Word: mta
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...case grew out of attempts by the Metropolitan Transit Authority to crack down on panhandling in New York City subway cars and stations, but the ruling has nationwide implications. Seeking to stem the proliferation of needy and homeless in a system that serves 1 billion passengers a year, the MTA last October launched its so-called Operation Enforcement. Within weeks, two homeless panhandlers -- Papa Joe Walley, 50, and William Young Jr., 40 -- complained to the Legal Action Center for the Homeless that they were being harassed by the police while begging in the subway. The center filed a class action...
...ruling, handed down two weeks ago, Judge Sand indicated that the MTA had gone too far by imposing a total ban instead of specifying the times, places and types of begging that it considered out of bounds. "While the government has an interest in preserving the quality of urban life," wrote Sand, "this interest must be discounted where the regulation has the principal effect of keeping a public problem involving human beings out of sight and therefore out of mind...
...homeless have received any assistance, it is because their pleas have been seen and heard." Burt Neuborne, a law professor at New York University, concurred, arguing that "to the extent subways are simply extensions of the streets, the same freedoms should apply in both places." But the MTA denounced the judge's action and said it would appeal. "The subway is there for one purpose and one purpose alone: to move people from one place to another," said Chairman Robert Kiley. "We are not the same as an auditorium or an arena or even a street...
...Sand's ruling doesn't say a beggar can corner people or abuse them," explained Columbia law professor Vincent Blasi. "The First Amendment protects only the right to ask, not the right to harass." In fact, several days after his ruling, Judge Sand modified the decision to allow the MTA to regulate panhandling more selectively by banning solicitations on moving subway cars and near token booths...
...support Gov. Dukakis' bill," said Nancy A. Finklestein, president of the Massachusetts Teachers Association (MTA). She added that the association had influenced the proposal's content before it was made public, reportedly forcing the Governor to drop a proposal to increase the time for teachers-to receive tenure from three to five years...