The Pizza Connection

Maybe I'm a little slow on the uptake, but today is the first I've heard of the “Pizza Connection”. Apparently, since the 1960’s the price of a cheese slice and the price of a ride on the subway have paced each other “with uncanny precision.” The bad news is that the price of a slice has recently jumped above $2.00, as the NY Times observes.

Not to alarm New York City subway and bus riders, but a pizza shop around the corner from our Times Square office is charging $2.20 for a plain slice. At a Famous Famiglia parlor a few blocks north, the price is up to $2.25.

This horrifying discovery left us no choice but to place an urgent phone call to Eric M. Bram. He confirmed our worst fears for the subways.

“Are you going to get another fare increase?” he said. “I guess it’s inevitable.”

On this score, there is every reason to heed Mr. Bram, a Bronx-born patent lawyer who moved to Westchester some time ago.

In 1980, he articulated what we have since come to call the Pizza Connection. He noted that, from the early 1960's, the price of a pizza slice - we’re talking here about a no-frills wedge of mozzarella and tomato sauce, unmarred by toppings - matched the cost of a subway ride “with uncanny precision.”

Read the rest of the story in the NY Times article, “Digging Deep for a Slice of the Pie.”