The MTA Just Might Be On to Something

With the monthly Metro Card in New York City going up this weekend and now the Trump administration proposing to cut funding for mass transit, I suggest that the MTA find a new and interesting way to generate revenue.

This piece was originally posted on my Word Press site:

As many may know, one of the biggest crazes last month in the NYC seemed to be these Supreme Metro Cards that have caused a stir on the Broadway-Lafayette Station early this week and the Supreme store in SoHo. I admit that I had to Google what Supreme was, as I have become so out of touch with youth culture; I am an uncool mom now, but perhaps the MTA has just found an ingenious way to generate revenue that they so desperately need. They can partner with other over hyped brands that Generation Z has bought into hook, line and sinker. If Supreme can convince this generation to buy a brick with their name on it for a ridiculous price, the MTA can create all kinds of special edition Metro Cards with different corporate logos on it that seem like they are anti-establishment.

This may actually get the MTA out of debt from all of their capital projects that went over budget, like that glorified mall on Fulton Street or that shiny new station on the Far West Side that no one seems to use or those three stations in the Upper East Side that cost $2.4 billion dollars to build. An ordinary station would have been fine, but Governor Cuomo and the MTA decided to build stations with Chuck Close paintings in them. Every time you swipe your MetroCard, 17% of that fare goes to the debt that the MTA owes to lenders because these projects that I just mentioned went way over budget. Think about that, as we will pay an extra $4.50 for a monthly card on Sunday, March 19.

Now, MTA may actually have a feasible plan to pay off some of that debt. But, no, they will probably use those extra funds to finance another over-hyped capital project that will only benefit a select few because that is what the MTA does best. Meanwhile, the rest of us will be paying more for train delays that result from signal, switch and/or rail problems. I just hope that you were able to purchase one of those Supreme MetroCards and sell it back for $1,000, which is what they seem to be going for on eBay. That will cover 8 months of a monthly Metro Cards.