It was good enough for Eminem in 8 Mile
It has been said that no government program can survive if people can earn enough to buy or price themselves out. That's why we Social Security and Medicare are as big or bigger than they were decades ago, but Aid to Families With Dependent Children has been scrapped and home heating-oil subsidies are always getting shortchanged. In a society where everyone thinks they're higher-up on the income ladder than they think they actually are and predicts they'll die rich, nobody but the poor thinks they'll ever need these services, which is why transit often gets screwed in more car oriented cities.
In New York and London, the mayors take the subway and invest millions in the admittedly creaky systems. In the Big D, Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick rolls up in a Lincoln Navigator:
Waiting for a bus on a slushy downtown corner earlier this week, 33-year-old Rhonee Williams made a vow. If a certain cherry-red 2005 Lincoln Navigator SUV happened to stop there, "I'm getting in it!"
Like many angry Detroiters, the clothing-store cashier feels entitled to a ride. She's upset because, at a time when Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick is planning big budget cuts -- including cuts in bus service -- the city recently leased a luxury Navigator for the mayor's family using taxpayers' money.
It isn't surprising that in this beleaguered city built on the auto industry, such a vehicle has come to symbolize the community's frustration and outrage. People here know a status symbol when they see one. And they also know that many in this poor city can't afford cars at all.
That's why people huddled at the bus stop here viewed the "Navigate" scandal in the most basic terms. A bus ride costs $1.50, "and if you're short a quarter, you're turned off the bus," said Ms. Williams. The wait between buses can be hours here, and quarters mean something to people, so "it's ludicrous that the mayor would sell us on all these cuts and then get a car like that for his family," said Nadirah Muhammad, a 56-year-old office receptionist.
When transit is seen as only for the poor, it becomes poor itself.
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rj3 | 9:27 AM |
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1.10 Euro for a liter of gas (that's $5.50/gallon for everyone back home) and 5 kilometer traffic jams on the major Autobahns quickly make lots of middle class people feel that they have a stake in public transit.
Then again, Germans generally have a more honest self-assessment of their income levels and the country feels more broadly middle class than the US. Buses are for just about everyone.
