Let Them Take Buses
Remember how Marie Antoinette said, or supposedly said, “Let them eat cake”?
This subjunctive injunction came to mind when I heard about how the mayor of
Los Angeles is telling people to take the bus.
“You’ve got to use public transit,” Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa recently
begged the citizenry. He says, “You can’t keep on pointing to someone else
and saying it’s their responsibility.”
This is quite a precious statement. Villaraigosa has made taking the bus a
cause celebre since he moved into the mayoral mansion. But he is not the
most ardent practitioner of his preachments. He is, of course, chauffeured
around town most of the time, though he lives just a block from public
transit.
The mayor doesn’t deny it. He says “I’d like to do more, but my problem is I
have to go all over the city. It’s very tough because of my schedule.”
Oh dear. The man has a schedule? But what about that thing about how you’ve
“got to” use public transit, and you can’t keep fobbing off the
responsibility on others?
News flash for the mayor: Other people are busy, too. Other people are also
faced constantly with the question: do I go to where I’m going by Method A,
or Method B, or Method C? Just like the mayor, people pick the method most
convenient for them. If there are traffic problems in LA, they’re not going
to be solved by making people go slow. Nor by a big city dose of rampant
hypocrisy.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
