Brooklynites protest the MTA’s planned fare hikes and service cuts. (Photo by Benjamin Kabak)
Now that the MTA’s public comment period for its planned service hikes and fare cuts has wrapped up, we can conduct something of a post mortem on the hearings. I sat through parts of two of them, and based on what I saw and based on what I’ve heard about the other hearings, a trend emerged: Riders and politicians were very unhappy with the MTA, but few were willing to embrace the sacrifices saving the MTA will entail.
In wrapping up the details about the hearings, the stories are old. Hundreds more people than usual showed up to voice their complaints, but attendance by many MTA Board members was less than impressive. Those two Pete Donohue stories border on the “dog bites man” level of news. Obviously, people are upset, and obviously, those MTA Board members who don’t care won’t show up.
The problem, though, extends well beyond apathetic board members. Speaker after speaker at the hearings I attended lambasted the MTA for its poor planning. They remain skeptical of the authority’s book-keeping after 2005’s dual books debacle that revealed a surplus when the MTA was crying deficit. They slammed the agency for looking to double paratransit fares and bemoaned bus line elimination and the closing of stations that, frankly, could be shuttered overnight.
What no one really supported were tolls on the East River bridges that would impact far fewer people than a poorly funded subway system. What no one supported was a payroll tax. What no one supported were the alternate plans to jack of car registration fees, on-street parking rates, a congestion fee or mandatory residential parking permits. Money for the MTA, it seems, should just rain down from the sky without anyone’s having to give up anything in return.
Life doesn’t work like that, and at least the one man in charge of the MTA knows it. In a column in The Queens Courier yesterday, MTA CEO and Executive Director Elliot Sander called upon the hundreds who protested to take real action. He writes:
At public hearings held across the city this month, I have heard strong objections from hundreds of MTA customers about the fare and toll increase and service cuts the MTA has been forced to propose. You may be surprised by my reaction: I agree with you. A 25 percent fare increase is too much, especially in this economic environment. Moreover, with transit ridership growing, I agree that now is the time to be adding service, not cutting it. These painful measures can be avoided, but only with your help…
After 25 years of dramatic improvement, New York’s transit network is clearly at a crossroads. A lack of funding threatens to derail unprecedented progress and send us in the wrong direction. If Albany does not act soon, our customers will be faced with drastic fare and toll increases and service cuts, and the system will risk falling into disrepair.
Please call or write your local state senator and assembly member and urge them to support the Ravitch recommendations to provide a steady, long-term funding stream for the MTA. Make sure our legislators understand the importance of the MTA’s transit network to all New Yorkers. Providing the region with efficient and reliable transportation options will keep our hardworking men and women and our economy moving forward.
The MTA has to balance its operations books. It’s a legal requirement. They don’t want to cut service. They don’t want to raise fares. But they will, and now it’s up to the rest of us to act. Heed Sander’s words and call your representatives. Otherwise, we’re in for a long decline as New York City, with its fate tethered to the subways, stares into the abyss of bad and inadequate public transit service.
5 comments
It’s sad to think that most people hate the MTA and want to see it disappear without any clue as to what should take its place or how it should be run. They just say random words like “make it run on time,” “have trains run on time,” or “fire everybody.” I’ve stopped listening to most of these people and their unintelligent thoughts, which have all just become a whiny white noise to me.
I agree… The masses are saying “no cuts, no fare increase, no bridge tolls”. It’s rather ridiculous. They think the problem can be solved by looking at the MTA books. Maybe there’s a couple million to be found there, who knows, but certainly not enough to fix the ridiculous situation that MTA funding is tied to the real estate market.
What baffles me is why the MTA has not gone to greater lengths to redirect all this anger and passion concerning service changes to the people who are really in control of the final outcome: our representatives in Albany. They are the ones who really need to be on the receiving end of this public outcry, not the MTA board members, which is why I suspect that board member attendance was notably poor. Furthermore, there seem to be gross misconceptions concerning the actual problems facing the MTA. I admit that if I didn’t read this blog regularly, I would have a far less comprehensive understanding of the issues based on the reporting I’ve seen from local news media (local television news in particular…the coverage there has been sensationalist at best). The MTA would stand to gain a lot from a public education and relations campaign to inform straphangers of where the problems really lie, the purpose of the doomsday budget, and how we can help to prevent it from being put into place.
The MTA needs not only state and federal support, but the trust of the taxpayers. Without the latter, we risk losing the former.
“The MTA would stand to gain a lot from a public education and relations campaign to inform straphangers of where the problems really lie, the purpose of the doomsday budget, and how we can help to prevent it from being put into place.”
Indeed, but keep in mind who appoints the MTA board members in the first place.
I get the sense that public hearings are largely a show. It is rare that anything actually changes as a result of them. I am not saying the hearing requirement should be dispensed with, but we should acknowledge that they are not forums where great new ideas come from.
The average rider has no sense whatsoever of what it costs to run a mass transit system, or where the money comes from. Of course, their ignorance isn’t surprising. It often seems like most of the legislature and city council don’t understand it either, and they’re the ones whose job it is to know.