Monday, December 21, 2009

Students Need Passes to Get to Their Classes!

I've been neglecting my blogging since I returned to my classroom in the fall. And then, last week, the MTA voted to cut funding for free student MetroCards and my worlds collided. My students, and hundreds and thousands of others around the City, are in jeopardy. Free student passes have been around since the fare went from 5 cents to 10 cents. Today, the fare is $2.25 and fare hikes will likely follow service cuts. The burden on families with children will be tremendous if the cuts of student MetroCards go through.

This afternoon, I went with twenty of my students to protest outside MTA headquarters. It was a peaceful but passionate protest. My students were angry, and rightly so. They understand the meaning of this decision: No transportation, no education! Don't you care? Pay our fare! We need passes to get to our classes! These same young people often struggle to see the connection between their lives and the history I try to teach them. They wonder if protesting will make a difference. As Billie Holliday sang, the impossible will take a little while. Howard Zinn has said much about how people make change, but I offer these words to my students and all the other young people who wonder if it's worth making noise about this issue:

"...Throughout history, people have felt powerless before authority, but at certain times these powerless people, by organizing, acting, risking, and persisting, have created enough power to change the world around them, even if a little. That is the history of the labor movement, the women's movement, the anti-Vietnam War movement, the disabled person's movement, the gay and lesbian movement and the [Civil Rights] movement...."




Thursday, August 13, 2009

Attacks on the Poor


I can't say I understand why my last blog post...admittedly in late June (disgraceful!)...doesn't seem to be up on the blog (or to exist anywhere), but I have been ruminating on this new post since I had an interesting encounter last weekend in my home station.

On Sunday, I returned from Williamsburg, so pleased that the G train was again running regularly on weekends. I went through the turnstiles at Hoyt-Schermerhorn, but found no one to metroshare with. This was disappointing, since I can almost always find someone near the turnstiles there who asks for and/or graciously accepts a free swipe and a smile. Ahh, well. When I came up the Bond Street stairs, a young man asked me for change. As I was returning from yoga, I had no change, but I asked him if he needed a ride. He did, so I walked him back to the turnstiles. I suggested that it was a better spot to wait in if what he wanted was a free swipe. Here's what he told me:

He has a court date coming up because he was ticketed for "manipulating the turnstile" the last time someone on her way out swiped him on his way in. The police stopped him and wanted to see his MetroCard. He explained that someone else paid his fare, but since he could not point her out (she was moving in the opposite direction, as metrosharers should be), they did not accept his story.

Now, there are a long list of things wrong here. I have been kicking myself all week for failing to get his name and court date. I did tell him about my blog and tell him that he (and the person who swiped him in) had done nothing wrong, and that my blog details the rules about sharing. It was impossible to believe that a white man would have been stopped and questioned for similar reasons. Even without the Henry Louis Gates arrest still quite fresh in the collective consciousness, this would have been striking. But I had just read Barbara Ehrenreich's "Is it Now a Crime to Be Poor," in the New York Times (August 8, 2009).

Ehrenreich writes:

By far the most reliable way to be criminalized by poverty is to have the wrong-color skin. Indignation runs high when a celebrity professor encounters racial profiling, but for decades whole communities have been effectively “profiled” for the suspicious combination of being both dark-skinned and poor, thanks to the “broken windows” or “zero tolerance” theory of policing popularized by Rudy Giuliani, when he was mayor of New York City, and his police chief William Bratton.

Flick a cigarette in a heavily patrolled community of color and you're littering; wear the wrong color T-shirt and you're displaying gang allegiance.

It turns out that accepting the kindness of a fellow rider is another way for a poor person to be criminalized. Ehrenreich also writes about the crack-down on sharing, once believed to be a basic human activity:

The viciousness of the official animus toward the indigent can be breathtaking. A few years ago, a group called Food Not Bombs started handing out free vegan food to hungry people in public parks around the nation. A number of cities, led by Las Vegas, passed ordinances forbidding the sharing of food with the indigent in public places, and several members of the group were arrested. A federal judge just overturned the anti-sharing law in Orlando, Fla., but the city is appealing. And now Middletown, Conn., is cracking down on food sharing.

I am still thinking about the best way to address the outrageous unfairness of what happened to the young man I met at Hoyt-Schermerhorn.

Saturday, May 30, 2009

MetroSharing Update; Analyzing the New Fares


I've been metrosharing more frequently these days and I can't help feeling that the combination of high unemployment and the imminent fare increase is making it easier to offer a swipe and easier for others to accept.  Although the fare increase does not take effect until June 28, the current fare, not to mention the coming hike, is pretty daunting, especially for people who aren't finding enough work.  

Look for people (usually young men) standing or leaning on a column near the turnstiles.  I sometimes get turned down, but not once has anyone seemed offended. The unemployment rate in New York City is at 8%, but much higher for certain groups (like young men!). I suspect the young men who routinely (and graciously, in every instance) accept my offer of a swipe, are not on the way to work.  This doesn't mean they don't work or don't want to work.

Remember that you can metroshare within the family as well as with the general public.  If your child has a school MetroCard (useless on weekends), s/he can use your unlimited on the weekend.  And it's completely legal for one member of the family to swipe in another in the morning and then use the same pass a little later to get to work (or college or the park, etc.). Walking a loved one to the nearest subway can be a great way to have someone all to yourself, even for just a few minutes.

Here's what's going to happen on June 28:
single ride will go from $2 to $2.25
(15% bonus on fare cards will be added to cards for $8 and above)
7-day unlimited will go from $25 to $27 
14-day unlimited will go from $47 to $51.50
30-day unlimited will go from $81 to $89

For one thing, the math is more complicated if you're trying to figure out the best deal for your budget and your riding habits.

Let's say you buy a $10 fare card, on which you get a $1.50 bonus.  You'll get 5 rides on that card, with $.25 left over.  If you refill it 8 times ($90 total expenditure, $103.50 total value with the bonus), you'll be paying just under $2 a ride ($1.96).  

When is an unlimited card a good value?

7-day: if you ride AT LEAST 14 times in the one-week
14-day: if you ride AT LEAST 27 times in the two-week period
30-day:  if you ride AT LEAST 46 times in the 30-day period

If you are buying an unlimited card, you get a lot more out of it if you metroshare.  Just pause and look around after you exit a turnstile.  Don't forget to smile.






Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Crisis Averted!

The New York Times (online edition) has just reported that a budget deal in Albany will fund the MTA and hold the fare increase on single bus and subway rides to $2.25. Monthly MetroCards will sell for $89 (up from $81). The deal, expected to pass in both the Assembly and the Senate on Wednesday, has no Republican support.  It involves a payroll tax (3.4%), a surcharge on taxi rides and increases in vehicle-registration and license fees and the auto-rental tax.  

It is never good news when the price of basic services increases, but as May 31 is rapidly approaching, I am relieved that we will not be facing a 25% fare increase and drastic service cuts.  From these early reports, it looks as if service cuts will be averted.





Saturday, April 18, 2009

Metrosharing Goes Mainstream!

On the morning of April 6, just before I left town for vacation, I saw a piece in the "Metropolitan Diary" in The Times that made me smile:

Dear Diary:

On a recent weekend in New York, my husband and I were sharing a MetroCard. Rushing to catch a train at the Union Square subway station, we didn’t notice that the card was running out of money. My husband swiped the card successfully, passed through the turnstile, then handed it back to me, but the card was now worth $0.00.

As I dithered, trying to decide what to do next, a youth behind me reached around and swiped his card for me.

When I turned to thank him, he replied impatiently, “Just go!”

Mary Donaldson-Evans

Now that I'm back home, I've been metrosharing almost daily (demand seems to be up).  Send metrosharing stories if you like and I will be happy to post them.

Saturday, April 4, 2009

On the Street and On the Subway


It was windy out there today on the march down Broadway, across Wall Street, and past the Stock Exchange.  The masses were out, demanding peace and economic security.  I had the good fortune to march with Reverend Billy, the Green Party candidate for Mayor of New York City. Michael O'Neil of the Green Party told me about the MTA Service Specialists.  These young women have taken it upon themselves to improve service on the subways and help riders have a better experience.

The MTA Service Specialists will make you laugh, as they mock the service cuts, restore civility and good will to the subways, and provide their own services: helping riders with directions, carrying strollers, and distributing tissues, snacks, and beautiful smiles.

Check out their website:  www.mtaservice.org/service.html

Friday, April 3, 2009

Second Chance to Take It to the Street


I can't lie.  The pouring rain discouraged me today and I did not make it to Wall Street.  Luckily, we have a second chance (in case you also didn't make it).  This is the anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "Beyond Vietnam" speech, and the organizers (United For Peace and Justice) are treating this march as a call to our leaders to move us in a new direction, toward peace, economic justice, and equality for all.  

The struggle for affordable public transportation may not seem glamorous (though it is!), but it is a cornerstone of economic justice and a greener NYC.

If you want to march with Rev. Billy's contingent, meet at the SW corner of Franklin and Lafayette at 11:30.  I hope to see you in the streets.