Theses people are basically well paid cashiers who have a union to back up all their fuck ups when they fall asleep so they don't get fired. I've never seen people so inept at their jobs - and now there's machines in place they barely have to do anything but give directions and dispense the occasional metrocard. Fuck 'em. #mta
Is it odd that all the subway workers I've come into contact with were all extremely helpful and nice to me? Esp at 4 a.m. when no man or woman is obliged to be nice?
The occasional marriage proposal and regular refusal to look up from their magazine is quite alright by me. #mta
@waltzngmatlda: My brother works for the MTA in capital improvement. He works under ground with "track bunnies" (rats), it's a zillion degrees in summer, he rarely sees the light of day, the labor is a mixture of hard manual labor, highly dangerous situations, and a not-so-small chance of being killed on the job. He makes a living wage and he earns every penny. Booth workers don't exactly have a dream job either. Yes, there is rudeness at times, but the workers you see at the lower levels of the union are not living on easy street and most of them do their best. I can tell you my brother is never anything but pleasant to riders, and actually loves the subway system. #mta
@baconismyaesthetic: Thank you! With all the bullshit we've seen on Wall Street I can't believe people are still pulling this "blue collar workers make too much money because of their unions" line. #mta
@baconismyaesthetic: i appreciate your comments and how you delivered them. thank you.
i understand they do indeed work very hard and, as you said, earn every penny.
i do have issues though with the blatant union protections some genuinely bad employees receive, considering their benefits and how they're taken care of over time. and that's all i was commenting on, bad employees and how this extremely strong union wrongly protects them.
but then again, no one ever mentioned that this was a 'dream job'...sorry, but blue collar workers (myself one of them) shouldn't necessarily be making what, doctors for example, are making.
that doesn't mean i approve of the wall street bonuses or how plastic surgeons tend to make more than heart specialists or vaccine researchers... #mta
Maybe they need uniforms, nametags, a shiny bell and white gloves.
London transit operators were lovely when I lived there, back in the day; working the lifts and waiting for everyone to get in.
Moscow subways are marble and crystal showplaces of the people's state.
Washington, D.C., has a small but shiny Metro system.
The day mass transit is supported nationally in this country to a fraction of the extent that we all subsidize driving and highways will be the day that things are cleaner and brighter and nicer. #mta
Remember that one December when the MTA had like a zillion-dollar surplus and they let us all ride free for a week? That was awesome. What was that, three years ago?
I have occasionally wished Mayor Bloomberg was a bit more like Mussolini, but this wasn't what I meant.
@meg9: Yeah, monthly metrocards are pretty awesome--you can abuse the hell out of them by going into subway stations to walk underground for a block or two in the rain. And at the risk of sounding like an imbecile, what's the difference between a smart card and a metrocard? I've always found my metrocard to be sufficiently brainy.
@DahlELama: A smart card is a permanent card with a chip in it that you can refill endlessly. They're more heavy duty than a Metrocard, so when you inevitably sit on it it doesn't get all bend-y and stop working.
It's a bit rich to accuse him of "not giving a shit about transit" when he (fruitlessly, unfortunately) expended tons of his political capital trying to get congestion pricing past the useless fucks in Albany and use the proceeds to help finance the MTA. But hey, don't let facts stand in your way.
BTW, is it better for him not to call for changes to transit in this city? Is your advice to Bill Thompson "Don't worry about it, it's Albany's problem"?
@Astigmatism: A couple of his calls for changes can't actually be done though, from a very real, physical perspective. Well, wrong, they can be done if you, for example, are proposing a multi-million dollar project in which express tracks are put on the F line outside of where it is already express...If we can't get any control of this from Albany, this plan is going nowhere very quickly because his points are all extremely expensive to institute. It's perfectly understandable to be frustrated by pie-in-the-sky plans coming up out of the blue in an election year.
@allyzay: The biggest joke that I see in the proposals as listed above is actually the countdown signs. The L has them, but do you know why the L can have them? Because the MTA spent billions of dollars and literally *decades* upgrading the entire line from the old block signaling system to communication-based train control. That's a prerequisite for those signs, and it is a huge, huge undertaking. You're talking about completely redoing how the entire system works on a fundamental level.
Not that it shouldn't be done, eventually, but to just come out and say "Why aren't there countdown signs? We need countdown signs! I promise countdown signs!" just demonstrates a total misunderstanding of the issue. This is not a question of laziness or a lack of will. This is a question of the MTA not having a trillion dollars lying around to put an optional convenience feature in some stations. And if it did have that money, it'd probably rather put it towards the Second Avenue line, which is another project that's been put off for something like 60 years and that would actually help riders in real and tangible ways. Especially given that the main reason for installing CBTC on the L line was so the MTA could have automatic running trains and cut the driver out to save on costs, and now that's not happening. So basically, they really did spend all this time and effort on a bunch of countdown signs.
Ok, wtf is that second photo? Seriously, he really needs to wake up. The MTA is CRUMBLING and it's literally taking forever to build the much needed T line.
How about instead of throwing money at crooked contractors, we hire the illegal immigrants that could slap a condo together in a month and just pay them to do it.
@BxgrlJeri: Yesterday's NY Times comment of the day about this story: "I'd vote for a squirrel on crack before I voted for Bloomberg." I second that emotion.
@wickershee: It's true. I think he mouths words and actions don't match. At least the squirrel wouldn't be spewing bullshit but would be as useless but more fun at parties.
God, I forgot that cartoon existed. My dad for some reason liked Shoe.
They must have been seriously high when they came up with that concept. "OK, so they're birds, but they're journalists. And they live in trees, but type at desks that don't quite fit right in the tree. And they wear rumpled suits and smoke cigars and wear old timey newspaperman visors, but they don't seem to ever fly or leave the tree. And one of them looks oddly like Roger Ebert. So... draw that. Let's hit the bar."
10/24/09
10/24/09
Also: Pope Alleged To Be Catholic; Bears Relieve Themselves In Woods. #mta
10/24/09
The occasional marriage proposal and regular refusal to look up from their magazine is quite alright by me. #mta
10/24/09
it's an overpowered union and the salaries, on whole, are too high.
the LEAST we should get are pleasant people. #mta
10/24/09
10/25/09
10/28/09
i understand they do indeed work very hard and, as you said, earn every penny.
i do have issues though with the blatant union protections some genuinely bad employees receive, considering their benefits and how they're taken care of over time. and that's all i was commenting on, bad employees and how this extremely strong union wrongly protects them.
but then again, no one ever mentioned that this was a 'dream job'...sorry, but blue collar workers (myself one of them) shouldn't necessarily be making what, doctors for example, are making.
that doesn't mean i approve of the wall street bonuses or how plastic surgeons tend to make more than heart specialists or vaccine researchers... #mta
10/24/09
London transit operators were lovely when I lived there, back in the day; working the lifts and waiting for everyone to get in.
Moscow subways are marble and crystal showplaces of the people's state.
Washington, D.C., has a small but shiny Metro system.
The day mass transit is supported nationally in this country to a fraction of the extent that we all subsidize driving and highways will be the day that things are cleaner and brighter and nicer. #mta
10/24/09
10/24/09
10/24/09
08/04/09
I have occasionally wished Mayor Bloomberg was a bit more like Mussolini, but this wasn't what I meant.
08/04/09
08/04/09
08/04/09
08/04/09
BTW, is it better for him not to call for changes to transit in this city? Is your advice to Bill Thompson "Don't worry about it, it's Albany's problem"?
08/04/09
08/04/09
Not that it shouldn't be done, eventually, but to just come out and say "Why aren't there countdown signs? We need countdown signs! I promise countdown signs!" just demonstrates a total misunderstanding of the issue. This is not a question of laziness or a lack of will. This is a question of the MTA not having a trillion dollars lying around to put an optional convenience feature in some stations. And if it did have that money, it'd probably rather put it towards the Second Avenue line, which is another project that's been put off for something like 60 years and that would actually help riders in real and tangible ways. Especially given that the main reason for installing CBTC on the L line was so the MTA could have automatic running trains and cut the driver out to save on costs, and now that's not happening. So basically, they really did spend all this time and effort on a bunch of countdown signs.
08/04/09
How about instead of throwing money at crooked contractors, we hire the illegal immigrants that could slap a condo together in a month and just pay them to do it.
08/04/09
08/04/09
08/04/09
12/17/08
They must have been seriously high when they came up with that concept. "OK, so they're birds, but they're journalists. And they live in trees, but type at desks that don't quite fit right in the tree. And they wear rumpled suits and smoke cigars and wear old timey newspaperman visors, but they don't seem to ever fly or leave the tree. And one of them looks oddly like Roger Ebert. So... draw that. Let's hit the bar."
12/17/08
12/17/08
12/17/08
12/17/08