While speaking with reporters this morning, noted subway rider and billionaire mayor Michael Bloomberg declared the subways relatively free from panhandlers. A reporter discussing underground cell service asked him if the subways were the “last bastion of quiet, except for panhandlers,” and the mayor responded in turn. “There aren’t very many panhandlers left, in all fairness to the MTA, come on,” he said, praising the MTA for “work[ing] very hard to fix that.”
Homeless advocates disputed this claim. Joel Berg of the New York City Coalition Against Hunger called it an “absurd” remark that “bears no relation to reality.” “I’d love to live in whatever city the mayor lives in,” Berg said. “It’s an entirely different one from the one that I and eight million other New Yorkers live in.” Others noted that, under Bloomberg, homeless levels in New York City have reached record high.
I constantly see homeless folks in the subway; in fact, I had one living in my station a few weeks ago. Panhandlers too are a common sight. They might be less aggressive than they used to be, but they’re still there. Not all of us can ride the trains with same security detail the mayor takes with him, and his comments certainly strike me as a bit wrong-headed here.
18 comments
I seriously beg to differ here with Bloomberg- I see at least one everyday on the 7 train going home from school.
Same here. Hey Bloomy, take a ride on the A train sometime!
Is one a day (or even three a day) really “very many” though? I see about that many a day too, but given two trains and a 30-minute ride, I would tend to agree with the mayor here.
I honestly can’t compare to what it was like in the 70s and 80s, but given the video footage I’ve seen, it would appear things are much better now.
The current situation is very comparable to what I would see on a similar-in-length trip in Vienna, which I visit for around three weeks every year. There I see less in trains but more in stations.
I would largely agree with him in my experience… riding primarily in Manhattan, but in many different parts of the system at different times, I am hardly ever pressed by panhandlers.
As for hobos chillin in stations… I saw one homeless guy living in the 57st-7th Ave station for a couple of weeks, which was ridiculous, but for a massive system with countless sheltered areas a hobo would find appealing, I’ll give the MTA some credit here. However… the overall filth in these same stations is absurd.
If he says panhandlers are less usual than they once were, he may be right. Homeless seem rather frequent, however. There is a difference, so he might not be technically inaccurate.
What I see more than traditional panhandlers are kids raising money selling candy (often for/not for a basketball team, as they usually put it) and (probably) illegal buskers. Of course, arguably these are panhandlers too.
This was my thought, too. I ride mostly the 4/5/6 and the F and I rarely see panhandlers on MTA property, even though there are definitely homeless regulars in spots around subway entrances. I don’t know that Bloomberg was trying to play a game here with semantics, either — maybe he was just answering the reporter’s question?
F is a popular choice. 3 hour before getting kicked off at 179. E train is a 5 star hotel, neither terminal results in kick offs, and it doesn’t go outdoors, so no cold air, snow, or rain.
Theres also the issue of cops arresting bums, which might not be in equal proportions around the system (white lines less bums, minority lines more bums).
I see more musicians than panhandlers on trains, though some days I will see both. There’s plenty of panhandling going on above ground too, starting with the old dude that hangs out in front of the bank around the corner from my apartment. Still, I think I have fewer panhandler encounters here than I did in San Francisco where it felt like they were literally everywhere (especially in the Tenderloin)
San Francisco is really just the only American city where you might see panhandlers more often than in New York. Around the world, you see panhandlers more often in India, Canada, and Mexico (but not in the subways). Bloomberg might be clueless instead of deliberately lying because it is too obvious that what he said was wrong, but then there seem to be other commentators here who are able to swallow it, so who knows?
How the hell would Bloomy know anything about the subway. His bullshit PR stunts aside, he hasn’t seen the inside of anything except the #6 from 77th St to 59th St, and then only with bodyguards. Maybe he should walk thru the Grand Central IRT mezzanine one day and say hi to the usual gang of beggers who hang not 10 feet from a half-dozen cops looking for the next Osama ready to kill us all–not. Bloomy can even drop a dime or two into the cup of the really pissy smelling homeless guy who seems to camp out every night near the stairs going to the Chrysler Bldg passage. Bloomy is an idiot, no doubt about it.
Interesting that one’s ire with Mayor Bloomberg is absolute, couched in superlatives, when the Mayor responded to a leading-edge question from the press (of some dubiousness, at best) with a conditional statement. One can debate here whether there are “many” or “too many” or “fewer” panhandlers on the system today (and folks have, even parsing degrees of how much), but the Mayor never said there were “no” panhandlers.
My personal take, limited mostly to Manhattan subway use (a little Bronx and Brooklyn thrown in, bur certainly not comprehensive in those boroughs by any means), suggests there ARE fewer panhandlers. That could be the luck of the draw, I realize, and I’m open to assertions (and even criticism) by those insisting that viewpoint is mistaken.
I’d also argue, though, that security detail or no, the Mayor at least checks in on underground goings-on from time to time, more than previous mayors have. Blasting him for being rich while doing so may make one feel good, but it doesn’t make the mayor a “bad” transit person.
There are a number of panhandlers working the system, at all times, but especially during rush hours or times of the day when enough people are on the train. The same people who buy Bloomberg’s bs that the transit system is free of panhandlers would also believe that NYC has been cleaned up entirely of crime. Yeah, right, the South Bronx, certain parts of North Central and Eastern Brooklyn, and Jamaica and Corona, Queens are just totally free of crime. (not to mention big parts of Manhattan itself are housing projects). Please, 1/7 of the city is on some sort of welfare program (I’ve been told this by NYPD officers).
If you’re talking about homeless, they are out in the system at all hours, however there are many more of them sleeping on the trains from about 12am to 5 am. Underground there’s a big homeless problem still.
Depending on how one defines ‘panhandlers’, if you include all solicitation attempts, then there are plenty.
“Do you have $ for train fare so I can get to the hospital/home/school/job interview?”
“I’m selling these candies because they are unhealthful and otherwise I’d be robbing you.”
The roving musicians.
The “I almost kicked your face” acrobatic dance teams on moving trains.
The not approved MTA platform performers.
Since, to me, these are all solicitations, and have nothing to do with the actual process of going from point a to b, they could all be considered pan handlers. It’s just that they are not in your face and threatening your life imposing like they were in the ’70s and early ’80s.
Please feel free to add to this list…
what idiotic nonsense.
More delusional bullshit from that loser named Bloomburg. If he rode more than just the 4 train, he’s see there’s loads of homeless people riding the train. Hell the 4 has some bums on there too for crying out loud! Bloomy always finds a way to put his foot in his mouth and it must taste good because he does it constantly.
“Ladies and Gentlemen, may I have your attention please? My name is _____ I used to have a home and a family just like you. But because of a fire I lost it all. Any one of you can become homeless like me. Please if you can spare just $1 dollar for food… Not for alcohol or drugs… For food. God bless you.”
[…] Mayor Bloomberg two weeks ago announced that there aren’t very many panhandlers left in the subway, he drew the ire of, well, most straphangers and homeless advocates across New York. Panhandling, […]
[…] Mayor Michael Bloomberg may think that there aren’t very many panhandlers left in the subway, the MTA and NYPD are seemingly intent on cracking down on those who are still begging underground. […]