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The Fight Against MBTA Service Cuts and Fare Hikes Gets Ugly

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The latest theater in the war against MBTA fare hikes and service cuts opened Monday with a bang on every corner of the train map. Occupy Somerville forces rallied in Davis Square. Their Jamaica Plain and Dorchester counterparts gathered at Forest Hills and Fields Corner, respectively, to sound alarms about troubling proposals. Leading the pack, a group of loud and determined teens with the Youth Affordabili(T) Coalition joined hundreds from the T Riders Union (TRU) and other activist outfits for a mass rally on Copley Square outside the Boston Public Library, where the MBTA planned a bombshell public meeting for 6pm on Monday night.

Since I'm a lone reporter with two feet and one T pass, I missed the aforementioned send-offs and jumped on the Trail of Jeers at Downtown Crossing, where a hodgepodge of about 25 Boston Occupiers gathered beneath the Corner Mall awning. After sizing up the situation, the horde hit the Washington Street staircase, crammed onto the busy Orange Line platform, and proceeded to push discourse on the iron horse.

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Their first ride, between Downtown Crossing and Back Bay, was compromised by weak projection and an outspoken addict. Second and third attempts also failed; despite honing an easy-to-announce message, Occupiers were drowned out by squeaky tracks and a prehistoric PA system. The mission was scrapped once and for all after an insane female rider with a nose ring and a skull cap threatened to thrash them. “Have fun walking when you can't afford the T,” Occupier Jay Kelly shouted as they exited at Chinatown.

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That boxcar occupation and others, however, were merely piggybacking on the larger rally, which filled the entire BPL sidewalk across from Copley by 5pm. More than two months into this battle, groups like On The Move and Transportation for Massachusetts were steaming, and carried out an emotional hour-long chorus of hoots and hollers. As the hearing time approached, delegates from more than 50 community groups filed into the BPL, where they quickly jammed the basement auditorium and an adjoining spillover room. More than 100 people were turned away due to space constraints.

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Everybody in the crowd knew what was coming. Still they screamed loudly as Mark Boyle, assistant general manager for development at the MBTA, announced the proposed cuts. To claims that 90 percent of riders wouldn't be affected, people called Boyle a “liar.” When he laid out the plan to make The Ride more expensive, MBTA officials were accused of “attacking disabled riders.” Plans to scale back service on the Mattapan extension of the Red Line (and bus routes everywhere) were met with repeated allegations of institutional racism.

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Mayor Tom Menino fared somewhat better. After scolding outspoken protesters, he took the podium to express many of the same concerns coming from the gallery. Blasting proposals to slash service for disabled and elderly riders, Hizzoner even kicked a metaphor – “You can't do reconstructive surgery with a first aid kit” – before officials opened the floor for two hours of impassioned public testimony. In their turn, some people reminded T honchos that this mess is the making of their six-figure salaries and hiring binges. Others simply pleaded for mercy, telling how service cuts will leave them paralyzed.

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Wild as it was, Monday's showdown was likely small potatoes compared to what's coming. Transportation is an ideal rallying point between progressive factions, as everyone from seniors and Occupiers to teens and disabled rights crusaders are turning out in increasingly large numbers. Between now and April 4, when MBTA board members vote on their “racist” proposal, there will be more than a dozen marches and rallies, many of which – like today's romp at the State House – will take aim at Governor Patrick and the legislature. In the words of one heckler: “We want a discussion. So far you've just rammed this down our throats.”


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