Where's The Outrage??? Redux
Joan Vennochi's got some for you, right here.
She hits the nail on the head:
As for the T:Massachusetts faces a genuine fiscal crisis. The transportation system is running on empty.
But no one today has the credibility to make the case for higher taxes. The governor squandered the high ground with his ill-fated employment plan for state Senator Marian Walsh, and legislative leaders have their own credibility problems.
So what do you do when the whole system, including those who would reform it, is totally bankrupt, fiscally and morally?The MBTA announces it must end night and weekend commuter service, eliminate Green Line stops, and lay off 805 employees if it doesn't get new revenue. But the threats come from an agency that rehired four MBTA officials as high-paid consultants, after they retired under the T's unusually generous pension plan.
Because of headlines like that, no one sees the faces of city residents who will lose bus lines the T considers underused, many of them located in poorer neighborhoods. Instead, they see the smug, greedy faces of the politically well-connected.
Um, well, I guess you walk to work, because I got news for ya: the bus ain't comin' any time soon.
What I never understand is that for a city that is filled with smart people, and even smart people that care about others, why is it that we find ourselves in a situation like this? The MBTA whether we like it or not is a common good, without it, this city would stop functioning (or grind to a halt, which it may already be in the process of doing).
Public transportation is exactly the same as clean water, and power delivered to your home, each of us, regardless of how often we personally use it, is dependent on it. I am not sure how we can restore a sense of the importance of the public good, but I think that desire to support the public is the critically missing component of most of the decision making. It is in the best interest of all of us to make the T as dependable and efficient as possible. I think that would help the economy, too.
Reply to this