This Space for Rent

From NYC.Indymedia.org, May 02, 2008
CORPORATE GRAFITTIBy Ceaithearna Coille
Subway for sale and rent...
The MTA is not one to miss an advertising opportunity - so it is now selling space on the outside of subway cars.
Continental Airlines posters have been installed on the side of some 42nd street shuttle cars.
The ads are placed on special 'brand' cars which are also blanketed on the inside with Continental advertisements.
MTA officials said the initiative could spread to other advertisers and train lines.
http://nyc.indymedia.org/en/2008/05/96838.html

Operation Torch = Brave New Subways

Good old CBS News gives us grinning, cheerful Magee Hickey to happily tell us that EVERYONE seems to like the idea. Oh, really? Or is Magee using her media power to persuade us it's okay, (maybe even terrific!) for cops to roam the subways armed for mass slaughter. The result of this money drain will be more intimidation, harassment and bullying of innocent civilians by the most frightened, paranoid members of the NYPD who will have, just like those pathetic murderers of Sean Bell, itchy trigger fingers. As far as liking the idea, EVERYONE I KNOW knows the terrorists are in the White House, and M4 carbine rifles in our subways won't stop terrorists because the war is on hard working people. Which side are you on?
Machine Gun-Toting Officers To Patrol NYC Subway M4 Carbine Rifles, MP5 Submachine Guns & Bomb Sniffing Dogs Part Of New "Torch Team" Anti-Terror Efforts
NEW YORK (CBS) ― The NYPD is pulling out all the stops to beef up safety of the subways. On Thursday it launched a new anti-terror effort called "Operation Torch," but the cost of the program is raising some eyebrows.
The NYPD's new firepower consists of cops with Mp5 submachine guns, rifles, body armor and bomb-sniffing dogs.
Starting Thursday, five or six teams a day will patrol the major transit hubs in the city in the new program, all thanks to a 50 percent increase in a Homeland Security grant.
"Times Square, Grand Central, Penn Station … the locations you would expect, but not only those locations. The assignments will vary and will be following no discernible pattern," NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly said.
[...] Similarly equipped NYPD units known as "Hercules" teams have been patrolling the ground on Wall Street, the Empire State Building and other city landmarks.
Everyone seems to like the idea of an added police presence, particularly to fight terrorism on subway platforms, but then when you mention the price tag -- $151 million – then people aren't so sure.
[...] Of the $151 million in the federal grant, $30 million will be used for this underground anti-terrorist program for the next two years.[...]
http://wcbstv.com/local/machine.guns.subway.2.707398.html