There were about 50 people gathered outside Governor Pataki's NYC office on 3rd Ave. between 40th and 41st last night to protest the proposed fare hike for NYC subways and buses. The demo was organized by NYPIRG's Straphanger Campaign, the Save Mass Transit Coalition, and Transportation Alternatives.

I didn't have anything identifying me as representing Radical Reference as the baseball hat just wouldn't cut it in this cold, and I didn't want to safety pin the tag Melissa made to my down jacket. I still managed to answer one question, posed by a woman standing behind me about who the person addressing the crowd was. I had heard it was Gifford Miller, and I was pretty sure he is planning to oppose Mayor Bloomberg in the next election. I put in a call to home support librarian Jenny Scholten, and she told me that Miller is the City Council Speaker. I believe the woman I helped was associated with the Transit Workers Union. When I gave her a flyer she said something about bringing it to her community advisory board. It would be great to do some outreach to other unions.

The topper to the day was waiting 25 minutes in the cold for an M15 bus downtown after the demo. With that kinda service why wouldn't I want to pay more?