Another reason to hate the MTA

The "doomsday" budget plan was approved by the MTA today, which calls for an increase in fares from $2 to $2.50 and service cuts, including cutting over 30 bus lines and the W subway line. 

This is dire news for people like me, who can barely afford to take the subway as it is. It bothers me to see MTA employees standing around on platforms not doing anything, while I'm being squeezed for a fare hike. The colossal waste in MTA operations is staggering to me. Case in point: the other day, I had friends in town who wanted to buy a Metrocard. They put their cash in and the machine didn't spit out a card. They took it to the man in the booth, who told them to call the 1-800-METROCARD number. Well, we got home and called and they spent 10 minutes asking us questions about what happened, only to tell us to go BACK to the station and get an envelope from someone in the booth so that we could mail in the receipt. Was this really necessary?? Poor organization and employees who don't give a shit about their jobs conribute immensely to the fact that I'm now going to have to pay $2.50 to ride the subway.

Some people argue that NYC has one of the cheapest mass transit systems in the world, so we shouldn't be upset about paying more. My feelings on this are many:

1. We also have by far the dirtiest mass transit system I have ever seen. That's gotta count for something. Yeah, we pay about 40% less than Metro riders in Washington D.C., but have you ever seen how clean their system is? I never smell pee there.

2. NYC is also the least car-accessible city I've ever been to. Living in Midtown, I effectively have no choice but to ride mass transit because there's no way I can afford to garage my car and it's illegal to park on my street about 75% of the time. If the city is going to make it illegal for me to park a car on my own street, then mass transit needs to be as accessible as possible.

3. There should be no free bridges with access to Manhattan if the MTA doesn't have enough money and it's quite clear that Manhattan doesn't need any more cars coming and going.

If I didn't think I'd get flattened like a manhole cover, I'd start searching Craigslist for a bike.

Dominican Pride should not keep me from getting to my own home

Today, as you may or may not know, was the day of the Dominican Pride parade in Midtown. When I first learned of this event on Thursday as cops were posting "no parking" signs all over my block, I thought it sounded pretty neat. Living on a parade street should be exciting, no?

Well, silly me.

Our street was the staging area for the parade, which meant that starting at 8 AM there was music blasting. It also meant that once the parade was over, the street was quite literally covered in trash.

But the most egregious crime, in my opinion, was that I couldn't get to my apartment upon returning from my audition. I had to walk all around the block before I could find a policeman who would let me onto my own street. And worse yet, they wouldn't let Dan onto the street until the parade was over because his license doesn't have our address on it yet and so he couldn't prove he lived here.

This was irritating.

I mean, I think parades are great. Who doesn't love a good parade? I was only mildly miffed when I had to walk an extra ten blocks on the way home from the grocery store because of the Gay Pride parade. But this was ridiculous. Everyone and their brother who was involved with this parade was allowed onto my street, but Dan couldn't get home? 

I'm pretty sure that if anyone tried to organize a "Caucasion Pride" parade in the middle of Harlem and wouldn't let the residents of the streets get to their homes, someone would get shot. 

I'm all for parades in my neighborhood, but if I can't get to my own home because of one, that's just ridiculous.

No wonder casting directors expect us all to weigh 75 pounds...

I think the most noteworthy thing I ran into today was while I was waiting to audition for a political promo.

This girl was sitting across from me - my height, pretty attractive, probably a dress size 8 or so - complaining that she never gets cast because she's not skinny enough. I think, "yeah, that does suck. I hate how weightist this industry can be."

Then later, as she's getting up to go in, I notice that her resume claims that she's 5'4" (so far I'm with her) and that she weighs 110 pounds. Wait. Hold up. I don't even weigh 110 pounds and I'm a dress size 0/2 these days. The reason you're not getting cast is not that you're too heavy, it's that you're misrepresenting yourself! If you don't like how much you weigh, change it. Or at least don't put a ridiculously fake weight on the top of your resume!

I think she was beautiful the way she was, don't get me wrong. But 110? Come on.