Stuck in the House
The TWU sure knows how to pick a great time for a strike. It's not like it's 31 degrees outside in the middle of the work week during the holiday season in the busiest city in the world. Nah, not at all.
I move back home from Richmond, VA after 3 and a half years of school in the mid Atlantic...3 and a half years of inferior public transportation, only to come home and be stuck in the house because the trains and buses in NYC aren't running.
I don't blame the TWU for sticking it to the MTA...but why do the rest of us have to suffer? I know, I know...it's the only way they'll get their point across. But why now? Why not in a month like May when I don't have to worry about not being able to feel my fingers?
I'm not about to walk to the city from Queens or overpay for a crazed cabbie to take me to the brink of death. The Long Island Railroad trains to Manhattan look like someone announced there's free iPods waiting for all riders in Penn Station. I love my fellow New Yorkers, but I don't need to get that close to them.
The Long Island buses would be a great option if I didn't have to walk a half hour to the nearest one. I stopped riding in Dollar Vans during rush hour after I realized I enjoyed life.
My driving options don't exist since like the stubborn New Yorker I am, I've put off getting my license for "one of these days" or when I can actually afford the car I need a license for. My mother needs her car to drive to work, a commute that has increased by an hour thanks to the TWU and MTA. My father lives on the other side of town and has a car that operates on its own terms, preferrably not in the winter.
I can't help but to wonder why this needed to happen in the first place. The MTA has been stiffing riders for years. I wouldn't have a problem with paying the fare that always seems to be going up if the money was being spent to keep the trains, buses and stations clean and efficient. I wouldn't have a problem if on Monday the MTA cries broke and on Tuesday they have a $400 million surplus if on Wednesday, I'm not waiting a half hour for a train that should have been here 20 minutes ago.
There's a $400 million dollar surplus thanks to overcharging riders and underpaying workers and the turnstiles barely work without having to swipe 71 times, the Metro Card vending machines either don't have change, only take exact change or plain don't like you and then have the nerve to give you some dollar coin as change that the dude in the bodega would rather bathe himself in acid than take as payment.
It's bad enough you've got to deal with the 37 year old high school kid selling $4 M&M's so he can pay for his basketball uniform. The least the MTA could do is appease its workers and use real soap to clean the train.
At any rate, I'm stuck in the house, unable to will myself to walk a half hour, than ride for another 2, to get somewhere that normally takes me 40 minutes.
For the sake of all New Yorkers, I hope there's no rain in the forecast.
I move back home from Richmond, VA after 3 and a half years of school in the mid Atlantic...3 and a half years of inferior public transportation, only to come home and be stuck in the house because the trains and buses in NYC aren't running.
I don't blame the TWU for sticking it to the MTA...but why do the rest of us have to suffer? I know, I know...it's the only way they'll get their point across. But why now? Why not in a month like May when I don't have to worry about not being able to feel my fingers?
I'm not about to walk to the city from Queens or overpay for a crazed cabbie to take me to the brink of death. The Long Island Railroad trains to Manhattan look like someone announced there's free iPods waiting for all riders in Penn Station. I love my fellow New Yorkers, but I don't need to get that close to them.
The Long Island buses would be a great option if I didn't have to walk a half hour to the nearest one. I stopped riding in Dollar Vans during rush hour after I realized I enjoyed life.
My driving options don't exist since like the stubborn New Yorker I am, I've put off getting my license for "one of these days" or when I can actually afford the car I need a license for. My mother needs her car to drive to work, a commute that has increased by an hour thanks to the TWU and MTA. My father lives on the other side of town and has a car that operates on its own terms, preferrably not in the winter.
I can't help but to wonder why this needed to happen in the first place. The MTA has been stiffing riders for years. I wouldn't have a problem with paying the fare that always seems to be going up if the money was being spent to keep the trains, buses and stations clean and efficient. I wouldn't have a problem if on Monday the MTA cries broke and on Tuesday they have a $400 million surplus if on Wednesday, I'm not waiting a half hour for a train that should have been here 20 minutes ago.
There's a $400 million dollar surplus thanks to overcharging riders and underpaying workers and the turnstiles barely work without having to swipe 71 times, the Metro Card vending machines either don't have change, only take exact change or plain don't like you and then have the nerve to give you some dollar coin as change that the dude in the bodega would rather bathe himself in acid than take as payment.
It's bad enough you've got to deal with the 37 year old high school kid selling $4 M&M's so he can pay for his basketball uniform. The least the MTA could do is appease its workers and use real soap to clean the train.
At any rate, I'm stuck in the house, unable to will myself to walk a half hour, than ride for another 2, to get somewhere that normally takes me 40 minutes.
For the sake of all New Yorkers, I hope there's no rain in the forecast.
posted by universalh8r at
10:46 AM
1 Comments:
I hear ya. I don't know what nabe you're in, but Green Lines is running! My mom spotted the Q60 on Queens Boulevard, and the Q11 on Woodhaven. Gods help me, i'm going into the city tomorrow to take a final (aka sucking up to my professor), return some library books, and chill with my girls. A lot of walking, but not nearly as much as some people.
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Anonymous, at 6:12 PM
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