free Mass Transit in the Public's Best Interest"
NY1's transit reporter pours some cold water on the hot idea that even Bloomberg admitted had little chance of becoming reality:
Bloomberg can of course talk all he wants about free transit but the truth is he has little say in the matter. The mayor does recommend four members of the MTA’s board, but it is, in effect, a state agency.
A state agency that last year collected $2.9 billion in subway and bus fares. As for how to fill that gap, Bloomberg suggested raising the cost of parking. To give you an idea just how realistic all this is the MTA would not even bother to comment.
Others weren't so quick to dismiss the idea. A member of the dubiously named Institute for Rational Urban Mobility [emphasis mine] had this to say:
"Of course it's feasible,” said George Haikalis of the Insitute for Rational Urban Mobility. “As the mayor pointed out, the Staten Island Ferry is free. You just remove the turnstiles and it becomes free. The real trick is to find the replacement funds that are now produced by the transit riders."
Shoot. Why didn't we think of that before?
Here are some other endeavors Mayor Bloomberg might want to consider proclaiming "in the best interest of the public":
- Curing cancer
- All Thursdays and Fridays now paid vacation days
- The next round is on him, in perpetuity
I await them with baited breath.
Posted by Lexiphane at March 12, 2007 7:15 PM
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