Get woke, go broke
/
oh, please buy a ticket — puleeze?”
There are no turnstiles, so passengers are supposed to either buy a ticket or tap their pre-paid card. But so few riders are paying, fares are currently covering just 5% of the system’s operating costs, a fraction of the 40% mark Sound Transit set as a requirement.
At a recent Sound Transit Board meeting, the outgoing CEO summed up the situation. "Our fare collection system relies overwhelmingly on an honor system," Peter Rogoff said, "and our increasingly acute problem is that our riders aren’t honoring the system."
By one measurement, as many as a staggering 70% of all passengers are free riders. But even that is only an estimate as there is almost no fare enforcement. Sound Transit did away with fare enforcement officers after a study revealed people of color were disproportionately getting fined. Instead, the system now relies on fare ambassadors. There are only a handful for the whole light rail system, so riders will rarely encounter them. They currently engage only 2% of all riders.
,,, There are a few other light rail systems that rely on the honor system, including the ones in Portland, Denver and Dallas. But they all issue hefty fines to fare evaders the first time they are caught. Most of the Sound Transit Board members seem unfazed by the poor fare collection performance. Claudia Balducci is among those who supports the fare ambassador’s light touch.
Of course, being Seattle, the free loaders think this is swell
"People are feeling more welcome on our system and less afraid to use it because there’s less of a fear of fare enforcement," Balducci said.
But, the lone Republican on the Sound Transit Board says taxpayers who have forked over $168 billion for the system are getting ripped off. ….
Sound Transit collects money from virtually everyone in Pierce, Snohomish and King counties. Those who live inside the special taxing district have to pay extra property tax and a much higher fee for their car tabs. Depending on the Blue Book value of the car it can easily cost an extra $200-$300 each year to register. And everyone pays an additional 1.4% on their sales tax to fund Sound Transit.
But wait, there’s more!
'Defund the Police' Fever Leaves Seattle Without Cops to Investigate Sexual Assault
Nearly two years after Seattle led the way in defunding the police, the Washington city’s force is so understaffed it did not assign a detective to investigate a single case of a sex assault on an adult last month, according to a report.
The depleted department now only has four detectives in the squad handling sex assaults, nearly all dedicated to child abuse cases, local NPR station KUOW revealed.
Not a single sexual assault case involving an adult was given to a detective throughout the whole of last month, aside from any that already had arrests, the outlet said, citing documentation from a whistleblower.
“The Seattle Police Department sexual assault unit is not at all investigating adult sexual assault reports or cases unless there was an arrest,” one police department source told the station.
The lack of manpower even means people reporting sex assaults are sometimes routed to an automated telephone hotline designed to handle non-urgent crimes such as stolen checks, the report said.
Governments at all levels: municipal, state, and federal, seem to have abandoned their original role of protecting the lives and liberties of their citizens and promoting the general welfare of the populace, and turned instead into legislative bodies that reward favored factions, punish those in disfavor, and generate a dystopian society for all.
That’s a bad thing.
