Mass Transit and Homelessness

POJL got scammed by a panhandler. I think many of us have a fear of being homeless. I know I do, though I do not give to panhandlers on trains. But most homeless people do not panhandle, and the greater problem is that NYC uses the subway as a de facto homeless shelter. This is not only a bad use of a mass transit system; it is an utterly irresponsible one. And that is why it is (officially) illegal to panhandle on the subway.

Many cities do not have a twenty-four hour subway system because they do not want their metro filled with smelly, stinking vagrants. Most American cities do not have an extensive rail system to speak of period, and even those few that do are often limited because of township fears of what a stop in their neighborhood will bring in.

The cost for this is an important aspect in denizens not only being unable to live auto-free, but without a rail alternative, completely auto dependent, at least in the suburbs.

This aids terrorism and abets rogue regimes. There would not be an Iranian regime or Saudi Arabian “charities� as we know them without oil.

The U.S. consumes 25% of world oil. Half of that is by passenger vehicles.

This country is not comfortable with mass transit. It is considered dangerous and dirty, especially one that runs 24/7. Guess which city’s mass transit system people think of for that?

Most Americans are not willing to endure what we do, and part of that is because they have kids, and part of that is because the filth and the nonsense we allow in our subways is well known and not particularly desired by most suburban Americans.

If we are to get off oil, we all have to do our part, and we all have to sacrifice. That means many things, but it also includes New York liberal Jews accepting that we have to clean up the subway in order to prove to the rest of the country that a 24/7 metro system (which all cities should have) does not necessitate accepting a culture of homelessness, harassment, and incivility into our daily lives.

Or we can do what we have been doing, and give the country a great excuse for not getting off their oil and their cars, and shrug as we head towards a darker and more dangerous future.

We are making the wrong choice. By siding with the schizophrenic junkie panhandlers right to squat, sleep, and solicit in the subway, we are indirectly siding with Al Qaeda, Hizbollah, Ahmadinjad. etc.

And before you dismiss this as insane and reactionary, answer me this: Why did Al Qaeda attack the mass transit systems of London and Madrid? Was it only to kill a lot of people? Or was it also to discourage new mass transit systems?

Think about it, Pissed Off Liberal Jew. And talk to your friend Mik Moore about it as well. I am sure both of you would vastly prefer to see more mass transit projects, and doubt either of you think this is a small issue. It would be nice to be able to have a stinky, sometimes scary, homeless subway shelter AND broad public support for a massive undertaking of 24/7 mass transit projects across urban and suburban America. But we can’t have both. Something’s got to give. And if your answer is, “Well, then what do we do about them?â€? then it already has. If you demand homelessness be solved in its entirety first, you are effectively preempting a national mass transit system expansion. By voting for the panhandlers and for vagrancy in the NY subway, you are voting for the automobile in the rest of the country.

And then you are really getting scammed.