Snow Day 2010

On a typical Wednesday morning at 9:00, I'd already be busily typing away at my desk at work, after my traditionally quick Cheerios breakfast and hour-and-ten-minute commute to Williamsburg.

But today-- after a wonderful ten hours of sleep on a Tuesday night-- I woke up to a world covered in white outside my window. Getting up slowly out of bed, I pulled on a sweatshirt, fried some eggs, and switched on the radio to listen to the forecast.

Here I am: my first snow day at home in NYC since high school, which I'm going to put at six years ago. I don't remember any blizzards hitting us during senior year (2005), I'm sure there was a snow day in January or February of sophomore year (2003), and I think we had one junior year (2004), but I could be wrong. Stuy alums, correct me if I am.

Simply put, snow days were a true rarity growing up in the 90s and early 00s in New York City. If high school was relatively devoid of snow days, then junior high and elementary school saw even less of them. I can remember trudging through a wet wintry mix all bundled up with my younger brothers in tow on our way to P.S. 206, one twin on either side of my dad, their mittens gripping his hands. For NYC public schools to close, we needed a snowstorm of monstrous proportions, and we got just that with the whirlwind "Blizzard of '96" when I was in fourth grade. Other than that, it's hard to recall too many others.

If NYC is the "city that never sleeps," I find that to be especially true when it snows. Even in the worst of weather conditions, our city must remain an insomniac. We can't be crippled or thrown drastically off-track-- see what happened in Washington, DC when the snow hit them this past week for a good example-- because in a city with this many people, we just can't afford to shut down. MTA buses and trains are still up and running, albeit less frequently, at slower speeds, and with crabbier operators. That's a lot better than the disastrous DC Metro situation in which only underground subway lines remained open. If elevated rail lines were to be suspended in New York, millions of commuters couldn't get home to the outer boroughs. As flawed as it can be, the MTA just keeps on chugging, through rain, sleet or snow.

At the same time, I'm sure Manhattan is a slushy, snowy mess at the moment, and I feel bad for anybody who had to made the long trek to the urban jungle this morning. Times like these make me happy to live in Brooklyn, a borough that's a bit less chaotic and a bit more aesthetic. For now, I'm going to enjoy the view from my window while I can (pictured above). In New York, snow is about as ephemeral as beauty gets-- all the more reason for it to be cherished.

Bye Bye B Express: The Current "Q"-tastrophe on the Brighton Beach line

I have a bone to pick with the MTA. That statement probably doesn't shock you in the slightest. After all, what New Yorker hasn't had a complaint about the subway system? No, I don't mean foot-long rats scampering across across garbage-littered tracks. That's nothing.

I'm talking big: service disruptions, construction, track work. One might say these things are an inevitable part of any public transit system, and that their purpose is, ultimately, progress and improvement of that system for the good of the community. And I probably would have agreed with that.

That is, until September 2009 wreaked havoc on the Brighton Beach line in Brooklyn-- home to my beloved B express & Q local trains.

Actually, it's worth noting that the problems began long before September. For months, the Avenue U and Neck Road stations on the Q have been closed due to construction. In their place popped up the oddly-named B3k shuttle bus, which originates at Kings Highway Station, making stops along Avenue U between Ocean Avenue and Gerritsen Avenue. What's silly here: 1) The B3k doesn't actually stop at either of the blocked-off stations. Ocean Avenue is as close as the bus gets to the Avenue U station (located 4 blocks away on E.16th St), and it doesn't go anywhere near the Neck Road stop. Not quite as helpful to commuters as it should be. Additionally, the local businesses around the Avenue U station in particular are probably suffering.

Anyway, here's what happened next. At Kings Highway and several other express stop stations, signs were posted explaining that there would be no B express service in Brooklyn for a period of two weeks due to ongoing track work. Thus, the B would operate on the local track with the Q. I groaned out loud when I heard the news. The morning and evening rush hours would undoubtedly be delayed to some extent. An annoyance, but at least it was temporary, right?

Wrong. Soon after the original posters were put up, new ones stated that the B express service was now being terminated until (drumroll, please) Fall 2010. Upon taking in this revision, my jaw dropped and fell to the floor, in a manner not unlike a cartoon character.

While the thought of having to wait at least a year for the B to return is just awful, what angers me more is how the MTA sneakily chose to break the news to commuters-- by, well, withholding the truth from us. Did they think that initially telling us of a "two-week service disruption" would soften the blow of a two-YEAR disruption?

That's right-- in the middle of writing this post, I logged onto the official MTA website (www.mta.info) only to discover that this massive project has now been extended a year until Fall 2011. That information sure as hell isn't printed up on any posters yet (but it is on the web site, finally).

It's infuriating, and yet there's nothing much straphangers can do but write frenetic, useless letters to local officials. Oh, and bitch about it to one another (which will certainly occur more frequently with the arrival of colder weather, while waiting endlessly for a train to come with the wind nipping at your face).

And now, here is the icing on the cake: for the past two weekends, shuttle buses have replaced the suspended Q train service from the Kings Highway to Prospect Park stations, due to-- you guessed it-- more track work. Thankfully, there are both local and express shuttles (the express zips right to Prospect Park in one stop), as well as a much-appreciated connection to the 2 train at Flatbush Avenue. But God help you if you're the poor sucker stuck on a local shuttle-- a typically quick journey on the Q becomes a hellish crawl through the middle of Brooklyn. My guess is that this weekend shuttle bus mess is going to continue indefinitely as well, just like the B express cancellation. Of course, as usual, the MTA chooses not to tell us this until whenever they feel the time is convenient. Lovely.

Thus, three major problems-- the Avenue U/Neck Road station closings, the banishment of the B express, and the weekend Q shuttles-- are occurring simultaneously along the Brighton line. In all honesty, this kind of thing would never happen to commuters living in that fancier, more expensive borough across the sea. This is more than enough to expect us to put up with, especially considering the recent fare hike (I find myself now longing for the "two dollar days," a now-golden era in NYC transportation history preceding the financial crisis). Is our money really going towards progress, or are we simply getting ripped off? I suppose that the proof is in the product. All I can say is that the "new" stations, post-construction, better be flawless in every way. Or, more realistically, they can at least shine with the brightness and beauty of modernity that characterize much of the Manhattan underground. It's the only way that anyone can endure the next two years of commuter chaos and still stay sane.

So just how much more shit will be dumped on Q/B train users this year? Stay tuned, Brooklyn. We really have no choice but to, comme d'habitude, wait and see.


[*P.S. Forgot to comment on the impeccable timing of this mess. It just couldn't have happened while I was away at school-- no, of course it had to perfectly coincidence with my current post-grad situation, i,.e. living back home and commuting 5 days a week. Ah, life has funny ways of playing tricks on us, does it not?]

Notes from the Underground

Anybody who's anybody knows that the New York City subway system is no ordinary place. Spend just a single day riding one of the many trains belonging to the MTA's color-coded spectrum, and you're bound to come out with at least one interesting story or two. (Or three. Or ten.)

These stories can be good: happy, cheerful, uplifting. Perhaps you had the pleasure of listening to a three-piece Mexican mariachi band play a few numbers right in the middle of the train car, complete with cowboy hats and bow ties. Or maybe you watched a seven-foot-tall tattooed punk rocker give up his seat to the pregnant woman who already had a child glued to her hand. There are many little miracles that happen underground.

Unfortunately, the subway can also bring out the ugly in New Yorkers (unless the ugly was there all along, of course). And lately, I see more and more of it.

This past summer I've witnessed a noticeably increase in the amount of nasty confrontations and hostile behavior that take place on and around the subway. These bizarre blowups happen fast-- in a number of seconds-- and they turn scary in an instant.

In the Union Square N/R/Q/W train station a few weeks ago, a white man and a black woman were arguing (I didn't see the incident that sparked the fight). He hurled the N-word at her, and she called him a "f-ng white bastard." This was all in front of the woman's daughter, who remained completely silent and couldn't have been older than ten.

Then, on the Q train, I heard a woman across the car tell a man that she would pull out a knife and start "shaking it all over, God damn it" if he brushed against her one more time. Whether or not the physical contact had been accidental, I don't know.

And today, a man began addressing an invisible opponent on the Q. Every other utterance out of his mouth was a curse word of some sort. He had a small child at his side-- the boy's feet were too short to touch the ground from his seat-- that I assumed to be his son. The man even got up at one point and attempted to open the door that separates one car from the next (which any Q train user knows are always kept locked). I could feel the droplets of sweat forming on my neck when the man suddenly exited the train at Newkirk Avenue to switch to the oncoming B express, dragging the boy behind him. The image of that kid being pulled away like a rag doll wouldn't leave my head until all traces of light disappeared, and we were swallowed up into the underground tunnel to 7th Avenue.

So what is it that makes rationality go out the window and cause subway-goers to lose control-- aside from the obvious possibility of mental illness or emotional instability?

Claustrophobia and impatience may be at work. Every day, we pack ourselves onto crowded trains, giving up personal space and privacy in exchange for a [relatively] speedy commute. All of that stored energy squished together just can't remain inert for too long. At some point it fizzes up, bubbles over and, as witnessed, explodes all over the place. Gross.

On the subway, too many human bodies become forced to do something that we're supposed to learn on Day 1 of preschool: share.

Ultimately though, as a collective community of commuting New Yorkers (how's that for alliteration?), we all have to take the train together. Therefore, play nice, or don't play at all. A conscious effort of increased self-restraint and courtesy towards our fellow straphangers may do the trick, no matter how much you want to punch out the oversized guy who's practically sitting on your leg in the seat next to you. (Then again, speaking of courteous, it would be kind if he moved just an inch over.) Or else, don't buy a Metrocard in the first place. The $2.25 fare won't be worth it.