Spotted At First Avenue: “Official Neglect”

I am not a marketing whiz. I leave that to the experts. But placing such a polemic at the entrance of Canarsie-bound L train, well, strikes me as being misguided at best. We have problems of our own. Believe you me when I waited for the mighty Crosstown Local (which was more fragrant than usual) last night— for over 30 minutes— at Metropolitan Avenue— I found this missive wretchedly comical. You want to see neglect, Upper West Siders? Why not cross the pond and see the not-so-benign neglect that our city has seen to lavish upon us G trainers.

21st Street, Long Island City, Queens

Taken March 6, 2010.

This sign is unnecessary. When foul-smelling muck is dripping from the ceiling people will inevitably avoid the edge of the platform until it is absolutely necessary. That is, when the G train finally arrives. Taken July 4, 2010.

If my memory serves me correctly this tile work was done in the late 90’s. As of July 4, 2010 it looks like ass. I skipped Nassau Avenue. Here’s why: because there is a busted water main and it makes the Norman Avenue entrance smell like dead fish. But back to the purpose of this post:

• Token booths being unattended
• Dysfunctional Metrocard machines
• Non-functional panopticons (Lest anyone from the Upper West Side is reading this: the ones on the L and G appear to be fully functional. Exactly what effect this has as a crime deterrent has yet to be determined.)
• I know of not a single person who has attempted to use the intercoms in North Brooklyn. It is popularly considered as an exercise in futility. (If anyone has please contact me via email at: missheather (at) thatgreenpointblog (dot) com. I’d love to hear your story.)

These conditions (and worse) are taken for granted in the hinterlands (READ: the outer boroughs), my uptown friends. We often have to go above ground in order to interface with a station agent. Occasionally we encounter an actual human being.

To conclude: the grievances our friends at 86 Street have stated are pretty much par for the course. They are nothing special. These people are simply better organized. Perhaps a few G,L,J,M,7 (to name a few) trainers would like to make their voices heard at this meeting?

MTA Public Meeting
July 13, 2010 starting at 6:00 p.m.
Cooper Union
7 East 7 Street
New York, New York 10009

Let’s show them, Mayor Mike, et. al. the true meaning of neglect!

Miss Heather