Why Harvard Needs to Bail Out the MBTA
There’s no question that the MBTA is completely effed. But there’s also no question that the MBTA is completely necessary.
For people living downtown, the T is a convenient, if somewhat eccentric amusement. “Should we walk, or do we have time to take the T?” is oft-overheard during long headways, waiting on a C-branch trolley out to Washington Square or the Orange Line to Back Bay Station. If push came to shove, a $20 cab fare or a $60 tank of gas would be no skin off the nose of your average downtowner.
But for many more people in the Boston area, those are serious expenses. A growing number of people are finding that an MBTA pass is the only economically viable commuting option, and regardless of whether the better off like to admit it, the economic future of everyone is intertwined. If low-wage workers from outside the city center can’t get to work, no buildings get built, and there’s no one to make the donuts.
This being Boston, there’s no shortage of informed opinion on how to fix the problem. But the T, an early victim of the market overconfidence that eventually crippled the mortgage industry, is in hock to the unpleasant tune of $8.1 billion dollars. The T’s GM, unassailable Smilin’ Dan Grabauskas, says a huge fare hike is the only solution, though he’s probably trying to drum up public support for a bailout.
Thing is, the Commonwealth already overspent itself, and thanks to a powerplay between our Governor and the Speaker of the House, there’s no new revenue. But I just so happen to know a place out in Cambridge that has an image problem, a vested interest in the stability of the MBTA, and a few billion dollars to burn.
Rather than cave to pressure to tax Harvard’s $35+ billion endowment, which could end up hurting the Boston area in the long run, the Commonwealth could politely suggest a one-time reinvestment in the community’s transportation infrastructure. The donation could help resolve several long-running disputes between the University and the T, and further cultivate the populist image the Crimson has been trying to attach to itself recently.
Why is this relevant to the housing markets in Back Bay and Beacon Hill? Because a dysfunctional MBTA hurts downtown the most. More and more companies will move out of the urban core and into suburban or virtual offices if current physical plants become too difficult to maintain. That gives potential buyers one more reason to settle into restored colonial farmhouses in Concord, where they can spend time with their kids and conduct business in their PJs.
With all those lost jobs, revenue moving out of the city, no way to get new business in, and a credit crisis that many predict will only get worse, Urban Decay, Round 2 could make the 60′s and 70′s look like a CareBears flick. That’s bad news for Harvard, bad news for the Commonwealth, and most definitely bad news for Beacon Hill.
Back Bay Foreclosures in our Future?
