Second Avenue Subway!!!
Now that the Transportation Bill has been passed by the voters of New York, can we please get our asses in gear and (re)start building this line? This week I come back from visiting family in the Midwest only to find that I will be very late going to work for two days straight. On Tuesday, I walked to the train station at 86th and Lexington and saw probably about a hundred people walking around clueless outside of the station.
Some people can’t figure out how to get around Manhattan if they can’t do their usual thing. Everyone should know at least two (preferably three) ways to get to work. If you have to drive to work, figure out a couple of different roads or highways. If you take public transportation, and it’s feasible, figure out as many ways as possible.
Anyway, I didn’t even bother trying to get into the station, and went aross the street to catch the crosstown bus so that I could get a train down the west side. No dice. About as many people were pushing onto those buses. The New York City crosstown busses are essentially two busses connected with a cool accordian-like middle. The back door is so far away from the front door that it’s virtually impossible for the bus driver to monitor what’s going on back there. I hate it when people take advantage of this and sneak on the bus without paying. Around schools, you get the high schoolers doing it; even though most of them don’t have to pay for their transportation, it’s still very annoying. When there are fifty people trying to get on in the back, however, you have chaos, and the city loses money in the deal.
So when I saw all that, I decided to forgo that, as well as any taxi. $5 will get you about 20 blocks, and I needed to go twice that far. It wasn’t a bad day weather-wise, so I decided to walk. Yes, I’m one of the lucky people who live close enough to work to have walking be an option.
So on Wednesday I got to the station, caught a 6 train, and started on my way at a little before 9:00. A little before 10:00 I got off at the next station 9 blocks away. There was a sick passenger on the train, so we were stuck in the tunnel just before the station for an hour, most of that time was without power (no moving air, minimal lighting.) The people who made the most stink about it were those dressed like they had cushy jobs and didn’t need to worry so much about missing some work. There was one woman who almost started crying, and since she had music in front of her, I figured she had an audition. She did have a solo performance, but luckily she could be moved to the end of the program. But who wants to have to do that? After quietly having a (well deserved) mini-breakdown, she decided the only thing she could do was practice a little. And here were these corporate types who were loudly being pissed. I was just pissed that what little reading light there was kept getting blocked by one of the said complainers.
Oh, and I didn’t even talk about the assholes who got off the train and tried going to the staion by walking through the tunnel. And the subway workers had to search the train to see if there was anybody who might get run over. I say, if you’re stupid enough to get out of the train into some dangerous territory, you’re deserving enough to get run over. But then I guess the city would have a few wrongful death suits coming to them.
So we desparately need another subway line on the east side so that there’s another option. I would take the Second Avenue line and not have to deal with the 6 train, supposedly the best train line in New York City, and yet I can’t seem to get to work on time a lot. I catch an earlier train and end up waiting longer, so that doesn’t work.
Update on my voting saga: I got a letter from the office of the Public Advocate which said that I was a registered voter and everything should be fine. The excuses they gave didn’t really apply to me. One was that sometimes a whole page is missing when the voter books get copied. I saw the book and my name should have been in the middle of the page. They also said that sometimes a hyphenated last name gets filed under the wrong name, which makes no sense for my last name (Doering-Dorival) which would be in around the same place anyway. And besides, anyone with a hyphenated last name should be used to saying “Try looking for me under this name…” I’ve decided not to fight it this time, as I have proof that my vote counted. If this happens next year, however, the gloves come off…
December 6th, 2005 at 7:05 pm
You go after them, strong woman that you are!