Grand Central sat empty on Friday night as Hurricane Irene approached. (Photo courtesy of MTA, Aaron Donovan)
I had some errands to run on Friday evening before Hurricane Irene arrived, and as walked down Broadway in Soho, business owners were hard at work boarding up their windows. After a dinner in Chinatown, I hopped on the 4 train for what would be my last subway ride until Monday afternoon. When I went to check on the trains on Saturday at around 2 p.m., stations were already boarded up, and the city has come to a standstill.
When Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the MTA announced the system-wide closure, I didn’t know what to make of it. For my entire life, New Yorkers have scoffed at weather-related warnings. Until recently, blizzard watches never developed; big snowstorms failed to dump much on the city; and even previous hurricanes had petered out before arriving in the northeast. Maybe it’s the unique geography of New York City and the landmass of Long Island, but something seems to slow down big storms before they dump much on us.
This time, though, the state wasn’t going to take any chances. After stranding passengers in the December blizzard, the MTA had to act, and the new governor wasn’t going to sit idly by. Cuomo ordered a system shutdown, and some of the starker images from the New York area emerged from our quiet transit system. Grand Central was entirely perfectly empty by Saturday afternoon. The bustling hub for transit and commerce had nary a soul inside. It was as though Cameron Crowe’s Vanilla Sky had come to pass.
Over the next 42 hours, we sat and waited for life to resume. The storm came and went with parts north bearing the brunt of it, and the city could not spring to life. At first, I thought the roads would be more choked with cars as New Yorkers tried to drive into Manhattan and throughout the Bronx, Queens, Brooklyn and Staten Island to go on with their lives. Yet, as the MTA shut down, so too did most businesses. Employees couldn’t get to work without their trains, and it made no sense to open if the city was at a transportation standstill.
With the MTA’s network out, though, we had an opportunity to see just how dependent the city is on the subways, buses and railroads the service us. In Park Slope, the businesses that were open on Sunday were staffed by locals. These folks live in the neighborhood or close enough to hoof it when the trains aren’t running, but many others were shuttered. People couldn’t get to work, and so work didn’t happen.
By and large, New Yorkers regard the transit system as a necessary evil. We think nothing of taking a 20-minute train ride, as I did last night, from the West Village to Brownstone Brooklyn. It just happens. Sometimes, it’s slow; sometimes, it’s crowded; sometimes, we wait out for service interruptions. Usually, thought it just is.
So I’m left with a question: Why can’t politicians see the importance of the system? Without the subways and the buses, New York becomes a city of neighborhoods, and no one can go anywhere. With the transit system, we have a vibrant economy that powers the nation and sometimes the world. The subways are the prime people-movers in that economy. Without political support, the system will slowly wither and die. Every day cannot be as quite as it was with Irene looming, but unless attitudes toward transit change, that’s where we’re heading. It’s not a pleasant future to contemplate.
9 comments
New York City, unlike many other areas, was very lucky.
Had Irene’s path been just 75 miles east out over the Atlantic, things would have been very different.
A stronger storm would have raised the tidal surge and Battery Park proved that just a few more feet would have swamped Downtown subways.
We were very lucky.
Let’s hope that luck holds out….forever?
Agree with you. I’m afraid many NYC’ers just don’t realize how lucky the city turned out in this storm, and thus the next major threat won’t be taken as seriously.
That said, the city’s geography, and in some parts its topography, built environment and infrastructure help mitigate damages in storms such as these. Our “concrete jungle” and below-ground power lines lessen the risk of electricity loss and property damage. Factor this in with topograpghy that rises in elevation once immediately away from the coastline in many areas, with little in the way of streams, creeks or tributaries.
This was just the storm that was enough of a threat at first to raise awareness, only to effect the city slightly as it weakened. If Irene were a category 2 or 3 hurricane, with stronger winds, perhaps the city would not be as fortunate. Let’s hope that this is used as a precedent to advance our emergency preparation procedures and a dress rehearsal for a potentially stronger storm, if and when that situation arises.
In the past week, I’ve learned a lot about why NYC has been such a favorable and continually successful location for commerce and to me it is a combination of luck, circumstance, and the good graces of Mother Nature.
I’m thinking that Zone A, the mandatory evacuation zone, should be permanently evacuated — or where there’s just too many buildings there, seawalled — and the downtown subways and other areas at severe risk should probably be seawalled too, if that’s possible.
Remember, sea level rise is coming… it’s only going to get worse.
I know that people will give me hell for saying this, but it would be interesting if all transit was stopped for one entire week. Why do you ask? It would show just how importent the transit system is to the lifeblood of this entire region. More importently, it would cause polititions to start taking the issues seriously in reguards to our mobility & stop draining all funding sources. Unless of course these polititions rather see every commuter driving in there own car to work if they have one. That would reviel there loyalties to the auto & oil industries & not to those who voted them in.
I guess I just pointed out the obvious, but it needed to be said.
We had this already a few years back. It was the illegal transit strike, and you may get your wish as a sequel is currently in the making…
I’m not refering to strikes, rather pointing out that the public & politicos alike need to remember the importence of public transit & not shortchange it.
Remember… “you don’t know what you have till it’s gone.” Joanie Mitchel & Amy Grant “Big Yellow Taxi.”
How unfortunate that “illegal strike” is a thing. Seems unconstitutional.
You mean like corporations are people?
One thing I’ve noticed is that the trains seem to run much better this week than normally.
I wonder if the reason the subways was closed so early was to get in some needed repair work on a few lines, which could finally be closed completely for a few hours.