Despite the political grandstanding of Gov. Kathy Hochul and Mayor Eric Adams, the subway remains a mess. Hochul's addition of 1,000 law enforcement officers (MTA police, NY State Troopers, and National Guard), so visible for the first week following her announcement, have all but disappeared lately.
Increasingly, New Yorkers are taking the law into their own hands. On Sunday, a woman-puncher was taken down and beaten by a group of young men. Yesterday at the Crescent Ave. stop on the J train, an older man subdued an allegedly drunken man who had started a fistfight. The police arrived...eventually.
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Some subway riders take personal safety more seriously than others. Given the spike in commuters being pushed onto the tracks, who can blame them?
While the city is looking into a European-style guardrail system, some Big Apple residents have devised their own safeguards. A straphanger on an elevated platform in the Bronx demonstrated her defense against would-be shovers: a bicycle cable lock fastened around her waist, securing her to a steel pole.
Necessity is indeed the mother of invention.
Not everything underground is rotten. We have buskers to make music...oh, that reminds us all--the woman who clobbered the cellist with his own water bottle? She was arrested. At her arraignment on Wednesday, the judge asked Amira Hunter, 23, how she would plea. Her reply? "Guilty." Luckily for Hunter, her attorney quickly intervened, and the plea was changed to not guilty.
Meanwhile, a starving artist--or someone truly devoted to subway lore--has decided to reenact the viral Pizza Rat scene in full costume. Perhaps you remember the original:
The lasting homage to the meme can be found at the Times Square-42nd St. station where he performs sporadically (see reply below original tweet).
