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I hope so, because while I
I hope so, because while I kind of like him I have a serious problem with someone who runs a transit system as large as the MBTA and doesnt use it (instead opting for his MBTA issues SUV.) Im honestly fine with him having a small car ready on the go at the office that could be used on occasion, but I think the majority of his travel time would be better spent on the subways and trains he controls. I want a Dukakis type figure, someone who even after reaching the highest office in the state still took the train into work on most occasions. While the MBTA isnt far reaching enough for my tastes Im sure I could find a comfortable place to live well within the MBTA jursidiction if I was being offered his salary.
Same rumor was posted to railroad.net
last night, but disappeared a few hours later (maybe because I asked for substantiation)
I doubt it
Isn't he getting guaranteed money and if they were to force him out then they'd have to pay him off? The MBTA isn't going to buy him out and unless he's getting a better offer elsewhere (doubtful) then there's no impetus for him to want to leave either.
Hope he stays
He's pretty open about MBTA operations and problems, and he inherited a lot of problems. It's just the nature of a large old system.
He did a great job at the Registry, that's for sure.
are you serious?
He did a great job at the Registry, that's for sure.
The ONLY thing he did at the registry was eliminate weekend hours at all the branches and jack up the fees...
Give him his due
Perhaps you're too young to remember what the Registry used to be like. Trust me, it was bad.
He did do a great job there,
He did do a great job there, thats why I hate disliking how he doesnt take the MBTA as part of his current job. He was the best thing that ever happened to the registry.
No, I'm not.
I became a registry "customer" about five years before he came in, and I remember being able to do my RMV business on a weekend.
I then spent time in NY.
The NY DMV never suspended my license "accidentally" and without notice, which the new post-Danny RMV has. The NY DMV never kept me waiting more than 30 minutes. The NY DMV had better online systems in 1999 than the registry does almost ten years later. For example, you could check the availability of vanity plates, something you still can't do with the RMV without jumping through hoops (NY state: just punch it in and press a button to get a yes/no.) Then there's the whole citation payment system, which is completely bass-ackwards.
How about the system in NH, where stuff is handled at your town clerk's office? Brilliant!
Check vanity plate availability online
Right here.
Hmm ...
Only checks taken
Testing a few of the actual words you can't say on TV gave me the same message. Basically, it's only checking some data table of actual plates in existence and does nothing to try and filter out those that the RMV won't give away for decency reasons, etc.
The real fun is to actually try different vulgar combinations to find one that says it's *not* available...because that'll be one that someone got through the system and will be worth looking for on the roads..hehe.
how'd you get there?
I *gasp* actually checked the RMV website before I made my claim- I hit a page with a form which required giving over your license #, plate #, firstborn, etc. before it would tell you if the plate was free or not.
clicked on "Vanity Plates" in the left column of the main page
You may have clicked on "Order Special Plates" instead -- which is something entirely different (Red Sox plates, Cure Breast Cancer, Firefighters Memorial, etc)
Google is your friend
I searched on:
vanity plates site:mass.gov/rmv
Oh please!
Did you ever wait in a winding cattle line FOR TWO HOURS only to find out that you didn't have the right paperwork?
Did you then find out that all was not lost: you would have had to wait through that line just to get the right paperwork anyway, because forms were not otherwise available?
Oh, and did you know there was no way to know if you even had the right paperwork or not because the only phone numbers for the registry went to the local offices where people were too busy to answer the phone? (and there were no greeters to screen your file as you entered)?
Have you ever had to wait through a line like this with your parents while they were in town from 3000 miles distant because there was no method of otherwise removing them from the title of your car save "in person" now that they were no longer co-owners?
Welcome to the RMV ca 1988. Yes, it was that bad. Yes, Dan Gabauskas was the first leader to stop sending out 8X10 glossies of his ugly mug in mailings on the state dime with grand announcements that MA was only 20 years behind other states on their New Trivial Innovations and actually FIX THE PROBLEMS in a systematic, "best practices" way.
Moving on up...
He may want to leave to start to put together a campaign for governor (god help us all).
Wishful thinking
Now, if only we could get rid of the several minutes worth of announcements- they seem to have been multiplying like rabbits.
"Hi, this is Danny, we make safety our number one priority", followed by, "THIS IS THE POLICE. REPORT WHAT YOU SEE, CITIZEN!" followed by "ATTEN-HUT! DO NOT SMOKE ON THE PLATFORM, MAGGOT!", followed by "Hy-uk, this is chuckles the football player. I normally drive a $150,000 Mercedes and valet-park it, but the MBTA convinced me to lie and say I take the MBTA. Do the same, unless you too have a Merc and can afford valet parking. Watch me play at the next game, for a hundred bucks('See you at the game!')."
Seriously, didn't we tell the MBTA in overwhelming numbers last year with the whole "T radio" thing to just shut up and leave us in peace?
I appreciate the do not
I appreciate the do not smoke announcement, maybe it should be more forceful. Its illegal to smoke in the tunnels and it bothers some of us who hate smoke to smell it whenever we have to use certain stations. To the credit of the MBTA the announcements at those stations tend to be heavy on the no smoking side. I also recall a while back that when I was in Quincy at the Wollostan stop they made a point of saying several times in a row not to push and shove, and all sorts of other announcements to that regard. I thought it was a fluke until the same thing happened on the way back. I often wonder if T employees can press special buttons to tell the system what the problem of the day seems to be.
of contracts and T GMs
I agree with giving dannyboy his due for the registry. before his tenure, you could do zero transactions online. I have only had to go to the registry once since he changed that, and that was because by law i had to take a new license picture.
As for the T, look we all know it's a, as my cousin says, quaint reminder of what life was like in czechoslavakia in 1968. but give the guy some credit. he was handed an $8b debt because of projects the T was compelled to build for various reasons (the largest of which was the state's settlement with the Conservation Law Foundation) and yet the thing still carries over a million people a day. and that's with some ridiculous % of its revenue devoted to debt service right off the top.
further, and I am no optimist by any strech, I see things moving toward completion at copley, arlington and maverick; I would put the finished aquarium station next to any in the world, and i've even seen some progress at state. even the government center blue line platform is more pleasant with a new coat of paint and the nicely revealed "scollay under" tiled signs. and oh yeah, let's not forget the recently installed daktronics message boards at the green line stops - my dream is coming - a message at park street that says "next D train in X mins; next B train in Y mins". i will be jubilant like i'm on the jubilee line (or at least piccadilly).
lastly, i can respect a guy who, 2 months ago when the papers, governor's staff and legislators tried to do a hatchet job on him, says [paraphrasing]: "look, I have about 20 months left on my contract. they're going to have to buy me out, because i'm not planning on leaving any time soon."
that's precisely why the GM of the T should have a contract - so when people try to politically strongarm him/her, s/he can say, "thanks. but you know what? you're a dolt, you know nothing (jim cramer style!) about transit, and you should just shut your f-ing piehole. and remember, before you start angling to have me fired for saying that, you have to buy me out."