Moses/Jobs
“By the way, what have you done that’s so great? Do you create anything, or just criticize others’ work and belittle their motivations?”
‘‘Those who can, build. Those who can’t, criticize.”
I keep going back to Jobs’ conversation with Ryan Tate. It fascinates me. I made it there again tonight. Sure: In some regard they’re both right, and yeah, they’ve both done some decent things.
But Steve Jobs is starting to resemble, in too many ways, something vastly different from what he was once perceived as, and maybe once was. If you can’t tell, the quality of his product has declined, too.
By the way, The MTA is about to announce their plans tomorrow to hike the price of a MetroCard up to $99 and put a 90-ride limit on what we’ll soon refer to as a “Limited Monthly” MetroCard, unless you want what we’ll soon refer to as an “Unlimited Monthly” MetroCard, which will cost you a cool $104. Rail fares would also go up, as would tolls.
Reminder:
On July 18, 2010, the New York Times reported the MTA’s budget deficit at $40,000,000.
To put this in perspective, on November 18, 2005 - a little over a month before the 2005 MTA Strike - the Times reported the MTA’s surplus estimate at $1.04B (or $1,004,000,000).
Which, really, compared with their current debt - $28.8B (or $28,800,000,000) - isn’t that much.
That was only five years ago.
Should we reserve our anger for the state instead of the MTA? Not entirely. On some counts, sure, but on this one, not really. See, the MTA - apparently “the largest public transportation provider in the Western Hemisphere” - is a public authority (or “public benefit corporation”). And guess who was responsible for those:
The widespread use of public authorities in New York State was pioneered by Robert Moses in the 1950s and 60s. Much of Moses’ power base resulted from his tight control of the Triborough Bridge Authority, which allowed him to earmark revenues from tolls on the bridge for other projects in New York City and around the state.
The public authority model allowed Moses to bypass many of the legal restrictions placed on state agencies, allowing him to expedite development but also allowing him to hide project financing, contracting and operational information from public scrutiny.
Incidentally, the MTA is the public authority that did him in, as Gov. Nelson Rockefeller forced him out of the public authority he’d long held power over as chairman, the Triborough Bridge Authority (later: the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority). Rockefeller convinced the legislature to fold the TBTA into the brand new MTA, and instead of taking the state to court, Moses resigned, because Rockefeller promised him a new position. Which he then stiffed Moses on, severely displacing his power.
This guy’s most brutal bureaucratic contribution to New York State - the public authority - did him in. Beautiful. Unfortunately, schadenfreude isn’t enough, because it’s still fucking with New Yorkers’ quality of life. The guy’s dark vision of a metropolis was that most of us would
1. Be poor and without power.
2. Be at the mercy of the power of his creations, which he transplanted into the infrastructure of our city. Oh, and
3. Be at the mercy of people who are in power.
Anyway. One quote reminded me of the other. And how necessary the criticizing of others’ work and the belittling of their motivations really is.
