The Sound of Sandbags Falling
The Second Essential Scary Truth
Thanksgiving morning I expected to eat turkey with the relatives and watch the Lions lose. Imagine my shock when I logged on to the New York Post website to find my dear friend Daryn Mayer on the front page. While always a pleasure to see my friends, seeing a picture of Daryn holding up a ticket for all of New York to see was rather shocking. It seems Daryn received a $100 desk appearance ticket for failure to pay her bus fare.
Furious straphanger Daryn Mayer’s next stop will be in front of a judge — to challenge her “outrageous” $100 ticket for not knowing how to pay the fare on the MTA’s newest super-express bus route.
At East 79th Street and Second Avenue Tuesday afternoon, Mayer, a marketing executive rushing to a meeting, saw the front door close on the M15 Select Bus.
So she jumped in the still-open back door instead, and rushed to the front to pay.
But the driver said her MetroCard wasn’t welcome.
“He said, ‘You have to pay outside,’ ” Mayer said.
Unlike nearly all other MTA buses, the M15 Select Bus requires passengers to buy tickets from outdoor machines.
Mayer asked the driver if she could get off and drop her MetroCard in a machine. But the bus’s doors were closed, and the driver did not open them.
“He said, ‘OK, don’t pay. Ride for free,’ ” Mayer said. “So I sat down.”
At the next stop, Second Avenue and East 68th Street, several uniformed officers boarded and headed directly for Mayer.
One of the officers “comes up to me and says, ‘Where is your slip?’ ” Mayer recalled.
“The doors were closed, and I had no other option — how could I get off?” Mayer said. “It’s not like I was trying to not pay.”
In a statement, MTA spokesman Kevin Ortiz said Mayer “became combative, responding with an expletive. She claimed the bus operator let her on the bus without paying her fare.
“When asked by the inspector, the bus operator denied he had let her on the bus, and said he explicitly told her she needed to pay her fare. At that point, she was removed from the bus and received a summons,” Ortiz said.
Mayer denies cursing at the officers, but admits she was angry.
She said the way she was hit with the $100 fine was essentially a trap — “another way of trying to get money out of people.”
An MTA source said that if Mayer didn’t have a ticket, she should have gotten off the bus, bought a ticket from a machine, then waited for the next bus, “which shouldn’t have been far behind, considering it was rush hour.”
I read the story several times and sent Daryn a text to make sure I understood what happened. Yes, Mayer received a $100 summons for not paying her fare after a bus driver told her don’t worry about it and for using offensive language in front of New York’s finest. I assume she used ‘fudge’ instead of ‘fuck.’
Can you hear it? Turn off the TV and listen carefully. It’s the sound of sandbags falling. Way to pay for the litigation caused by those bike lanes Mr. Mayor!
Ads
Denizens of the Zola System
- A Visual Identity
- Ashley Morris
- Clip It Baby
- CNN
- Dennis Machinegun Thompson
- Detroit Free Press
- Detroit News
- e3 Your LIfe
- Fox News
- Henry Mena
- Hollywood Gem
- Jewish World Review
- Jimmy Fallon
- Mick Farren
- New York Daily News
- New York Post
- New York Times
- Open Salon
- Sacred Fools Theatre
- Scoop Momma
- Skip Williamson
- SPIN Magazine
- The Blacklisted Journalist
- The Choke
- The Financially Troubled Arizona Republic
- The Los Angeles Times
- The Nearly Famous Barry Young Show
- The Purple Gang
- The Wall Street Journal
- The Washington Post
- The Washington Times
Categories
- Alpha Female/Beta Male
- Assholes Anonymous
- Character Sundays
- Detroit Stories
- G-d's Guide To Home Appliance Repair and Sports Betting
- How Drunk Do You Have To Be To Get The Joke?
- Jimmy Fallon
- Overheard in a Los Angeles Bar
- Overheard in a New York Bar
- Overheard on the Subway
- Post Urban Culture
- Quotes from How To Fix a Horserace
- Rachel Kramer Bussel
- Skip Williamson
- Sleaze Culture
- The Best of the Zola System
- The Con
- The Core Belief
- The First Essential Scary Truth
- The Magic Bullet Theory
- The Martini Chronicles
- The Second Essential Scary Truth
- The Street Hustle
- The Summer Of 1992
- The Zola System In Action
- The Zola System On The Road
- Uncategorized
- What's in Your Fridge?
Archives
- February 2017
- May 2016
- May 2015
- February 2015
- January 2015
- March 2014
- January 2014
- June 2013
- May 2013
- April 2013
- March 2013
- February 2013
- January 2013
- December 2012
- November 2012
- October 2012
- September 2012
- August 2012
- July 2012
- June 2012
- May 2012
- April 2012
- March 2012
- February 2012
- January 2012
- December 2011
- November 2011
- October 2011
- September 2011
- August 2011
- July 2011
- June 2011
- May 2011
- April 2011
- March 2011
- February 2011
- January 2011
- December 2010
- November 2010
- October 2010
- September 2010
- August 2010
- July 2010
- June 2010
- May 2010
- April 2010
- March 2010
- February 2010
- January 2010
- December 2009
- November 2009
- October 2009
- September 2009
- August 2009
- July 2009
- June 2009
- May 2009
- April 2009
- March 2009
- February 2009
- January 2009
- December 2008
- November 2008
- October 2008
- September 2008
- August 2008
- July 2008
- June 2008
- May 2008