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Carolers to serenade commuters at Forest Hills tomorrow - this time with MBTA approval

The MBTA reports both new GM Beverly Scott and Charlie the T Mascot will be on hand at Forest Hills around 6 p.m. tomorrow to welcome a group of "church ladies" and kids for some old-fashioned caroling. The originally impromptu carolers were kicked out of the station yesterday because they didn't have a busking permit.

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Comments

If you were a T cop and you received a complaint to remove panhandlers or the homeless sleeping in the subway your better off just walking away or you will be subject to ridicule.
I guess this means the permit program is another example of a failed T policy.

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I disagree with you. Everything worked as it should have. The T cops followed procedure, seemingly without maliciousness or without attempting to deviate from how they should have handled the situation. The church group leader appeared to understand what happened once the policy/reasoning was explained to her. The MBTA leadership recognized a unique situation, magnified by the press and social media, and decided to make a one-time goodwill gesture to the group, while also maintaining the core of their policy (that the T controls who gets to perform publicly in their subway system and when).

Obviously, if other groups do the same thing, this whole exercise in goodwill would break down, and quite a lot of good PR management is based on hoping that there don't arise too many special cases.

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Well, the nazis had procedures too.

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And a Merry Christmas to you too. Godwin bless us, every one.

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had recognized the uniqueness of the situation in the first place, and told the church group "We'll let you finish tonight, but if you want to come back, you'll need a permit." instead of acting like Barney Fife, they could have avoided bad publicity for the agency (and having to get the GM involved in the matter) in the first place.

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So what's the official policy on making exceptions to the permit rule?

Is it just for Christian music in the month of December?

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