Friday, April 15, 2011

I Saw the Sign... Unfortunately.


There it was, written in black & white:

"If it's broke, fix it."

While the incorrect grammar in the above statement combined with the purely obvious nature of this message make it seem like it came from one of the pre-schoolers I teach, no such luck. It is yet another brilliant statement by the New York City Metropolitan Transportation Authority which I had the pleasure to read on a recent ride on the downtown 6 train. In the eloquent way only the MTA can do it, they go on to say:

"Instead of waiting to fix everything in a station at once, we're fixing critical parts as soon as they need fixing. We're now at over 100 stations and counting."

Wow.

Impressive, MTA.

So instead of letting an entire subway station go to complete and total crap and getting sucked into the vortex under New York City, you fix things in dire need of repair and ignore the rest of the myriad issues contributing to subway riders' daily stress and discomfort. Is this really something that needs to be advertised to the average subway rider, who already has to endure jacked-up fares, terrible weekend service, and dirty subway cars and stations? Are we supposed to be impressed that if something is broke(n!), it's getting fixed?

In most cases I am all for honesty, no matter how brutal. However, the moment when I'm late to work because the train comes every 20 minutes on Saturday, and I am 'being held momentarily because of train traffic ahead' (which is virtually impossible since I just departed a station that was a ghost town), I do NOT want to read a sign assuring me that the MTA is only fixing things it deems crucial. If I only did the things that were 'crucial' at my job, I would be fired!

If anything, LIE to me and tell me that everything is getting fixed. All the time. At least it would give me false hope. I mean, I would still see the dirty subway cars and endure crappy weekend service, but I would think, "I saw the sign that said: 'everything is getting fixed. All the time.' Maybe I just caught the MTA on a bad day. Maybe I'm being held because they're fixing everything right now!" Ignorance is bliss, right? All that extra money I'm spending to ride the train is actually going towards something... right?!

I would like to know who is (really) in charge of the MTA, because I cannot believe they are an "Authority" on anything except how to waste my money and yours. Metropolitan Transportation Authority, or Money-Taking Assholes? Fares have been hiked three times since 2008, while the quality of service has decreased as trains run less frequently, and many maintenance and other workers that kept the subway running (somewhat) smoothly have been laid off. Take the money used to print these idiotic signs and put it back into the budget!

Maybe I should see if one of my pre-schoolers wants to balance the budget - I bet they would do a better job. At least they can form a proper sentence.