The Subways Should Be Free
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- Published on Friday, 22 February 2019 02:34
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A Socialist Project e-bulletin ... No. 1770 ... February 22, 2019
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The Subways Should Be Free
Christopher Baum
Last month, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio finally launched his eagerly anticipated Fair Fares program offering half-price transit fares for low-income New Yorkers -- but the early reviews were decidedly mixed.
The first phase of the program will make weekly and monthly unlimited-use MetroCards (NYC bus and subway fare cards) available at half price to some 30,000 New Yorkers, with another 100,000 to be added to the program in April.
Advocates quickly pointed out that these totals fall far short of the estimated 800,000 New Yorkers who currently live below the federal poverty line, and accused de Blasio of failing to live up to the grandiose promises he made when announcing the program last... year.
Given that an astounding one in three poor New Yorkers are unable to pay for public transit, it’s critical for activists to fight for Fair Fares to be expanded as rapidly and widely as possible.
