Liquidcamphor wrote:BSR, you raised some good points and personally, I hope you get a job there, but I have to disagree with a few things. In 1965, the LIRR and TA workforce were predominately white as was the population of NYC and both organizations customer base. So what does racial issues have to do with the State taking over the LIRR in '65 have to do with it?
The LIRR has waited quite a long time for ESA, it was proposed in the 60's. And it's not there yet and not for quite awhile. Those "whiteys" on the LIRR contribute a hell of a lot of tax revenue to this State so the State can give handouts to the so-called "oppressed" of society supposedly deprived of the oppurtunity to work. New York has to throw the contributors to society a "bone" so they can work and pay for skells who contribute nothing.
The City of New York..population 7 million, has 1 million on welfare. Nice. 1/7th of the population on the dole. Somebody has to pay for that. Gee, I wonder who? Better keep them working...
You rasie some equally good, but outdated points. as of the 2000 census, NYC is a city of 8 Million people (3 million of which are white), and of those, 400,000 are on welfare. Although, 2 million are on medicaid. But to say people who "don't work" is a vastly discirmantory and old-fashioned comment (and I'm not trying to characterize you as discriminatory or old-fashioned). The fact is, all those Indians, Africans/Carribeans, Hispanics, Chinese, Russians that look like they're not working as hard as you, actually are. Have you been to the outer boroughs recently? They may not have the big yards or fancy schools of LI, but they're well-kept, safe and hard-working. The only difference is that they're of a much different skin-tone than of the 1950's. Those guys coming off "the boat" are opening shops and resturants, sweeping hotel rooms, fixing cars, working construction, filing papers and reaching the ranks of mamagement. That's what's beautiful about the city. Without the city, the state would have lost 2,000,000 residents. That affects you're standing in Washington which gives money to the railroad.
But that doesn't say Long Island isn't deserving. Long Island is a beautiful place to live and rasie a familiy. So you guys deserve you're projects and funding. But the city is by far no freeloader. It's those immigrants and middle class of the outer boroughs that keep the state and region afloat, and that's the same for any region of the US and the same situation currently exists in Europe. As for the 1965 takeover, the fact is the demograpchis of the city we're already shifting dramatically at the time (city by 1960 had already replaced 1 million whites with 700-800 thousand non-whites) and Long Island was quickly becoming the epicenter of the region's economic growth, as well as the catchbasin for the city's white flight. So there is some politics at play. But more-so than in other areas of the US, the inequalities all balance out to equality. LIers pay for NYC's medicaid burden, while NYC gets shiafted in Albany for LIers with wide pockets. That's the paradox of not only the Railroad or NYS, but of America's society and politics as a whole.
l!