No More MTA Bamboozling

The following is a message published in the November 9, 2007, edition of the Metro (New York) free newspaper by Matthew Borenstein of the Fight the Hike Committee:

The latest MTA effort to bamboozle the riding public into a fare hike is now meeting mounting opposition. The people are sick and tired of being held hostage by the perpetual cries of the looming debt crisis. The Green Party believes the public is ready to stand up for its rights. People are realizing that: 1) the huge NYC transit system — the largest in the country — is public property. We all own it — not the MTA board, not the mayor, not the governor. It is our property and the public has the inherent right to directly elect its managing board, and also remove the entire unelected, unrepresentative board; 2) New York City — the financial capital of the world — is the home of billion and multi-billion-dollar corporations, which can only stay in business because of the public transit system. Yet, they don’t pay a dime for this essential service! 3) In Chicago, public transit riders pay 30 percent of operating costs; in New York, we pay 60 percent. So when the public asserts its rightful control over it’s own property, those giant corporations will finally be paying their fair (fare) share.

Matthew Borenstein