Tuesday, October 14, 2003
I can't crap believe it! The MBTA just raised the parking rate from $3 to $4 dollars a day and a fare increase for the subway is due to go into effect soon too. Let me back up and first describe events leading up to the parking rate increase. For the past ten months, I have been parking my car in Lot X and walking past what for all ostensive purposes was an MBTA-owned junk yard -- an ill-cared-for piece of land used to store mounds of sand and salt in the winter to melt the snow on the roads. A rusted-out chain link fence surrounded the property and I was really never able to ascertain why this was necessary. To keep people from stealing salt? Or the accumulated trash? The old washing machine that had inexplicably landed there?
Last week a gaggle of carefully-watched convicts was out-and-about cleaning up the place inbetween ogling the women walking by. Well let me re-phrase that. The convicts did a half-ass job of cleaning up the trash and ripped out the one and only beautiful thing that adorned this miserable 3rd-world-looking plot -- a wild rose bush that clung rebelliously to the fence and bloomed gorgeously pink in mid-summer (they kept the rusted-out fence). In came the tar and yellow lines. And voila! Another parking lot that puts you a few feet closer to the subway station (honestly not a bad thing in the winter). Up went the new pricing information: $4. So all of the neighboring parking lots (some MBTA, some private) raised their prices too. Ironically the lot closest to the station costs only $2.50. The problem is you have to get there at about 5:30 a.m. to get a spot...
Guys. As state employee I make $29,000 a year. How do I afford to drive an Audi, plan trips to Jamaica, and endure careening-out-of-control house renovations? I am a highly subsidized woman... Which doesn't mean that on any given day I don't have a highly evolved imagination that cannot clearly envision life were I to have to actually live on the above-mentioned income. I won't drill down to the nittty gritty but let's just look at some basic numbers. I pay exorbitantly for health insurance (relatively speaking), taxes, a measly life insurance policy, and my monthly MBTA pass. This brings my net pay down to $17,500 a year. Subtract out $3,400 in commuting costs (parking, subway, car insurance, and gas). Now I am down to about $14,000. Now let's say I were lucky enough to land an apartment at $1000 a month that could accommodate my teenager still living at home (almost inconceivable in the state of Massachusetts which ranks almost #1 in the country as far as having the least affordable housing). Hmmmm. I do believe that leaves aprox. $1,000 f***** dollars to live on for the year? Meanwhile I have a son who goes to a college that costs $40,000 a year and a daughter headed down the same track...
Now let's please just remember that in the grand scheme of things, I am by no means considered the "bottom of the pile." Like how about some of my disenfranchised constituents who for lack of any other alternative, are living migrating up to campsites in New Hampshire to live. Even when these campsites close down for the winter.... They just collect their stuff and move further into the woods...
Math never was my strong suit so correct me if I am wrong here but I think one gets the point. If you think this is OK and just the way life in America should be, please click on 36 Reasons to Vote for Bush and the Republicans
Last week a gaggle of carefully-watched convicts was out-and-about cleaning up the place inbetween ogling the women walking by. Well let me re-phrase that. The convicts did a half-ass job of cleaning up the trash and ripped out the one and only beautiful thing that adorned this miserable 3rd-world-looking plot -- a wild rose bush that clung rebelliously to the fence and bloomed gorgeously pink in mid-summer (they kept the rusted-out fence). In came the tar and yellow lines. And voila! Another parking lot that puts you a few feet closer to the subway station (honestly not a bad thing in the winter). Up went the new pricing information: $4. So all of the neighboring parking lots (some MBTA, some private) raised their prices too. Ironically the lot closest to the station costs only $2.50. The problem is you have to get there at about 5:30 a.m. to get a spot...
Guys. As state employee I make $29,000 a year. How do I afford to drive an Audi, plan trips to Jamaica, and endure careening-out-of-control house renovations? I am a highly subsidized woman... Which doesn't mean that on any given day I don't have a highly evolved imagination that cannot clearly envision life were I to have to actually live on the above-mentioned income. I won't drill down to the nittty gritty but let's just look at some basic numbers. I pay exorbitantly for health insurance (relatively speaking), taxes, a measly life insurance policy, and my monthly MBTA pass. This brings my net pay down to $17,500 a year. Subtract out $3,400 in commuting costs (parking, subway, car insurance, and gas). Now I am down to about $14,000. Now let's say I were lucky enough to land an apartment at $1000 a month that could accommodate my teenager still living at home (almost inconceivable in the state of Massachusetts which ranks almost #1 in the country as far as having the least affordable housing). Hmmmm. I do believe that leaves aprox. $1,000 f***** dollars to live on for the year? Meanwhile I have a son who goes to a college that costs $40,000 a year and a daughter headed down the same track...
Now let's please just remember that in the grand scheme of things, I am by no means considered the "bottom of the pile." Like how about some of my disenfranchised constituents who for lack of any other alternative, are living migrating up to campsites in New Hampshire to live. Even when these campsites close down for the winter.... They just collect their stuff and move further into the woods...
Math never was my strong suit so correct me if I am wrong here but I think one gets the point. If you think this is OK and just the way life in America should be, please click on 36 Reasons to Vote for Bush and the Republicans
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