This city is so third world sometimes. If it’s not asbestos-caked steam pipes exploding in Midtown, shutting down a housemate’s office building for weeks, it’s a little rain putting almost the entire subway system out of service. The same housemate walked to the Morgan L stop this morning, saw it wasn’t working, then walked to the J, which was “packed like the L.” So he took a cab to Bedford to meet up with coworkers there, and they all took the L, which was working at that point, to Union Square. Since the 4 was also not running, they walked to Midtown.
My partner Luis didn’t get housemate Yury’s call this morning to warn him about the train, and ended up waiting in the humid heat for the shuttle. It took him an hour and a half to get to 22nd and 6th this morning. BushwickBK’s own Matt L, who works on the Upper West Side, took the intermittent J to Essex. Because the buses were crammed with people, and the taxi cartel was booked, he walked to 23rd and 8th, and then took the A — running local since the C and E were out — uptown. A three hour commute.
As for me, my printer might have gotten fried, and Cablevision’s phone system seems to be down right now, but it sure is nice to be in the a/c at home, not having to worry about snaking my way through a clogged, broken city. Good luck with that, suckers!
Any other Bushwickers got any good transit horror stories? Share them in the forum!
Lu August 8th, 2007 at 1:11 pm
Wow tough commute.
Armstrong August 8th, 2007 at 1:44 pm
What? It rained? I had the day off and woke up at 1pm! LOL
Actually, the rain did wake me up at 630am, I looked out and Starr St was a river, running so high that it overtook both curbs!
Sorry to all who had to brave it.
Lu August 8th, 2007 at 2:48 pm
Lucky you Armstrong. I heard there were rivers running down curbs too. The city has a lot of things wrong with it, it’s dirty, ugly, and I wonder why we live here sometimes. So many problems.
Lucky Jeremy – he doesn’t have to leave the house to go to work. And no metrocard either!
Jeremy August 8th, 2007 at 3:00 pm
Um, I have a metrocard.
Armstrong August 8th, 2007 at 11:23 pm
Hi Lu, who are you?
Lu August 9th, 2007 at 12:05 pm
Just a blogger, who cares about Bushwick, and concerned about the floods and how people made out.
You were lucky sleeping in, and not being near the curb or any basements!
jenblossom August 9th, 2007 at 12:44 pm
Lu, welcome – why don’t you head over to the forum and introduce yourself?
Luke August 10th, 2007 at 2:41 pm
As a twenty six year veteran of NYC I try to take the commentary on hood life and city foibles I read here with some salt, recognizing that Brooklyn newbies don’t remember how different life in this city very recently was. Like when you knew the subway was coming because of the rank piss smelling pulse of hot air blasting down the tunnel, or how the sidewalks were decorated with the multi colored plastic caps that advertised the crack epidemic, or shanty towns in downtown Manhattan, trany hookers pooping between parked cars, I need not elaborate further. Now we’ve got more save the whales marketing idiots than crackheads, and there are signs on the L that tell you how long you have to wait for the next train. As if thats an important number to know after you’ve paid the fare. So a little rain f-d up roomie’s morning, and maybe afternoon too. Anyway, Jeremy, the third world comment betrays an urban soul that just wants to be pampered with smooth predictability. Got some news for you boy: This city is a ball buster. Only fools would move here for the tea party. Maybe you should try someplace gooshier. Just be thankful that things have changed as much as they have, so your only worry is the asbestos tinged air and a periodically aggravating commute.
Jeremy August 10th, 2007 at 3:39 pm
In other words, Luke, like the good people of Bushwick who defend hurling trash around their own street as a proud part of their culture, I should embrace a decrepit transit system that collapses upon the application of a few inches of rain as an endearing foible of The Big City? No. There’s nothing cute about $100 million in productivity going down the drain in the most important city in the world because money that might have been reinvested into upgrading the subway system several times over goes to subsidize the palm tree-studded retirement of every single living former employee of the MTA. Something tells me that when it rains in Hong Kong, Berlin, or even Buenos Aires, the air-conditioned, spotless subways slip speedily toward their destinations the same as ever.
But I’m glad to provide you a forum to flash your big NYC-hardened nuts. Man, you are so real!