Left Behinds: Toussaint vs. Kalikow

Wednesday, December 21, 2005

Toussaint vs. Kalikow

In this article in the Observer, Ben Smith and Matt Schuerman profile MTA prez Peter Kalikow and TWU prez Roger Toussaint, arguing that the transit strike is largely a battle of two personalities, revolutionary post-colonialist Toussaint (they speak in codes, but what they mean is "scary black man") versus mild-mannered real-estate-mogul-turned-technocrat Kalikow.

I enjoyed the details (mostly cribbed from a Tom Robbins profile a few years ago) about Toussaint's revolutionary youth in Trinidad fighting the neocolonialist autocrats (culminating in his getting kicked out of school for spraypainting "free education" on public property). However, I didn't like the fact that Smith and Schuerman placed all the responsibility for the strike on Toussaint, ignoring the way Kalikow has provoked Toussaint and the TWU (detailed in posts below).

Plus, citing that puppet Kathryn Wylde as an objective analyst taking stock of Kalikow's tenure is insulting to anyone who follows New York politics.

2 Comments:

At 1:58 PM, Antid Oto said…

I was at Ben's on Sunday and asked his new girlfriend, "So, you work in the news?" She said, "Well...I work at the Observer."
At 2:19 PM, Solomon Grundy said…

Heh.

How is it that Politicker is so worth reading, then? I guess he gets more free rein...

I was a little disappointed by the coded race-baiting. Maybe that's unfair. But "think May '68 with a Calypso beat"? Come on now.

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Wednesday, December 21, 2005

Toussaint vs. Kalikow

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