Michelle Wu’s T plan would soon have Hub in free fall
Boston mayoral candidate Michelle Wu’s proposal for free MBTA rides is fine.
But it does not go far enough.
After all, if the government can pay you not to work, why can’t it pay you to ride on the MBTA?
If Wu were a true progressive leader, she would insist that instead of free fares, the MBTA should pay riders to ride the system, and not the other way around.
Instead of shelling out a much-needed $5 for a two-way subway ride, the T, under the proposal, would pay people to take the T. It would work on a sliding scale, paying riders $2 for taking the subway or the bus for starters.
Not only would the payout help Bostonians economically living in underserved sections of the city that Wu is always talking about, but it would increase ever-sagging MBTA ridership.
Also, the payments could be considered something like the extra pay U.S. military forces get when they are jumping out of planes or assigned to hazardous operations.
Critics of the T believe that riding the T these days is like hazard duty. If you were at Back Bay Station last month, for instance, you would have seen multiple ambulances rushing to the scene.
The medics arrived after nine people were injured when an escalator reversed direction while they were on it. Although no one was seriously hurt, the scene was nonetheless a nightmare. Escalators are not supposed to go rogue.
In July, 25 people were injured when a Green Line trolley rear-ended another trolley at a B Line station along Commonwealth Ave. One female passenger talked about being flung from her seat and hitting a pole, suffering a concussion and a broken nose.
Annissa Essaibi George, Wu’s opponent, is just too moderate on the issue of free rides. That is perhaps why she is trailing in the polls. Voters nowadays are brainwashed over the free stuff movement that has taken over the country.
Even though we live in a progressive era of free stuff for all — free health care, free community college, federal college loan forgiveness, federal payouts for not working, free rent, free food, free drugs — it may seem that paying people to ride the T is still a bit too bold.
Unless, of course, Wu is saving the idea for her speech when she is sworn in, as the polls would indicate, to become the first woman, as well as the first Asian American, elected mayor.
Of, course, nothing is really free. Somebody always pays. In the case of the MBTA, the folks who will be picking up the tab for the free loaders will be the people who do not ride the T.
These are the commuters who drive to their workplaces in Boston. Not only will they be paying for the free riders, or will soon do so, but they are already paying through the nose in rising gas costs.
And then they have the problem of parking, unless you are rich enough to afford a parking garage. The rest of the underserved drivers have to circle around downtown Boston like fighter pilots searching for a place to land.
And woe to the driver who is caught parking illegally or runs out of parking meter time.
This is not to say that motorists should be paid to drive to Boston. But in her campaign for equity and social justice for all, Wu should call for free parking on the streets of Boston.
She could do so by smashing a couple of parking meters across from City Hall the way actor Paul Newman did in his classic movie “Cool Hand Luke.”
It is true that Gov. Charlie Baker won’t like it. It is also true that the city would lose millions in parking fine revenue and for free or paid T rides. Big deal. It is a small price to pay for equity and fairness.
This is America. Everything’s free in America.
Peter Lucas is a veteran Massachusetts political reporter and columnist.
