Santa's sled is stuck in traffic

Sometimes seasonal doggerel contains universal truth.  Here's an example about a Boston-area infrastructure issue from James Aloisi, a former state transportation official.  Like me, he can't figure out why the Massachusetts body politic can't get their collective heads together around the truism that a strong--and expanding--mass transit system is the difference between a city and a world class city.  He also recognizes that a failure to invest in such infrastructure assesses a hidden tax on the many people in a metropolitan area--in the form of longer commute times, a need to purchase cars, and limitations on employment--and on the businesses in that area--in the form of a reduced labor force pool and congestion of roads that adds to the cost of transporting goods.

Excerpts:

To commuters and riders

With a simple request:

For transit mobility,

Why not the best?

And history repeats itself

Many times over

As voices of retrenchment

Get bolder and bolder.

More yappy than beagles

They shouted “for shame!

We won’t raise more revenue

And we won’t take the blame”.

“Reform without revenue” –

The slogan sounds pretty

Until you get down to the

Nitty and  gritty.

And then you can see

As you look at the facts

That we’ve shortchanged transit

Through a series of acts

That over the decades have

Caused this decline

Through lack of investment

Without reason or rhyme.

As I started to type

My thoughts flowed like honey:

The T needs investment.

The T needs more money.

More funding for fixing

Systems old and quite broken.

More funding for maintenance -

Much more than a token.

More funding to innovate

So we keep up the pace -

Embracing the future

Means winning the race.