Here in NYC, we've been hammered by big hikes in fares for subways and buses (after threats of even bigger cuts). We're not the only place, of course. Salon's "Fed to mass transit: Drop dead" points out that national mass-transit is the highest it's been in 50 years, but service is being cut around the country, and no federal help is forthcoming.

Some states are trying to prop up transit to prevent drastic cuts in service and prevent major fare hikes, but they have no money. Check out the situation in Massachusetts, which is facing huge cuts across the board in the state budget, which means, of course, huge cuts for cities and towns. No matter what's happening on Wall Street (George Soros says the worst of the global crisis is "behind us"), where the markets are doing kinda fairly well, the shit has already started rolling downhill and it's gathering steam. (See the NYT's "States Turning to Last Resorts in Budget Crisis" for Maine's new taxes on candy and ski tickets and other states' "solutions.")