Rider to MTA boss: 'This shoe is for you!
'Man pulled out of meeting after he reaches for shoe, yells at MTA chief before 'doomsday' budget vote
BY ALFONSO A. CASTILLO AND SOPHIA CHANG
11:52 AM EST, December 17, 2008
An impassioned rider reached for his shoe and yelled "This shoe is for you!" at MTA chief Elliot Sander during a board meeting Wednesday morning in which proposed fare hikes were approved.
Shouting "You made $300,000 last year and this shoe is for you!," Stephen Millies, 54of Jackson Heights, was trying to remove his shoe when security stopped him and took him out of the meeting.
The move was an apparent reference to an incident Sunday at a news conference in Baghdad in which President George W. Bush ducked two shoes hurled at him by an Iraqi journalist who shouted at Bush in Arabic.
Millies, who wore Red Wing shoes, size 10 1/2 D, was issued a summons for disorderly conduct and released, MTA officials said.
He was among nearly two dozen transit riders, MTA employees and elected officials who addressed the MTA board before it voted 13-1 to approve the proposed "doomsday" budget, which calls for massive fare hikes and widespread service cuts, including on the Long Island Rail Road.
"Those who danced were thought to be quite insane by those who could not hear the music"
