I find it a bit ridiculous that the NFTA is so desperate to make money that they would deny making a quick $20k off a concert in a continuously barren, empty field on Buffalo’s Waterfront.
Perhaps $20,000 isn’t a lot of money to a person like Mr. Zemsky, but he needs to remember who he is there to work for. Money from that concert series could of went somewhere to help people who need transportation. Instead he got cocky:
Only Commissioner Adam W. Perry voted Monday for the idea, which had been recommended for approval at the meeting by a staff that noted the partners have successfully managed concerts for series like Rockin’ at the Knox, Thursday at the Square and Rocks the Harbor.
Other commissioners said they were irked by the length of time it took to wade through the proposal that detracted from the authority’s “core mission” of providing transportation.
“I’m not bothered at all if there are no concerts on the outer harbor,” said Commissioner Howard A. Zemsky, the board’s incoming chairman.
He added that if the board was going to spend so much time discussing the idea, the authority should make more money than what was proposed.
“We feel like we can make substantially more money,” he said in explaining his vote after the meeting.
In the same breath, that ‘core mission’ of providing transportation and the refusal to except “free money, led the NFTA to vote to increase fares, cut services and eliminate routes by May 1st:
The NFTA’s board of commissioners voted yesterday to implement the changes as of May 1. The moves are expected to raise an additional $5 million per year in revenues.
The adult base fare will be hiked from the current $1.75 to $2, while day passes will climb from the present $4 to $5.
The NFTA will also discontinue 6 percent of its existing bus and rail runs.
I guess what is essentially free money isn’t good enough for the NFTA
