As part of his renewed commitment to mass transit solutions in New York City, Mayor Bloomberg announced while I was away on vacation that the city would be paying fares for city vehicles passing through or over the MTA’s tolled bridges and tunnels. For years, the city has refused to pay for these trips, citing some sort of executive privilege. Now that Bloomberg has called for an MTA overhaul, though, he has to stop the city hypocrisy. According to reports, the MTA will reap a few million from the city. The final tally is unknown right now, and marked emergency vehicles will still enjoy free rides.
City to pay MTA for tolled trips
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Now THIS is a REAL step in the right direction. I think this is one of the few times us transit advocates can side with the NY Post Pitchforkers.
Yeah, it’s great. Maybe there is more to come? It seems the campaign realizes that it will take more than MTA scolding to win over transit advocates. Anybody can lay into the authority—and everyone does.
The message I would love to hear is that the next administration will fight for more city control of and responsibility for its public transportation. Maybe that control can’t be had, but I’d still like to see a mayor campaign and win on that issue. Albany needs the wake up call.
I’d like to see this particular mayor lose the campaign, and then lose a criminal lawsuit about corruption. Democracy is more important than public transit infrastructure.
Are you suggesting that I must not value democracy over transportation policy? Because that would be a ridiculous implication, when I’m here deciding who to best represent me in government based on as much information I can gather about the candidates’ policies. It happens that I’m not of the opinion that term limits or ballot initiatives enhance democracy, so I’m not troubled by an apparently legal legislative action that overturned both at once. I don’t think it does a constitution any particularly high honor, either, to act as if there is some informal set of superseding rules to dictate government behavior. If I do vote for Bloomberg I certainly won’t be voting against democracy, at least not against any version of it that allows for differences of opinion on how it can best represent the people.
The issue is not that term limits enhance democracy. It’s that politicians who make a significant effort to change the rules to increase their own power, often by bribing other politicians with money and favors, are authoritarian. One of the basic principles of democracy is that it’s about laws, not men.