This morning I had a very positive and productive conversation with a representative from the Parks Dept., one of the three people in charge of granting special events permits. He was extremely helpful, told me nothing was scheduled for Copley Square JUNE 6TH and seemed to think we could get in there to do some “street theater,” picketing, and leafleting with no trouble.

He also suggested a mid-morning gathering for the noon news, and a mid-afternoon presence for the six o’clock news, which I think is a great idea, too. Obviously some sort of presence in Copley Square all day would be optimal. I can be there, but a commitment from at least five people to just hang out for some portion of the day and drum up some interest would make all the difference.

With that in mind, I’d like to announce an organizing meeting for Thursday, June 1st, after workish time and location TBA (if anybody has any suggestions for a Back Bay location, pipe up now), first round of drinks on me. By the way, I’m not committed to this date, I just figure Thursday’s a good day of the week for it. Any and all feedback will be considered.

Now, I want to be clear about this. No one is asking is for your first-born, and this is not some scary cult. This is the real grass roots. No organization is sponsoring this. Nobody here except us chickens, as it were. Make of that what you will. Nothing grave, nothing awful, and nothing will be asked of you except that you show up and make a fool of yourself for fair fares.

(Chex will be the guy in the hoodie and unibomber shades hanging off to the side counter-demonstrating. But, you know, what’s a demonstration without a counter-demonstration?)

Myself, I look at it as an opportunity to see some fresh faces and share some terror tales of the T. If we make the news, too, all the better. If we make a difference, icing on the cake. Have fun with it, goof around, make a spectacle of yourself. No biggie.

Feel free to contact me through this website if you’d like to join me for beers, pretzels, and tears on or around the 1st and I’ll keep you posted…

It certainly does not surprise me that many who read this blog pretty much agree with Chex, and are resigned to paying higher fares. They may not put it in quite the same arrestingly childish way Chex did (which should remind us all that the internet emboldens people who should remain under their rock to tentatively crawl out from under it–please, Chex, get some social skills and then get back to us) , but I think the idea of joining anyone in public protest challenges their pretensions of being utterly individual.

But, I’m sorry, the idea of being all for a 25% increase in the cost of anything is counter-intuitive, and all the blather about the cost of things in other places or the facilities available elsewhere (yes, it’s true that Paducah, Kentucky does not have a subway system–and?) does not address the issues on the table here.

It’s very important to keep your focus. It’s not about how much you hate the T (I’m a big fan of public transit myself) or how much more you hate dirty hippie protesters who hate the T.

It’s about showing you’re serious about long-term viable solutions to the problems peculiar to our public transit system, here, where we live. The simple, incontrovertible fact is that this fare hike doesn’t solve the funding problems of the T. That’s why I object to it. If they raise the fares and don’t address labor, funding, and budget issues in a real and significant way, the fares will go up again in the space of another couple of years. And it’s not always “the T needs more money!” Sure, the MBTA could always use more money, but it needs to be using the money it has much more wisely first. We need transparency, oversight, and accountability, which are all currently undermined by the unions, as well as better ways of funding the system, for which the legislature must be lobbied, and we need management that’s truly able to manage, and up to the challenge.

And blabidee-bla, right? Who cares! It’s inevitable, isn’t it? The T itself predicts it will lose up to 6% of its riders with the fare hike, at a time when it should be drawing new riders and revenue. Who are these six percent? People like me, first of all, who live and work in town, who are able-bodied, and who have alternative ways to get where they’re going. Which is fine for me. I mean, I enjoy cycling around town. And I get an extra lift from the money I save.

But there’s more to the idea of public transit than a way to get ME from point A to point B. There’s the promise of public spaces and public facilities that work because people care about the idea of a shared spaces and facilities.

And there are social justice issues that are larger than public transit, but are related. The minimum wage is currently $5.15 an hour, as it has been for nearly a decade. With this fare increase, while the minimum remains stagnant, subway fares will have doubled. This may not be a big deal to you, but there are a lot of people out there who have no transportation alternative, and no discretionary income to cover an instant 25% increase in the cost of transportation to and from work. Maybe they should move to Paducah, where the cost of living isn’t 240% the national average, with apartments ranking 48% more expensive than the national average.

Yes, we all hate haters. But pull your head out of your cyber ass long enough to see that this is not some meta thing, about critiquing the critiquers. Relax, it’s just a good, old-fashioned, pre-post-modern protest. Sometimes you just gotta get up off your duff and do a little something, make a little noise. But if all you can do is grumble about the grumblers and protest about protesters, well, then, best to just stay under your rock, where you’ll do about just as much good.