McSweeney’s has a fun piece for a Friday afternoon: Kendra Eash presents The Tao of the C Train. It is her ode to the subway replete with this gem: “There is no person who is not clean who has not sat in your seat. No matter which seat you choose, it is unclean. When everyone is unclean, cleanliness ceases to exist.” It ends with an existential question: “Who can continue to calmly ride, when train traffic is ahead?” [McSweeney’s]
This one comes to from Tim Sessler (by way of Gothamist). Sessler is a DC-based freelance video editor, and he explains his video, “Shot within a couple hours on a sunny Saturday afternoon, ‘Bending Sounds’ is a test/experiment to capture the inspirational sounds and visuals of the NYC subway.” It’s a little bit haunting, a little bit creepy and a little bit romantic. Give it a watch with some headphones on for the full aural experience.
The J and Z's Chamber Street stop is one that many vote as their least favorite in the system. (Photo by flickr user ciamabue)
A few weeks ago, my work offices moved from the Grand Central area to Times Square, and my morning commute shifted as well. Instead of exiting the East Side IRT through the southern bowels of the ugly 42nd St. stop, the end of my morning commute involves a walk over the platforms that connect the Shuttle at Times Square — the original IRT 42nd St. stop — to the West Side line. The Track 4 platform continues to the north, and a small area of the original platform remains unused.
Despite the hustle and bustle of that Times Square station, seemingly at all hours of the day and night, it’s one of my favorite in the system for its history and complexities. It’s a labyrinth of passageways that stretch from 44th St. and 8th Ave. to 40th and Broadway. It connects the IND, the BMT and the IRT lines at the center of the city, and it features a great vantage point for watching the West Side IRT trains stream past the shuttle platform and into and out of its station.
For every Times Square, though, there’s a Chambers St. underneath 1 Centre St. For every well-maintained and recently-renovated station, there’s an equally dingy one that needs more than just a little TLC. Unfortunately, decades of deferred maintenance means those in need of attention far outnumber those that look passably well maintained.
In my neck of the woods, for instance, Grand Army Plaza is the only station in good shape. The two 7th Ave. stations — one at 9th St. and one at Flatbush — need work, and the Union St. stop at 4th Ave. just is. It’s not in awful shape, but it’s not particularly nice. That’s the public perception of our vast and vital subway system.
Last week, I posed a random question to my Twitter followers: “What’s your least favorite subway stop?” The answers were creative. Let’s look at a sampling.
@SecondAveSagas Bowery should’ve been condemned on sanitary reasons over 30 years ago. It’s perpetually disgusting.
— skormos (@skormos) March 13, 2012
@SecondAveSagas Canal Street on the J/Z. Dirty, creepy, narrow, and difficult to get to from the other Canal platforms.
— Chaim Dauermann (@notclam) March 13, 2012
@SecondAveSagas Herald Square. It’s always a zoo, poorly designed and filthy.
— Will Davidian (@willDavidian) March 13, 2012
@SecondAveSagas Court St on the R. Deep underground, narrow platform, rickety elevator, feels dank and a little dangerous.
— Phil Catelinet (@PhilCatelinet) March 13, 2012
@SecondAveSagas west 4th street in the summer, excruciatingly hot and smelly
— Dumb Yankees Cat (@leokitty) March 13, 2012
I posted the same question on Facebook and received a similarly varied response. Of course, a few stations stick out. The West 4th St. stop is generally in terrible shape, and the lower level platforms are indeed hot and smelly during the summer. Canal St., despite a recent renovation, shows the wear and tear of constant use and abuse. The Chambers St. and Bowery stations along the BMT Nassau Line are creepy and decaying. The unused set of tracks at Canal St. and the Bowery add to the seediness of it all.
These stations are the public faces of the subway system. It’s what daily straphangers live with and walk through every day during their commutes, and it’s how tourists come to view the New York City subway system. It’s a seemingly impossible task, with money tight and time working against it, to keep the system looking clean, but so much of it is in bad shape. Without the political support, it won’t get better, and we’ll be left with only a glimpse of the history and progress at crown-jewel stations while the rest of the system suffers.
While in this post, I’ve highlighted a few responses to my query, I’d love to hear more. Feel free to chime in with your least favorite subway station (or your favorite, for that matter). We all have our various reasons for liking and hating some of those 468 stops out there.
From the folks who bring us the annual No-Pants Subway Ride comes “The Sleeper Car.” Improve Everywhere, as part of an exhibit sponsored by the Guggenheim Museum, recently took over one car on the N train and turned into, well, not quite a classic sleeper car. The group explains:
For our latest mission we converted a New York City subway car into a “sleeper car,” giving New Yorkers the chance to rest their heads during a late night commute. We set up three beds, each outfitted with a comforter, pillow, and sheets. Pajamas, sleep masks, and earplugs were also provided as part of this unauthorized free service. The project took place on the above-ground N train in Astoria, Queens around midnight on a Sunday evening.
With the overly bright lighting and often-deafening volume of the pre-recorded announcements, sleeping on the R160s can be a bit of a challenge, but with the help of some sleep masks and beds, a few intrepid commuters managed to pull it off here. While I’ve pooh-poohed the No-Pants ride lately, I’m entertained by this one.
For more on this mission, produced as a part of the stillspotting nyc exhibit, check out Improv Everwhere’s blog post. They say they believe it isn’t against NYC Transit Rules of Conduct to bring a seat (or bed) on the subway, but I’m a bit skeptical of that claim.
Covering the ins and outs of transit news isn’t necessarily a sexy business. The vast majority of New Yorkers couldn’t care less about safety regulations, debt financing, bond issuances or the behind-the-scenes politics of the MTA Board. The stories that sell rather focus on MTA waste and bloat, fare hikes and infrastructure expansion. It’s far easier to understand and cover a story about a bunch of seemingly altruistic politicians who are trying to save something that likely doesn’t need to be saved — in a recent case, a successful five-stop extension of the G train into Brooklyn — than it is to explain how a decades-long pattern of divestment has led the MTA to be up debt’s creek without a paddle.
Lately, as I’ve tried to understand why transit isn’t more of an issue in local New York politics, as I’ve tried to understand how a small cadre of anti-transit folks, some NIMBYs, some not, have dominated the storylines, I find myself routinely looking at media coverage of transit. It’s been, in a word, disappointing.
Let’s take a story that appeared in the Monday New York Times. As we’ve heard on and off, the MTA often has to fight pigeons that like to roost in its open infrastructure. Some of the old el structures make for comfortable birds’ nests, and the droppings can be both disgusting to people and corrosive to metal. The street-level area on Roosevelt Island is particularly prone to pigeons, and the MTA has deployed a bird whistle to keep these flying rodents away.
The $375 whistles are a creative use of resources that could solve a quality-of-life and subway cleanliness problem. The Times decide it was worth a 700-word article in the New York section. Meanwhile, State Senate Republics are threatening to deny the MTA enough state funding to qualify for a billion-dollar loan for the federal government, thus jeopardizing the future of the Second Ave. Subway and East Side Access project. Plus, the head of the MTA promised fare hikes in 2013 and 2015 simply so the MTA has enough money to pay off its future pension and health care obligations. Those happenings have warranted zero words of coverage in the so-called paper of record.
Of course, once The Times picks up something, it spreads like wildfire. WABC and WNBC both re-reported the news about the bird whistle as though it weren’t something the MTA had been trying for months. It’s not a big story; it’s not going to impact riders; but it’s getting attention because The Times can drive the dialogue.
So should the Grey Lady be a driver of the news? Does The Times have a responsibility to report the news and distill complicated stories into items casual readers can understand? I think they do, and I also think that one of the reasons why New York voters aren’t as clued into transit issues as they should be rests with the stories that get coverage. Print journalism is a business, after all, and headline-grabbing tales of overtime abuse or kitschy bird whistles sells better than a diatribe on bond finances and the history of MTA debt.
Ultimately, though, the transit system is too important to go ignored. We can’t just cover the news when a fare hike looms or when the MTA is forced to cut service. The tales emerging out of Albany concerning GOP Senators playing Russian Roulette with the MTA’s capital funding warrant front-page stories. It impacts everyone from the transit-devoted among us to the person who needs the Q train to get from Midtown to Midwood. But New Yorkers can’t view transit as a major political issue because it isn’t covered like one. So how do we change that dialogue? It can’t all be about bird whistles.
The discarded newspapers from February 2 gathered at a Grand Central staircase. (Photo by Benjamin Kabak)
A few weeks ago, as I started my journey home from work at Grand Central, I happened upon a newspaper graveyard. Strewn about a staircase on Park Ave. between 42nd and 41st Sts. were the remains of the day’s free newspapers. These papers are generally left in stacks by this entrance, and that day, a gust of wind, an impish passer-by or the comings and goings of harried straphangers led to a mess.
Of course, these discarded newspapers are not a particularly rare sight in the subway system. The MTA has, for years, railed against the litter amNew York and Metro supposedly create, and the authority has implemented various PSA campaigns designed to combat the trash. Now that the presence of even garbage cans are being debated, I’m sure the issue of newspaper-related littler will bubble up again.
Over in London, the Underground is in fact engaging in a new campaign to combat litter as well. “Customers don’t always think of newspapers as rubbish when they are on a train or at a station. Leaving coffee cups, fast food packaging or newspapers on trains can lead to these items getting stuck in doors or falling on the track. By taking their litter with them or putting it in the bin passengers can help us run the Tube more smoothly and improve reliability,” Gareth Powell, Director of Strategy and Service Development for London Underground, said. “This new litter campaign is asking people to dispose of their rubbish in a bin so it can be recycled, minimising delays for the millions of people that use the Tube a day. This will also make the Tube cleaner and more pleasant for everybody.”
According to Transport for London statistics, newspapers were responsible for 97 delay-causing incidents over the past year, and the Underground is installing recycling bins for the papers throughout the system. Our MTA prefers to sort out recyclables during the post-collection process.
It doesn’t appear as though the free papers or the MTA’s litter will be going away any time soon. But I’ll keep reading my news via iPad apps in the morning. That is, at least, something I take with me when I leave my train station each day.
For the past few years, as smartphones, Kindles and iPads have become ubiquitous in society, they have invaded the subways. As I observe straphangers during my morning commutes, I’ve noticed how Kindles often outnumber books, and more people are reading the paper on their eReaders than in hard copy. It’s the wave of the future.
A few weeks ago, as I stood on my 3 train en route from Grand Army Plaza to Nevins St., I stood against the door reading The Times on my iPad as a cop stood next to me. In a friendly tone, he told me to guard my iPad because they are the number one item stolen on the subways. I politely thanked him and told him I knew the stats. I, along with many others on my car, went back to my digital newspaper.
Now, I and my fellow straphanger police officer are not the only ones who have noticed this increase in the number of eReaders underground. Thieves have as well, and over the past few years, we’ve heard multiple stories about how subway robbers are targeting smartphones and other electronic devices. One time-tested method involves the grab-and-dash. Thieves will pick a victim sitting close to a door who is seemingly paying more attention to their iPad than their surroundings. As the train pulls into a new station, the thief will grab the device and dash out of the train, leaving behind a electronics-less victim with little hope of catching the perpetrator.
This week, as the MTA Board committees gear up for their monthly meetings, the MTA has released a new set of data showcasing how these types of robberies are on the upswing. As the NYPD reports, reported grand larcenies for January 2012 were up by 42.2 percent over January 2011. Of course, with 155 reported larcenies, those numbers are still incredibly low. Average weekday ridership is over 5.4 million people so the chances of being a victim of such a grand larceny are slim.
Back in October of 2010, I noticed how New Yorkers these days ride obliviously. As a child of the 1980s, I remember when people were loath to ride the subways let alone flash their iPods, iPhones and Kindles. We take for granted the fact that the subways are safe, and even with grand larceny totals are rising, we shouldn’t lose sight of the fact that they are still essentially safe. Very few people are the victims of reported thefts, and the subways are safer. Even without station agents, rapes and murders are both at zero, and felony assaults are down too. With headlines talking about crime increases, we should ride carefully but not with a tinge of paranoia.
Subway ridership is on the upswing.
Meanwhile, subway ridership too is up significantly. According to the latest numbers from the MTA, total subway ridership last year hit 1.64 billion, and the authority says it’s the highest total since 1950. Average weekday ridership hit 5.3 million, the highest total since 1951, and combined Saturday and Sunday ridership was 5.4 million, the highest weekend total since 1947. As fares go up and service levels are cut, as cleaners vanish and station agents are cut back, people are riding the subways. Now if only someone in Albany would listen to the interests of the riders.
While New York City’s suicide rate is nearly half the national average, seven percent of New York suicides come via subway-related deaths, according to a report from the City’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. The report notes that around 475 New York City residents take their own lives annually, and based on numbers from 2006-2007, around 33 of those deaths come via subway accidents. TWU officials tell me that in 2011, 54 New Yorkers committed suicide in the subway with another 36 people suffering serious injuries. Men are far more likely to attempt suicide via subway than women.
The reaction to those who attempt a subway suicide has always been mixed amongst straphangers. Any suicide is disruptive to many people’s lives and often a cry for help. But a subway suicide multiplies that impact. The person driving a train that causes another’s death has to live with the accident, and subway riders who are trying to get to their destinations can be delayed for hours. It is, some say, the most selfish way for someone to take his or her own life.
To help prevent suicides and otherwise address crisis intervention, the city runs a hotline at 1-800-LIFENET and has more information available on its website.
Every few months, when the MTA institutes seemingly endless weekend service changes that rob some neighborhoods of their train service, local news outlets feature stories on the economic impact of the subway service reductions. Every few months, I’m reminded of how New Yorkers take the subway system for granted and how truly important it is for the city’s economy.
This month, we have two stories from two different neighborhoods. DNA Info highlights how the L train service changes impact Brooklyn businesses. Foot traffic is always done when the L train doesn’t run, and even though merchants know the service cuts are for technological upgrades, it doesn’t help ease the pain.
Daniel Squadron, the State Senator who represents the area, has asked the MTA to make sure the diversions are only when necessary. “Good coordination, communication and planning can help make the effects less damaging for businesses and communities,” he said to DNA Info. “This is the first step, organizing businesses together to identify solutions for mitigating the effects.”
Meanwhile, business owners in Long Island City are living through a lengthy 7 line outage, and they’re suffering as well. Right now, we’re amidst a stretch without the 7 serving the area until April, and Transit says it will happen again for six weekends after baseball season ends. “It happens every year,” one restaurant manager said. “So we’ve been dealing with it for the last nine years.”
New businesses too are noticing the impact. A new comedy club in Long Island City says that advanced sales are down when the subway is out. People who would otherwise make the trip from Manhattan do not care to add a longer walk or a shuttle bus ride to their journey. His compromise is to refund those who do come $2.25, the price of their ride. “If the MTA is going to give us a middle finger, we might as well fight back with ours,” Steve Hofstetter, the club owner, said.
Now, none of this should come as a surprise. After all, a city of 8 million with its central business district an island wouldn’t be able to function without the subway system. The city wouldn’t be as vast and as powerful if millions didn’t have relatively quick and efficient ways to get around. The subway is the lifeblood of the city’s economy.
Yet, oftentimes, complaints and not appreciation are the norm. We want better service, cleaner stations, fewer problems. We want cheaper fares and faster construction. We want the system to be better so we don’t have to worry as much about our travel options. None of these desires are wrong, and if anything, they show how New Yorkers want more out of their transit system. More though requires political and economic support. Without a voice fighting for the subways and without the proper mix of subsidies that spur on growth, we’re left with a system that will sag under its age.
Whether New Yorkers care to recognize it or not, the city is what it is because of the subways. Perhaps it was dumb luck that got us here, and we’ve sort of stalled as the subway system hasn’t expanded in decades. But we need look no further than businesses that suffer when the subway isn’t running to appreciate the impact public transit has on our city. It may not always be pretty, but we’d be lost without it.
Straphangers awaiting a downtown train at West 4th Street make good use of the station's wooden benches. (Photo by flickr user Grim Santo)
The wooden benches that fill our subway system offer something of a respite for weary travelers. Wood because the material has been cheap and is fairly resilient to everything people throw at it, the benches are designed with low, thick arm rests to discourage permanent residents, but they seem to attract everything from blackened gum to spilled beverages and any unidentifiable liquid in between. They’re also on the way out.
For years, we’ve been hearing about Transit’s plans to replace the wooden benches. In late 2010, the MTA first started debating potential replacements. Some folks, in the wake of reports of bed bugs in mid-2008, called the wood unhygienic while others thought that stainless steel, a potential replacement, was too cold, both literally and figuratively, for the subway system. Yet, stainless steel doesn’t rot or attract bugs, and it seems to have won the day.
As Pete Donohue reports in today’s Daily News, Transit will begin to phase out wooden benches in exchange for the stainless steel variety. Sneak a peek at the planned replacements right here. Donohue has more:
The MTA has chosen a sleek, modern style to be installed in stations when they come up for major overhauls or more modest face-lifts, the MTA said. One of the new subway seats is already in place at the R station at Whitehall St., at the southern tip of Manhattan where straphangers gave mixed reviews.
“It’s better,” Luis Pares, 46, a concierge from New Jersey, said of the metal three-seat bench. “It’s more comfortable. It’s the best thing they’ve invented.”
But Carol Godfrey, 52, a subway conductor who plopped down on it while waiting for a train home called it “horrible…It’s cold,” she said. “There’s nothing like the old wooden ones. They’re sturdier. Put back the old wooden benches. No, put back new wooden benches.”
That, folks, is a perfect example of a he said/she said story. One person likes the subway benches; the other does not. Such are the way of things underground.
If we go slightly beneath the surface, it’s easy to discern the decision-making process here. First, stainless steel benches will last longer than wood. Instead of absorbing anything that lands on them, the benches will deflect instead. Second, as Godfrey noted, by being literally colder than wood, the benches could discourage long-term inhabitants from moving in. They too have arm rests to discourage horizontal sleeping. Ultimately, says the MTA, stainless steel is “easier and less costly to maintain” although the authority didn’t release cost figures for the new benches.
Despite this new approach though, don’t expect to see the new benches spring up too frequently. The cash-starved authority says it can replace wooden benches only when the stations they’re in are up for full renovations. It will be a gradual phase-in as the new and old co-mingle throughout the system. Meanwhile, I wonder what will happen to Tom Otterness’ little fellows at 14th St. who make a better use of those wooden benches than anyone else around.