"MTA will crack down" --- About time, but believe it when I see it. The 34th St station is absolutely a homeless shelter and always reeks, I have to walk through it daily.
It's not like the subway is some free govt service, we pay $ per ride. It was not intended to be a makeshift shelter.
It's appalling the large number of business person commuters and tourists that have to experience it all the time, such a prideful city. (Also west side stations Times Sq, W50th St - every night, large number of turnstile jumpers.)
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@AC, I'm confused when you say "such a prideful city." Are you saying the city is too impressed with itself, haughty, has a sense of superiority about itself, which I guess could mean your comment is ironic, that we should be more tolerant?
I think there are certain things about our city that we feel are great, rightly or wrongly. Certainly, anyone whom uses it knows our public transportation is not one of those things we can be proud of, just as we know some of the gateways to our city (the two airports in Queens, or Penn Station) could use lots of improvement.
I'm reminded of Rose in "Gypsy" saying "New York is the center of New York."
@AC
If the shelters were safe and pleasant many more homeless people would stay there.
Oy! As a displaced New Yorker who has struggled to find a decent bagel West of the Hudson River, I can’t abide Apple’s phony bagel emoji. I wrote a song about my quest for a genuine NY bagel: https://www.reverbnation.com/rantcaster/song/30137277-bagel-finagle-roll...
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@William L. Valenti, we're loving your stuff. Thanks so much for that link!
i am so sick of reading articles / seeing press about Pablo Villavicencio Calderon, i am going to deport him myself. after ALL that last summer now he has been arrested with criminal mischief / assault! really?!
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Looks much better -- Anyway, what's a Bagel without a 'schmear'???
It is Mr. Cuomo's great luck that his challenger, Mr. Molinaro, is just too Trumpian for most New Yorkers to seriously consider. If Mr. Molinaro would be a true moderate, pro-choice and anti-corruption Republican (now almost hunted to extinction by Trump's allies), Mr. Cuomo would be in deep trouble. Some of the many reasons why are listed in a parallel article in this section on Mr. Cuomo's many failures when it comes to keeping the subway system up and running. He will win this election not as the best choice, but as the lesser of two evils!
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We can have empathy for the homeless and working poor while also demanding sensible solutions, can't we?
The function of the MTA is to ensure that trains run punctually and reliably. They are not a social services agency. If homeless and/or mentally ill people are present in the subway, the MTA should be able to contact one of the designated City or State social services agencies and have them provide the appropriate services so that the subway can be what it was designed for---transit.
If the designated agencies are not able to handle the task for any reason, let's get them the appropriate funding and trained staff so that they can assist the homeless and/or mentally ill, and the MTA can focus on transit.
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@Res Ipsa
"If the designated agencies are not able to handle the task for any reason, let's get them the appropriate funding and trained staff so that they can assist the homeless and/or mentally ill..."
This is a serious problem of longstanding. Lack of resources is one of the problems.
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I couldn’t get upset about Apple’s bagel emoji. It’s no less inane and plastic than all the others.
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LOONY AUTUMN FLIGHTS
Chilly fall in Brooklyn,
Overhead, the honks,
Geese in mass confusion
Migrating to The Bronx.
Tuneful warblers, though,
Smarter, much less noisy,
Deftly head due south,
To Richmond & New Joisey.
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** The software designer who killed himself out of desperation because he couldn't find a job and whose body in his car wasn't recovered by the police for a week despite his family's pleas for help.
** The copywriter apparently killed by her neighbor.
** The plan to kick out (admittedly frustrating and often gross) homeless people who have nowhere to go.
** The struggling dairy farmer who starved his livestock.
** Rat infestations in housing for low-income people.
** Trump, the GOP.
I am so depressed. I guess I should be grateful for being above ground and breathing.
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There are 5 candidates on the ballot for NY governor, yet only 2 candidates from the establishment parties are invited to the debate and covered by the NY Times. Larry Sharpe (L), Howie Hawkins (G), and Stephanie Miner (I), are also on the ballot. The NY Times editorial board frequently writes about the importance of independents. However, the news coverage perpetuates the model of the control of the duopoly. If you really want change, research about the other candidates, because real change is not coming with a candidate with a “D” or “R” after her or his name.
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Can’t get Barbra Streisand’s delivery of “I’m a bagel on a plate full of onion rolls” as Fanny Brice in “Funny Girl” out of my head. :)
Tune of “I’m The Greatest Star” - the big ending!
[Imagining Governor Cuomo in the spotlight, night before the debate]
I’m The Greatest Gov
What’s not to love? I guarantee it.
And when I debate
I do real great, why don’t they see it?
I sometimes make a gaffe, sometimes make a gaffe
And then they all quote it.
Then when I sugarcoat it -
Roll the sound back - sure, I said it
Let’s finesse it, get me Edit.
When the subway stalls
Paint the tunnel walls
Let them grind axes for my taxes!
So tomorrow, Molinaro
You and I will face the state of the state
In our debate
Say Bravo or Mazel Tov!
And cheer the greatest, greatest - Gov!
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HOLY OF HOLIES
A flash from the bakery,
The freshest of news--
All rubbery bagels
Are good for the Chews.
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I'm still waiting for the emoji that looks like the back end of a horse. That would be way more useful than a bagel. ;)
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Metro Diary--
In Brooklyn we refer to that at "air mail". Unfortunately most air mail is directed from window to vacant lot.
Window to curb side is not so bad, so long as you aren't caught.
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Quick poll: How many NYT readers think the U.S. needs another Republican governor?
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@cc, check out the comments under the Politics articles: lots of points of views and a great deal of debate among commenters. Sometimes over 1000 comments, and it only stops because they just have to close it at some point.
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Cuomo this evening: "New York was never that great". I am sure he is studying his "Put your foot in your mouth debates manual" for tonight.
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@Johnny
But it's true. And although Cuomo is not my favorite politician, his acknowledgment of that does not mean he doesn't care about this country.
"I love America more than any other country in this world, and, exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually."
--James Baldwin
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Devouring a cream cheese loaded Everything bagel as I read this. That redesign almost has me craving another.
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Where is the lox?
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@Cliff Zucker, there's a great Alan Menken song about lox from his pre-Disney days: (Menken's own lyrics sometimes had a sharp comic edge, though we think of his most famous work as always cheery!)
"They brought me Pink Fish on a big stale doughnut..." sung by Andy Taylor
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8Op9CNMKNY
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