On fare hikes and public forums

As I stood in the lobby of NYU’s Kimmel Center on Saturday morning at 10:05 a.m., five minutes after the scheduled start of the MTA’s Public Engagement Workshop on Fares and Tolls, I couldn’t help but to chuckle. Like so many of the MTA’s trains, the start of the conference was delayed. According to one of the conference staff members, there was a “security issue with the university.” Maybe someone saw something and said something.

No matter what, by the time we made up to the tenth floor, police officers were there patting us down. I guess 200 dedicated transit geeks and public advocates concerned enough with the fare hike process to get up pretty early on a Saturday morning represented a threat. Whether we were a security threat or a threat to the hegemony of the MTA’s fare hike process, well, I’ll leave that one up to you to decide.

Once the conference kicked off, thirty minutes late, it was still beset with problems. The lighting in the room made it nearly impossible to see the PowerPoint presentation projections until someone realized the ceiling-to-floor curtains needed closing, and there weren’t enough copies of the presentation materials for everyone in attendance.

But after these initial hiccups, the event ran smoothly and could even be considered a success. The MTA showed they were willing to make a show of listening, and the public displayed a willingness to talk. “We will listen closely to the conclusions and suggestions you put out,” MTA CEO and Executive Director Elliot “Lee” Sander said during his introductory presentation on the current state of the MTA’s finances.

Throughout the morning, MTA officials spoke, and then, the participants responded. The officials spoke on the fare hike proposals, the capital campaign programs and the future of public transportation in New York City. After each 15-30 minute presentation, participants in groups of about 4-8 answered a few questions and discussed what we had just heard. The independent moderators took notes and collected our answer sheets.

Supposedly, these answers will all be presented to the MTA board members. I have to wonder, though, if the MTA board members can’t be bothered with attending the fare hike hearings, will they really want to sift through over 800 answer sheets from the participants? Probably not.

In the end, the meetings seemed to strike a positive chord with those in attendance. While The Daily News, in an article in which I was quoted, claims that the participants panned the fare hike, their blurring of the editorial/news boundary with their Halt the Hike campaign is on full display here. In that article, I am quoted discussing the sequestering of MTA employees and officials. They sat at their own tables while the rest of us talked with the moderators who weren’t too well-versed in topics relating to transit.

But otherwise, contrary to what the News reported, most of the attendees understood that, by tying its revenue streams so closely to volatile property taxes, the MTA could really use that fare hike. We all just want the Authority to look elsewhere as well.

As I’ve reflected on these morning’s events, I am torn between believing that the MTA is truly searching for answers from the public or that the MTA is simply putting a front on a fare hike that is all but inevitable. Lee Sander clearly talked as though the fare hike is a reality, and even the discussions about the MTA’s future focused more around the nebulous idea of a green MTA rather than on concrete ways in which the MTA can improve and expand its service.

Over the next few days, I’ll discuss a few other things I noticed at the hearing. But for now, I’ll leave you with this: While some MTA board members have expressed opposition to the fare hike, the fare hikes are going to happen, public input or no public input, and these fare hikes will probably be tied more closely to the rate of inflation.

I hope the MTA continues to host workshops. There are a lot of people out there with great ideas about the future of public transportation in New York City, and the city will benefit immensely from this exchange of ideas.

Photo by Benjamin Kabak (Second Ave. Sagas)