“If you’re going to be a bear, be a grizzly,” is one of the tagline coming from the silly film “Cannonball Run” – and we have to give leadership of the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority credit, as they’re being grizzlies in terms of budget fearmongering.
And, of course, many in the media will play along.
“Millions of Metro riders could see a system with fewer Metro stations and bus routes, longer wait times, and much higher fares,” one news outlet hyperventilated after the system’s general manager, Randy Clarke, put out his doomsday proposal last week.
Thing is – Metro has been putting out doomsday scenarios for generations. And yet all the looming cutbacks always seem to be smoothed over before final budget adoption. Crisis averted.
The money, most of it anyway, always seems to materialize, as long as the region’s taxpayers have pockets available for the plucking.
