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June 28, 2010
The Destruction Of NYC Mass Transit Commences
WOR Producer Writes
You may have noticed something: As of today a lot of the subway and bus service in New York City has been destroyed or radically cut back. If you haven’t noticed it today, then tomorrow in your Monday commute. Further cuts seem assured in the future, combined with ever-increasing fares that will eventually put what service survives out of the reach of the poor, the working class and even some of the middle class. This in a world of diminishing oil and increasing global warming, where mass transit is needed more than ever.
...We’re told this act of vandalism– which carried to its conclusion will, for New York City, be an act of economic suicide– is needed to close an $ 800 million MTA budget gap. $800 million – oh boo-hoo. That’s less than the amount that was given in city and state subsidies to Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan Chase to build new offices in lower Manhattan.
...The MTA– the same MTA that sold the Atlantic Yards to power broker/ultimate insider Bruce Ratner to develop, even though another developer offered them three times what Ratner did– and then, when Ratner hit cash-flow problems, sweetened the deal for him– they too never explored fiscal alternatives to what they’re doing. And all this in addition to $ 511 million in tax-free bonds for a Nets arena for Ratner (and new Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov, Russian mega-billionaire, whose source of colossal wealth has never been satisfactorily explained [you better not try]). And…
Oh, why go on?
Posted by eric at June 28, 2010 9:48 AM