MTA - Lost Their Way

It’s going on a week since our latest weather event on Long Island.  Many of our streets are still dangerously slippery with snow banks blocking parking spots or passing lanes for that matter.

Parking lots in most of the shopping malls are nearly clear but the Long Island Railroad has not finished their work.

Well, that last part is not exactly true.  The LIRR, part of the MTA has finished what they set out to do, raise fares!  (In case you are not from around here - the two acronyms are supposed to stand for the Metropolitan Transit Authority and the Long Island Rail Road.)

With the memory of yet another terribly amateurish attempt at running ‘on or near’ schedule still fresh in the minds of the riders the LIRR has just raised the cost to use their service.

Service?

Is it fair to call one word an oxymoron?

For the LIRR "on time" means being less than 6 minutes late!  Imagine telling your bank you were only $6 short on your mortgage payment!!!

What nerve these arrogant bastards have!

But they have not just raised the fares; they have completely canceled trains and combined others on their schedule and basically lowered the expectation of fairness system wide.

If you'd like to see how they don’t care one bit about their customers you need only look at the list of their new surcharges and fees.

For example if you accidentally purchase a wrong ticket for let’s say $6 and wish to return it you will get your money back LESS A $10 SERVICE FEE!

In other words the great folks at the LIRR will take your ticket back IF YOU PAY THEM $4!!!

Oh, and if you wish to buy a couple of extra tickets because it’s a pain to wait on line at the last second you now have only 1 week to use them before they expire!

And don’t even think about buying a ticket while on the train unless you have access to a home equity line of credit and can pass a Homeland Security background check!!!

While there are many more fees and service charges that could make a normal commuter’s blood boil we must still remember that the LIRR is part of the MTA which has added its own set of ‘screw you’ fees.

If you wish to have a Metro Card in order to ride the subways plan on keeping it forever.  And leave that valuable piece of paper in the will for your children.

The MTA, (Going Their Way – Not Yours) is now charging an extra dollar for new cards claiming that the tiny bits of nothing cost too much to print and are not environmentally friendly!

As if the MTA EVER gave a rat’s ass about the environment!

The bottom line is simply if you live on Long Island the experiment is on to see how much can be stolen from your wallets before you are forced to drive everywhere.

And with the price of gas about to top $4 per gallon (it’s already averaging $3.50) that plays right into the hands of George W Bush’s friends, the Saudis.

The consumer really has only one way to show his or her dissatisfaction with something, boycott.

Unfortunately in this case it is very hard to get around without using one of the MTA’s services.  So the next best solution is to leave Long Island; New York City; and New York State altogether (Leslie Nielson would now be waiting for all of you to repeat that last part so…)

The acronym at the top can now be explained to mean Much Too Arrogant!  And its subsidiary stands for Life Is Really Rough here.

So as much of Long Island grays the easy life of ‘early bird’ specials and hanging chads beckons.  And it’s only a matter of time before those of us with any brains and a small amount of pocket change leave this overly-expensive over-taxed under-funded wasteland.

Eventually only migrant workers cleaning the pools and trimming the summer lawns of the uber wealthy in the Hamptons will remain.

A Pregnant Pause

A female police officer on Long Island is suing because she was discriminated against while pregnant. She was supposedly denied light duty assignments while pregnant and then passed over for promotion to sergeant basically due to her gender.

Her attorney is telescoping the charges down to a central issue of job and paycheck vs. having a family like her male counterparts.

She is being treated as though she did something wrong and since the entity treating her that way is our police force are they calling her pregnancy a crime?
If it is a crime should her husband be arrested for aiding and abetting (or bedding) her?

Presumably the woman officer passed all the necessary tests in order to join the force and should therefore be treated in much the same way as her fellow officers.

This is another no-brainer that is brought to you by the wonderful members of the good old boys club. Their stupidity never ceases to amaze and as a male embarrass me.

The Anti-Curmudgeon

Occasionally something happens that makes even curmudgeons sit up and take notice. Such was the case this week when a Shirley, Long Island convenience store owner turned the tables on a would be robber and treated the guy with respect!

Mohammad Sohail from Lahore, Pakistan was confronted by a masked man (not the Lone Ranger) demanding the cash from the register. Mo as he is known to his regulars quickly picked up a shot gun and forced the man into a submissive position on his knees.

While on the ground the perp reverted to reality and begged for leniency stating that he was out of work and in need of money for his family, etc. Mo was so taken by the tale that he handed the man $40 and some bread and was actually getting some milk when the man fled the store.

Now as a card-carrying member of the Curmudgeon league I refuse to extrapolate this one story to include all members of Mo's groups (that would be profiling) but I will give the devil his due!

Way to go Mr. Sohail. I salute you!