On the need to put lipstick on a pig

Sprucing up decrepit stations could improve public perception of the MTA. (Photo by Benjamin Kabak)

Now that Joe Lhota has been confirmed as the new Chairman and CEO, he’s been unleashed on the media. I’ll have my chance to sit down with him next week, but so far, as he’s spoken with the various New York press outlets, Lhota’s immediate concerns are focused on around improving the image of the MTA. While some may call this a frivolous pursuit, it plays an important part in drumming up some level of public support for the beleaguered authority and the city’s transit system.

For Lhota, the public face of the system concerns its decrepit infrastructure. We see stations with tiles literally falling off the walls as I saw tonight at 7th Ave. along the Culver Line. We see broken staircases, blown light bulbs and paint peeling off of every surface. It’s dirty; it’s dingy; it isn’t a nice sight.

The new chairman sees the need to focus on cosmetics as an extension of the broken windows theory. “The thought was if a window is broken, someone is going to break another window or someone is going to break into the house,” he said. “Fix it. Fix it up front. When paint starts peeling, either peel it off or repaint it.”

Shoddy paint jobs are a particular concern of his. “It’s one of the things that bothers me, and I’d like to fix it as much as we can,” he said. Lhota has been riding the train to work, just like you and I do, for years, and he sees how riders relate to the system.

In addition to paint, Lhota wants to tackle the rat problem as well. During his confirmation hearings while pressed on the issue, Lhota expressed some disgust at the amount of food in the subway. He didn’t advocate for an outright ban on eating underground; that would have been too controversial. But he suggested that riders and their dirty habits are to blame for the influx of rodents. “If you’re going to eat down there,” he said, “take it with you,”

The TWU seems to agree. The MTA’s largest union is hosting a rodent contest to see which members can snap the best photos of the largest rats in the system. They’re using this as a backdrop to argue for more attention to working conditions underground. “Who the hell wants to work around hundreds of freaking rats?” Jim Gannon of TWU Local 100 said earlier this week.

Of course, if the TWU were willing to allow station agents to clean their stations, rats may find fewer morsels underground. That involves a discussion of work rules, and it’s one of the MTA is trying to have with the TWU as the two sides continue their contract negotiations.

Rats and paint are two issues that strike at the fundamentals of the environment. They have nothing to do with systemic failures from Albany concerning transit funding or the need to cut down on ever-climbing capital construction costs. Eliminating rats and sprucing up stations as the FastTrack program is trying to do are cosmetic improvements to the subways that go a long way.

Lhota seems to understand that if he leads an effort to make the subway environment a more friendly, welcoming and clean space, New Yorkers will not view the subways with such disdain. They may never come to love their commutes, with packed subway cars and pushy riders, but if the surroundings are clean, perhaps they won’t come to dread them either. With small environmental improvements, the MTA could see a big rise in public support, and when it comes to those big-ticket topics, more public support could help push politicians to do the right thing. All it might take is a fresh coat of paint.