“Christmas time is here, it’s a wonderful time of the year,” is the sentiment in the hearts of many, but not everyone. While I don’t promote hypocrisy, I do believe that people should make more of an effort to be kind during the holidays. Why not? Especially if you’re not one who’s kind all year round, which brings me to my reason for this item…
While I was commuting last week, I witnessed an unsavory interaction. As any respectable New Yorker knows, one must stand to the side as fellow commuters exit a subway car while riding the train. Sometimes you get ignorant people barging in before others can exit, but it generally works out. The other day, a woman — the asshole this item is about — is standing in front of the doors of the L train as it pulls up into Union Square. The doors open, as a female rider exits, she brushes past the woman because she was standing in the way of the exit. The ass the was boarding proceeds to turn around and push the woman that was getting off of the train.
Two wrongs never made a right, so I was compelled to take a photo of the ass on the train and put her on blast for her behavior being so lame. Wearing “Beats by Dre” on her head, a Samsung smart phone in her hand and rabbit fur boots, she apparently feels entitled to be an asshole, but her delusions couldn’t be any further from the truth. It’s not the clearest shot as I wasn’t trying to have an exchange, but it’s visible enough so that if you encounter her, you can avoid being affronted by the insane.
Not long ago I was traveling on the subway in a part of Brooklyn I’ve never been in — the Junius Street station on the #3 line; the #4 late nights.
While waiting for the train to arrive, I noticed that there was no texture to the strip meant to stop folks from walking to close to the edge of the platform. “This is dangerous,” I thought, “and I bet you won’t find it in other parts of the city.” The fault of the platform was not just in one section, but along the entire platform — there was no safe place to stand that’s close to the edge. Sure enough, I have not seen anything as grossly negligent in this regard on the majority of the subway lines I usually ride, see below:
Along the platform of the subway at Junius Station in Brooklyn:
Here’s a shot of a reasonably healthy platform at the Nostrand Avenue stop on the A train in Brooklyn:
Here’s the platform for the L Train in Ridgewood where I reside…
…and lastly, a well constructed platform at the 57th street station for the N; R; Q train in Manhattan:
So why are the platforms better maintained in the inner city than it is in the outer boroughs? Is life more important in Manhattan than in Brooklyn or the Bronx? In closing, assholes and pitfalls have no business in NYC subways, shit is bad enough.
c-dub
