FARE ENOUGH

 

New York has a statue of Lennon.
Seattle has one of Lenin.

Over the weekend, we were in Seattle to see our daughter officially get her Masters in Urban Planning from the University of Washington. As with all fathers, I was immensely proud of her. And also as with all fathers, I wondered, Is she going to make a living off of this?

My friend Jim, a retired TV network executive, gave me words of hard-earned wisdom. "Tell her what I told my kids. Most of the people she'll compete with and work with are varying degrees of stupid. She's not. She'll do great."

I tell you all this not just to brag about our darling daughter, but to affirm what
Jim said was correct. A few days ago, New York's Metropolitan Transit Authority announced a new plan to curb fare evasion. To give you an idea of how bad things are, while "only" 13.6% of the subway riders are hopping the turnstiles, almost half who take the bus have the "Home, James, and don't spare the horses" attitude. (How appropriate that the Latin phrase for "free of charge" is de crimen.) 

While Lenin would approve of this "power to the people" hoo-hah, the folks running the MTA have decided that losing $700-million a year to fare beaters isn't sustainable, and have put a want ad on its website for a psychologist to figure out why people insist on riding for free. 

I repeat: the MTA wants to know why so many New Yorkers would rather pay nothing than the current $2.90 fare. And it's willing to pay a shrink one million dollars for the privilege. 

Let me give my my diagnosis: IT'S FREE! Think I'm gonna get hired by the MTA? Nope. If they're paying one mill to get an answer, that must be the right one.

Our daughter would like to return to New York to work for the city. As you can see, she'll find plenty of varying degrees of stupid to compete with in the local government. Whether they appreciate her smarts is another story.

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