We’ve had a busy week what with the MTA’s Board shenanigans and the forthcoming service enhancement plans. I’ve missed a few good blog posts in the interim. So let’s do it up, bullet-point style.
- Ephemeral New York, quickly rising on my list of new favorite blogs, remembers the subway token, five years after its demise.
- Pardon Me For Asking clues us in as to why MTA paint jobs at stations seem to move at glacially slow paces. (Related SAS posts here and here.)
- Check out the new-to-me blog The Daily Commuter. The writer is a fellow native New Yorker, and she spends over 90 minutes a day riding the MTA.
- Trainjotting wonders why a group is advocating Irish-language translations for subway signs.
- And heading outside of New York, check out Greater Greater Washington for some of the many urban challenges facing our Nation’s Capital. David Alpert burns a lot of pixels writing about the WMATA and the DC Metro.
- Kate Slevin at the Tri-State Transportation Campaign’s Mobilizing the Region blog suggests seven ways in which the MTA can start to restore some credibility. Her suggestions should be considered and implemented by an increasingly beleaguered transportation agency.
9 comments
Ár bhFreagra ar an Raiméis ó Train Jotting:
Your rather ill-read response to the issue of the published use of the Irish language betrays a level of ignorance that one would expect from courser and more infantile news sources such as Fox News.
Your resort to stereotype, in particular, is not worthy of response.
The 2000 U.S. Census shows that 2630 New Yorkers, in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx speak the Irish language.
While these same individuals undoubtedly speak English as well, the issue at hand is one of language preference.
This question was well-addressed by the good folks at Cumann na Tomhaltóirí Gaeilge:
Everybody speaks English, so why should I offer Irish?
This is all about language preference not language competence. Undoubtedly Irish speakers will be able to speak English as can many other nationalities, but their preference is for Irish not English. Ask non-Irish customers would they like a service or product in their language and you can be assured that they would like that even though they may be able to speak English. Their preference is for their own language not other languages that they may speak.
Furthermore, Cumann Carad na Gaeilge/The Philo Celtic Society is to be commended for their kind offer of free translation service, rather than so smugly and sarcastically scorned. This would make it possible to include Irish on the event poster in question without incurring any heavy costs, if at all.
The MTA has been publishing Irish Fair (and St. Patrick’s Day Parade) posters for several years. Language is the very heart of any culture. If the MTA fails to address the Irish language issue, they ought not bother with the posters at all.
You should have left this comment on Trainjotting. I just linked to it without providing any editorial opinion on it.
I’m pretty sure I can round up more than 2,630 people in New York who speak Klingon.
It’s left there as well.
It ought to be interesting to see if it passes “moderation”.
Well, the reason it didn’t pass moderation here was because it had two links in it, and with the way I have the site set up, any post with two or more links in it gets flagged for moderation. I can assure you it had nothing to do with the content.
It’s the immoderate Train Spotting’s “moderation” that is in question.
Not yours.
I’m pretty sure I can round up more than 2,630 people in New York who speak Klingon.
I really doubt that a chara.
And the figure of 2,630 reflects the number of people who use Irish as a language at home. There are many more fluent speakers of Irish Gaelic in New York who do not have the opportunity to use it at home.
• Is there already an established annual Klingon event in New York?
• If so, has the MTA been displaying directional posters in the subway for the Klingon event?
• Has the Klingon Language Institute offered FREE translation services to the MTA for theevent in question?
If so, the New York Branch of na Ceithearna Coille fully supports the efforts of the Klingon Community to include their language of public MTA announcements.
“Flntarbbhar Ishnnutmrwqs Druimtssh!”?!?!?!
What a wanker!