Numerical Severity

Screen capture from Telemundo, May Day 2007, MacArthur Park

"There will be no pictures of pigs shooting down
brothers in the instant replay.
There will be no pictures of pigs shooting down
brothers in the instant replay."

In a stunning scene from the documentary China Blue we see a designer jean buyer negotiate with a Chinese factory owner a unit cost below 4 dollars. Matching this cost by deadline requires all-night shifts where workers, mostly teenage girls, clothespin their eyes open so they can stay awake. Wages, which account for about a dollar of the hundreds paid by the mad urban chic for our ripped denim, barely cover the cost of the 12 to a room dorms and bowls of rice eaten in stairwells.

This logic of corporate gangsterism is manifest in the MTA executive caw: "Other cities charge 2 dollars a ride, so we must keep up."

What is this, a competition to see who can most brutalize the poor?

Will Minneapolis start converting low rent flats into million dollar condos, pushing more families onto the street so they can experience the garbage picking lifestyle of slumopolis?

Will Boston spend millions more on police to better terrorize youth of color and cut funds from counseling, parks and job training?

Will New York cops start randomly whacking heads of immigrant workers?

Will our city be a model for the nation in fighting for the dispossessed, the disenfranchised, the despised, or will it be cruel city U.S.A.?

Did we elect a progressive administration, or is this urban revanchism West Coast style?

"The revolution will not be televised, will not be televised,
will not be televised, will not be televised.
The revolution will be no re-run brothers;
The revolution will be live."
--Gil Scott Heron

There are two public hearings on the fare increase, both at the MTA headquarters (Vignes and Cesar Chavez).
Saturday, May 19th at 10 am
Thursday, May 24th at 9 AM--Official hearing, board members must attend.