State of the Union, Part 2

I have so much to say about the TWU Strike that just one insanely long, overly dramatic post will not suffice. Instead I'm going to come out you with another post putting the finishing touches on my two day rant. Since these thoughts don't really fit in anywhere else I'm just going to present them in ruminations form:

A very important aspect of this whole strike that has so far gone unmentioned in the mainstream media is the increased threat of terrorism that this strike could lead to. Consider that for the last three days most of the subway stations have been left unguarded and have been devoid of police and MTA presence. This week would have been the perfect opportunity for terrorists to plant bombs in the stations. If there's an attack in the next few days the TWU will have blood on their hands.

Another untold story is the impact on New York's homeless. Without trains how will they spend their time? Where else will they get shelter for $2 a night? On the other hand I'm sure that some have already turned abandoned stations into makeshift shelters. Will the MTA find their way back to work blocked by a hoard of homeless people making themselves at home in the stations?

Something else that sticks in my crawl was the LIRR's response to the work stoppage. I must admit that they did an admirable job in accodomating 50,000-100,000 more people per rush hour than they normally have to. But it took them 24 hours to fully implement their contingency plan. What if the strike had only lasted for one day? Or what if there was a terrorist attack to the subway system and they had only a few hours to put a plan into affect. I'm sorry but 24 hours for a plan to be implemented is just way too long.

Speaking of poorly planned logistics the controlled environment within Penn Station was an absolute disaster that first night. To prevent a stampede they had certain entrances blocked off, forcing people to queue up in narrow areas to get to where they wanted to go. This was also partly done to allow for LIRR employees to check tickets at the door. Which was silly, they should have just let people ride for free if they didn't have a monthly pass. The end result was a sea of humanity all trying to squeeze into a few entrances after having to stand outside in the bitter cold for several hours. Eventually, they realized the error of their ways and opened up more entrances but by then it was too late. Why they didn't realize right off the bat that their plan wasn't working is beyond me.

Beyond poor logistical planning there was also poor execution. Officials wisely shut down the top level of the 59th street bridge to inbound traffic to allow for cars to have another couple of lanes to manuever home with. However, they failed to tell anybody and those lanes went unused Wednesday night. There's no point to that. No point at all.

There's also no point to the 4 person to a car rule they imposed on vehicles traveling downtown. If cars didn't have 4 people they could just pay someone $5 or $10 to get in the car with them and cross the check point. They would then get out and walk back across the checkpoint and do it all over again. If people are just going to blantantly violate the rule like that right in front of the police why even have a rule? And what's worse is that there was a surgeon driving by himself he needed to get to the hospital but because he was by himself they didn't let him through despite the fact that he was wearing his scrubs. So he had to go back home and get his wife and kids just to drive to the hospital.

I also can't stand price gaugers during time's of need. I've heard countless horror stories of cabbies jacking up the prices on a ride uptown. Similarly, there have been people who rented vans just so that they could drive around and charge people unfair amounts in an attempt to profit from the plight of others. Anybody who looks to profit from a terrorist attack, natural disaster, or man made disaster like this strike was, should be ashamed of themselves.