It is no news that the MTA is in a budget crisis, and I don’t know about you, but my wallet is feeling empathy pains.
I read in the Gothamist blog that MTA’s counterpart in Japan reversed their own similar dire economic straits, thanks to a calico cat named Tama. It seems that in Japan, cats are considered good luck, and, as the Gothamist quotes from an Associated Press article,
All the 9-year-old female cat does is sit by the entrance of Kishi Station in western Japan, wearing a black uniform cap and posing for photos for the tourists who are now flocking in droves from across the nation.
Tama has been doing such a good job of raising revenue for the troubled Kishikawa train line that she was recently promoted to “super-station-master.”
The train company also sells merchandise, including “a special 1,365 yen ($13) book of photos of Tama called, ‘Diary of Tama, the Station Master.’”
I wholeheartedly agree with the Gothamist that merchandising within the train stations themselves is an excellent idea.
A cat mascot could work here, too.
I could see a whole campaign around it that would get the city interested in the project. There could be a competition to name the cat, similar to Brooklyn’s Prospect Park Zoo’s recent public vote to name their new-born kangaroo. The cat would have its own YouTube page and MySpace page and Facebook profile.
Cats are cheap and low-maintenance, and while Americans don’t believe cats can bring them luck, many adore them.
PLUS, cats get rid of rats, which are known to frequent the subways once in a while …