Stacey and I went out to visit my brother and sister-in-law in Bay Shore on the southern coast of Long Island yesterday. Problem was, our Honda Odyssey van is beginning to show its age - it needs a new transmission - and it's layed up in the Honda shop.
So we took the Long Island Railroad. It was an enjoyable and prompt ride from the Atlantic Avenue terminus. We took the subway one stop to the LIRR and then the train out to Babylon. Very easy, very punctual - quite civilized.
We spent the day with Lee and Alexis, had a late dinner and then caught the 11:05 train back to Flatbush. To our great surprise, and pleasure, it was an express train carrying us back to Brooklyn with only 2 stops instead of the usual dozen or so. Not bad.
But life is never that simple. We de-trained at Atlantic Avenue and made our way to the Q line subway platform. And there we waited. And waited. And waited. The platform became more and more crowded. So crowded that it was becoming frightening. Finally, after 40 minutes of waiting ... and fuming, we left and walked up several flights of stairs and through corridors to the other subway line that's in the same complex: the IRT number 2 train. It would take us near our house as well but a bit further from it than where the Q train would have let us off.
People on the platform were quiet but the tension and the anger was palpable. I had to stop myself from mounting the soapbox to rail against the Republican mayor and governor. Both of them want to use hundreds of millions of our tax dollars to build unneeded stadiums in Manhattan and Brooklyn. At the same time, the schools are in a state of serious decay with overcrowded classes that make real education difficult if not impossible. And the subways, whose fares are on a never-ending incline, are descending into chaos, as they did in the 70's and 80's, for lack of financing.
The delay we experienced was not an isolated incident. The newspapers have been filled in recent months with stories of fires (from ancient wiring that needs urgent replacement), track problems and endless delays.
......
The New York City subway system was the marvel of the modern world when it was first built in 1904 and then expanded in the decades that followed. It still is - with its hundreds of miles of track that can take you quickly most anywhere you want to go underneath the streets of Manhattan or to many of the far reaches of the outer boroughs. But it's also a system that has not grown any further over the last 50 years. Yet expansion is what is desperately needed to serve parts of the city still untouched by the subway and to alleviate overcrowding on older parts (the long awaited Second Avenue subway line, for example). Not to mention that a system as big and complex as this needs constant and loving maintenance and upgrading to fulfill the promise of its potential: low cost, efficient mass transit for the working people of New York.
.......
A billionaire Republican Mayor and a conservative Governor don't really care about the transit needs of working New Yorkers. Nothing changes when it comes to the aristocracy. The Republicans are modern versions of Marie Antoinnette who said of the starving French masses: "Let them eat cake." Pataki and Bloomberg say, "Let them wait." They are, apparently, more concerned with taking care of their wealthy friends and real estate developers who are remaking our great city into a playground for the super rich. The rest of us be damned.
Bloomberg, campaigning for reelection this November, is using his millions on massive amounts of TV advertising. The aim? To convince us that we'll be so much better off under his tutelage for another four years. Last night I got a taste of what another four years of his Mayoralty will mean for the rest of us New Yorkers who are not among his favored few.
Bloomberg, presents himself as a "moderate" Republican who's in tune with the needs of New Yorkers. I'm not buying that and New Yorkers mustn't either. Beneath the moderate facade is a mayor who is very much part and parcel of the Bush agenda. Keeping a Republican mayor in Democatic New York is a critical and integral part of the Bush plan to run our country on behalf of the largest corporations and the wealthy oligarchy. Bloomberg has been a loyal servant to that scheme.
Memo to the Billionaire Mayor -- I know where my vote will go in November and it won't be for you. And I promise you - I will work as hard as I can to convince others to vote against you as well.
12:50 am on the Atlantic Avenue Q Train Station ... waiting, waiting.
Where's the train? Forty minutes and it never came.
Under Bloomberg - more and more problems in New York's subways.
He can find all kind of money for stadiums but nary a cent for the subways and schools.
2 comments:
I'm sure glad we don't have to worry with subways and traffic jams, etc. But Matt, why didn't you say a few words about Lee and Alexis? How are they? Are they comfortable in their new home?
Despite the fact that you use words like "terminus" and "de-trained" I really liked what you said.
Infact it was so articulate and relevant it's a shame that it will be seen by so few.
Send it to the NYT. May get you audited... but what the hell!
Oh and Mort (I don't know you) but most of Matt and Stacey's friends do have to worry about what is happening to our city (and country.) So I'm glad he didn't get "off-track" with a diversion.
Lee and Alexis are still getting settled in their new home but are very happy now that they made the move.
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