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Bite Size News, November 10: Cuts That Hurt Edition
Call Bostonist crazy, but WTF?! The Boston City Council has taken up the cause of making parking lot operators refund money to Sox fans who park and then leave because of rain delays. Naturally, we can see the political capital in this move, what with the way that lot operators jack up prices when demand is high (stupid capitalism!), but will someone at City Hall start getting serious about encouraging fans to take the T to the ballgame?
Bostonist just can't get over this. We love baseball and we love going to Fenway, but what makes Sox fans so special? If Bostonist parks in a garage downtown to see a play, but the show is cancelled because several actors have caught the flu, can we get our money back from the garage operator? What about the babysitter who's home with Toddler Bostonist? More to the point, if we take the T to Fenway and the game is rained out, can we get back our $1.25? This campaign to indemnify the poor, driving, ticket-holding masses seems designed to encourage fans to drive to the park.
This whole thing got started, according to the Globe, after a fan from West Roxbury, Lee Vaughan, complained to the City Council about having spent $40 on parking for the May 2 rain-out. Ironically (perhaps), Bostonist could only find one "L. Vaughan" in the West Roxbury white pages (we used the paper edition, not one of the on-line look-up services), and that person lives about 12 blocks from the West Roxbury commuter rail station. Even if 12 blocks is too far to walk (she was, after all, with her five-year-old son), the station also has 62 parking spaces and there seems to be no shortage of on-street parking nearby. So for a $6.50 round trip on the commuter rail, $2.50 for two tokens, and $2.00 to park at the MBTA lot in West Roxbury, Ms. Vaughan could have saved $29.00 on transportation to the May 2 game, without even figuring in the cost of gas.
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No no no no no no. Encouraging fans to take the T doesn't help anyone either. Far too many people rely on the Green Line to get to and from work on a daily regular schedule, some of them with children waiting to be picked up on the other end of the line or other commitments, and all game day traffic does is jam the whole system up, often with loud, obnoxious, crass people marveling at the novelty of all of it while the poor bastard next to them is just barely succeeding in enduring YET ANOTHER DAY.
And the shame is on the MBTA for not addressing the shortcomings of the Green Line and expanding the schedule during games, in addition to never being able to keep a steady flow on the Green Line to accommodate platforms full of passengers.
The commuter rail is pretty much the only sane part of the situation, as inbound traffic at game time is opposite the stream of homebound commuters, and fans head home later in the evening.
Except in the case of an afternoon game, of course.
Do we live in Mayberry RFD? Mark is correct -yes the MBTA via Tommy T and the city and the Sawx and Mitt No One Is Looting Rommney should force their hand or whatever they have and expand the Green Line schedule to accommodate the daily riders and the ball game riders - it could be managed -- but when has the MBTA ever managed a service interruption, never mind a scheduled uptick in rider demand. It's embarassing how hicksville this city is.
just read the link to the Glob - she spent $474 and she's complaining about the parking -call a cab lady..........shootings and murder rate skeeeeeeeyee high and the city council is worried about this act of Mother Nature's impact on someone who can afford to blow $500 on a Sawx game - put the money twds an lcd or plasma and watch it at home