From the Prospect Heights Message Board
ftunnah writes: “Does anyone know what happened at the Grand Army Plaza Stop today? There were about 6 cops there around 1pm this afternoon and there was a lot of blood on the platform. I can’t find it on any local news websites….”
Posted in the Prospect Heights Message Board
Brooklyn Subway Refugees
Scenes from summer 2003, originally uploaded by CatsFive, who wrote: “During the 2003 blackout, the subways, which run on electricity, all stopped. Lots of riders had to exit the subway in some pretty unusual ways.”
OK, we got a temporary reprieve… last we heard, the latest deadline is tonight at 12:01 am. To get you in the mood, STACEY posted the following tidbit (about the strike from the early 1900s) in the Prospect Heights Message Boards:
“Subway motormen on the BRT had gone out on strike on Nov. 1st, 1918. Dispatchers and supervisors were pressed into service as replacement workers. That day, dispatcher Antonio Luciano was assigned as motorman on the Brighton Line that ran at that time from Park Row over the Brooklyn Bridge (which had train traffic at the time) and Fulton Street to the current Franklin Shuttle. He had never before operated elevated trains in passenger service.“
“… Luciano had to navigate an S-shaped curve on what would later be called the Franklin Shuttle at Malbone Street. The speed limit at the location was posted as 6 MPH, but those on the scene later reported that he roared through at what must have been 50 MPH. The first car held the rails, suffering only minor damage, but the second and third cars derailed, the second being demolished and the third nearly so. About 100 passengers lost their lives, though Luciano was spared.”
Will of OnNYTurf.com writes to Daily Heights: “The NYC Subway Google Map Hack is now UP!”
“Check it here: http://www.onnyturf.com/subwaymap.html”
“Read about it here: http://www.onnyturf.com/tiki-read_article.php?articleId=80”
Caution: Not Safari friendly. Will recommends you Get Firefox.
FedUpMom writes: “Two Sundays ago I exited the 2 train at Bergen St. on the Brooklyn-bound side. I had my 18-month-old daughter with me in her small stroller. There was track work on the Manhattan bound platform, and so no token clerk on either side… No one was anywhere to be found when I pushed the bell to open the gate to leave the station. I was stuck in the station and unable to get out! This was a very dangerous and scary situation. I can’t push the stroller through the vertical turnstile, and I can’t carry the baby and fit the stroller through the vertical turnstile (even when folded).”
“I finally got lucky and someone helped me bring the stroller through, and I carried my daughter …”
“The answers I am getting from the MTA are ridiculous … It seems that the MTA is unwilling to acknowledge that on the day in question there was not a soul at the station, and that since it was Sunday, it could have taken 20-30 minutes before a conductor on the next train was due. This is not what customer service and safety are about. Something needs to be done, even if it means that the MTA has to admit that during repairs, some stations have no safe exit.”
Rita writes Daily Heights: “I saw this on TV this morning… apparently our 7th Ave subway stop is one of the cleanest in the city. Who knew?
From the NY1 report: “Meanwhile, the cleanest stations were found to be St. George station on Staten Island and the Seventh Avenue stop in Park Slope. Both of those areas have residents with median annual incomes of between $45,000 and $50,000 … NYC Transit says it won’t comment on the report because it hasn’t seen it yet.”
IMAGE SOURCE: [Transportation Alternatives]
[FIRST POST! Daily Heights welcomes Frank Lynch, long-time reader and first-time contributor. Lynch lives in PH and writes a photo/politics blog called Really Not Worth Archiving… Really.]
You know how it is, I know how it is: memos have come out which clearly show that the Bush administration invaded Iraq to get fava beans, in spite of their ready availability at Sahadis. The world is in an uproar, and you just know that on the Newshour With Jim Lehrer this coming Friday night Mark Shields and David Brooks are going to plain out, flat out, duke it out. Is there a better occasion for a party?
You’ll have Biscuit deliver, of course, but how do your guests get to your place for the slam down? Good question. Glad you asked…
I recently discovered HopStop, an NYC website that you can provide to your guests, which will tell them how to get to your place from wherever they are in NYC. Imagine Mapquest for non-drivers: while Mapquest focuses on driving directions, this baby is focused on subways and buses (and walking!) for getting your raucous crowd there for the Shields & Brooks Death Match.
Read more …
Prospect Heights to Newark: I paid the driver from International Car Service on Washington Avenue $61 ($45 plus tolls both way and tip) to go from front door to terminal. The car picked me up at 5 am and there was virtually no traffic, so the trip took maybe 35 minutes. (So that’s like, $2 per minute).
On the way back I took the advice of Candicissima (ideas! She’s all about ideas, that gal) and took a $6.50 train ride to NJ-Penn Station, where I got a $3 PATH ticket ($1.50 if you have exact change) to the World Trade Center station, pictured (what are all those funky giant nuts-n-bolts sticking out of the wall at a 45-degree angle, not pictured?). Then I walked underground to the Park Place 2-3 stop, and took that to Grand Army Plaza ($2), where I walked home 4 blocks in drizzle with no umbrella. Total cost: $11.50. Total time: 90 minutes, or an ABSOLUTE BARGAIN at 12.7 cents per minute.
Bonus Anecdote:The important young turk behind me, yelling into his Blackberry, just shouted his webmail URL, username and password, repeatedly, for the benefit of the entire shuttle plane.
He was asking an officemate (“Andrew”) to “clean out” his Blackberry e-mail account because “people keep sending me monster attachments.” The username was his first and last name (spelled out three times, in case you missed it). His password: “password. PASSWORD. P-A-S-S-W-O-R-D. … Well, that’s what I use, dude.”
Then he hung up, dialed another number and cell-yelled the same URL, username and password information in someone’s voicemail. Apparently when you are that important, it takes two people to “clean out” your e-mail account.
Not satisfied that two people could accomplish such a task, he then dialed a THIRD co-worker to announce that his e-mail was being “cleaned out,” and “could you shoot me a test e-mail” to make sure it worked.
A bit out of date, but here’s some coverage of that New York City Transit Riders Council forum earlier this month.
From OTBKB:“… my husband attended … The council was created by the New York State Legislature in 1981 to represent the official voice of New York City bus and subway riders … ”
“Like many photographers, my husband is deeply opposed to the ban on photography in the NYC subway that is about to go into effect. The MTA says that it’s for the safety of passengers and employees; a concern about terrorists taking pictures of subway train cars and tunnels. This would be the first new rule of conduct in ten years, joining graffiti, littering, spitting …”
“… my husband put his name on a list to speak about this issue. He never got a chance … (he) listened to long speeches on a variety of topics: opposition to fare increases, questions about getting rid of subway conductors, concerns about token booth attendants out in the station. There was a wacky proposal to change the name of subway lines, and a complaint that short people can’t reach the standing handrails.”
From the Better-late-than-never dept.:
Get the details from Gothamist.
Issues on the table, according to Council Member Letitia James, who will be holding a press conference in front of the MTA offices in about an hour:
-MetroCard price hike for working and low-income families
-Rider safety in the face of token booth closures
-Irregular and unsatisfactory bus and train service
(oops. that’s not GAP, is it? Union Square?)
This subway shot is by Frederick Nielsen, a photographer with a keen eye for Prospect Heights: I am presently in the midst of an exercise; I must produce 25 images per day.”
He appears to do a lot of his work with a Sony DSC-V1, a point-and-shoot 5-megapixel digital camera introduced in 2003 that apparently you can pick up now for as little as $279.97, if the Internet is to be believed.
Check out the rest of Frederick’s Prospect Heights photo gallery.
