Even when Eliot Spitzer wins, he still loses -- or rather, we lose.

Sure, he saved the $2.00 fare -- for now. But who cares? Only one out of every seven riders actually pays that -- and most of them are tourists (the rest are the poor, and I'll get to that problem below). Almost all of the rest of us either buy "multitrip" card (those "six-for-five" $10 cards) or buy weekly or monthly cards. And guess what? Those fares are going up!

When the monthly card was introduced, it was $63; now it's going to $81 -- a 28% increase while the "base rate" hasn't risen at all.

What's worse, many people have practically begged the MTA to hold off on fare increases until the next budget is passed, figuring they could put the heat on to get more state funding. Now that the MTA is going ahead, there's little chance of accomplishing that goal.

In short, Governor Spitzer played a quick song for the cameras, but failed

Interesting morning, isn't it. The trains are all flooded. The tracks between Lawrence and Court in Brooklyn lost power due to flooding. My co-worker was stuck getting from Governor's Island. Sewage was backing up in my apartment (despite my building's $300,000 sump pumps, but at least the pumps kept the backup from becoming the fountaining river it used to be). The research facility I work at in Manhattan is flooded in the basement (I don't have access to the animal facility, so I can't check it, but it is in the basement!) and the elevators are out. And Brooklyn, technically speaking, had a tornado.

The MTA ONCE AGAIN wants to hike our fares even as service gets worse. I can't believe how bad the F line has become. It should be the quickest way I can take to pick up my son at day care. It has so many major delays and snags that I have almost given up on it.

ONCE AGAIN, the MTA wants to raise our fares.

When I was in Los Angeles, I noticed that bus fares (I have never taken the tiny subway in LA) were about the same as they were when I left LA more than 10 years ago.

In NYC this will be, I think, the third (?) fare hike since I moved here.

Where does the money go? Does the MTA still illegally keep two sets of books, one to brag about and one to use to convince people they have to pay more, more, more?

Here is the Straphangers Campaign's statement on the proposed fare hike:

Here are some questions that New Yorkers should be asking about a possible fare hike in the months to come:

Do the financial numbers show the MTA facing a serious budget deficit in 2008 and beyond?

Unfair fare?How much of the costs of building and operating mass transit should NYC bus & subway riders bear? More, it appears, but without any debate of the policy alternatives the MTA tells us via Newsday. MTA staff proposes a 6.5% fare increase Why not an increase in state/city funding instead?

Economic Integration?The hostility of the Supreme Court to racial integration has stirred enthusiasm for an alternative: economic integration – now advocated by John Edwards builds on the work of The Century Fund’s Rick Kahlenberg .

Breslin’s Best Ever I think all this impeachment talk is a waste of time. Progressives have the smallest of edges in Congress (non-existent in the Senate). But, if you want to read the best case ever for impeaching President Bush, read Jimmy Breslin’s column here

Phantom Voters? In NY State, incarcerated prisoners (who, pre-prison, largely resided in NYC)

The MTA is doing a "rider survey" along the #7 line. The survey is, of course, garbage, but as long as it comes in a "Business Reply Mail" fold-over card, they're going to get my opinion, whether they really want it or not.

I enclosed the following letter. Feel free to write your own when you get your "survey."

Mr. Lawrence G. Reuter
President
MTA New York City Transit
370 Jay Street
Brooklyn, NY 11201-5190

Dear Mr. Reuter:

Whenever anyone asks for my opinion, but doesn’t appear to want my real opinion, they do a “survey.” Invariably and inevitably, the survey doesn’t ask the questions that need to be answered; it’s a function of the necessity of compiling the results into a manageable database. This letter certainly won’t go into a database, but I hope it will give you a better idea of the real problems along the #7 subway line.

First of all, not everyone rides the subway during rush hours. The survey should be just as easily available to those of us who avoid the rush hour like the plague.

Among Charlton Heston’s wonderful, awful movies is the lesser-known "The Agony and the Ecstasy", in which he plays Michelangelo to Rex Harrison’s Pope Julius II. The movie revolves around the seemingly interminable painting of the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel (it actually took Michelangelo four years to finish the job). A running joke in the movie is the Pope constantly asking when it will be completed. His increasingly frustrated question, “When will you make an end?” is always answered, “When I’m finished.”

After spending the last 19 years riding the #7 train, and being delayed by the seemingly interminable track work, I find myself wanting to ask the workers, “When will you make an end?”

Since 1988, scarcely a week has gone by without some track work being done on one mile-long stretch of track, from just outside the Hunter’s Point station to the 33rd Street station. Near the end of this past winter, service was shut down for six consecutive weekends, but the real problem is during the weekdays, when trains are slowed or stopped due to the work crews doing … well, who knows what they’re doing?