Just got this message from Margie at the DCR:

I just received confirmation that we’ve contracted with a landscaping company to do some work at Meaney Playground in the next few weeks.

DCR’s Regional Director who supervises this area let me know that he would be very interested in meeting with any groups interested in assisting us with maintaining the park. Perhaps we could all plan to get together sometime after the July 4 holiday (when our time frees up a bit here) to discuss how we might partner in this effort. It would be great to create some momentum from the landscaping work.

If anyone in the neighborhood is interested in getting in on this, please contact me here or at mmennonno@yahoo.com.

Yesterday, according to the Globe, the city made a sweep of Newbury Street, confiscating sandwich boards and handing out $200 fines to businesses that had them out on the sidewalk. Fair enough, I guess.

The real revelation of the Globe article, though, is fabulous fascist Meg Mainzer-Cohen , president of the Back Bay Association, who’s quoted throughout. She’s apparently been harping on this sandwich board crisis for years. According to the story, “each year, Mainzer-Cohen said, complaints about the sandwich boards increase. Last summer, she said, there were about 15 complaints.” A whopping fifteen complaints! Now, that’s serious.

Mainzer-Cohen’s vision of the Back Bay is uncompromising. “Part of what makes this such an attractive neighborhood is that it is very strictly regulated,” she’s quoted as saying. “And at the end of the day, that’s why people want to be here.” Is it? Maybe the Pod People.

The truth is, the BBA is a voluntary organization with no legal authority, as far as I know. They get what authority they have from their membership. If they start alienating businesses that belong to their group, then, one assumes, said businesses could leave and form some version of an anti-BBA (they could call it ABBA) to annihilate their evil twin and take down Mainzer-Cohen, the Madam Mao of the Back Bay.

Now, that’s something I’d like to see. A rumble on Newbury Street! On one end, Madam Mao and her army of Back Bay automatons, on the other Marilyn Tushman of Scottish Cashmeres, David Thompson of Eclipse hair salon (who likes it “a little funky”) and their rag-tag band of throwbacks.

Winner takes all.

Things have been pretty low-key this week. The weather’s stopped freaking the fuck out on us momentarily and it actually feels like June, a little. I don’t even mind a little thunderstorm or two–that’s normal enough–but, please, no more ten-day monsoons.

I was riding my bike down Boylston yesterday on my way to the gym, and a couple of school buses were idling at Berkeley Street. As I passed, some smart ass kid inside shouts out the window, “nice bike, HAR HAR HAR!” And lest any of you think it was meant as anything other than a taunt, just consider that (a) it was a thirteen year old, and (b) he was on a school bus. I shouted back: “Nice bus, HAR HAR HAR!”

I mean, first of all. YOU’RE ON A SCHOOL BUS. How COOL is that? Making fun of the guy on a bike from a SCHOOL BUS. Think about it.

I went to Wendy’s for one of those 99 cent chicken bombs sometime after that, and while I was waiting I noticed this guy I’ve seen a couple of times before in the Back Bay. I always notice him because he’s this tall, good-looking, clean-cut twenty-something in a suit WHO HAS HAD HIS EYEBROWS WAXED ALL THE WAY TO HELL AND BACK.

I can’t help but stare at this YUPPIE SIDESHOW FREAK with a sense of creeping horror, because while he looks like Bruce Willis from the nose down, he totally looks like Joan Crawford from, like, the middle of his face up. And I’m sure he has absolutely no idea. I’m sure that was not his intention. And I’m sure he thinks people are staring at him for some other reason.

What’s so dreadful about it is that his boss has obviuously not called him in to his office and said, “look, Walker, what’s with the Joan Crawford look? We’re not that kind of firm.” If his coworkers cared for him at all they would find a way to tell him.

It’s like that Snicker’s Commercial where the bald guy is wearing a Snickers toupee, and a big group of his coworkers come up to him, and one of them’s like, “Um, Steve, we just wanna let you know we know you’re bald. We think you should stop wearing the Snickers.” And Steve’s like, “Wha–whaddya mean?” And she’s like, “It’s not fooling anyone!”

If anyone at all cared about that guy they would be like, “Um, Steve, we know you think you’re Cleopatra, but enough with the sculpted eyebrows, dig?” Name and shame, people. It works. Trust me.

As JCS pointed out the other day, the park has, indeed, been mown. Whether this constitutes the extent of the “nice investment” Margie Lynch of the DCR spoke of on the phone, I can’t say. We’ll have to wait a bit to see. I certainly would not want to jump to any hasty conclusions.

Did anyone notice we have a new resident in the park? Has anyone sent over a fruit basket? On sunny mornings our new neighbor can always be found sprawled out on his favorite park bench, sleeping soundly and occasionally waking up to briefly and loudly philosophize to himself.

Now, lest anyone think I have it out for lovable vagrants or public inebriates, think again! On the contrary. I’m concerned that our benches don’t provide adequate lumbar support. That’s why I am investigating “sleep number” park benches, to see if we can’t get the DCR to provide them. Otherwise, you don’t get the deep sleep you need, and you’re tired and cranky for your evening binge. And how can you continue to be a lovable vagrant when you’re disagreeable on account of a day of tossing and turning on an uncomfortable old park bench?

Have you seen anyone evade in the new automated system so far? Have you heard of anyone doing it? Share!

I wrote a bit about Meaney Park in Metro today.

I also got a call from Margie Lynch at the DCR, but I was at my garden in the Fens at the time (check out the poppies, peonies and roses that are popping there now). Margie said that her understanding was that Ben Affleck’s people had requested that the park be left a little shaggy for the filming (likely story) and that now that filming had wrapped up at the site she expected “some nice investment this week.”

I will keep you posted.

I want to be clear about one thing. I have nothing against Deval Patrick. I think he could very well be the next governor of Massachusetts, and president by 2016 (after another two-term Republican exits—yes, it’s that bad for the Democrats). It’s obvious his showing up and unequivocally coming out against the fare hikes and suggesting that, if (he actually said “when”) elected, he would take up the issue, got the issue onto the front page of the papers and forced his opponents to take a stand on it. So, Bravo, Deval.

But it was still pandering. That’s politics. I’m just calling it as I see it. No hard feelings. And I stand by my assessment of his sign-bearing lackeys at the rally, too. Did you see them at the hearing? I didn’t. Which isn’t to say they weren’t there, but if nobody saw them it defeated their purpose in being there a bit, didn’t it? You know, like I said, they couldn’t even stand up for twenty minutes, holding their signs behind the speakers at the rally. They were all schlumped over, looking totally zombie-fied. Is that the energized image of a Devalhead his campaign wants to get out there? I don’t think so. At the very least, STAND UP for your cause, bitches.

Enough said.

As for the Devalcentric press coverage of the MBTA fare hikes: while Deval’s appearance was newsworthy, the press should be encouraged by it to dig deeper into the issue of fare hikes. So far what we have seen is only very cursory coverage of the fare hike proposal. It is not enough to present Dan Grabauskas on the one hand repeating ad nauseam that if the T doesn’t raise fares it will have to cut services, and Deval Patrick on the other saying that at a time when gas prices are high the T should be trying to recruit riders instead of scaring them away with increased fares. It’s a start, but, to be truthful, not a very coherent one.

Let’s talk about some of the very reasonable, detailed objections that attendees to these hearings are bringing up. And let’s start viewing this issue, not as Kerry Healey is—namely as a strictly internal issue for the T to decide—but as the public policy issue it is. As many speakers at the hearing said, the T is not just a nice little service for people who either want to do something nice for the environment by not driving into Boston, or for those unfortunate enough to have no other choice—it is an economic necessity without which Metro Boston could not function.

The most effective refutation to the Healey camp’s insightless observations would have been an Everybody Drive To Work Day. There are approximately 792,600 one-way passenger trips per day, according to the T. If all those people drove solo to work, as most drivers these days do, no one would get anywhere. (Everybody Drive To Work Day is a theoretical argument, not a call to action, by the way.) So Healey, and all those snots who don’t deign to take the T, and feel that it’s a subsidy for the poor that taxpayers should not bear responsibility for, need to understand that Metro Boston would be paralyzed without it. That means it is her business—it is the governor’s business to look into it, and the legislature’s, to make sure that it works for not just the citizens who use it by riding it, but for all those—private institutions, employers, retailers, restaurateurs, even drivers—who benefit from it whether they themselves use it or not.

After Mr. B-I-L-L-I-N-G yielded the mic, a Catherine Pickard, representative of a riders advocacy group focused particularly on The Ride, took the floor. She questioned the fairness of raising the rates (by 33%) on The Ride when the T is still not in full compliance with the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA). She argued that details of the fare restructuring posed a particular hardship for users of The Ride. They will, for example, have no free transfers and no discounts for monthly passes. She urged the T to do more research on the impact of restructuring for the population using The Ride, and to hold off on fare increases until the entire system was ADA-compliant.

After Ms. Pickard, came Eric Bourassa of MassPIRG who presented a petition with “about 1,400 names” of those in opposition to the fare hikes. He spoke about the environmental impact of decreased ridership on the T due to increased fare prices. Keeping his comments brief he called for “the legislature to adequately fund public transportation so that the T can be more affordable and accessible.”

Several speakers followed with specific service issues (centering mostly on green line trains, the silver line–“The silver line is not rapid transit,” one rider observed to appreciative applause—and buses) which they called on the T to resolve before moving to raise fares.

Terry Russell, from the Conservation Law Foundation, offered an “if…then” scenario for the MBTA to consider. “If we care about traffic, if we care about climate change, if we care about air pollution, if we care about the health of residents of the Commonwealth,” and so on, then, essentially “the MBTA needs to be increasing ridership, not driving it away.” She demanded better service, and urged the T to approach the legislature to increase funding, so that the T will not be charging riders “more for less.”

A Ms. Kruger, from Leominster, asked where riders like her would find the additional funds to pay for increased monthly fares ($52 for her), and related how someone had suggested taking it out of her “entertainment budget”. She concluded that in the short time she has been using the T, fares have increased too many times for services that have not improved.

A Patrick Demsky followed Ms. Kruger, and proclaimed himself a “train-holic.” “I’m assuming many of you are, too,” he added. But I think there were more “complain-holics” than “train-holics” in attendance, truth be known. He then thanked the T, saying “I know you do your best in a job that’s probably pretty thankless.” He might as well have been speaking Swahili. Then, all the sudden he launched into a proposition of his own for funding the T, turning to the audience, and asking, “What makes the most money in Massachusetts?” and answering for us: “The lottery.”

He suggested the MBTA issue scratch tickets. And to prove what a hit it would be he asked if anyone in the audience, “for four thousand dollars, would squawk like a chicken.” A woman in the back of the hall obliged, and he handed her ten scratch tickets, and then asked the T representatives, “when was the last time someone squawked like a chicken to get a train ticket? Ever? When was the last time anybody got excited about riding the T?” (I don’t know about you people, but I don’t squawk like a chicken when I get excited about something, but whatever.) He concluded by urging the assembly: “let’s have some fun in this damn city.” (Again, not quite sure what the connection between squawking like a chicken and having fun would be, but I don’t disagree in principle.)

The Chicken Lady then asked the assembly what exactly she should do with the scratch cards, since she had never played the lottery before. Well, it’s not rocket science, is it? I imagine she was able to figure it out eventually.

After a man suggested the MBTA police force be abolished, it was our own Dani B.’s turn to speak. He spoke for students like him, whom he said were not able to afford the increases. He said the T was “penalizing its best customers.” And that the surcharges amounted to “a tax on visitors, tourists, and college students.”

Dani B. was followed by Jen Stewart, another blogger, who said she would be willing to pay higher fares for better service.

A young woman by the name of Christine, who was sitting with those crazy socialists, was next at the mic. She said she had been at the fare hearings two years ago and had spoken, and nothing had come of it, and wondered if the same would be the case this time around. One of the socialists had moved to the doorway of the meeting room, ready to make his exit when she finished, and the way he was beaming at her, sort of misty-eyed, made it seem like a true Revolutionary moment, like something out of Reds, or something. I thought, wow, they’ve got their whole little subculture there. I bet they’ve all slept with each other. They form mini-alliances, maybe mini-punk bands, have their squabbles, kiss and make up. It’s a whole little socialist ecosystem all their own.

As she banged on (”I know the T inside and out! Anyone can quiz me on any line and I know every single one in order, from one end to the other, because I have been to every, single station I don’t know how many times!”) he drank in her raw courage as if gulping the nectar of the gods, and when finally the crowd applauded her agitprop, he joined them with such conviction I knew this speech would become the stuff of legend among them.

Next came a proposal for elimination of fares altogether, which was greeted with applause by the assembly. But upon reflection, I think a reasonable fare is actually a much better proposal. Can you imagine if it was free? You think the buses and trains are trashed now? People should pay for public transit, but it should be affordable for those who do.

Surcharges for use of the Charlie Ticket were questioned by the next speaker. “Let’s not punish riders who don’t have access to vending machines.”

Then there was a long-winded BC student, who recounted dramatically and in great detail how he had discovered that fares were being raised. He objected to paying for the outbound green line, of course. What was interesting about him was his cadence. Each sentence started…very…slowly…and…deliberately…andendedupallinarushedjumble.

There was another young woman, a bit later, who also, like, had an interesting, like, verbal, like, tick. Like, it was, like, she, like, said “like,” like, all the time, like, almost, like, between each, like, word.

Finally, a former State Representative spoke, saying the proceedings reminded him of “the emperor’s new clothes,” because nothing could come of the “self-contained discussion” currently underway. “The MBTA can only do what the outside forces” allow. The “outside forces” were then identified as the Executive Office of Transportation and Construction. A call was issued for representatives of the “parent organization” of the T to step forward. None were in attendance. “That’s the problem!” he said. “They should be out lobbying the legislature for more profits for the MBTA!” Wild applause seemed the thing to do at the moment, and so wild applause ensued.

He then reiterated that “public transportation is a public good, and should be as cheap as possible. Why? To help our economy and environment.”

He concluded: “There’s got to be a greater emphasis on people speaking out on this issue and taking the burden up, because…this discussion is too self-contained…. We have to engage everybody. As Ben Franklin said once, ‘we must all hang together, or most assuredly we will all hang separately.”

This worthy comment concluded the second hour of testimony. The MBTA agreed to continue past 6:30, to allow others in attendance to speak. I will sum up the additional half-hour of testimony I stuck around for in a future entry.

Another shout-out to Charles Swift for sending an interesting article from the Globe, from July of 1921, the year Dot’s first meeting house/free school/tavern, which used to stand on the plot that is now the Atheneum Park and Meaney Playground, was apparently razed.

The plot has not been mown since well before Affleck came to shoot a scene from his film there on the 25th of May. Before the rain this week, there was a bum-in-residence who slept on a bench there for two days.

On the 26th I wrote to the DCR, but have yet to receive a reply. This morning I did a little more research, and discovered that the DCR has plans for what it calls “friends groups” who will look after neglected plots like Atheneum, and hopes to establish public-private partnerships for their continued upkeep.

I have contacted Margie Lynch, Director of partnerships, to ask what our options are for Atheneum Park, and will keep you updated on them, too.

In the meantime, check out Edens: Lost and Found to see what cities like Chicago and Philly are doing to reclaim their urban “Edens”. We could do it here, too.

Now, you had to sign up upon entering the meeting room in order to speak on the record. This put people who were locked out of the room (because the MBTA had booked a small one, and it was filled to capacity) at a slight disadvantage, since, once they were finally let in, the sign-up period was over–and even if they had wanted to, by the time their names were called it would have been well past eight o’clock (the meeting ran to about seven-thirty, the sign language interpreters had been booked until 6:30, and left promptly at that time, I myself left a little after seven). I mention all this because, again, I want to echo Senator Jarrett Barrios’ observation that everything about the hearing was cynical.

Once the testimony of non-elected officials was underway, the MBTA representative in charge announced that he would spell everyone’s name, to ensure that none would be mispronounced. The first name on his list was “b-e-a-c-o-n”. And as promised he did not venture to pronounce it, such was his commitment to impartiality.

The T, conscientious as always about the feelings of their customers, did not wish to offend anyone by mispronouncing a difficult name, or anyone else by not spelling an easy one and just pronouncing it instead. I mean, how would you feel if you had a name like Smith and the chairman didn’t bother to spell it like he did Bhreitheamhnaigh? You’d feel neglected. Admit it. So it was actually very thoughtful of the T. We have, of course, come to expect nothing but the most deferential treatment from them, so it should surprise no one.

The aforementioned B-E-A-C-O-N, of The Greater Boston Group of the Sierra Club, shocked the assembly by praising the MBTA on the proposed policy for free intermodal transfers, which he said would bring the T in line, finally, with national transit systems, farewise. He said the new policy on transfers, coupled with the decrease in the cost of the monthly OnePass, which will take the place of combos, and will be good for the entire system, “may for those people utilizing the services and for those services impacted, actually result in an increase in ridership, and an increase in revenues, [which] was the case in New Yawk City…. That needs to be retained.”

Stunned silence. This audience was out for blood, and B-E-A-C-O-N was being a little too namby-pamby with the enemy. In order not to get strung up himself, B-E-A-C-O-N tossed us a bone, advising against surcharges, because “the whole issue…is very confusing to people.” And I certainly don’t disagree.

But he really won the crowd back with his spot-on assessment of the T’s funky fares to date. He said, come on, as for fares, “let’s start with a dollar on buses, because in reality, during the last fare increase when they raised the bus fare to ninety cents, who has ninety cents?”

“Amen!”

“Speak it brutha!”

“Testify!”

He went on: “People just paid a dollar. So let’s take it into consideration that the bus fare has really been a dollar. So let’s keep it a dollar.”

B-E-A-C-O-N was cool with the subway fare, and having gone into overtime (each non-elected official speaking was officially allotted three minutes to say their piece), he hurriedly demanded that “the money that goes into the system from the riders of the system must flow equitably back out into the neighborhoods.”

He then put in a plug for Dudley Station, to wild applause.

After a brief pause in the action, the chairman called a Miss M-A-Y-E-R, who complained that the information in the fare restructuring handbook was not entirely decipherable by the layman. Miss M-A-Y-E-R was followed by a Mr. P-R-E-S-T-O-N, who was displeased with the new senior fares. From 25¢ presently to 40¢ for buses and from 35¢ to 50¢ for subway. Mr. P-R-E-S-T-O-N was also unhappy about the proposal to start charging outbound riders on the green line, a position which was echoed later by a droning BC student, and with which I have absolutely no sympathy. There are no free rides in this life, people. I am jumping ahead here, but the BC student lamented that the fare effectively cut BC off from Boston so that it might as well be called Chestnut Hill College instead. So be it. It’s a prettier name, anyway.

After Mr. P-R-E-S-T-O-N concluded his remarks, a Mystery Lady in an afro spoke of an instance of sexual harassment on an MBTA bus by its driver. A cover-up and conspiracy had ensued. Details were not presented to the assembly, and the Mystery Lady was politely asked to desist by the chairman, who felt that the forum was inappropriate for a discussion of her case. She concluded by warning the assembly, somewhat ominously, that “No one has the right to sexually harass me.” She then left the hall without event, so far as this reporter could tell, but you never know.

A Mr. B-I-L-L-I-N-G was called next to speak, and spoke about “efficiency goals.” He had obviously given a great deal of thought to how a system of merit pay could be implemented at the T, but the crowd was still under the strange spell of the Mystery Lady, and his excitement, while clearly merited by his slogan: “identify, innovate and implement,” unfortunately failed to capture the assembly’s imagination. One comment drew appreciative hmms, however. When he mentioned the green line’s obvious limitations in boarding and deboarding riders. It is, inarguably, a logistical nightmare.

Mr. B-I-L-L-I-N-G went on a good deal more, and in such minute detail, about his program for reform that one was led to wonder, why on earth Mr. B-I-L-L-I-N-G, a not unhandsome young man, had so much time on his hands (I know, I should talk), and if it wouldn’t be more productively spent popping pills, smoking crystal meth, getting multiple piercings and tattoos in out-of-the-way places on his body, at all hours of the night, and spending his days passed out in the Fenway.

So, as promised, some further thoughts on the June 6th rally and the hearing that followed.

First of all, I have to say, the more I think about it, the more disappointed I am that no representatives from the GLBT community saw fit to put in an appearance. After a mention in this blog, Traniwreck founder Aliza Shapiro contacted me, saying, in part, “[I] would be happy to talk to [you] about collaborations. Drop me an email.” I did, although “collaboration” is an awfully big, flashy word for what I had in mind.

Not a peep from Miss Aliza Shapiro after that. Not one little dickey bird.

A shame, really, because I would love to have seen a fabulous queen in full drag give testimony at the hearing. But that’s just my own little fantasy, and I probably should not be airing it here. These hearings don’t have enough glamour, though, that’s for sure.

The closest we came to fabulocity this time around was that chick with the ‘fro straight out of a blaxploitation flick who went on in an eerily calm, slightly froggy voice for fifteen minutes about a cast of characters including an Omar Jones, a Marvin Jones, and a Willie May, who sexually harassed her on a bus and then “created The Lie” to cover it up. To her credit, when the T representative in charge interrupted her to tell her he was unable to address the issue here, she replied, unperturbed, in that same calm cadence, “I know you can’t, but people need to know.” And then, to boisterous applause: “It’s related to what you said about your ‘friendly service.’” Ouch. That shut him up, and emboldened her to go one for another ten minutes or so.

Ah, life’s rich pageant! Usually these public meetings have at minimum a 3:1 ratio of crazies to concerned citizens, so this was an exceptional hearing in that respect. Their participation makes for a worthy spectacle of sorts, but unfortunately it has the cumulative effect of justifying the cynicism that is so often a part of such proceedings.

What do I mean by crazies? I’m being somewhat liberal with the label here. But there were a couple of people at the hearing on Tuesday who I think were bona fide nutcases, regardless of how real their grievances were. And they obviously had grievances against the T that were likely legitimate, that they have been nursing–for years, it seems. And they show up at public hearings periodically to get publicity for their “cause.”

When they step up to the mic and get going, you soon realize they inhabit one of those worlds within worlds–so individual and labyrinthine—there is no way to get there from here, and no way for them to get here from there. They bang on relentlessly, telling their mostly unintelligible stories, and all we can glean from them is that they have been terribly wronged and that there is no recourse for them and no justice because no one understands them and no one cares.

It is a poignant part of almost every public meeting like this. Inevitable to the point of ritual.

The hearing was held in the mezzanine meeting room in the Johnson Building of the Boston Public Library, a room that can hold only 100 people, whereas there is an auditorium in the building (the Rabb lecture hall) which can accommodate almost four times that. While there were not four hundred people, there were more than a hundred, and many were locked out of the hearing, forced to wait in the corridor until those who had signed up to speak had said their piece and left. As one speaker left, one person waiting to enter was allowed in. But not given the opportunity to speak.

Many did not hesitate to question the MBTA’s motives in booking such a small room, and holding the hearing so early in the day, making it as difficult as possible for people to attend. State Senator Jarrett Barrios called the proceedings “cynical,” a point I echoed in my own comments for the record, and in retrospect, one I would apply as much to Deval Patrick’s cursory appearance there as to the MBTA’s.

Patrick showed no real interest in the details of the proposal, and his contention that with higher gas prices the T should be recruiting drivers to mass transit conveniently ignores the T’s own dependence on petrol. It just doesn’t address a very central part of the problem. His speech was pure populist pap. Which isn’t to say I won’t vote for him in the fall. He’s still the cutest candidate on the ballot.

Senator Barrios, on the other hand, has done his research. But while I guess he’s cute enough, unfortunately the consensus seems to be that he’s not quite as cute as Deval Patrick. It’s funny. Once the testimy got under way, the MBTA called on any public officials present to comment first. And up strides Deval, who, despite a high public profile, is not a public official as of yet. So Barrios had to wait until Deval had done his bit before he could get the floor.

Barrios, a member of the Joint Committee on Transportation, seemed truly passionate in his opposition to the proposed fare hikes. He pointed out that the room was too small and drew out of that a nice metaphor for locking the public out of the process.

He brought up specific points that he said have led him to become somewhat skeptical of the MBTA’s motives. He pointed out that the exact same “service enhancements” being used to justify this increase were used to justify the last increase. He questioned whether the T’s financial situation was quite as bleak as they’ve painted it, or whether they are, in fact, exaggerating it to, again, justify increases that might not be absolutely necessary at this point.

He contradicted the T’s assertion that their security spending has increased since 9/11, implying that they had no scruples in using that catastrophe, as well, to justify fare hikes. “You’ve actually downsized your police force,” he said. “So I’m not sure which increases you’re talking about.”

He reiterated a point I’ve heard him make several times before: that the T should come to the legislature for help. He asked the MBTA, “should T riders be expected to be the sole source of your new revenue? Should T riders bear the whole cost when T riders aren’t even the primary beneficiaries of this…mass transit system?… all of us in the Commonwealth are beneficiaries.”

He then advised, “here’s what I think is appropriate for the T: before you ask the T riders to bear the full cost of your losses, to come back to the legislature and propose to us that all residents of the Commonwealth, all who benefit from mass transit, because of better air, because of parking, because of less traffic, and have the legislature go back and have the Commonwealth … at the State level, help you out of your debt, before you increase fares on the T.”

Well done, Senator.

Barrios was followed by State Senator Pat Jehlen, who was clearly gellin’, and voiced her opposition to the fare increase, though not as wonkishly as Barrios. On the issue of lobbying the legislature, she said: “I understand that you yourself cannot come and ask us, but I am saying that as a legislator I will work with you… to make sure that we can relieve your debt burden.”

Finally, Green Rainbow Party candidate for Governor Grace Ross, who is also, with all due respect, not as cute as Deval Patrick, and who was running late and missed the rally, took the mic, expressing her “solidarity with the people who have not been allowed into the room.” Hmm. She said raising fares was essentially a tax on people who were already strapped for money, and suggested that big companies that have garnered sweetheart tax reductions for building downtown should kick in, since they benefit from the T as much as anyone. Here, here, Grace! You go, girl.

For the record, although, of course, Kerry Healey didn’t deign to come down to the hearing, or even to issue a direct comment, her stance, according to a spokesman (according the the Glob): “Ultimately it’s up to the T to set their fares to the appropriate costs. We certainly hope [the final fare increase] is lower than what’s being proposed. We also don’t think the solution is to go back to the taxpayers and ask for additional subsidies for the T.” Very creative, Kerry. Good use of the word “subsidies”!

Tune in tomorrow for more scenes from the hearing.

In the meantime, check out my semi-regular bullshit round-up, HERE.