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I could understand privatization, but the point is that they still have to be subsidized to remain affordable. (With regards to schools).
No, they don't.
Without the burden of having to educate everyone, those who can afford an education will get a better education.
Private charity (voluntary subsidies) will help those who can not afford private schools.
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Originally Posted by checkmatechamp13
The same thing for fire and sanitation: I have no problem with a private company doing it (assuming the service is good and they treat their workers fairly), but the point is that you shouldn't charge everybody the full cost of the service.
Certainly you do. No favoritism.
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Originally Posted by checkmatechamp13
For firefighting, if you don't stop one home from burning, you could set fire to the whole neighborhood because the people won't be able to afford to pay for the fire department.
If you can't afford fire insurance, then you can't live here. Simple as that.
Without the burden of having to educate everyone, those who can afford an education will get a better education.
Private charity (voluntary subsidies) will help those who can not afford private schools.
2) Certainly you do. No favoritism.
3) If you can't afford fire insurance, then you can't live here. Simple as that.
1) And those who can't afford one will get no education. The NYC school system educates over 1 million children. I highly doubt you're going to find enough money to educate all of them just from charity. First of all, even if you're only talking about the "cream of the crop" students applying for school (and even then, you're probably going to have a hard time finding funding for them), school helps keep kids off the streets, even if it's only for 6 hours. There is a value in the quality of life of the residents that you get from having schools open to everybody.
2) I don't know about you, but I don't like passing through areas where the streets are filled with filth.
1) And those who can't afford one will get no education.
Actually, what will happen is that more children will get a better education when those who do not behave and those who do not want to be there are no longer there.
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Originally Posted by checkmatechamp13
2) I don't know about you, but I don't like passing through areas where the streets are filled with filth.
Nobody does.
People will be fined or jailed if they do not keep there streets clean and do not have proof that they pay a sanitation company to collect their garbage and wash their streets.
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Originally Posted by checkmatechamp13
3) So where exactly are you supposed to live?
Wherever you can afford to live, as long as you have proof of payment for the necessary services. No proof of payment, then good bye.
Again, the new private operator just signed a multi-year contract with the union that guarantees yearly raises, with the only compromise being a larger employee contribution to benefits, basically a wash in terms of expenses. If their labor costs are going to be about the same, how are they going to make up that $30m?
I'm thinking they're going to cut a lot of the overtime waste and save more by virtue of the healthcare/pension savings. Basically, the union would have gotten the raises anyway and kept all the benefits. I think the 20% savings on healthcare costs alone will outgrow the raises, too.
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Originally Posted by checkmatechamp13
I don't have the ridership figures, but I know offhand that SCT's routes are more expensive to operate per-passenger. I think I remember hearing the figure of $7.48 per passenger for SCT, and I know Nassau's routes cost around $2.50 per passenger. Plus, the average fare paid on Nassau's routes is around $1.50 (with people transferring from other routes), whereas it's around $1.10 for SCT.
So no, an Nassau-Suffolk comparison is no good.
The cheapest routes to operate are generally high-frequency routes that go in a straight line. Nassau has way more routes that Suffolk: The routes generally don't meander too much and just stick to the main roads. By contrast, out in Suffolk, because of the pedestrian-unfriendlyness of the areas (in general), you have more routes having to make detours to bring them closer to the residential neighborhoods.
Plus, the most frequent route in Nassau is the N6, coming every 10 minutes for most of the day (and during rush hour, there's a limited that runs every 10 minutes also), and there are other corridors with frequent service (N4, N15, N20/N21, N70/N71/N72, etc)
Out in Suffolk, the most frequent route is the S1 along Route 110, which runs every 15 minutes during rush hour and 30 minutes other times. A couple of other routes have 30 minute headways for most of the day, but most run every hour or more.
So basically, the average Nassau County route probably performs as well as the best of the best SCT routes.
Good points. This is why I never understood why people try to make the "Suffolk pays $27 Million for its bus service, so how does Nassau expect to pay only $4 Million" argument. They're two different systems.. with Suffolk covering 2 to 3 times the land (route) area, with lower ridership.
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Originally Posted by checkmatechamp13
From what I heard, the N19 gets decent ridership between Freeport and the Sunrise Mall. East of the Sunrise Mall is where ridership drops off. Also, it's not representative of all of the routes in Nassau County, because it is low-performing relative to the other routes. The direct cost per passenger for the average Nassau route is around $2.50 per passenger, but it's around $5 for the N19 (This was before privatization, so costs have probably dropped, but the efficiency of the routes relative to each other has probably remained roughly the same)
I'd think the N54/N55 would see more crowds because they don't duplicate the LIRR. Merrick Road is a few blocks from Sunrise Highway, whereas that can't be said about Jerusalem Avenue (and you can't get directly to Hempstead and Uniondale from Massapequa by LIRR, whereas you can get to Freeport on the LIRR)
I'm not really sure which gets more crowds, but both seem light (in SE Nassau area). The N19s I see do seem more packed however, and seem to have more people waiting at stops than the 54/55.
Quote:
Originally Posted by checkmatechamp13
1) And those who can't afford one will get no education. The NYC school system educates over 1 million children. I highly doubt you're going to find enough money to educate all of them just from charity. First of all, even if you're only talking about the "cream of the crop" students applying for school (and even then, you're probably going to have a hard time finding funding for them), school helps keep kids off the streets, even if it's only for 6 hours. There is a value in the quality of life of the residents that you get from having schools open to everybody.
2) I don't know about you, but I don't like passing through areas where the streets are filled with filth.
3) So where exactly are you supposed to live?
Good post. Although Walter makes a good point in that pulling the bottom 10-20% of kids that don't want anything to do with school might be a good idea.
1) Good points. This is why I never understood why people try to make the "Suffolk pays $27 Million for its bus service, so how does Nassau expect to pay only $4 Million" argument. They're two different systems.. with Suffolk covering 2 to 3 times the land (route) area, with lower ridership.
2) I'm not really sure which gets more crowds, but both seem light (in SE Nassau area). The N19s I see do seem more packed however, and seem to have more people waiting at stops than the 54/55.
3) Good post. Although Walter makes a good point in that pulling the bottom 10-20% of kids that don't want anything to do with school might be a good idea.
1) Very true. The thing is that we don't know how much the actual cost to run the system is. The MTA said they were receiving $9 million in subsidies, and they were being shortchanged, but we don't know how much the actual number required is. I heard the number $35 million thrown around, though that might've been Westchester's funding source.
2) I'll take your word on it, seeing as you live in the area.
3) The thing is that they need to be more efficient in the system, and make it so that the kids don't have to spend so much time in school. If somebody wants to drop out, make sure they and their parents know of the consequences of doing so, and let them. Chances are that they're the type of kid who's going to be struggling in school and get into trouble (I mean, if you look at the grades of kids with marks on their permenant records, you'll see that most of them are failing or close to doing so). If you allow them to leave, you solve the problem.
And also they have to find ways of letting the smart kids get ahead. For instance, last year, I was sitting in an Algebra II class and my grades were towards the top. The standards for going directly into Calculus were to have over a certain grade, but they didn't let me go because I was a year younger than everybody else, even though I definitely had the grades for it. So now, I'm wasting my time and their taxpayer money sitting in a Precalculus class (plus the Calculus class I'll take next year) for no reason.
And another example would be the fact that you have to take a second language, but they have me listed as an English Language Learner (ELL) because I was born in another country. So logically, if I know my native language (Spanish) and English, why should I bother having to take a class in school?
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