When we read that the MTA would pay tribute to the 50th anniversary of Rosa Parks's decision not to give up her seat on a Montgomery bus by leaving all the first seats of buses empty and putting up posters explaining why, we thought it sounded great. But after looking at this photograph from Newsday how the MTA actually did it (left), Gothamist is less than impressed. Especially when you look at what Boston did with their buses (right) and see that the seat is tied with a black ribbon, simply with Parks's image on the back. What was the MTA thinking, just slapping the "BusTalk" photocopy onto the back of the seat? Sure, sometimes less is more and there's a description of why the seat is empty, but it just looks terrible and sloppy. We know the MTA's heart is in the right place, as their page about Rosa Parks is better.
The other cities whose bus systems are paying similar tribute are Buffalo, Cleveland, Denver, Memphis, Montgomery, Newark, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Pittsburgh, Portland, OR, San Francisco, Seattle, Tulsa, Okla., Washington, D.C,; and Wilmington, Del. - let us know what they did!
