"Funded Exclusively By Emeryville's Businesses" Is A Phony Canard
Opinion
The Emeryville Chamber Of Commerce wants everyone to know this: The city's free bus service, the Emery Go Round, is funded solely by Emeryville's business.
It's a popular sentiment repeated all over town, it's even painted on the buses themselves. The problem is it's a lie.
A recent budget report from the city of Emeryville tells a different tale entirely. The real story is that the taxpayers of Emeryville helped fund the Emery Go Round to the tune of more than $80,000 last year. From the report:
- City of Emeryville paid $43,389.36
- Emery School District paid $28,199.74
- City Redevelopment Agency paid $9,033.88
Meanwhile, the Chamber of Commerce, a partner with the popular bus service, is spreading the falsehood far and wide: The "B Line", Berkeley's Municipal Transit System claims on their website "Emery Go Round receives 100% of its funding from businesses".
Emery Go Round's own website flatly states "Funded solely by commercial property owners in the citywide transportation business improvement district", cutting out the people of Emeryville's contributions entirely.
It seems to be all part the on going attempt to falsely stoke the bogus canard about the infallibility of market forces and the attendant ubiquitous claims generally discrediting government. We say if Emery Go Round can't seem to give credit where it's due, perhaps the people of Emeryville should save their contributions for more appreciative recipients.
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| Paid for by the people of Emeryville |
Every entity that contributes to Emery Go Round's ought to receive proper credit for this wonderful service. I'm one who was fooled by the signs on the shuttle saying it was funded by our businesses. Can someone please tell us what proportion of the budget is paid by each funding entity?
ReplyDeleteWhatever the full story, kudos to Emery Go Round for making it easy to get rid of my car shortly after moving here and for encouraging others out from behind the wheel.
Maybe once Emery Go Round can actually adhere to their own schedule or even be in sync with their "Next Time Arrivals", I'll actually give a fuck.
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