Rabbi Jacobs misses the train
I am a public transit fanatic, particularly on rail, and I like the (newly revamped and expanded) site Jspot generally, and enjoy Rabbi Jill Jacobs’ posts specifically.
Which is why it is so bizarre that Rabbi Jacobs can be so wrong about something we both agree on passionately.
Rabbi Jacobs writes in “Subway rage, “
“I’m a huge fan of all subways, but particularly of the New York subway system;”
Me too! Here, I expect Rabbi Jacobs to launch into the brilliance of our express trains (we invented them!) and how other Americans need to learn to live without a car like we do.
Instead, Rabbi Jacobs writes,
unlike many other places, where it’s easy to avoid encountering anyone of a different race, ethnicity, or socio-economic class, the city forces people of all walks of life into close contact with one another through the shared experience of the subway commute.
With all due respect, Rabbi Jacobs, who cares? We have an emergency situation where we are running out of cheap oil, we are destroying the earth, and you are focusing on the cheap thrills of diversity?
“A public space is defined as a place that’s open to all people–you can’t lock out the homeless, the smelly”
It is, in fact, the homeless who represent exactly what Jeffersonian America is afraid of. The most responsible thing NYC could do for the good of the country is rid our subway of the homeless. I would call in the goons tomorrow for that reason alone. And you could figure out what to do with them instead of abusing our subway system which is for commuters.
There are sites and groups that only champion social justice and rarely tackle economic justice. To be fair, this is not true of Jspot, and it is not true of Rabbi Jacobs. However, I feel this post represents which is given greater weight, and why this is misguided.
9 comments
So you mean to say it’s not a NYC tradition to urinate in more or less remote places of the stations?
The bathrooms are locked–which sucks for everyone–because of fear of homeless loitering.
Every bigger station here has got a special place for homeless people to get some food, healthcare etc. and there are several homes for the homeless, but they’ve usually got a no-alcohol policy, and a lot of homeless are already so hooked that they’ll prefer booze over a bed to sleep in and regular meals.
The smaller stations here don’t have restrooms anymore either, but the law provides for you to be permitted to anybody’s bathroom in case if lest that person wants to be guilty of harassment. The trains have got restrooms, too.
I think the main problem with this argument is it lulls New Yorkers into inter-ethnic, multicultural self-righteousness. It’s great that we have multiculti subways, but for most of us, this is the only place we have any encounters with people from different backgrounds. We’re still a de facto segregated city, and we fool ourselves to claim otherwise.
Oh, and NYC’s subway system is the worst subway system in the world. Try taking a 4 or 5 after dark at Atlantic Avenue, where you have to stand on the stairs, guessing which track it’ll come on, then make a run for it, and you’ll understand.
EV,
“but for most of us, this is the only place we have any encounters with people from different backgrounds. ”
Wow. really? Where are you living/working? This is New York CIty, baby! My day is muliticulteral all day, all the time! I think most of us have that here. I personally love it, though. If I were just around Ashkenazi jews all the time I would not be happy.
As an outsider but frequent traveller to NYC, I’ll have to agree with EV. NYC is multicutural and multiethnic, throwing together leftovers from different take-outs has been knighted at ‘fusion’ restaurants, you’ve got all kinds of neighbourhoods etc., but people pretty much stick to themselves and don’t really mingle. You won’t see a JAPpy cashier at, let’s say, Duane Reade, and you’ll see proportionally fewer Latinas at one of the department stores on the upper end of the price scale. Go to Fulton Mall (not far from Atlantic Ave station) to get an idea of what a minority experience, pasty style, is. I once took an American friend of mine to Cologne, and he claimed it’s the most cosmopolitan cities he’s ever seen. There, people of all ethnicities and cultures mingle to the extent that there are no class distinctions, and the atmosphere is seriously laid back.
DK, both you and Rabbi jacobs raise valid points; there’s no either/or here. Anyone can use mass transit. Everyone should use mass transit.
I live in a city that has city bus service. I use it because the stop is a block from my house and I get dropped off right at the corner of the block where I work.
But the bus is unreliable. I could walk home in 45 minutes (and possibly get mugged), yet it frequently takes and hour by bus (12 minutes by car). Often the buses run on a completely arbitrary schedule. Sometimes they don’t come for nearly 45 minutes during rush hour, when they’re supposed to be on a 10 minute schedule. If I had a job where it was necessary to show up at a certain time to clock in, I’d be screwed. Some of the drivers are polite and professional, some are maniacs who should not be allowed behind the wheel.
Complaining to the transit company is like whistling into the wind. The attitude is, who cares? No one with any financial means to speak of, aside from the ivy university do-goodniks I occasionally see on my bus, rides the bus. It’s not the transportation of choice, for the most part- it is the transportation of people with no choice. And the bus company knows it.
A few days ago, a woman sat down next to me. We were the only white people on the bus. She reeked (just like most of the other people sitting near me) and talked a mile a minute about how sick she was, how she might be pregnant, how unpredictable her vomiting was (!!!) and asked me to help her get to the hospital. Along the way, she told me about how she hasn’t been taking her meds for schizophrenia and a whole host of other psych problems. The bus was packed and I couldn’t figure out how to bolt if she suddenly threw up- I was pretty trapped. At the hospital stop, she refused to get out- the driver and I had to practically pull her out by the arm.
So it’s no surprise to me that the people who ride the bus, or any mass transit service, for that matter, are not people we’d choose to sit next to. Or that taking the bus hasn’t caught on with professionals who’d lose their job if they came in smelling like the person they’d been jammed up against for half an hour.
So what do you do? You can’t ban people from the stations or the buses/subways. But you can’t effectively promote a system of mass transportation to professionals as long as it is regularly employed by people who don’t have anything else.
judi,
In order to discourage harassment on the bus, we need strong policies and punishments to stop them from continuing to do so. We once were taught that we New Yorkers had to suffer squeegee men as well. Turned out, we didn’t have to.
If we were serious about mass transit, we would take a stronger stand. That means taking on rude or aloof bus drivers as well.
I would have a secret police patrolling buses and reporting back to HQ and the mayor’s office. Heads would roll.
Everything has its place. And mass transit is the place for a little fascism.
Nice thoughts, DK. Completely independent of the reality of the situation, though. Problem is, we’re not serious about mass transit. CT has pretty much done everything in its power to discourage the use of commuter rail by providing inadequate parking at stations, running vintage rolling stock, selling off rights of way… And the buses are a joke. They’re really nothing more than a service provided to a particular sector of society, and pretending that city mass transit is a viable alternative to personal cars is laughable.
Trust me, no one here really gives a damn about what goes on on the buses. If you’d put secret police on the buses, I’d recommend you for the job of police chief (the position’s currently open!). See a story I did about the city bus experience here: http://www.newhavenindependent.....bother.php
Sure, it doesn’t have to be that way. The Boston T is wonderful, the NY system is also fantastic (exotic scents aside). Both cities recognize the need for a functional mass transit system. But until that bleak day when the oil fields run dry comes, some places just aren’t gonna get it.
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