{"id":2998,"date":"2007-12-14T07:30:20","date_gmt":"2007-12-14T15:30:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/wordpress\/archives\/2007\/12\/so_tourists_and_convicts_anyone_else.html"},"modified":"2007-12-14T07:30:20","modified_gmt":"2007-12-14T15:30:20","slug":"so_tourists_and","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/archives\/2007\/12\/so_tourists_and.html","title":{"rendered":"So . . . Tourists And Convicts . . . Anyone Else?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Who benefits most from keeping subway and bus fares at $2<\/a>? Besides<\/em> tourists<\/a>, I mean. Inmates<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Jailbirds are among those thanking the Metropolitan Transportation Authority for maintaining the $2 pay-per-ride MetroCard — part of a restructured fare-hike proposal supported by Gov. Spitzer and Mayor Bloomberg that will save the base fare while raising the price of unlimited cards used by 86 percent of riders.<\/p>\n

Recently released convicts must buy a two-ride, $4 MetroCard with money in their inmate accounts when they’re sprung from Rikers Island.<\/p>\n

. . .<\/p>\n

“I’m glad they didn’t raise it,” said 59-year-old Roberto Gonzalez of Bushwick, Brooklyn, who has been locked up since Dec. 8 for burglary and menacing.<\/p>\n

But he admits he had other things on his mind while in the city’s infamous lockup.<\/p>\n

“I wasn’t thinking about the fare hikes,” he said. “[Rikers] is full of Crips, Bloods, MS-13s . . . And they’re full of attitude.”<\/p>\n

The Correction Department buys about $160,000 worth of MetroCards a year for inmates to use upon their release, a spokesman said.<\/p>\n

“We issue them to inmates who do not have sufficient money in their accounts as they’re being discharged from jail,” said a spokesman.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Who benefits most from keeping subway and bus fares at $2? Besides tourists, I mean. Inmates: Jailbirds are among those thanking the Metropolitan Transportation Authority for maintaining the $2 pay-per-ride MetroCard — part of a restructured fare-hike proposal supported by Gov. Spitzer and Mayor Bloomberg that will save the base fare while raising the price […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[68],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2998","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-follow_the_money"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2998","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2998"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2998\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2998"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2998"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2998"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}