Swipe it forward: Guerrilla posters point out the MTA’s anti-poverty tactics
The MTA has spent a lot of money on unnecessary improvements like painting arrows on the ground pointing which way to walk into a train and random announcements. There’s nothing like sticking it to the MTA when you swipe it forward.
But recently the MTA has stepped up their game to keep us all hating them with their fare-evasion ads and tactics. From stopping pre-ticket buses to check receipts during rush hour, to adding more police to arrest turnstile jumpers, the MTA always finds more ways for us to hate them.
All those ads telling passengers to not hold gates open and to pay the $2.75 fare or pay $100 fine. But some people weren’t having it.
(Not as pretty, but on point) pic.twitter.com/9DoQNqDWuM
— Stay-at-home Dog Dad (@DrBenz3) September 18, 2019
And they’re right to reject the anti-poor people ads. Because we know that’s who they’re targeting. MTA is attacking the working class people that sometimes can’t afford that $2.75, or students that don’t have money for that swipe, or a homeless person just trying to get out of the cold.
Doing some quick basic math, NYC spends about $50 million prosecuting fare-evasion cases every year. In 2017 there were 18,000 arrests and if all those people got reduced fare cards that would’ve cost about $14 million. So let’s be honest this isn’t to save money or make the delays better. It’s just some more capitalist bullshit.
Poverty is not a crime, but the MTA is making it one.
https://twitter.com/yung_waldo/status/1174169017982099456?s=20
So if you’re worried about the law, swipe it forward. Do you have an unlimited? Swipe ‘em in when you leave. Because the MTA has bread for a $4.5 billion 2ndAve subway that somehow stops right before Harlem, but can’t chill on that high schooler tryna go to their school’s basketball game, or your neighbor getting to the retail job that pays her next to nothing. If they don’t have $2.75 what makes you think they got $100?
Keep raising fares and we’ll keep swiping people in MTA. New Yorkers do not give a fuck. Your move.
