First day of the transit strike and the Slope feels busy and festive. The public school kids started school two hours later than usual. The parents I saw looked cheerful, happy for the extra hours of sleep (if they didn’t have to schlep into the city themselves). One friend in front of PS 321 said, "You’ve got a story for your blog today."
My personal angle: despite the extra two hours to get ready, Daughter was still a tiny bit late for school. It did seem that a lot of people were late or taking it slow getting to school. The assistant principal and the math specialist were standing at the entrance and smiling as the kids and parents streamed in.
Seventh Avenue was packed with people as if it were a weekend. At 11:00 this morning, Grand Canyon was full of leisurely breakfast eaters (what? brunch on a Tuesday). At 1 pm, every table at the Park Diner on Seventh Avenue between Berkeley and Union was full and there was barely room for the waiters to move around.
The Slope feels like a weekend this Tuesday with no subways or buses working in the city. Not so sure about Bloomberg’s line: "The city is working even if the subways and buses are not." He said it this morning crossing the Brooklyn Bridge, having spent the night on a cot at the Department of Emergency Managment, which is in Brooklyn.
But it looks to me like people aren’t going into the office today.
The main difference between this strike and the one in 1980: we’ve got computers now and many of us can work from home.
The phenomenon of women wearing sneakers to work (keeping their heels in their bags) started at the last transit strike. I wonder if there will be any fashion breakthroughs this time around.
Husband was supposed to start a new job today. Not. He decided not to walk to mid-town. Son’s school is already on vacation. Daughter still has a few more days left before Christmas: and she really appreciated the later start time.
Overall, it’s probably a boon to local shops and car services. I haven’t even TRIED to call Eastern Car Service today. I wonder if they’re jacking up the prices.
Hope not. I’d lose all respect for them if they did.
The celebratory atmosphere extended from the Slope to the Brooklyn Bridge this morning, where walkers and bikers seemed unfazed by the inconveniences the strike created. Midspan was Mayor Marty (Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz) on a bullhorn, telling us how great and resilient Brooklynites are (and on the way home this evening, there he was again, proclaiming “welcome back to Brooklyn.”
You gotta love the guy. Tireless in his enthusiasm for Brooklyn, his website even proclaims that all he ever wanted to be was BP).
The return trip was cheeful, but far more crowded. Bikers were forced by cops and the density of the crowd to dismount and walk. Weaving my way back to the Slope via 3rd Ave, I realized how on my guard I must be if I am going to live through this strike on a bicycly. Every block presented new challenges, in the way of potholes, parked cars pulling away from the curb unexpectedly and moving vehicles driving without regard for pedestrians and bikers. Back home, a hot shower and a cup of tea for my achy, previously untaxed muscles.
How long will we tolerate this? And for those of us who run our own businesses, dependent upon customers, clients, patients, how long can we tolerate this without going broke? In some strange way, for this small-business owner in lower Manhattan, there are certain reminders of mid to late September, 2001.