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They Won't Stand for It Newsday,
October 7, 2002 The president of the transport workers union and a well-known transit advocate were showing off new ads against a fare hike yesterday when a couple of scraggly men interrupted them outside the Union Square subway. "There are people without homes," one of the disheveled men said. "How 'bout that?" "How much is the fare going to be?" the other man demanded. "How much is the hike?" Until now, the governor of New York, George Pataki, and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority have done a magnificent job in covering up what could be the biggest fare increase in city history. Nobody's talking about higher bus and subway fares. Nobody wants to hurt Pataki's reelection chances next month. Even Pataki's opponents have kept mum. Yesterday, the Straphangers Campaign and Local 100 of the Transport Workers Union unveiled two ads urging riders to organize against the increase. The ads will appear in 2,000 subway cars over the next two months. "In the end this is a political decision about how much it would cost to get to work or to the day care center or to travel around town," said Gene Russianoff, staff attorney for the Straphangers Campaign. The Straphangers adshows the hands of several people clinging to a pole in a subway car. "New Yorkers won't take a transit fare hike sitting down," the ad says. "Particularly when you can't find a seat." The union's ad shows a person holding out empty pockets with the message: "Thanks to a possible fare hike, subway and bus riders may be traveling lighter this year." "That's unfair because New York City accounts for 84 percent of all transit use in the state," the ad continues, "but receives only 63 percent in state transit funds." It doesn't mention that city subway and bus riders pay nearly 60 percent of the cost of running the transit system. Long Island Rail Road riders pay 44 percent while those on Metro-North Commuter Railroad pay 54 percent. The national average is 40 percent. Both ads direct riders to two Web sites - www.savethefare.org and www.straphangers.org - to learn how to fight the increase. This is all part of a highly commendable and unusual campaign involving transit advocates, labor and community leaders and some elected officials to save the $1.50 fare while demanding more city and state funding for transit. The effort has included voter registration drives in the subway and plans to distribute 350,000 "anti-fare hike" leaflets underground. A fare hike would come at a time when subway and bus ridership is at its highest level since the 1950s. "Any increase will endanger that ridership and chase people away from the system," union president Roger Toussaint said yesterday. In July, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said he was cutting about $500 million in city subsidies to the transit system. The billionaire mayor also warned that the base fare might rise to $2. Now couple such a steep increase with the longtime disparities in state transit funding to the city. It is clear Pataki and his MTA are perpetrating a hate crime against the poorest and most vulnerable residents of this city. "The MTA board doesn't consider itself accountable to city residents," Toussaint said. The Straphangers Campaign has fought these battles for decades. "I think we're ahead of the curve," Russianoff insisted yesterday. "Normally we wait until they announce the fare increase and then we're scrambling to respond." "It's a very powerful fact that we move 84 percent of the riders and get 63 percent of the dough and it costs us $325 million a year," he said. "That's the same message which has well served school advocates. We have 36 percent of the kids and we get 34 percent of the dough. There are a million parents in New York and a huge percentage of them know that fact. I don't think a huge percentage of subway riders know they're getting shafted." Email:
ray.sanchez@newsday.com _____________________________________________________________________
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