Buffalo - 30% of households have no car. #Transit cuts announced.

According to the Buffalo News, the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority faces "staggering fiscal problems." With a $15 million budget gap and projections of deficits through 2015, transit commissioners are scrambling. They've announced they'll be laying off 20 percent of the transit police force and have approved a 22 percent cut in service miles.

Yet, Buffalo residents are taking transit in record numbers. Ridership was 29 million this year, which means that 18 percent more trips were taken by transit than in 2006. Many of these are trips of necessity, not choice: 30 percent of Buffalo households do not have a car, and the city has the third-highest poverty rate in the country.

Read more: http://www.timesunion.com/opinion/article/Letter-Transit-systems-must-be-funded-2418925.php#ixzz1hMuTJfeY

Albany timesunion.com : Letter: Parking hassles can be avoided

timesunion.com : Letter: Parking hassles can be avoided: "All I can say to the "search to park" crowd is, "Why in heaven don't you try the bus?""

Reader's response to parking nightmare in Albany: http://www.timesunion.com/local/article/Parking-is-its-own-job-2409869.php

TWU Contract Rally with Occupy Wall Street #ows

(9) TWU Contract Rally with Occupy Wall Street: "Tranport Workers Union Local 100 made history as the first labor union to support Occupy Wall Street. Now Occupy is mobilizing to stand with TWU as they begin their campaign to demand a fair contract. The Occupy Wall Street Labor Outreach Committee says “No Givebacks to the 1%”.

On December 15th, TWU will rally outside MTA headquarters at 2 Broadway, then march to Liberty Plaza, the birthplace of Occupy Wall Street, for a rank-and-file General Assembly. We are the 99% and we stand as one!

When: Thursday, December 15 4pm
Where: MTA Offices 2 Broadway (just down the road from Zuccotti Park)
What: Tranport Workers Union Local 100 contract rally and rank-and-file General Assembly

Occupy Wall Street Labor Outreach Committee is a network of rank-and-file activists and union staffers who share a common vision of union democracy, militancy, and solidarity. We provide mutual aid and support for each other's struggles, using the tactics and principles of Occupy Wall Street."

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#occupywallstreet accurately targets those who are causing our pain

" 'Blood sucking squid' Goldman Sachs holding presser with translator who speaks squid"

@kstrel

  [UPDATE] Occupy Wall Street "Squidding" At Goldman Sachs Right Now: Gothamist: "Goldman, "a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money." The demonstration is also targeted at EGT, who along with Goldman is accused of "committing egregious tax fraud at West Coast shipping ports.""

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#occupyhomes #occupywallstreet abandoned house reoccupied and bright with life

http://twitpic.com/7pi27s

Governor determined to destroy public #transit

ANALYSIS: What Cuomo’s Tax Bill Says About Transit | Transportation Nation: "the Governor’s office initially assured us the $250 million hole to the MTA budget would be plugged by a dedicated stream from the $1.9 billion reaped by the tax on the super-rich – but when the bill was finally presented — minutes before it was voted on — there was no such provision"

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Governor must be stopped from stealing #transit funds

Concerned About Cuomo, Transit & Environmental Adocates To Meet: "The original lockbox bill, sponsored by Assemblyman Jim Brennan and Sen. Marty Golden, made it more difficult for the governor to unilaterally divert MTA dedicated transit funds, and required an impact statement on transit service if dedicated funds were taken.

This was a reaction to the diversion of $260 million in dedicated transit funds over the last three years, which according to advocates, contributed to the worst metropolitan-area transit service cuts in memory."

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#occupyhomes is in the house

#oiltroll governor has become a comic figure